Just got the amazon air quality meter. It's a laser based Sen44 module. Realistically it only reads pm2.5 reliably, since correlation factors for pm10 is often too wildly inaccurate due to the differences in the calibration particle size distributions and real world variances.
Even for its intended use, It's not absolutely accurate.
Nearby (couple miles out) EPA and PurpleAir sensors today around 50 aqi which is ~15ug/m^3.
Indoor amazon sensor reads 1-2ug downstairs, air purifier is on. 5-7 upstairs no purifier on. 9-14 outdoors in the yard.
Tp4 is about 500 meters to the nearest big highway, so that is out of the range for highway pollution as long as there are no strong winds.
The meter doesn't have a battery, but it uses 5v, so it can be attached to a power bank. Oddly 1 of the powerbanks kept turning off even though it's well within the current capacity of the meter. Tried a different power bank, they're both off-brand cheapies, and the second one works.
The internal fan of the sensor is always spinning, this is reasonable given that it is needed for updated pm-2.5 data. It's not especially loud. can't hear it.
Don't know how long 10,000mah will power it, but one would suspect quite a while at least a couple days.
Only supports 2.4ghz as usually with IoT devices.
Tried boiling some water, with the unit over the top of the pot, mainly detected rise in VOC and CO, no pm2.5 increase. I suppose this is good as it means clean combustion is taking place.
Be careful not to burn the thing and its cord, it's plastic.
Pros of this unit:
Amazon has a real engineering team and quality assurance.
Integrates with Alexa App, so you can monitor the sensor anywhere.
Has a tripod mounting hole.
Updates readout fairly quickly.
2.4ghz has pretty good range. You can take it quite far from the house to get readings.
Reads temp/humidity/pm2.5/carbon-monoxide/VOCs.
Onsale for $46 pre-primeday.
Software keeps good data tracking, though you know the Guhbamant/ Privacy concerns/ AI atk patterns.
Cons:
Don't think this thing can connect via bluetooth.
No display on board.
Kind of hoped that the sensor had more granularity, but given the rated accuracy of only +/- 20%, granularity would be useless.
Looking at DIY options, you can't beat amazon's sale price. buhhhhhh...... also no Gubahmant.
