I have connected up a Plantower device to an ESP Wroom 32 device which I am programming through Arduino IDE rather than Micro Python.
I am very pleased with how easy it was to get it operating but the numbers intrigue me. I am testing it in my home office. This isn’t far from the kitchen and I know from testing other such devices that the readings go up and down when we cook meals but - in the short term - they hardly vary.
With the Plantower, I get readings every second and it is not uncommon for the data array for the six different particle sizes to swing between (for example) 27, 11, 0, 0, 0, 0 to 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 in the less than ten seconds. (I didn’t cough or emit any other gases!)
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
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Hi Brian,
While I haven’t used the Plantower range of particle sensors its not uncommon for there to be some kind of noise.
Which sensor in particular, did you have?
Liam
Hi Liam.
Thanks for your reply. The item is in the Core catalogue as ADA3686. Sorry, I didn’t buy it from Core but I think it is identical.
After a week or so, it is much more reasonable in its behaviour.
.There may be some sort of initialisation process going on.
It could also be related to the general level of dust. I have noticed that when I leave it running in my office and the overall numbers drop through the night when we are not cooking, breathing, walking around etc, the short-term variability ramps up. Not quite as extreme as the initial numbers but when the numbers are at their lowest range for the day the minute-to-minute variability is probably an order of magnitude more than when the overall numbers peak while cooking and etc.
Anyway, I am happy to move on. Behaviour when I take it to my woodworking club is much more normal.
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