Pico Air Monitoring Series Review : A compact, flexible and economical air monitoring system
Air pollution has emerged as one of the most serious life-threatening issues that has captured the world's attention. If you're concerned about air pollution, the Pico air monitoring series is a compact and cost-effective option for you.
Amrit Singh, the creator of the Pico Air monitor series, also created the Air Monitoring HAT for Raspberry Pi, which was a tremendous hit on Kickstarter. Now he has developed the Pico air monitoring series, which is causing quite a stir in the technological world. Let's begin with my overall assessment of the product.
Pico Air monitoring Series and Configuration
Pico Air Monitoring Expansion (Super early bird - £30) and Pico Air WiFi Expansion (Super early bird - £45) are the two major devices in the Pico air monitoring series. Both items are incredible, with great efficiency and accuracy for particulate matter data monitoring, which can increase a product's air monitoring quality.
If we summarize both the products in a simple way then, 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.
Pico Air WiFi Monitoring Expansion is an upgrade of the Pico Air Monitoring Expansion with onboard components like ESP8266 and Bosch BME280. It is developed to make the users send the air quality data on the internet with the help of ESP8266 WiFi module. There is an onboard humidity sensor Bosch BME280, an integrated environmental sensor, that is for low current consumption (3.6μA at 1Hz), long-term stability, and high EMC robustness.
Setup and Installation
The Pico Air Monitoring series became popular within the tech community because of its ease of setup and assembly. The Pico Air monitoring series' major components are listed below.
- Pico Air Monitoring board
- PMSA003 Bio-sensor
- Raspberry Pi Pico
Stack the Raspberry Pi Pico on the Pico Air Monitoring board's standard 40 pin GPIO. Ensure that the PMSA003 Biosensor is attached to the Pico air monitoring board's allocated slot. Connect a USB cable to the Raspberry Pi pico after making all of the connections, then run the codes on the recommended platform (MicroPython).
Following the completion of the campaign, the developer of the Pico Air Monitoring series will provide thorough resources and manuals with complete instructions.
Best for Researchers and Hobbyists
Pico Air Monitoring Expansion consists of a PMSA003 sensor that provides real-time particulate matter data i.e PM 1.0, PM 2.5 and PM 10 with high accuracy that is commendable.
People with a background in the environment who work in the research or DIY product industry may be able to use the product in their projects. If you're a developer, the Pico Air Monitoring Series' capabilities can be used to create complex PM monitoring devices.
IoT with Pico Air Monitoring WiFi
If you want to communicate data about Particulate Matter levels to the cloud or another device, the product's developer has taken care of that as well. The Pico Air WiFi Monitoring Expansion, which consists of an ESP8266 and a BME 280, can be used for the same. You can also keep track of the humidity level in your environment, which will allow you to keep track of the weather in general.
For all developers, the Pico Air Monitoring Series is my top recommendation. Please leave a feedback below if you have any queries or projects, related to the Pico Air Monitoring Series.
