Measuring Air Quality with ESP32 & Arduino

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!! It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at [e-mail]. Thanks! Bill (The real one!)

[@Dronebotworkshop]

My apologies for taking SO LONG to get another video out, had a few health setbacks this summer that kept me immobilized. I've actually been working on three videos, this one is one of them, and I should have another one for you shortly.

[@lawrencewlt6750]

Glad your'e back. So sorry for the health issue. Wish you good health.

[@Tntdruid]

Your health is more important, than youtube.

[@joelevi9823]

Feel good friend ❤️

[@2207amol]

Dear @DroneBot Workshop just an advice you can disable autoscrolling at the bottom left on the terminal to disable scrolling for new incoming data.

[@hermandarr6274]

That's OK, Your videos are worth the wait.

[@revkrull]

I'm currently working on a homebrewed weather station. This video has inspired me to add air quality to my sensor stack. Thanks!

[@ClintRobison]

Bill, I've been watching your videos for years. Your channel is my go-to when I encounter a new platform or microcontroller. I know you already have it covered! I don't comment on youtube at all but I feel compelled to tell you how fantastic your content is. I was astonished to find out you produce it all, from conception to publishing. It's so orderly, organized and complete with accompanying "links below the video", blog posts, animations, carefully orchestrated script, sound, video. It's really amazing that you pull this off on your own and remain so consistent. I came here to say that and to thank you for all of the hours of entertainment, learning, and discovery. I've introduced your channel to my 7 year old who is interested in being a software engineer like his dad. Heh. This was supposed to be a short note. I feel like I've leached from you for years and never given in return. Keep doing what you're doing as long as you enjoy it. I certainly do! Thank you for all of your work!

[@ddegn]

"thank you for all of the hours of entertainment, learning, and discovery." I second these thanks. Thanks for all the great content DroneBot Workshop.

[@statters]

A likely reason you were seeing the -55m altitude value is that you haven't set the current air pressure value for sea level in your area. I believe the example code requires that the current air pressure value for sea level be set in the code and it works out your altitude based on the difference between the air pressure reading from the sensor and the reference value for sea level. In my case I used information from my local airport that happens to be at sea level, or close enough anyway. Thanks for the video, I found it very informative.

[@93michou]

Thank you Bill for this very informative video. We hope your health issues are now resolved.

[@RottnRobbie]

First things first - glad to hear that you're getting past the immobilizing health issues. Second thing - I'm a bit confused and bemused by the MQ sensor list @ 8:16... It feels like there's been marketing department input on some of the listings, because: CNG is compressed Natural Gas, and ""CNG Gas" (i.e. Compressed-Natural-Gas Gas ? ) is detected by MQ-4. Natural Gas (detected by MQ-2, -5, and -214) is Methane extracted from the ground and sold by utility companies. But Methane is separately detected by MQ-2, -4, and -214. So: ... MQ-4 detects Methane and Methane, but one of the Methanes is only detected if it's first compressed? ... and MQ-214 also detects Methane and Methane, but one of the methanes is only detected if it's sold by a utility? ... but if you want to detect Methane that isn't sold in bottles or by a utility, then you can use MQ-2, which detects Methane, but apparently not Natural Gas or CNG Not to mention MQ-3, which detects Alcohol, as well as Ethanol - which is the alcohol in alcoholic beverages. Then there's LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas), which is (per Wikipedia) a mixture of Butane and Propane gasses compressed to liquid form. So MQ-2 and MQ-6 (which both say they detect LPG and Butane) detect both Butane and a mixture of Butane and Propane - but the mixture is only detected when it's a liquid? (And for some reason, if you want to detect a Propane leak the only option listed is MQ-138, which also detects 6 other gasses, because - I presume - detecting LPG and/or Butane won't tell you if your BBQ Propane tank is leaking?)

[@collinb5524]

A new Dronebot Workshop video?!?! Today is certainly a good day

[@joshuamaserow]

I love that you hooked up so many at once.

[@VenturaIT]

Thanks for the video, the Temptop device you are using is not known to be a reference device, so it can't be used for calibration of other devices. Look into the Sciosense APC1 device, it comes calibrated and has TVOC and particulates in one package.

[@shashanksherkar392]

I am developing products for LPG detection, smoke detection and learnt a lot from your article. 1) All sensors are giving analog output and libraries are helping but how to find functions in the library in Arduino 1.8.xx with WINDOWS 7? 2) The usual catch is using the sensor (with its datasheet) on a breadboard with a lighter or spray and getting some results and actually wall mounting a prototype as a product which will give a visual indication along with a buzzer. So my next question is, how to decide the threshold value (usually 400 for LPG) for a sensor which will be wall mounted near a kitchen gas stove? 3) What exactly is pre-heating - keeping the sensor near heat or keeping the sensor connected to the Arduino with power on? Please help me on these practical problems of migrating from prototype to product. Thanks already.

