Breathe easy, knowing that you can track and sense the quality of the air around you with this Adafruit PMSA003I Air Quality Breakout. This sensor is great for monitoring air quality, in a compact plug-in format.
Best of all, unlike almost all other sensors we've seen that are UART interface, this one is I2C interface, which makes it a great match for single board Linux computers like Raspberry Pi, or even plain Arduino UNO's that normally would use software serial.
If you're an I2C fan (who isn't?), Adafruit have included two of their handy dandy SparkFun Qwiic compatible STEMMA QT connectors for the I2C bus so you don't even need to solder! Plug and play with other 'QT boards and sensors to add quick air quality sensing.
This sensor uses laser scattering to radiate suspending particles in the air, then collects scattering light to obtain the curve of scattering light change with time. The microprocessor calculates equivalent particle diameter and the number of particles with different diameters per unit volume.
The I2C data stream updates once per second, you'll get:
PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10.0 concentration in both standard & environmental units
Particulate matter per 0.1L air, categorized into 0.3um, 0.5um, 1.0um, 2.5um, 5.0um and 10um size bins
As well as checksum, in binary format.
Each order comes with one fully assembled sensor module breakout, including some header if you'd like to solder it to a breadboard. The breakout board has a 5V mini boost circuit so you can power it from 3.3V and 5V and the motor will run just fine
Lastly, it wouldn't be an Adafruit breakout if it didn't come with libraries for Arduino and CircuitPython or Python that will read and checksum data, and print it out in human-readable format.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Sensor module specifications:
Particle Range of measurement: 0.3~1.0,1.0~2.5, 2.5~10 Micrometer
Particle Counting Efficiency: 50% @ 0.3?m 98% @ >=0.5 ? m
Particle Effective Range (PM2.5 standard): 0~500 ? g/m ³
Particle Maximum Range (PM2.5 standard): ? 1000 ? g/m ³
Particle Resolution: 1 ? g/m ³
Particle Maximum Consistency Error (PM2.5 standard):
± 10% @ 100~500 ? g/m ³
±10 ? g/m ³ @ 0~100 ? g/m ³
Particle Standard Volume 0.1 Liter
Single Response Time ?1 second
Total Response Time ? 10 seconds
DC Power Supply Typ: 5.0V Min: 4.5V Max: 5.5V
Active Current ? 100 mA
Standby Current ? 200 ? A
Interface Level: 3.3V logic, L <0.8V, H >2.7V
Working Temperature Range -10 ~ 60 ?
Working Humidity Range 0~99%
Storage Temperature Range -40 ~ 80 ?
MTTF ? 3 Year
I2C address 0x12 (cannot be changed)
Product Dimensions: 51.0mm x 35.5mm x 13.6mm / 2.0" x 1.4" x 0.5"
Product Weight: 28.0g / 1.0oz
