Seven sensors you probably own are disqualified from shipping in a real product. John Teel's video catalogs them with specifics: the DHT11 and DHT22 use a proprietary one-wire protocol with questionable accuracy and a broken supply chain. The HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor runs on 5V with no temperature compensation. The HC-SR501 PIR module is too inconsistent and power-hungry for production. The entire MQ-series gas sensor line requires a heater, a long burn-in period, and calibration against a reference gas. The MPU-6050 IMU, despite its reputation, is not actively manufactured by a reputable source, a problem it shares with the NXP UDA1334A I2S codec that NXP stopped making years ago but still appears everywhere.
The replacements are named and specific. Drop the DHT11 or DHT22 for the SHT40, SHT41, Bosch BME280, BMP180, or TI HDC3020, all on standard I2C with trustworthy datasheets. Swap the HC-SR04 for ST's VL53 Time-of-Flight family, including the VL53L5CX used previously for real-time 3D room mapping with an ESP32. Replace the HC-SR501 with a Panasonic EKMC, EKMB, or ST's STHS34. The ACS712 current-sensing breakout boards get called out separately for a more urgent reason: the boards designed to measure mains current provide no isolation between line voltage and the low-voltage side, making them a direct safety hazard.
The full video is worth watching not just for the blacklist but for the reasoning framework Teel applies to each part. Supply chain viability, calibration requirements, power budgets, communication protocol standardization, and safety certification all factor in. The article cuts off before all seven are fully enumerated, which means the original source covers ground the summary does not. If you are moving anything from breadboard to production, read it before you finalize your BOM.
[READ ORIGINAL →]