[@paulhirst3548]

Wonderful timing as I just finished making a dust separator for my orbital sander. This will come in handy as I try to further reduce the dust as the doors will have to stay closed during the cooler Canadian winter.

[@vicdohar]

Cool stuff for measuring indoor air quality in our tight homes. And always wanted to build a simple weather station to track pressure. Couple of things... 1) Most smart phones have a barometer installed and you just need an app or write your own code to access it. 2) Altitude is the distance above ground, whereas elevation is the distance above mean sea level. The negative number is most likely because you're in the basement, but like some other comments have suggested need to be calibrated for your area. I don't think you're in a hole 55m deep?

[@tlxreed]

Great video for a very apropos subject. I live in an area heavily affected by fire conditions. I also work in a small business that does a lot of welding, both brazing and TIG. From a health standpoint, it's hard to muster the kind of expertise you need to monitor air standards without laying out a lot of money and hoping the instrument you buy is helping. This video is helpful in that it shows a route to get very detailed and high quality readings if you're willing to put in the time to build the project.

[@brianwhitley1053]

Glad you're back, Bill. You're on my list of regulars and I needed a fix!! :)

[@gadget1968]

Sir you are breath of fresh air in world of fluff and trash I am glad you doing better and thankful you share you time, Knowledge and skill on this format.

[@NZHippie]

Get well soon Bill, another great video...

[@wayland7150]

I suppose the advantage of a serial sensor over an I2C sensor is you can use RS232 to place the sensor a very long way from the micro controller.

[@DaveKisker]

Finding this video was incredibly timely! I've been working with/ evaluating all of these sensors for a couple of years, but mostly with either the RPi 3B+ or the Wemos D1 mini. Now moving mostly to the Seeed Xiao ESP32C3 and ESPNOW. For the I2C devices, it's been straightforward, but the doggone PMS5003 has not been very cooperative. Until now. After trying every other library and failing, I ran across this example and it works out of the box. I am a little concerned about the nearly continuous measurement because the laser only is projected to have about an 8000 hour lifetime so the usual approach with the PMS5003 is to only take a measurement every 5-10 minutes or so and then turn it off in between. I'm not a good enough programmer to figure out how to do this.

[@hoggif]

MQUnified seems nice but has no compensation for environment like humidity and temperature. I found it essential for ozone sensor MQ-131 that I used in a diy steriliing cabinet (yes, one of those pandemic projects to recycle expensive respirators that had no availability for a while or were very expensive). One can always add a correction calculation for the uncorrected values depending on environment. That's what I did in my code in practice anyway.

[@pvh.09]

Hi! Can you support me connect pin MQ 131 for ozone? I have some question about this sensor and can you give me contact information?

[@hoggif]

@@pvh.09 I can see if I know what info you are missing. I made a topic on my channel community tab. You can contact through it.

[@miguelavello7493]

I really loved your videos !!!! You are so professional and you spend the time to put in context some of the capabilities of the electronic that you use. In this example, you did a nice example putting in context the environment information. Thank you !!!!!

[@troubleshootq]

the sketch for the PM sensor was working, thank you very much.

[@shadow7037932]

You can use the BME680 for IAQ as well using the Bosch BSEC library which does the extrapolation/sensor fusion based on the MOX + other sensor data.

[@electronics.unmessed]

Wow! The most comprehensive video about this kind of sensors I have seen. Thanks a lot. I always enjoy the quality of your videos.

[@NaveenKumar-rx9zk]

Great to learn something new from you, probably add a light sensor and make the whole thing as environment sensor

[@samiranjoseph9793]

concentration (mg/m^3) = 0.0409 x concentration (ppm) x molecular weight (g/mol) A tabular list of various VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) and their accurate molecular weights can easily be found online.

[@joshuamaserow]

I've been interested in this exact subject, arduino air quality monitoring with various sensors. And you're my favorite channel to cover this sort of thing! Looking forward to the video

[@thomasleftwite]

I bought MQ sensors just after watching this video ;-) Please take good care of yourself. I'm looking forward to seeing your new video.

[@billmckillip1561]

No apologies required, that was a very interesting video and well worth the wait.

[@aaronag7876]

Absolutely brilliant. Well documented and explained. Thank you as wanted to use some of those sensors and build a mesh network of sensors around my house to see which rooms have the worse air quality.

[@scottmorgan5370]

Woowser...Earliest I've ever caught your video. Always looking forward to your latest video.

[@caffeinatedinsanity2324]

18:32 you could just create a voltage divider with 3 resistors of equal value (ex: 3 10k resistors), and plug between the first and second resistor. (Basically, you take essentially what would be a 5 v max signal, down to a 3.33 V max one). Much less likely to screw up analog readings and scaling is a tad easier.

