supercobra78 t1_jci77qv wrote on March 17, 2023 at 12:25 AM

Reply to comment by Tricon916 in Open-source tool from MIT’s Senseable City Lab lets people check air quality, cheaply. by chrisdh79

Like it or not, the hardware for these sensors are not cheap.

JohnEdwa t1_jcia5hw wrote on March 17, 2023 at 12:47 AM

But it doesn't have to be that expensive. That Purpleair Flex has a BME688, $13.5 in single quantity (<$7 if you buy in bulk), and two PMS-6003 which are around $40 in single quantity. Asking for $270 for a device that's idea is to gather crowd sourced data is a bit steep.

Meanwhile the European project uses a kit that costs less than $50 to put together, and that's in single quantity by people ordering the stuff from aliexpress.

jqubed t1_jcik7k2 wrote on March 17, 2023 at 2:04 AM

So around 3x component cost? That sounds about right for a consumer electronics product in the U.S. Maybe high if they’re keeping data from the devices for commercial use.

FourOff t1_jcj42nd wrote on March 17, 2023 at 5:02 AM

I built one with a feather board and BME680 (for weather and gas sensor). Still ~$150 with a few add-ons for a “plug and play” (plus programming) option. My neighbor has a Purple Air I can compare to and it comes out pretty close (after some tweaking).

1 x Flanged Weatherproof Enclosure With PG-7 Cable Glands[ID:3931] = $9.95

1 x Adafruit Feather M4 Express - Featuring ATSAMD51 (ATSAMD51 Cortex M4) [ID:3857] = $22.95

1 x Adafruit AirLift FeatherWing – ESP32 WiFi Co-Processor[ID:4264] = $12.95

1 x Adafruit PMSA003I Air Quality Breakout (STEMMA QT / Qwiic) [ID:4632] = $44.95

1 x Adafruit BME680 - Temperature, Humidity, Pressure and Gas Sensor (STEMMA QT) [ID:3660] = $18.95

1 x FeatherWing Doubler - Prototyping Add-on For All Feather Boards[ID:2890] = $7.50

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin Cable - 100mm Long[ID:4210] = $0.95

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin to Premium Male Headers Cable (150mm Long) [ID:4209] = $0.95

1 x Stacking Headers for Feather - 12-pin and 16-pin female headers[ID:2830] = $1.25

1 x USB A/Micro Cable - 2m[ID:2185] = $4.95

1 x Lithium Ion Polymer Battery Ideal For Feathers - 3.7V 400mAh[ID:3898] = $6.95

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-Pin Cable (50mm Long) [ID:4399] = $0.95

1 x Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB - Single[ID:1609] = $0.00 —————————————————— Sub-Total: $133.25

Edited to fix weird type size and spacing on the order I copy/pasted.

HanseaticHamburglar t1_jcjd2h2 wrote on March 17, 2023 at 6:54 AM

Whats the European project called?

SerialMurderer t1_jckbz54 wrote on March 17, 2023 at 1:42 PM

Do you know that for a fact or did you assume it as a devil’s advocate?

…or are you defending products that don’t require X expense to break even or profit?

supercobra78 t1_jcs6qfl wrote on March 19, 2023 at 3:38 AM

yes.

tehyosh t1_jcjfnsg wrote on March 17, 2023 at 7:31 AM

pishposh, you can get a PM1, PM2.5 & PM10 particulate sensor for 30€