3.2: DHT11 Errata

I only did basic testing so far, checking that the value read were displayed properly. But the humidity values didn’t seem correct, so I need to do some extra verifications. There are many possible causes and they can combine, bugs like humans are social animals, when you find one, look for its mate.

Some candidates for investigations:

On top of this I need to do extra testing

Coding and wiring check

My basic test shows that I manage to read values without errors. A loose wire would generate Timeout errors or Checksum errors. The temperature values look reasonable, only humidity seems way too high.

I double checked both code and wiring to be on the safe side.

I am confident that the protocol implementation matches the transmission of DHT11. So next I need recheck if the setup time (one second) and frequency of reading (every two seconds) are the correct requirement.

Datasheet check

I rechecked Aosong website for the latest version of the DHT11 datasheet. There is only a Chinese version v1.3 branded ASAIR. I have the previous version v1.3 branded AOSONG which seems identical except a revision page.

I also have an English Aosong DHT11 datasheet that seems outdated. Aosong doesn’t seem to allow redistribution of their datasheet so most online vendor have made their own based on that English version.

The English datasheet states the temperature range as 0~50℃, the humidity range to be 20~95%RH and recommend a reading frequency greater than 5 seconds.

The Chinese datasheet states the temperature range as -20~60°C, the humidity range to be 0~95%RH and recommend a reading frequency greater than 2 seconds. It also explains the encoding of negative temperature.

My implementation is based on the latest Chinese version. I can retest with a longer interval between readings in case I am using a chip that follows the older specification (5 seconds interval instead of 2).

In dht11main.c I just need to change the test if( 1 & last) to if( 2 == (last % 15)) in order to read every 15 seconds after a setup time of 2 seconds. If this works better, I can retry for shorter intervals by changing the modulo value.

When I test with readings every 15 seconds, I get stable humidity value around 25~26%RH. As I have changed both interval and setup time, I need confirm that it is the interval time that matters.

With intervals of 5 and 6 seconds, the reading jumps above 37%RH. So it’s clearly a problem with the interval.

I want to make a round number of samples per minute, so I need retest to check if 10 and 12 seconds work the same as 15, but before I do fine tuning, I better check if this is not just a problem with that particular DHT11.

Product quality

It’s clear that the DHT11 I am testing is not behaving according to old or new specifications for the sampling interval.

Defects happen! No production line output is 100% perfect, so I may just have a defective or damaged chip. As this particular product is low cost, I have several on hands I bought from different suppliers, I would be very unlucky if they end up all coming from the same bad production batch or all damaged by mishandling.

Testing the four DHT11 I have, I find that three of them are working in their precision range when sampled every five seconds. Understanding that humidity precision is ±5%RH and temperature precision is ±2℃, there is still room for quite some variation between readings from different devices.

I select the most accurate chip at my current environment humidity and temperature to do further test.

Voltage tolerance

When it come to measurement, precision is often related to the value of the reference voltage. I want to check the difference in measurement of the same chip when powered at 5V compared to 3.3V.

I need to use a 5V tolerant GPIO pin for this test, so I switch to GPIOA 13 (SWDIO). By default that pin is configured as ALT SWDIO, floating input with weak pull-up, similar to the initial state for DHT11 Data IO pin.

The board needs to be powered by its USB connector 5V source instead of directly by the USB to Serial adapter, I make sure board and adapter are powered independently being connected only by TX, RX and GND. I can then select the voltage of DHT11 according to what I want to test, 3.3V or 5V.

There is a difference in measurement, 3.3V giving slightly higher value than 5V, for this particular test: 2%RH more for humidity and 0.3℃ for temperature. There is no clear advantage to use 5V over 3.3V.

I am not doing precise voltage test as the precision of DHT11 and the variation between the chips I have would make the interpretation of the results irrelevant.

Temperature below 0℃.

The Chinese version of the datasheet gives the encoding for temperature below zero ℃ and a measurement range of -20~60℃.

I have implemented dht11_read() accordingly so I just need to test at below zero ℃.

From my test, I can see that the values reported are negative but I found a difference versus the datasheet.

According to the datasheet, the temperature values are encoded as 1 byte for the integer part and 1 byte for the one decimal digit fractional part, the highest bit of the fractional part indicating the sign.

So when temperature crosses zero, I expects to see

0 + 2 => 0.2
0 + 1 => 0.1
0 + 0 => 0.0
0 - 1 => -0.1
0 - 2 => -0.2
...
0 - 8 => -0.8
0 - 9 => -0.9
1 - 0 => -1.0
1 - 1 => -1.1
...

Instead the values transmitted are

0 + 2 => 0.2
0 + 1 => 0.1
0 + 0 => 0.0
0 - 9 => ???
0 - 8 => ???
...
0 - 2
0 - 1
0 - 0 => !!!
1 - 9
...

I have to modify my original implementation

    dht11_tempc = values[ 2] ;
    dht11_tempf = values[ 3] ;
    if( dht11_tempf & 0x80) {
        dht11_tempc *= -1 ;
        dht11_tempf &= 0x7F ;
    }

And retest after the following modification.

    dht11_tempc = values[ 2] ;
    dht11_tempf = values[ 3] ;
    if( dht11_tempf & 0x80) {
        dht11_tempc *= -1 ;
        dht11_tempf = 10 - ( dht11_tempf & 0x7F) ;
        if( dht11_tempf == 10) {
            dht11_tempc -= 1 ;
            dht11_tempf = 0 ;
        }
    }

Stability

During my test I didn’t noticed big surges in measurements but the time to get to actual value is quite long. The interval between readings affects the measurement and initially it takes a long time for the readings to converge to actual temperature or humidity.

Conclusions

I didn’t find any English version of the latest version of the datasheet.

I found some difference between the Chinese datasheet and the behavior of the chips I have when it come to representation of temperature below 0℃.

Cost and one pin transmission interface are the two main advantages of this chipset.

I could use the DHT11 for monitoring temperature and humidity variations. For fast and accurate measurements, this is not the droid I am looking for.

Checkpoint

I did multiple checks and found several issues. I can secure stable readings by controlling the reading interval, which means I can tune the timing to suit a specific chip. There is variations in readings between chips and due to the loose precision it is hard to understand how good or how bad the measurements are.

Next I will use another digital thermometer as a reference.

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