[@hoangleminh2424]

Thank you DronBot Workshop. Very good video

[@rubialugattimoreira1978]

Definitely the best source of knowledge for makers .👏👏👏

[@davewilliams8050]

I liked this video in particular and I am tempted to deploy a VOC and PM monitor function in my 3D printer workshop. I would want to see the data presented with historical graphing of the results. I am thinking this would require a Raspberry Pi (for display and graphing purposes) and perhaps a NAS storage device. Have you considered doing something this? Like you I have air circulation and an air purifier with a HEPA filter available to use. Being able to monitor air quality before starting a print and during printing would be very useful. Have a monitoring system to confirm effectiveness would be necessary.

[@dmurphydrtc]

Thanks for the wonderful content. I hope we find you well.

[@tubeDude48]

At 12:00, an "if" statement would have been handy to change the text to RED when the reading gets to high. Just say'n!

[@marktadlock5428]

I am planning on set up sensor for making an outdoor rover.

[@zUltra3D]

Man I can only dream to have a workshop like yours

[@edisondejesusdurangoleon6017]

I really appreciate all the time you have taken to explain this topic about MQ sensors for air quality measurement, very grateful for your generosity in sharing your knowledge, by the way I wanted to ask you a favor if it is not too daring of me you can share the code where all the MQ sensors are integrated, I appreciate it, a thousand and a thousand thanks for sharing, greetings from Colombia.

[@howtechworks375]

Thank you for this very informative video. Sorry for the health issue. I politely to know the software you use for the illustrations and animations. Your presentations are amazing.

[@vigasan]

Great video, I made similar project with the possibility of Home Assistant integration

[@juliolapaix947]

Felicitaciones. Lo mejor entre muchos buenos videos de este tema que he encontrado.

[@1bubatruba]

Thank you Bill for this video. Is all the components are possible to using with Raspberry Pi 4 ? Or here you vote more for Arduino?

[@quickfixengineeringltd8035]

Hi. Thanks Bill. I really need to do a project on rs485 pyranometer with arduino for sending solar radiation data

[@bc65925]

I built a project using a Wemos D1 R32 to raise and lower my camper jacks using Bluetooth and it actually functions quite well. I'm using a 2 relay module connected 5V to VCC, GRD to GRD, Pin12 and 13 to IN1 and 2 respectively. I send a 1 and 2 from my simple phone app via bluetooth and operate the relays. However if I cycle the power on the board the "Relay Actuated" LED's on the module light up dim and the board will not start up correctly. The only way I can cycle the power to the R32 is to disconnect the 5V wire while it boots. Then when I connect the 5V wire back up it can connect to the Bluetooth on my phone and work just fine. Any ideas other than me adding two switches? One to connect the 5V after I turn on the power. Thank you very much for your very instructive video's by the way!

[@poolgameplay6979]

According to you which model sensors are very accurate and as good as comercial product to calculate co2 temperature humidity

[@larryplatzek9017]

Thank you for GREAT videos! Take care of your Health!

[@Ansari_Suleiman]

I wount get tired of asking if you need apprentice from west Africa ☺, I will more than happy to train in this amazing worship, sir!

[@michaeloverturf6146]

Spectacular discussion, thank you for the education

[@wherami]

Very important episode now with the wildfires

[@joelevi9823]

Great i always wanted to make something like this. For calibration, if we put the system in a vacuum chamber and create a vacuum maybe we can set their 0 point?

[@wherami]

You are an incredible wealth of knowledge

[@wernerbehrmann]

Hi mR Dronebot, could you give me a method of finding aspergus in the field, which has not yet come out???

[@mikiethebikie]

Thanks Bill, this is such a good, practical, and current project.

[@tubeDude48]

Bill, have you looked at the *ESP32-S3* yet; or did I miss that video?

[@AlexanderWeurding]

Great share! trying to build this in a heat with a gps to google maps and battery :) :) Thanks!

[@makarandvaidya-q2w]

Though 12bit is adc of Esp32, it’s not so linear & some issues of noise, also being 4092 value instead of 1024, hence it is recommended to use ADS1115

[@vatsalagrawal7832]

great video! can you try making a smart automation system using esp32

[@philipbrindle867]

Great video, as always, Bill, thanks so much for sharing...

[@jimbooth2010]

Great video, thx! Stay healthy!!

[@mihgeza2000]

Hello there, I have a questions. What air quality sensors would you prefer for outdoor air quality measurement? I want to log my city's air quality with a Arduino/Raspberry pi board.

[@jamesharris6062]

I've seen a lot of your videos. Would you do one on using two servo motor 180 rota with Arduino uno and using flysky to control the servo motors on two separate channels it's so you can get more accurate movement with the servo motors. I've seen it done no code or explanation. This so you can attach it to a wheelchair joystick to turn it into remote control one. or a better way ?

