PM 2.5/10 Particle sensor

MFB

Senior Member
Hello,

Has anyone had experience of interfacing a PICAXE to the Honeywell particle sensor described in the following link?

https://sensing.honeywell.com/sensors/particle-sensors

The specification also looks very similar to the Nova Fitness Model SDS021.

These relatively low cost laser based sensors are able to measure the density of PM 2.5 and PM10 particles and output results over a UART interface. From the description of the serial protocol it should be possible to communicate with the sensor using a 08M2, in order to develop a portable low power instrument for environmental monitoring.

Thanks
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Not used one but it does seem usable with a PICAXE. The UART interface is 3V3 even though the unit is 5V but shouldn't be much of an issue. One might even be able to run the PICAXE from its 3V3 supply output.

I would suggest a 20X2 rather than an M2 to pre-empt any potential back-to-back data transmission issues. Having separate HSEROUT and SERTXD pins will probably also help with debugging.
 

john2051

New Member
Hi, I have just bought a pair of these sensors after reading about them on this thread. We live so close to a main road, as many do. Some of us though are unfortunate enough to have copd and asthma. I thought that these
would be good enough to give an indication of when 'pollution' is bad and to switch on hepa filters. So thank you mfb for mentioning these sensors, which can be bought from rs if they have any left. I should mention that the cables are
extra!
regards john
 

MFB

Senior Member
Hello

Pleased that you found the sensor link useful but sorry to hear about the health issues. Particles from traffic are a major concern and the levels are unlikely to fall for many years. However, it is encouraging to see more people (like yourself) becoming involved in Citizen Science projects via forums like ... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/plots-airquality/join

I built a prototype monitor a few years ago based on a GPS tracker and a simple optical dust sensor but the results were disappointing. Maybe its time to try again using the more sophisticated Honeywell sensor. Please let us now how you get on with these devices.
 
Top