Air Fobulous 2040
Tag: sensor
VOC Monitor
This is a second generation device that educates people about Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Air Quality.
A Raspberry Pi Zero W is used to read data from the VOC sensor via the I2C interface. An RGB LED changes its color based on the measured VOC levels. It can also collect data and upload it to the cloud. This device was:
- Exhibited at the World Maker Faire held in Queens, NY in September, 2017
- Featured in the December 2017 of the MagPi magazine from the Raspberry Pi foundation
Here is a video of the device in action where it changes colors when a sharpie is introduced next to the sensor.
VOC sensors
I worked with Professor Eric Paulos at Carnegie Mellon University on this project. This is a wearable device that can measure concentration of atmospheric VOC (volatile organic compounds). These gadgets were meant for the Clean Air Initiative in Pittsburgh and funded by the Heinz foundation.
These gadgets were demonstrated by Professor Paulos at the White House Technology Office. The sensor is interfaced to a microcontroller and runs off a 9V battery. I designed the PCB and wrote the firmware for the gadet. The video below shows its function.
Carbon Dioxide Monitor
I built this carbon dioxide monitor at my first job (Picture taken with permission). This was my very first PCB design. It makes use of a PIC16F877A microcontroller. The sensor is interfaced to the microcontroller via the I²C interface. It also controls a 16×2 LCD display.
The microcontroller triggers the buzzer when it crosses the threshold of 800 ppm. The unit had push buttons to adjust the trigger threshold. I also wrote the firmware for this unit.