[@DaveKisker]

Thanks! Your PMS5003 solution was a breakthrough for me using the Xiao ESP32C3

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Glad it helped!

[@AM-dn4lk]

An excellent tutorial. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@bonekuhobonekuho2658]

Would you please recommend a sensor for Oxygen detection? I want to understand the Oxygen concentration in various locations but have not been able to find a good tool or sensor I could use to build a tool. Thanks.

[@nigec4969]

Wow, just what I needed. Great video. You sir are an inspiration. Be well.

[@MarkMcCluney]

Okay I've had my Dad joke fix, I can rest easy now, but please don't leave it so long next time. Thanks Bill!

[@qzorn4440]

wow very nice info. 🧐 however with a huge world of IIOTs, factory sensors and PLCs the esp32 Modbus rtu rs485 seems to be very important on many distant projects. 😎 thanks a lot.

[@lessthanwords]

What's the name of the tiny pin connector socket on the pm sensor cable? Mine didn't come with an adapter. I just cut the cables and crimped on my own connectors because I didn't know what to look for.

[@SDV3125]

Hi sir, can we use PMS7003 in stead of PMS5003?

[@altitude1039]

Sorry you haven't been well. Hope you are doing better. FYI: There is an easily obtainable PM2.5 sensor in the IKEA Air Quality Sensor that can be hacked. Unfortunately I can't post a link to the hack here , but is searchable as IKEA Vindriktning hack.

[@connecttenth9155]

No way! That's cool, thanks.

[@rajansuryavanshi9543]

Hello sir, I am using esp 32 with pmsa003 sensor, and take the reference of your video, I am done with arduino uno, but when I jump on esp 32 am getting the garbage value, give me suggestions if u read my comment.

[@anurasenarathna1703]

As always, a very informative and useful video. Thank you very much.

[@odinata]

Music made me happy!

[@anlpereira]

Hi, great video. I'm Firefighter and also Electronic Engineer here in Brazil. Currently I'm working with air compressor for the SCBA air cylinder we use in firefighter combat. I'd like to develop such air quality device for our equipments. But I don't have any reference of what type of sensors do I use. Can you help me? What kind of parameters need to be measured from these air cylinder? Thank you very much. We use 300 Bar cylinder from Scott Company.

[@MrJohng2001]

Trying to compile the ESP32 PM2.5 Code for NodeMCU results in error invalid conversion from 'int' to 'SerialMode' [-fpermissive] Serial1.begin(9600, SERIAL_8N1, RXD2, TXD2); how can I fix this ?

[@ajciccone88]

I love your content and the way you describe everything in all your videos so everyone can understand. Have you tried using esp rainmaker to display some of sensor data in there? Would be good to see a video on that.

[@mastertechtv5055]

Thanks MasterTech TV

[@sinjhguddu4974]

Love this very practical and useful project. Thank you Sir.

[@blogactivities5462]

@Dronebotworkshop, another great video, thanks!! how about BME688? is it possible to post a video and explain using AI training? ;)

[@muhammadsufyan502]

Can you help in making Air quality monitor

[@1_HighDuke]

So much good information, thank you very much!

[@jmcenterprises9591]

Great video, thank you so much. Subscribed immediately!

[@wayland7150]

I'm building a home comfort station. The user has a web page where they can see the output of my BME280 and has a choice of three buttons, I'm Too Hot, I'm Comfortable, I'm too cold. Logged into a MySQL database so I can figure out what room conditions equate to a comfortable occupant. I'll probably add an outdoor sensor and and an air quality sensor.

[@migueiglesias]

Super interesting project! Thanks!

[@sumedhburbure4173]

Best Intro! 😊

[@jaydekaytv]

Very cool - thx for sharing!

[@disrael2101]

If uve the temtop machine what's the Arduino used for

[@jamesharris6062]

I would not like mess with my electric wheelchair motors. great videos

[@YasirFaur]

thank you very much, it was very useful for me.

[@camerond169]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing!

[@gerdsfargen6687]

Does it pick up clanyies?

[@jardelainen8278]

I have watched other youtube videos critizing many of those commercials meters to be hoaxes, I think I saw your meter there

[@armantape]

Nice projects

[@jamesray9009]

hmm wonder if I could use this to keep a running log for the gf's car she cleans oilfield housing and offices so wonder what she sees with out seeing it

[@Ducerobot]

Yes! Cool sensor. 😎 maybe one can go on annie😁👍🤖

[@notransfat1]

Thanks!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you David!

[@paulcottingham241]

Nitrogen is a pollutant? The gas that makes up about 70% of our atmosphere?

[@brianwhitley1053]

But if it goes too high it acts as an asphixyant by suppressing the amount of O2 available to levels incompatible with life.

[@rubialugattimoreira1978]

Sir. Allow me to suggest for next workshops, machine learning subject for edge device 👍