ESP8266 cannot read DHT22

Question

I am trying to build a WiFi humidity and temperature sensor. My board is a nodeMCU using the ESP8266 connected via USB. The board is working fine with various WiFi examples and various serial examples. Hence I guest my environment is OK.

Now I am trying to connect a DHT22 to read temperature and humidity. To reduce the error sources I boiled down my code to the standard DHT example:

// Example testing sketch for various DHT humidity/temperature sensors
// Written by ladyada, public domain
#include "DHT.h"
#define DHTPIN 2
#define DHTTYPE DHT22 // DHT 22 (AM2302)
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);
void setup() {
 Serial.begin(9600);
 Serial.println("DHTxx test!");
 dht.begin();
}
void loop() {
 delay(2000);
 float h = dht.readHumidity();
 float t = dht.readTemperature();
 float f = dht.readTemperature(true);
 if (isnan(h) || isnan(t) || isnan(f)) {
 Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor!");
 return;
 }
 Serial.print("Humidity: ");
 Serial.print(h);
 Serial.print(" %\t");
 Serial.print("Temperature: ");
 Serial.print(t);
 Serial.println(" *C ");
}

Nevertheless I always get the message "Failed to read from DHT sensor!".

Regarding the hardware I tried connecting the sensor with or without the 10k resistor, tried different DHTs and different pins. To rule out the DHTs I connected them with an Arduino Nano where these are working fine (both with and without resistor and using the same code). The only difference I see is that the Arduino is using 5V while the ESP8266 is using 3.3V - which is nonetheless inside the rating of the DHT.

Any ideas?

• Mikael Patel: Have you got the right pin number?
• JoKo: Yes. Please check the link I posted in the answer below. I did not verify each pin but for example addressing pin 2 with the DHT library means you need to connect the DHT data to "D4" at your nodeMCU.

Answer 1

I found, that the pin mapping printed at the board of the nodeMCU does NOT match the pin mapping in the library/software.

Check out this issue/solution. It states the correct pin mapping (e.g. pin 2 is "D4" at the board) and provides also an according workaround. My DHT22s are working now... :-)

Answer 2

I had been racking my brain for over 16 hours trying to figure out why this library would not work. I tested the DHT on an Arduino and it worked fine but whenever I tried on the nodeMCU it failed to read or gave spurious data. That is untill I saw the above answer that is not mentioned anywhere. The pins for the nodeMCU are not the same as the Arduino. (I thought that by defining the pin it would be using the pin stated) This is false as the library is mapped the Arduino pins so this is something to look out for, for any nodeMCU/ESP8266 beginners.