This repository contains all the code needed to run an Air Quality Station from the Carbon Tree project!
An Air Quality Station is an arduino based project which can take data from 4 sensors and both save and display those values. The measured molecules/particles are:
- CO2 (Carbon Dioxide)
- CO (Carbon monoxide)
- NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide)
- PMs (suspended Particulate Matter)
- PM 1.0μm
- PM 2.5μm
- PM 10.0μm
The data collected is displayed in a 2x16 LCD display and saved to an SD card as table of values which you can open in Excel (.csv format).
The Air Quality Station code/software has various useful features:
- Setting the time delay between each measurement from the sensors
- Setting up a timer for the data collection to stop
- The ability to chose which sensors to collect data from
- The option of choosing between saving new data on a new file or in an existing one
- The ability of saving (manually) the date and time of the beginning of the experiment in the file (example file above: "DATA09.CSV")
- Access to screen with information about the data collection process:
- How many bites in the data file
- How much time left until the data collection is over
- A button which saves a note in the data file in that exact moment (as a way of taking notes of important moments which could affect the data collected)
The manual on how to operate this machine can be found on the following Instructions
Carbon Tree is an active citizenship project from the Ciência+Cidadã programme. Ciência+Cidadã is a collaboration between Instituto Gulbenkien Ciência, the Instituto de Tecnologia e Química Biológica António Xavier, the Oeiras Municipality and the Escola Secundária Sebastião e Silva. Together, the goal is to bring science close to people, to demystify the idea that to do Science we need to wear a white coat behind a laboratory! And the Carbon Tree Project is precisely about it. In groups, about 30 students studied an air pollutant of their choice with the station. They built and programmed the station, worked around the scientific process and collected and analysed the data all by themselves with a bit of help from researchers and companies - INOVLABS for the station. Students are the true soul of the Project. The next step is to share with everyone what has been learnt in schools, conferences or forums national and internationally.
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To build an Air Quality Station you'll need the materials in this Document.
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The assembly of the Station can be found on this Video (subtitles available in English)
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To install the correct code on the Station/Arduino you'll need to install the arduino IDE which can be downloaded from here: Arduino_IDE_Link.
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After you've installed the Arduino IDE you'll have to download and upload the code to Arduino inside the Station. The most recent version of the code can be found right above this README.md with a name like:
X.X.X_AirQuality_Station.ino(X being the version of the code). For further information you can visit this page.
If you want to learn how to use your new Station please take a look at the following Instructions
Button mapping:
The simplest way to use the Station is by selecting 1-Endless -> 1-Default -> 1-All -> 1-New -> 2-Skip as soon as it start, making sure the SD car is in the SD reader slot below the LCD. By selecting these options the data collection process will start in a new file with a time between data measurements of 1 minute (the default). It will do so for an endless period of time (actually 49 days) taking data from all sensors. The start date and time will not be saved in the file because of the skip done in the setup.
To take advantage of the full functionalities of the Station like saving the date and time in the file itself please go through the Instructions