{"id":14834,"date":"2016-06-16T16:50:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T08:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/?p=14834"},"modified":"2018-10-19T10:31:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T02:31:31","slug":"product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Figure3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is an currently review article of\u00a0Air Quality Sensor<\/a> by\u00a0\u00a0SwitchDoc Labs<\/a>. Thanks for\u00a0sharing with us. \u00a0For more product review and tutorials, please visit\u00a0www.switchdoc.com. Below is the review article, enjoy.<\/p>\n

It is always interesting to know what is going on in your indoor environment. \u00a0 With that in mind, the gremlins at SwitchDoc Labs decided it was time to test out the indoor air quality sensor<\/a> and see just how sensitive it is. \u00a0 After running the system for a while at the Labs, our CTO said he would take it home for the weekend and try it out in the home environment. \u00a0 His results were interesting and showed that the unit was a lot more sensitive than we initially expected.<\/p>\n

SwitchDoc Labs recently released the first expander kit for the OurWeather product, the Air Quality Sensor kit. \u00a0\u00a0The Air Quality Sensor kit has everything you need to build an indoor air quality measurement system. \u00a0Pure Python driver software for Raspberry Pi<\/a> Available at https:\/\/github.com\/switchdoclabs\/SDL_Pi_AirQualitySensor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is the TP-401A?<\/h2>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The TP-401A sensor is very sensitive to a number of air-contaminating substances at low concentrations. \u00a0 Some of these are: \u00a0 Second hand smoke, carbon monoxide (CO), alcohol, volatiles of cosmetics (especially hair spray as we will see later), acetone, thinner, insecticides, benzene, formaldehyde, etc.<\/p>\n

The sensor is composed of SnO2 materials doped with a catalyst making it a metal oxide semiconductor type of gas sensor.\u00a0 \u00a0 The resistance of the sensor will decrease when there are contaminating gases and will increase when the gases are removed from the environment. \u00a0 To operate the device needs to be heated to about 200-400 degrees C and this is what causes the current for this device to be about 50mA. \u00a0 A typical response of the sensor to 20 ppm (parts per million) of CO\u00a0 will to take the voltage up about 0.25V ~ 0.60V when the CO is detected.<\/p>\n

The Software and Setup<\/h2>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We used the recent released SDL_Pi_DataLogger<\/a>\u00a0software to read the data values from the Air Quality Sensor<\/a> and used the Grove INA3221 Sensor to read curren<\/a>t (which was really boring \u2013 always at 49mA) . \u00a0 We also used the Pi2Grover \u2013 Grove connectors for the Raspberry Pi<\/a> to hook things up.<\/p>\n

The Results<\/h2>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Annotations from the Weekend at SwitchDoc Labs CTO House, all times in UTC (+8 Hours to Pacific Time):<\/p>\n

A \u2013 Dryer Door opened, ironing begun. \u00a0 Could smell fabric softener.<\/strong><\/p>\n

B \u2013 Door opened to outside first for Panther The Cat, then door left open for a while. \u00a0 Finally dinner was cooked in oven.<\/strong><\/p>\n

F \u2013 Night time \u2013 ripples are probably auto fan and air conditioning effects.<\/strong><\/p>\n

C \u2013 Door opened for cat.\u00a0 Cat slow to go out.\u00a0 Very slow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

D \u2013 First hairspray test. \u00a0 Short sets of hairspray in the bathroom \u2013 noted air conditioner was on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

E \u2013 Dinner was cooked. \u00a0 Spinach Salad (with fresh Bacon bits).<\/strong><\/p>\n

F \u2013 Night again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

G \u2013 Hairspray in bathroom, this time the real thing as the family\u00a0got ready for work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were\u00a0amazed at how sensitive this inexpensive sensor was. \u00a0 We\u00a0could detect all sorts of events in the entire house.\u00a0 \u00a0 One thing to point out is that virtually all of the time the sensor was under 3200 (rated fresh air) and the average was 2727 across the entire period.<\/p>\n

We waited for the morning particulate count to drop and we ran one more test.\u00a0 We decided to do the ultimate hairspray test and use the hairspray near the sensor to see how fast it would react and how bad it would conclude the air was.<\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Test findings?\u00a0 The Air Quality System\u00a0really does not like hairspray.\u00a0 \u00a0 The hairspray was sprayed about 18 inches above the sensor and not directly into the sensor. \u00a0 It peaked about 11,000 (High Pollution) and quickly trailed down in the next 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

The TP-401A sensor is a pretty sensitive device. \u00a0 While it is not very discriminating (with the possible exception of Hairspray), it is sensitive to a wide range of different air contaminants.\u00a0 \u00a0 The system was very easy to build using Grove devices and was a piece of cake to setup to log the data using the DataLogger software.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  It is an currently review article of\u00a0Air Quality Sensor by\u00a0\u00a0SwitchDoc Labs. Thanks for\u00a0sharing with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nProduct Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  It is an currently review article of\u00a0Air Quality Sensor by\u00a0\u00a0SwitchDoc Labs. Thanks for\u00a0sharing with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Latest News from Seeed Studio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-16T08:50:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-19T02:31:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u884c\u653f\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u884c\u653f\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/\",\"name\":\"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-16T08:50:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-19T02:31:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6f0df70e5aa1b470083e77a0919ba5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Latest News from Seeed Studio\",\"description\":\"Emerging IoT, AI and Autonomous Applications on the Edge\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6f0df70e5aa1b470083e77a0919ba5\",\"name\":\"\u884c\u653f\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c87945076c1c9aea5570fea7739e112?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c87945076c1c9aea5570fea7739e112?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"\u884c\u653f\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio","og_description":"  It is an currently review article of\u00a0Air Quality Sensor by\u00a0\u00a0SwitchDoc Labs. Thanks for\u00a0sharing with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/","og_site_name":"Latest News from Seeed Studio","article_published_time":"2016-06-16T08:50:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-19T02:31:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u884c\u653f","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u884c\u653f","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/","url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/","name":"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi - Latest News from Seeed Studio","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg","datePublished":"2016-06-16T08:50:12+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-19T02:31:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6f0df70e5aa1b470083e77a0919ba5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg","width":1200,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/product-review-air-quality-sensor-test-results-with-raspberry-pi\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Product Review: Air Quality Sensor Test Results with Raspberry Pi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/","name":"Latest News from Seeed Studio","description":"Emerging IoT, AI and Autonomous Applications on the Edge","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6f0df70e5aa1b470083e77a0919ba5","name":"\u884c\u653f","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c87945076c1c9aea5570fea7739e112?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c87945076c1c9aea5570fea7739e112?s=96&r=g","caption":"\u884c\u653f"},"url":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Lily","views":9788,"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",1200,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",640,480,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3-1030x773.jpg",640,480,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",1200,900,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",1200,900,false],"visody_icon":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",32,24,false],"magazine-7-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",1200,900,false],"magazine-7-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",936,702,false],"magazine-7-featured":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",1024,768,false],"magazine-7-medium":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",507,380,false],"magazine-7-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Figure3.jpg",600,450,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"\u884c\u653f","author_link":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14841,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions\/14841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}