If you’d like to monitor the air quality in your office or home using the Raspberry Pi mini PC, a new expansion board aptly named the Pico Air might be the perfect addition to your air monitoring project. Offering standard Raspberry Pi Pico compatibility and equipped with a handy 0.9 inch OLED display, PMSA003 Sensor and UART(serial) interface the board is now available to back via Kickstarter. Early bird pledges are now available for the innovative project from roughly $40 or £30 (depending on current exchange rates).
Open source air quality monitoring sensor for the Raspberry Pi
If you are building a project or would like to monitor particulate matter then the Pico Air is a perfect starting point and can monitor Particulate matter a blend or mixture of suspended particles like organic and inorganic matters that harm the health of living beings , such as sulfate, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust, and water.
“Pico Air Monitoring Expansion for Raspberry Pi is an open-source portable sensor that has the ability to provide the level of quantity of the suspended particulates with their mass. Pico Air Monitoring Expansion works on operating voltage of 5V with a hi-tech Digital Laser Dust Sensor, PMSA003, sensor with on-board 0.91″ OLED Display that provides the information of suspended particulate matter(PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10) in the air per unit volume via digital output . It communicates via UART(serial) with the standby current ≤200 Microampere(μA) of the sensor.”
Assuming that the Pico Air funding campaign successfully raises its required pledge goal and the project completion progresses smoothly, worldwide shipping is expected to take place sometime around November 2021. To learn more about the Pico Air Raspberry Pi air quality sensor project checkout the promotional video below.
One of the questions that might be asked by the people that “why should I care about PM levels?” which is a valid question. If we understand PM or particulate matter a bit more then it majorly consists of sulfate, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust, and water. Particulate matter is the blend or mixture of suspended particles like organic and inorganic matters that harm the health of living beings. “
For a complete list of all available early bird pledges, stretch goals, extra media and more features for the Raspberry Pi air quality sensor, jump over to the official Pico Air crowd funding campaign page by clicking the link below.
Source: Monitor air quality with the Raspberry Pi Pico Air expansion board
