AirGradient PRO PCB Update Review

[EdwardKing]

@Achim_AirGradient

We took the unsoldered kit out of the shop for the moment because we had a number of people that overestimated their soldering skills and could not solder it properly. Then the monitor did not work and the people got frustrated. I feel pretty bad if people spend quite some money on the kit and then it does not work. I would love to bring it back. Maybe with a large disclaimer about the soldering skills needed?

I would love to be able to purchase the unsoldered kit, as the soldering process itself is a great pleasure for me. I would agree that the big disclaimer would be nice to ensure folks buying it do not underestimate the complexity. The kit contains small connectors which I can solder fine nowadays, but would straggle to do when I only started to solder.

Another idea is to put a link to a soldering how-to-video for beginners, something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qps9woUGkvI (the first link with above million views from search).

@Achim_AirGradient

Most of the enclosures we shipped do have thinned areas for the LEDs already but some do not. So this needs to be checked and we might offer one upgrade kit with enclosure and one without.

I want to second it - upgrade kit of the PCB 5.1 + enclosure would be great to have.

[MallocArray]

I’m slightly sad to see the move to ESP directly on the board that isn’t removable. That was one of the things I really liked about the original one, was it was something completely modular and with through hole design, it was possible to solder it yourself.

Now there are a lot more components and so many SMD, that aspect is mostly gone. You can still plug in different sensors, but just has a different feel to it.

[Achim_AirGradient]

Yes I agree that some people enjoy the modularity and soldering of the old kit. However others would like to have a very well manufactured and stable running board and SMD just offers a higher quality and reliability. Our aim is to become fully open hardware so we also need a very high quality board for our fully assembled and certified monitor.

Probably best could be to keep the older kit available as kit that needs to be soldered (with a big disclaimer) and have the newer versions for the ones that need more convenience.

[EdwardKing]

Achim,

What practical advantages a user would get from PCB v5.0 compared to PCB v4.2 (assuming it was soldered as appropriate ) ?

[Achim_AirGradient]

Advantages have been described in my post above.

[TheBlackMini]

Nice work on providing an AQ device!

Curious if the v5.x board might integrate a later version of the plantower? Like the PMS7003 or PMSA003 which instead of a cable has header pins?

[Achim_AirGradient]

We tested both of these sensors quite extensively and the pms5003 is superior in our accuracy tests and life time.

[TheBlackMini]

Ah, how odd. Wonder what they changed!? As the 5,7 & A is the generational number from my understanding.

Sucks though as the header pins would make it much nicer.

[Achim_AirGradient]

Apparently the larger PMS5003 can create a more even air flow that leads to better measurements.

[vlotty]

It’s probably too late if not already done, but wondering if it is possible to change config settings without having to open the enclosure? (Basically being able to press the buttons without opening)

[Achim_AirGradient]

The config button is behind a small hole on the backside of the enclosure. So you don’t need to open it but can use a thin screwdrivers to press it.

[victorhooi]

@Achim_AirGradient Have the new 5.0 PCBs arrived with you yet? How is the testing going?

[Achim_AirGradient]

There was a delay from the factory. I hope to get my hands on some of the boards end of this week.

[CleanAir]

@Achim_AirGradient I’m also curious about how the v5 board are coming along. I’m planning on buying many for our house once available. Thanks!

[Achim_AirGradient]

I am testing it and currently it looks pretty good. The new RGBleds shine through the enclosure and is a nice addition (that we previously only had on our old closed-source monitor).

The monitor is currently for external EMC, ROHS, REACH testing and I hope to get the results in around 10 days.

By the way, we will call it version 9 because our old commercial monitor that it will replace was on version 8.

[Trevor]

Looks great! Will there be the ability to turn off and/or dim the LEDs?

[Achim_AirGradient]

Yes, definitely. There can be many use cases where you want them off, e.g. in the night. It’s open source anyway so it will be interesting what use cases people come up with.

[bnorick]

I was going to make about 5 of these, but it seems like I should wait for the new PCB release before ordering PCBs. As far as the rest of the components go, are there other changes I should be aware of in case I wanted to get stuff ordered from AliEx now?

Also, the PMS5003 you had linked seems to be gone. I was thinking about ordering from this seller but if you have another recommendation I’d love to hear it!

[Achim_AirGradient]

We have made bad experiences with PMS from AliExpress. It seems sometimes you get the “B” quality, i.e. modules that are less accurate (but still within spec). We at AirGradient now order only from Plantower directly now and see much better quality of what we get. So I can’t really recommend a AliExpress seller.

We are currently soft launching the new board so the kicad files are already online.

Yesterday I also have put the new built instructions online. So you can have a look at the new board in more detail already: The AirGradient ONE Air Quality Sensor (Presoldered-Version, PCB Version 9)

We will start offering this new kit in our shop very soon.

[bnorick]

How about the other sensors? Do you have the same experience from AliEx for those?