Tag: PM2.5

Qingping CGS1

Qingping Air Detector (AKA ClearGrass Air Detector) is one of the best portable devices reviewed yet.

Impressive tech specs and design. Can be used both: as portable and not portable. And in a mixed way too. Good sensors for tvoc, t/rh, co2. High-resolution touch screen, Wi-Fi (that remember all Wi-Fi you were connected to), ambient light sensors, android and ios mobile app. And all that for a bit more than 100$ (incl. Delivery). For this price tag, it is a kind of flawless device. So the minor issues are not critical at all. Like it might have a different CO2 sensor (SenseAir S8 instead of Sensirion SDC30 for example) inside. But since S8 is not bad. It is still ok.

Pros

1800 mAh battery (~4 hours of battery life)
Compact (9x9x7cm, 218g)
Calibration (tvoc, CO2) may be done manually
Correct t/RH and CO2 measurements
High resolution display with good viewangles
Touchscreen and good UI usablility
Keep multiple Wi-Fi AP settings
Weather and time sync from Internet
Ambient light sensor
Good thermal design and active airflow
Mobile App and 3-rd party app support
Wireless (OTA) update w/o app needed

Cons

CO2 high level is starting 2000ppm.
Disassemble is not trivial.
There might be other sensors inside.
No alarm clock (but should it be there?)

Device inside: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+CGS1+inside

Device App: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+plus+app

Device Thermal: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+CGS1+Thermal

Manufacturer link: https://www.qingping.co/air-monitor/overview

AliExpress price ~110$

Aliexpress new version: ~110$

Tags CO2, PM2.5, TVOC

air quality

AWAIR Element

Post author By liutyi
Post date 2020-05-02
1 Comment on AWAIR Element

A new device from one of the best manufacturer of home air quality monitors – AWAIR Element (AWAIR REV3E)

This one is less expensive, but keep best feature of AWAIR 2.

What changed in Awair Element (in compare to Awair 2)?

Plastic case
Little bit smaller
No microphone and no speaker (no sound)
No Sub-1GHz wireless
Integrated antennas
Less expensive

So I would say nothing critical was removed to achieve better price. It is still a good design, both internal and external. Same air quality sensors:

t/RH (Sensirion SHT30)
TVOC (Sensirion SGP30)
PM2.5 (Honeywell HPMA115S0)
CO2 (Telaire T6703-5K)

Automatic firmware update, fast new device setup, ambient light sensor, 24h clock mode, and other good features are still in place.

Device support some integrations like: IFTT, Amazon alexa, Google Assistance (not tested).

See what is inside Awair element.

Amazon: 149$ (~175$ with taxes custom and forwarding to Ukraine)

Awair site: 149$

Tags CO2, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

DM601

Post author By liutyi
Post date 2019-12-24
No Comments on DM601

Dienmern DM601 is a portable air quality monitor with two options available DM601A and DM601B. The difference is in additional HCHO sensors. Model DM601A has no HCHO sensor onboard.

The device has SHT30 temperature and humidity sensor but measures temperature wrongly due to device self-heating and poor thermal design (see thermal photos of DM601A). The battery is 3000 mAh that gives about 5 hours of both charging time and battery life (see details).

Most of the sensors inside DM601 are unbranded. No Wireless connectivity. Usability is average. Measurements (except temperature) are more or less ok.

Aliexpress price: 70$-100$

Tags CO2, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

Air Mentor 2s

Update from April 2023:

Air Mentor Site got expired certificate since March 2022
iOS application is not available any more for download
Android app is still in the store (but Air Cloud not work)
Cloud synchronization not work for already installed app

Original post:

Multi-sensor (CO2, PM2.5, TVOC, HCHO) air quality monitor with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Applications are available for iPhone, iPad, Android phones.

By its design Air Mentor is not a portable IoT device. It has no battery. It has no display. So it is an alternative to uHoo (and to some extent to Netatmo). If compare Air Mentor 2s to uHoo: Air Mentor 2s have HCHO sensor. But uHoo measures CO, O3, NO2, pressure instead. Netatmo is actually a weather station with an external t/RH sensor, that also measures air quality by CO2 parameter only. Air Mentor 2s got a more expensive CO2 and t/RH sensors than both Netatmo and uHoo.

Temperature and Humidity sensor (SHT30) is both good itself and placed correctly on the bottom of the device with some gap from the mainboard. More or less as it is recommended by the Sensirion guide.

There are some issues with the current versions of mobile applications. For example, you cannot connect the device to Wi-Fi access points using iOS devices (it works using the Android version). Russian localization is not complete. Trend data from cloud not always loading (for both iOS and Android).

Tags CO2, HCHO, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

D9 Air Quality Detector

This time OCRKJ D9-H. Which also can be found in some shops as unbranded LCD Digital Air Quality Monitor (AKA monllac, AgoHike, Robincure). Similar to OCRKJ K6-D from the previous review. It was bought for about 100$. Yet another portable device with 10 hours battery life and correct CO2 measurements.

