Weather Underground’s Next Frontier: Air Quality

I just received the following email from WU as I’m sure many of you did.

[quote][size=10pt]Governments don’t have enough ground sensors to track air pollution accurately. At Weather Underground, we want to solve this problem. We are partnering with PurpleAir to build the largest crowdsourced air quality networks. But we need people like you

I could make it where WD pulled that data from the WU API maybe?

Looks to be an OK particulate detector/counter, the output is calibrated which you are unlikely to get with any DIY solution and the data appears to be accessible.

EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For Harry’s and many other locations I imagine ozone is as, or more, important, than particulates so it’s unfortunate that this network is limited to particulates.

Spendy little sensors, especially if they want our help. I considered it, but their price seems a little high.

About the same as a Davis UV…

I’ll probably get one as we live in a mining town. Be interesting to compare to the mine site data, if Purple Air will do that. I need to look at it in more detail.

Yes, it’s too bad that they don’t include other pollutants however, according to their technology page Our Technology - PurpleAir Laser Particle Counters & Arduinos their sensors may include other detectors like Ozone and other gases in the future. I’ll have to think about that.

That would be great! Google map is fine, but I’d like to get sensor’s data also on my weather page!

Thanos

I bought a PurpleAir sensor model PA-II in March, 2017 - the price was somewhat lower then.

Other than for a period of about a month, the sensor has been continuously uploading its data to Thingspeak cloud storage - the sensor was taken offline for about one month as I was having some ‘communication’ problems with the sensor designer/reseller and refused to supply my data without being able to access my data back.

I have been able to download the data in the JSON format from the Thingspeak cloud storage, but that data is limited to particulate matter 2.5 - I have been trying to get clear and concise instructions (from the designer/reseller) on how to download additional information from the Thingspeak cloud storage (I have sent 5 messages over the past days with useless replies).

For the past 2-3 weeks, as British Columbia, Canada was doing through an unusually large number of forest fires, I was able to provide (calculate/produce) continuous air quality indexes for my immediate area and post those results on my weather pages - got a few messages of appreciation from my neighbours as AQI reached levels of 150+.

My PurpleAir sensor has been reliable. It has two sensors built in providing slightly different PM2.5 values - still nice to have the two sensors as one of my sensor gave unrealistic readings until I power it off, cleaned out a small invader and power it back on.

The PurpleAir sensor has also three completely useless sensors (temperature, humidity and pressure) - because of the heat produce by some of the components (chips) inside the unit, (currently) the temperature is off by 8 degrees C, the humidity is off by 29% and the pressure is off by 43.32 hPa. I have been asking the designer/reseller to remove those values from the information screen displayed when a location on the Google map is clicked, but, so far, the reply has been ‘I will consider it’!

I am not writing that the PurpleAir is a bad unit - I have really enjoyed to have some constant reading of the AQI over the past weeks.

But, because of the poor and incomplete technical support (in my view), I cannot recommend the purchase of the PurpleAir sensor - maybe in a few days (or it could be weeks) when I am able to retrieve most of the data uploaded by my PurpleAir sensor, I might change my recommendation…

Brian, the data from the PurpleAir sensor is continuously uploaded to the Thingspeak cloud storage - that is where Weather Display could be ‘pulled’ in either the JSON of XML format. But, as I wrote above, I have been able to get only a limited quantity of data so far…

Here is the link to my data on the Google map: Tzouhalem/Maple Bay

Out of my reach in the $$ dept. Also too bad about the useless sensors and missing ozone readings, which is important here. Will stick with what I have.

Same here, we certainly have plenty of smoke/dust to measure but I wouldn’t spend the $$ without getting ozone too.

ah, so the data is not actually going to wunderground?
I see on the purple air web site
How can I get PurpleAir data?
The simplest way to view our data is the PurpleAir Map. Data is also available on MesoWest’s network and others. We frequently share raw data with researchers. If you want access to data for whatever reason, please feel free to contact us.

I see that the purpleair sensor is a IOT
i.e there might be a way to do a direct connection

For your reading pleasure, here are a couple of evaluations I found done by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (Southern California).

The first one was done from 02/19/2016 to 04/19/2016.

http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/aq-spec/field-evaluations/purpleair---field-evaluation.pdf

The second one was done from 12/08/2016 to 01/26/2017.

http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/aq-spec/field-evaluations/purple-air-pa-ii---field-evaluation.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Indeed Brian.

The PurpleAir sensor transmit its data through the local network to the Internet - the sensor connects wirelessly to the network - well, not completely wireless as power must still be supplied to the sensor via a 5V 2A USB outdoor power supply and a 10 meters (33 feet) cable.

I can access the sensor directly through my home/office network - through my router, I have assigned the sensor a fixed address. I can view and download the data from the sensor as a JSON file - that can only be done from a computer located on the same network - I have not yet found which output port the sensor is using.

I do not think Weather Display can access directly a IoT on a home/office network - please correct me if I am wrong. Indeed, it would be better/great if WD could read the data directly from the sensor.

I do not think Weather Display can access directly a IoT on a home/office network
I do have ways with the compiler to access IOT devices, e.g texas instruments gas sensor,heart rate sensors etc

this sensor is not yet supported directly though

When I look at the current AQI from airnow.gov for my area, the PM and Ozone readings are shown separately. It seems that they are using two separate sensors anyway. Would that be true?

Location: Fremont, CA
Current Air Quality: 08/14/17 5:00 PM PDT

Good - 45 AQI - Particle Pollution (2.5 microns)

Good - 22 AQI - Ozone

Brian, you seems like a ‘master of all computers’. :lol:

Can/could the present version of WD easily access an internal home/office computer network, using the assigned IP address of an IoT?

I am willing to do some testings if that would help you. How can WD access an internal network - the version I am running (build 53) can only access the network through outbound FTP and cURL connections - I am not aware that WD can get/read data through an inbound connection.

I would need WD to read my internal internal home/office network using an IP address of this format ‘192.168.200.xxx’.

Harry, the PurpleAir sensor (in fact, there are two sensors within the unit) read only the particle pollution (particulate matter / particle counter) of the sizes 0.3

its not problem getting data from a internal IP address via a TCP/IP socket connection
i.e by connecting to that as a sockect connection on a needed port number and then listening for any data

Unfortunately, Brian, I do not know the exact port number to listen to - that was one of the question I asked the designer/reseller of the PurpleAir sensor for which I am still awaiting an answer…

Do you know of a Windows 10 compatible software (preferably free) that I could use on my computer to check which port(s) the PurpleAir sensor is using?