PM2.5 O3 Ozone Detector

Some time ago I looked at an air quality monitor but this was not cased and though it worked perfectly, I had to hide it in my lab to avoid spouse commentsabout more gadgets. This from Banggood, on the other hand, is ready to go and looks the part. Complete with internal battery and microUSB charging lead, the unit arrived with the battery dead so I put it on charge for half an hour before turning it on to take photos. It clearly needed a lot more charging, as later in the day the badly-formed message “Please charge the voltag” popped up on the display.

At the time I took the above photo, the lighting in my office wasn’t ideal so please take my word that the quality is excellent, colours are vivid and the overall display is crystal clear. That bright red light at the top is only active when the unit is on charge. There are additional vents around the back.

As well as the now usual temperature and humidity, the unit offers an at-a-glance summary of air quality and individual readings (O3 – Ozone, tVOC, PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10) and battery state – as well as accurate time and date.

The unit has a built-in (extremely quiet) fan and a handy stand at the back.

Temperature can be shown in C or F as required, there’s a theme setting (pink, blue, yellow, red, purple, black), language setting, brightness (sadly using only one “S”) control and the option to turn an alarm buzzer on and off. Display is 320x240px resolution.

The user-adjustable alarm can detect and warn of elevated O3 levels. All levels where we are located are on the good side. If I worked in an office or the shop floor I think I’d be wanting one of these around me more or less permanently:-)

Somewhere in the blog (unusually, I can’t find it – but below is a photo) you will find I looked at the much less expensive DIY version of this. Here’s the older one… I didn’t like the case.

Anyway – you now have the links for both if interested. The original works but looks a bit geeky. I have to say the new white-cased unit looks much nicer on the desk and won’t attract comments about “your mess” from any partner.

Now that the unit has had an overnight charge, it looks like I’ll get a half-decent charge life out of it. Time will tell. Air quality out here in the hills remains excellent:-)