Pros

3000 mAh battery ( 10 hours of battery life)
additional sensors (HCHO, VOC and PM2.5)
16 different screens including trends
Active airflow with the relatively quiet fan
quality design and schematic inside (no glues, connectors, replaceable sensors)
good CO2 sensor inside – SenseAir S8 LP

Cons

slow charging – 8 hours (in operation mode)
no connectivity (Bluetooth, wi-fi, USB mass storage)
no ambient light sensor
unconfigurable high CO2 limits (GOOD is up to 1000 ppm)
wrong temperature and RH measurements (+3C, -10%RH)

It looks like relatively cheap SHT20 temperature and humidity sensor inside make it sort of a lottery if you will get correct measurements or not.

See device insides: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/D9+Inside

SALE Price was: 102$

Tags CO2, HCHO, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

K6 Air Quality Detector

I was not expecting much ordering KKMOON K6 (and receiving actually OCRKJ K6). Which also known as CAFU K6. Because most of the portable air quality monitors I got before have at least one major issue with measurements (AiRead M3 – all measurements wrong, HT-501 – wrong temperature, AirRadio A6 – issues with CO2 measurement after outdoor use and wrong humidity measurements). AirVisual Node was the only exception that both portable and show correct numbers. But it just too big to put it in your pocket. So there was a long history of portable CO2 monitors with issues. And it was kind of a surprise that the device I bought for 83$ is both portable and displays more or less correct numbers.

Pros

3000 mAh battery ( 10 hours of battery life)
additional sensors (VOC, PM2.5)
correct t, RH and CO2 measurements (not sure about other)
16 different screens including trends
Active airflow with the relatively quiet fan
quality design and schematic inside (no glues, connectors, replaceable sensors)
good CO2 sensor inside – SenseAir S8 LP

Cons

some noise from the PM2.5 sensor fan
slow charging – 8 hours (in operation mode)
no connectivity (Bluetooth, wi-fi, USB mass storage) – nothing
no ambient light sensor
unconfigurable high CO2 limits (GOOD is up to 1000 ppm)

See device insides: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/K6+Inside

Price: ~100$ (sale price was 83$)

Tags CO2, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

Awair 2

Post author By liutyi
Post date 2018-12-13
No Comments on Awair 2

Awair 2-nd edition is a better version of Awair, that fix some known issues of first edition

Awair 2-nd edition

What was fixed and added

24h time format
USB Type-C standard 5v power connector
USB 5v 2A standard power supply
Better display (resolution, no backlight)
Ambient light sensor (display auto brightness)
Microphone (not sure if it is good to have it on IoT device)
Better PM2.5 sensor
New buttons to switch the display mode
Better wireless connectivity (new antennas)
Better (active) airflow

Tags CO2, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

uHoo

Post author By liutyi
Post date 2018-03-28
No Comments on uHoo

uHoo – most advanced air quality monitor, at least if consider a number of sensors. Including advanced sensor like CO, CO2, PM2.5, VOC, O3, NO2. And also traditional like temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Measurements look accurate enough.

The device does not have any local indicators. Not a single color LED to show air quality status. The only way it communicates with the world is Wi-Fi and mobile application. The application (v 3.8) or backend infrastructure that makes it work is unfortunately unstable. Also, an interface is poorly adapted to iPhone X.

uHoo is not portable due to many reasons like no local indication, no battery, need Wi-Fi (and new connection setup will take time).

Tags CO, CO2, PM2.5, VOC

air quality

AirVisual node

Yet another air quality monitor. Measure PM2.5 and CO2. Have a rechargeable battery that allows hours of work without a power plug. Have Wi-Fi and mobile application to access data.

What is wrong with this device – no support for Ukraine. No external Air quality data for Ukraine, cannot choose Ukraine from a country list during setup. It is also ambient light sensor missing (only manual screen brightness setup).

UPD from 2018-02: Now support Ukraine, but only two private external monitors available (in Kyiv and Brovary)

Tags CO2, PM2.5

air quality

Awair

Post author By liutyi
Post date 2016-12-02
No Comments on Awair

Awair. Air quality monitor. Measure Humidity, Temperature, CO2, VOC (Hydrogen gas, Hydrogen Sulfide, Ammonia, Ethanol, Toluene, Formaldehyde), Dust (PM2.5 PM10). That is somehow more than netatmo can do.

Device shows air quality metrics as a dot bars. Where one dot is good and five dot are bad. It is also general “Awair score” on the screen both by number (100 is best, zero is worst) and by color of the LED (green is good, red is bad).

Awair also can work as clock (but only in 12h mode).

In addition to local indication device is also send data to a cloud using Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz), that allow to see the data using iPhone or Android on a remote locations.

Tags CO2, PM2.5, VOC