Grove Air Quality Sensor
This sensor is designed for indoor air quality testing. The main gas detected is carbon monoxide, alcohol, acetone, thinner, formaldehyde and other slightly toxic gases. It is compatible with a 5V and 3.3V power supply.
Check out this article about the Air Quality Sensor.
Features:
- Low power consumption
- High sensitivity
- Responsive to a wide scope of target gases
- Cost efficient
- Durable
- Compatible with 5V and 3.3V
- Specification:
- Sensor: Winsen MP503
- Dimension: 40x20mm
Raspberry Pi, Arduino and ESP8266 Software Provided
How does this Sensor work?
The Air Quality Sensor works by measuring a wide scope of harmful gases such as carbon monixide, alcohol, acetone, thinner, formaldehyde and so on as well as being sensitive to particulate count. Due to the method used to measure the contaminants, this Air Quality sensor can not output specific data to describe target gases' concentrations quantitatively. But it's still good enough to be used to describe qualitative air quality. The Air Quality sensor requires a warm up time of about 2 minutes after power on before it will be reporting good data. The Air Quality sensor is based on a Winsen MP503 Air-Quality Gas Sensor. This sensor is designed for indoor use but can be used outdoors if it is covered and protected from high humidity. Do not use any silicon based spray or lubricant products around the Air Quality sensor. Use of those products will rapidly reduce the sensitivity of the sensor. This unit requires relativity clean air conditions when starting up. When testing the sensor by using the cardboard box and hair spray test setup, do not spray the hairspray directly on the sensor. Spray it in the air around the sensor. It does not take much hairspray! The analog voltage from the Air Quality sensor is converted by the SwitchDoc Labs Analog to Digital Converter into a 16 bit value and converted into a qualitative gauge of the air quality. See these values below.
What Does the Air Quality Sensor Report?
The AirQuailty sensor reports a single analog voltage describing the overall air quality. We take this analog value and convert it to a digital reading (from 0 to about 65000 - depending on the number of the bits of ADC you are using). Following is digital reading and the qualitative interpretation:
IDownloads
- The complete specification for the MP503 is here.
- Raspberry Pi Python Software - requires a Grove ADC
- Arduino Software
- ESP8266 Software
Raspberry Pi Output
------------------------------ Sensor Value=1575 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1576 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1582 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1578 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1579 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1575 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1572 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1572 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1571 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1570 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1572 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1569 --> Fresh Air | 4 ------------------------------ Sensor Value=1567 --> Fresh Air | 4
Arduino Output
------------------------------ ad0=1558 Sensor_Value=1558--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1551 Sensor_Value=1551--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1544 Sensor_Value=1544--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1538 Sensor_Value=1538--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1532 Sensor_Value=1532--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1527 Sensor_Value=1527--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1521 Sensor_Value=1521--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4 ------------------------------ ad0=1516 Sensor_Value=1516--->Fresh Air currentAirQuality=4