Professional Air Quality Monitoring

It is an academic project where in an industrial zone we will be monitoring air quality, but we need to know what material should we use. What kind of professional sensors, particle devices, waterproof box for working outside and how to power supply to the device.

Any suggestions?

Note: The sensors should be professional because we will send the information to the city citizens

ThanKs in advance

Hi, the one of my favorite candidate is ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality Sensor from IDT or Renesas Electronics.

The issue with them is that they sell a sensor but doesn’t like to share any C example which should be accessible after you create an account on their website and make a request for access to Outdoor Air Quality Firmware. Yup, but the reality is completely different… :rage: I created an account almost 6 month ago, I call them and still didn’t get the access !!!
Maybe you gonna be more lucky

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You might consider this device:

Not sure if it can be used outdoors in appropriate enclosure.

cc: @jaredwolff

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Yea, I emailed them almost a year ago and they were not very forthcoming. I guess they're not interested in sharing their code. It's too bad because I'm sure a lot more people would adopt their part!

I don't have an outdoor enclosure designed for the board. I do have an indoor enclosure designed though. :slight_smile: I've seen implementations where the sensor is placed in a dome. The air is dawn in from an opening in the bottom. Example: Purpleair | Weather Underground

I discussed the used of the HPMA115S0 in outdoor environments with the Honeywell folks. At the time it was uncharted waters though they may have better insights now. (It's originally meant for monitoring air quality inside HVAC, etc)

Hope that helps!

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Hi @jonamleonel -

Your project sounds interesting indeed. Without having all the information I would think the following should be what you would want to look at:

With regards to the enclosure, if it was me, I would design a custom one. By the sound of it you will be doing a couple at least, so I would think it is worth the investment.

With regards to the PSU… I would go wit solar backed up by at last 2800mAh Lipo. I will also include the option to use permanent power where available. To do this, I use RECOM encapsulated PSU as you can see in this project.

It would be interesting to know what you are going to use as user interface?

Hope this helps.
Friedl.

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We will try an html web page with java plugins…is that voltaic solar panels the one do you recommend for powering up to 2800mA?

Hi @jonamleonel -

If you use Boron module, you will use the solar panel to power the device. The Gen3 devices (Argon/Boron) has lipo charger build in so the module will in turn charge the Lipo Battery. The battery will therefor be used to power the device when sufficient power from the Solar panel is not available.

Of course you will have to had some small components (i.e transistors, resistors, diodes) to regulate the power coming from the Solar panel to supply steady voltage to the Boron. There are some extensive threads on Solar charging. If you opt for the B-series SoM’s… you will have to build your own power management and recharging ‘section’ on your PCB as these are not included as on the Argon/Boron.

In my proof of concept I simply used a Schottky diode to prevent current from flowing back to the solar panel, some capacitors and a 5V voltage converter to supply steady output form panel to device. See the image below, it is only for your reference, I suggest you breadboard your layout first :slight_smile:

Whether you need the 1W or 2W panel, well that Weill really depend on the amount of sunlight you expect to have in these areas. If there is no size constraint and budget is not a problem, I would probably go with the 2W panel.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
F

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