Air quality monitors

[ETA51]

Have any of you added an air quality monitor to your system?  I see Purple Air has one, and Davis Instruments has a new one called Airlink.  Here's links to both:

https://www2.purpleair.com/products/purpleair-pa-ii

The Purple air is a stand alone system that reports to their own cloud service that features a map viewable on the web.  I think they are also integrated with Weather Underground.

https://www.davisinstruments.com/product/airlink-professional-air-quality-sensor/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI29H1uvXh7gIVCuDACh2Fiw9wEAAYBCAAEgLWkfD_BwE.   

The Davis one is set up using Bluetooth and an app on your smartphone I think, but it communicates to their cloud based Weatherlink software via WiFi.  The manual also seems to indicate that it can connect with your weather station, but that the data will not show uo on your console.  I'm wondering if it could be integrated here.   

Both of these units seem to require hard wired power, although a solar rig should be reasonably easy to set up I would think.

Thoughts?

[elagache]

Dear ETA51 and WeatherCat users in search of fresh air,

Have any of you added an air quality monitor to your system?  I see Purple Air has one, and Davis Instruments has a new one called Airlink.
. . . . .
Thoughts?

As it turns out, I also have been feeling the itch to get an air quality sensor and made this write-up last September:

https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=3179.msg30636#msg30636

In summary, PurpleAir is well-established, but the Davis unit has a direct device API.  That means you could get the data off of a Davis sensor without any reliance on any corporate cloud architecture - in my mind a significant plus.

Unfortunately between relocating and COVID miseries, our fearless leader Stu (Stuart Ball, WeatherCat developer) won't be able to look into directly incorporating air quality sensors to WeatherCat for the foreseeable future.  However, there is another way to incorporate the Davis sensor into WeatherCat.  It uses a JSON interface which can be accessed vial AppleScript.  WeatherCat has a synthetic channel feature that would allow someone to access a Davis air quality sensor via AppleScript and bring the data into WeatherCat for all of us to enjoy.

AppleScript used to be my stock and trade around here, but since my life situation has largely disintegrated, I just don't have time anymore for code-dabbling.  Still, if someone where bold and curious, it would be a really neat project and a great asset to the community.

In the meantime, I decided to take advantage of the PurpleAir website to monitor nearby sensors in my neighborhood.  That's more than sufficient for keeping an eye on air pollution at this time of year.  Alas, it does appear that we are headed for another horrific wildfire season in the western parts of the United States.  As that ominous prospect approaches I might have to reconsider.

   Although I keep dearly hoping that the second coming will get us out this and all the other messes we find ourselves in!! . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear ETA51 and WeatherCat users in search of fresh air,

I forgot about this thread in which a WeatherCat user was simply trying to display Davis AirLink data on a website:

https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=3199.0

The website is here:

https://wx-watch.co.uk/

and the air quality information can be viewed here:

https://www.wx-watch.co.uk/weathercat/aqi.html

So if you could live with your air quality sensor being displayed on our website, that's already possible.

Cheers, Edouard

[ETA51]

Elegache -

Thanks for your pointers.  Sadly, it looks like the Davis Airlink API is no longer available:

https://www.davisinstruments.com/product/weatherlink-excel-api/

That's a bummer, as I might have chased that with a friend of mine who is a software engineer.  I do agree, I'd like to have all my data located in one place.  I think Purple Air integrates with Weather Underground.  As my weather station data is already there, I might look into that as a one stop shop.

[mcrossley]

The AirLink has a local API - https://weatherlink.github.io/weatherlink-live-local-api/
And you can access its historic data and health data via the weatherlink.com v2 API - https://weatherlink.github.io/v2-api/

I've been there and got the T-shirt

https://weather.wilmslowastro.com/graphs_recent.php

[elagache]

Dear ETA51, Mark, and WeatherCat tinkerers,

The AirLink has a local API - https://weatherlink.github.io/weatherlink-live-local-api/
And you can access its historic data and health data via the weatherlink.com v2 API - https://weatherlink.github.io/v2-api/

Thanks Mark for reminding us of the location of the API information.

I've been there and got the T-shirt
. . . . . .

And it is a very nice looking "T-shirt" I have to say! . . . . 

. . . . .
That's a bummer, as I might have chased that with a friend of mine who is a software engineer.  I do agree, I'd like to have all my data located in one place. 
. . . . .

  . . . . Well, now that your excuse has been removed . . . . . . so what are you waiting for to start that "chase"? . . . . . 

Cheers, Edouard 

[JosBaz]

Dear all,

Of course we all want to measure things ourselves (obviously... ) but sometimes there is an alternative solution which is acceptable. Acceptable to me that is, considering air pollution is not really weather, but I still felt it is data worthwhile sharing.

I ended up using the Worldwide Air Quality Index (AQI) project website, which provides real-time data (free): https://aqicn.org/here/
They are offering a free API for maps, tiles and programatic JSON access.

To get a basic map, one can also simply create a direct link for the desired region, based on latitude, longitude and map zoom factor (in the URL). In my case https://www.waqi.info/#/c/51.387/5.073/7.7z

Of course this is not what ETA51's question was about but I thought is was worthwhile sharing nevertheless.

Jos

[Blicj11]

I have also done exactly what Jos did, for the purpose of not having to purchase one more piece of kit.