The Internet Of Cigars

We know, we know. They are bad for you. You shouldn’t start, but some people do love a cigar. And a fine cigar is pretty particular about drying out. That’s why tobacconists and cigar aficionados store their smokes in a humidor. This is anything from a small box to a large closet that maintains a constant humidity. Of course, who could want such a thing these days without having it connected to the Internet?

This fine-looking humidor uses a Raspberry Pi. When the humidity is low, an ultrasonic humidifier adds moisture to the air. If it gets too high, a fan circulates the air until it balances out. Who knew cigar smoking could be so high-tech? The humidity sensor is an AM2302. There’s also a smart USB hub that can accept commands to turn the fan and humidifier on and off.

The wooden cabinet was an existing humidor, apparently. [Atticakes] says he spent about $100 total but that a commercial equivalent would have been at least $250. You can find his source code on GitHub.

If you are vehemently anti-cigar, we should point out that there are other uses for such a device. Because of Denver’s low humidity, for example, the Colorado Rockies baseball team store game balls in a large humidor.

For the record, a zip lock bag can do in a pinch. Without something, the experts say the cigar starts to change negatively in two or three days.

First networkable humidor we’ve seen? Hardly. If you need something to light that stogie, we suggest a laser.

35 thoughts on “The Internet Of Cigars

  1. Relatively speaking, cigars aren’t as bad as other types of smoking. They don’t contain additives (tar, cyanide, lead etc), like cigarettes, shisha or vapers do. And you don’t inhale. Cigars are big though, so you take a big dose of tobacco smoke per session, so there are still plenty of risks (eg mouth cancer), but *relatively* speaking they’re probably the “safest” thing to smoke.

    1. Vape fluid shouldn’t have any of that in it. Every study so far shows, apart from CO, electronic cigarettes are significantly less bad for you than tobacco. Of course the longitudinal studies arent as thorough as cigarette studies.
      Cheap cigars and cigarillos have many of the same burn rate modifiers & additives since they use a similar filler.

    2. Bobs correct. In addition to what he stated people typically don’t start smoking cigars until later in life vs cigarettes which most people who smoke start early. You also don’t smoke 20 a day so your overall lifetime exposure is less.

      1. I think you got it backwards. At least where i live, they made flavored cigarettes illegal, ever since then flavored filtered cigars have been really popular with young people. People start smoking cigars and switch to cigarettes since they are cheaper.

    1. But then the Cloud IoT company wouldn’t have gotten free advertising. Notice how really upfront the mention of IS is, complete with their pricing model, and of course the user chose to go with the premium service despite having no reason to do.

      Yeah, that’s not a coincidence.

      1. Of course it’s no coincidence. The guy was just trying to head off the same questions every project like this gets: “How does the IoT interface work, who’s the provider, etc etc” He specified the reason for going to a premium model (historical trending).

        Get over yourself.

        This post brought to you by the Insultatron. Insult idiot anti-corp conspiracy nuts online for only $0.99/month

    1. I change mine quite often. But I also add small pieces of silver to the water to prevent bacterial growth.
      The problem I have in my humidor is non-uniform humidity. Higher near the humidifiers and lower far away. So I end up having to move cigars around on a regular basis.

          1. Putting a piece of silver in water is not the same as putting silver salts in water.
            Yes silver and copper will stop bacteria from growing on them but that’s not what’s being claimed here. This claim is straight up grade A bullshit.

          2. No, silver is not reactive.
            Again silver nanoparticles are a completely different thing than throwing a coin or a bit of scrap silver into a tub of water. And even colloidial silver is homeopathic woo.

            Some random slide show with no sources by some random person isn’t worth anything.
            All throwing a bit of silver into water does is get your silver wet.

          3. Yes silver is more reactive than gold or PGEs but that’s still not very reactive.
            And again, silver is not silver nitrate, or any other silver ion. Silver will inhibit growth -on- it but it cannot and will not inhibit growth around it. It needs to be silver ions in order to do that.
            Read your own links.

          4. It’s clear from the links the growth inhibited zone extends beyond the surface of the silver metal due to the mobility of the silver ions after a reaction as occurred.

  2. I’ve been doing the same thing with a Pi + AM2302 for years with my humidor. I set it up to send a text to me when the humidity drops below 62% or the temperature goes above 78F. I don’t use active/powered humidification though, just Boveda packs which work best to avoid any mold or over-humidification.

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