Smart Indoor Purifier Project Assistance

We are looking to make smart indoor purifier and monitor with hepa filters sensors etc. This will need to be ran from a Raspberry Pi and use a LCD display, it’s a complicated process.

I was wondering if we could get help with the process, it would mean a lot too. This is for a competition also and we are trying to win, if you could help guide it would be amazing.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated!

Hi @Sai278990, Welcome to the Forums!!!

Interesting project you are making.

We need some more information as to the outcome you are trying to achieve so we can help guide you.

Some good questions to ask yourself:

  • What ideas do you already have for this project with how it’s going to work?
  • Do you have any building materials in mind or at hand?
  • What environmental factors are you wanting to measure (Eg. Temperature, Air Quality)
  • What systems do you want to control?
  • What are you hoping to achieve with this project?

Hello thanks for responding and yes I can give you the information, we are high school students competing at a nationals event and we need help with our project

The Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor and Purifier is an advanced device designed to enhance indoor air quality by continuously monitoring environmental conditions and automatically managing air purification. It integrates multiple sensors to measure particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOC), temperature, and humidity levels. This real-time data is displayed on a 3.5" LCD screen, providing users with immediate insights into their indoor air quality.

In addition to monitoring, the device features an automated air purification system. It includes a high-efficiency HEPA filter that captures airborne particles, a 120mm fan to ensure proper air circulation, and a UV-C LED for additional disinfection. The system can be controlled via Bluetooth, allowing users to adjust settings remotely through a mobile app. This smart integration ensures that the device not only monitors but also actively improves air quality, creating a healthier living

Supplies

  1. Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB RAM):
  2. Air Quality Sensors:
  • Nova PM SDS011 (PM2.5 and PM10):

What is the setting that you are looking to adjust? If it’s the fan speed, then controlling the fan from the PI would be a suitable task to define and solve. That would involve determining the type of control (probably PWM) that the fan supports, sourcing a suitable driver and interfacing to the Pi.

What interface do you expect to use for the Nova PM SDS011? The serial interface will be much easier to use, and I presume the update rate of 1 per S is sufficiently fast for this application. In that case another suitable task to define and solve is interfacing that to the PI so that you can (A) read the data and (B) parse it into sensible user information. That will require sorting out the physical connection between the devices and developing software to do the communication and parsing.

A third task is the user interface. Display screens for the Pi are readily available and there should be ample information about how to connect and display screens, but there will be a lot of work in defining layouts for the information and deciding on how user input will work, e.g. touch screen or simple buttons.

There is a full teardown of a device similar to, but somewhat simpler than, the one you are contemplating here: Simple HEPA air cleaner teardown (youtube.com)

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Jeff is on the ball here.

Many of these tasks have already been tried and tested. Intergration nightmare is generally where many projects run into trouble.

We have an article on using an existing app to monitor Pi data that you may also be interested in

Hi- so what we re thinking is to make it the simplest and cheapest possible budget is 500 we need help with every step o the coding for app and building it because are thinking to make the lcd display work and show the stats of the roo quality and to purify it. At our national competition we do not get any wiring if do we have to bring or own powerbank. We are thinking to fill up a water bottle with bad air quality of a bathroom bomb and pt that air in the bottle. At nationals we will open the bottle in front of the prifier and we want it to show the stats and purify it so the judges can see. We want help every step. We are new to this.

Thanks Hope you can help.

I’d suggest a Corsi-Rosenthall filter box - they are easy to construct you just tape together 4-5 square HEPA filters, add a box fan to the other side - and in this case a UV light.
With the pi & sensor nearby, you can use RealVNC to display the sensor output to a screen on your phone or another pi zero 2 with a display.

How to control the box fan depends on the design but perhaps using a home automation program connected to one of those button flicker devices they have for lights -it could be put on the Box fan to remotely control the fan speed dial or switches.

Good luck with your project!

Hi- Thx for the advise do you know how we can code the app and rashers pi to make it purify and show the statistics of the air quality on the lcd screen do you think you can help us with some tutorials.

I suggest you first search for guides for your Nova PM SDS011 and get it working. try phind.com as an AI assistant.

Just having an incense stick or humidifier should show the air being filtered by the filter box.

I have only used this one Monk Makes Air Quality Kit for Raspberry Pi which measures VOCs as a proxy for C02, however it had good guides for displaying the readings using GUIZero. With RealVNC viewer you can display the air quality values on another device.

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Hi @Sai278990,

We have this guide on using a smaller screen with a Raspberry Pi that you may find useful for this project.

Can we add the sensors as specified in the materials in between them is this easier as touchscreen

From what I can see the sensor works over UART or an included UART to USB converter.
Either of those should also be fine for connecting to the Pi with the screen connected.