joshefin
joshefin on Hacker News
Senseair is a Swedish company and definitely not "cheap Chinese crap". Do you know about any research that confirms your statements about the accuracy?
I believe that some of the more expensive sensors are more accurate, but this cheap one may be a good enough solution in some cases (e.g. indoor air monitoring for DIY projects).
Posted by
joshefin on Thursday September 26, 2019 @07:22PM
from the joshefin.xyz dept.
Yes, Prism is great. Most of the blogs cramp the code in width, I let it spread it's wings full width.
The fan inside the PMS7003 sensor is very quiet.
Netatmo only measures CO2 and depending on your location it would be more useful to know about particulate matter in the air.
I have the same experience - Xiaomi makes good and cheap hardware, but the software and reliability are bad. And if you want to keep your data private, skip them.
I can just confirm what others are saying here - Java is great for the development of robust and reliable software. If you need even lower memory usage, you can compile the Java app with a GraalVM to a native image.
Sorry, I can't recommend any. If you just want to know if the air is polluted or not, and humidity does not go over 70%, any low-cost sensor would be good.
If your air purifier has a screen and shows the air quality, it's most probably using a PM sensor like the one I write about here.
How accurate is PMS7003? If for example, you need to know the precise and exact concentration of particulate matter in the air - then currently available low-cost PM sensors are not to be considered accurate. But, if you need to know if the air quality in your home is good, fair, moderate, poor or very poor, then it's good enough.
You can use the PM measurement that the sensor outputs to calculate the Air Quality Index (for Europe:
http://airindex.eea.europa.eu/) and for example, make it send you a notification when the pollution level goes up, so you can turn on the air purifier or vacuum or open the windows.
I used RuuviTags (
https://ruuvi.com/). They use a battery and send data over Bluetooth to your mobile phone.
Python is great for prototyping, but my grand plan with this project is to add more sensors, integrate with some "smart home" devices and create a web UI - and I'm more comfortable coding all that in Java.
The CO2 sensor would be a nice addition to my project. Do you have experience with the MH-Z19B, is it accurate enough for indoor use?
PMS7003, and most probably all other low-cost PM sensors with the same working principle, is not made to be used outdoors. Although used in many DIY projects for outdoor air quality monitoring, researches show that high humidity badly affects the PM measurements. Some have tried to heat the air before entering the sensor or to derive a correction factor, but mostly unsuccessfully.
These sensors are not as accurate as more expensive professional devices but are good enough to give an idea of the pollution in the air.
From my experience so far, PMS7003 measurements are comparable to official government air quality measurements available for my neighborhood.
Posted by
joshefin on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @07:03PM
from the joshefin.xyz dept.