Industrial Automation

Industrial Capacitive Moisture Measurement and Heatmap Analysis System

Developed an industrial capacitive moisture-measurement system for drywall manufacturing using custom sensing hardware, STM32H7 embedded processing, Ethernet telemetry, and Qt-based heatmap visualization software.

Summary

Engineering context

Category: Industrial Automation
Year: Jul 2020 - Jun 2021
Status: Industrial Deployment
Context: Gostaresh Internet Ashya Parsian Co / IOTive (Jul 2020 - Jun 2021)

My Role

Embedded Systems and Industrial Automation Engineer

Technical Stack

System Architecture

Aluminum profiles and plates formed a capacitive sensing structure
Drywall sheets acted as the dielectric material of the sensing capacitor
NE555 oscillator converted capacitance changes into measurable frequency signals
STM32H7 measured frequency variations and calculated moisture characteristics
Ethernet UDP communication transmitted telemetry to centralized software
Qt software generated heatmap visualization of drywall moisture distribution

Engineering Challenges

Designing reliable capacitive sensing hardware for industrial environments
Converting moisture-dependent capacitance changes into stable measurable signals
Maintaining accurate frequency measurement under industrial noise conditions
Developing real-time telemetry and heatmap visualization systems
Integrating custom sensing systems into drywall manufacturing processes

Hardware / Firmware / Software

Hardware

STM32H7 embedded controller
Custom capacitive sensing structure
Aluminum-profile sensor assembly
NE555 frequency-generation circuit
Ethernet communication hardware
Industrial process sensing interfaces

Firmware

STM32H7 embedded firmware
Frequency measurement algorithms
Ethernet communication stack
UDP telemetry transmission
Sensor acquisition logic

Software

Qt-based monitoring software
Moisture heatmap visualization system
Industrial telemetry visualization
Real-time process monitoring interface

Sensors

Custom capacitive moisture sensing system

Protocols

Ethernet
UDP
Embedded serial communication

Results / Outcomes

Successfully developed custom industrial moisture sensing system
Enabled real-time drywall moisture distribution analysis
Generated heatmap-based process visualization
Improved monitoring of drywall drying and manufacturing quality
Demonstrated innovative capacitive sensing approach for industrial process monitoring

Engineering Notes

Capacitive Moisture Measurement System

A custom capacitive sensing structure was developed using:

aluminum profiles
aluminum sensing plates
drywall sheets as dielectric material

Changes in drywall moisture content affected the capacitance characteristics of the sensing structure.

A NE555-based oscillator circuit converted capacitance changes into frequency variations which were measured by the STM32H7 embedded controller.

Embedded Signal Acquisition

The STM32H7 platform performed:

frequency acquisition
signal processing
telemetry generation
Ethernet communication

Embedded firmware processed sensor measurements and transmitted telemetry data through UDP communication over Ethernet networks.

Qt Heatmap Visualization Software

I also developed the monitoring and visualization software using Qt.

The software:

received real-time telemetry data
visualized moisture distribution
generated heatmap representations
monitored drying-process quality
provided centralized industrial process visibility

Industrial Deployment

The sensing system was installed directly on the drywall production line after the drying stage.

This enabled continuous monitoring of drywall moisture characteristics and provided insight into dryer performance and process consistency.