Connecting multiple DHT11 sensors using WiringPi and C

Question

For my internship I need to get measurements of multiple dht11 sensors and send them to a database using a REST API. I decided to go with WiringPi and C. I followed this tutorial: http://www.circuitbasics.com/how-to-set-up-the-dht11-humidity-sensor-on-the-raspberry-pi/

This resulted in the following code:

#include <wiringPi.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#define MAXTIMINGS  85
#define DHTPIN      7
int dht11_dat[5] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };

void read_dht11_dat()
{
    uint8_t laststate   = HIGH;
    uint8_t counter     = 0;
    uint8_t j       = 0, i;
    float   f; 

    dht11_dat[0] = dht11_dat[1] = dht11_dat[2] = dht11_dat[3] = dht11_dat[4] = 0;

    pinMode( DHTPIN, OUTPUT );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, LOW );
    delay( 18 );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, HIGH );
    delayMicroseconds( 40 );
    pinMode( DHTPIN, INPUT );

    for ( i = 0; i < MAXTIMINGS; i++ )
    {
        counter = 0;
        while ( digitalRead( DHTPIN ) == laststate )
        {
            counter++;
            delayMicroseconds( 1 );
            if ( counter == 255 )
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        laststate = digitalRead( DHTPIN );

        if ( counter == 255 )
            break;

        if ( (i >= 4) && (i % 2 == 0) )
        {
            dht11_dat[j / 8] <<= 1;
            if ( counter > 16 )
                dht11_dat[j / 8] |= 1;
            j++;
        }
    }

    if ( (j >= 40) &&
         (dht11_dat[4] == ( (dht11_dat[0] + dht11_dat[1] + dht11_dat[2] + dht11_dat[3]) & 0xFF) ) )
    {
        f = dht11_dat[2] * 9. / 5. + 32;
        printf( "Humidity = %d.%d %% Temperature = %d.%d C (%.1f F)\n",
            dht11_dat[0], dht11_dat[1], dht11_dat[2], dht11_dat[3], f );
    }else  {
        printf( "Data not good, skip\n" );
    }
}

int main( void )
{
    printf( "Raspberry Pi wiringPi DHT11 Temperature test program\n" );

    if ( wiringPiSetup() == -1 )
        exit( 1 );

    while ( 1 )
    {
        read_dht11_dat();
        delay( 1000 ); 
    }

    return(0);
}

Now this is all fine and dandy if I wanted to get readings off a single sensor. What is the best way to get readings of multiple DHT11 sensors?

Answer 1

Change the code so that DHTPIN is a parameter rather than a constant. Call the code for each DHT11 passing the GPIO number as the parameter.

Answer 2

The DHT11/22 family have rather critical timing constraints. While there are many libraries purporting to support these, and it is relatively simple on an Arduino, the nature of the Raspberry Pi Linux multi-tasking environment makes this a non-trivial task on the Pi (at least if you want reliable results).

I have tried many (with varying degrees of success) but suggest you try joan's code - https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/50343/8697 (unfortunately this does not seem to figure prominently on her web site).

As joan has suggested, once getting the code to work, selecting the pin is a trivial task and it should be easy to support multiple sensors.