AirGradient Forum

Connect model ONE to cell phone hotspot for mobile data logging?

#1

i’d like to take my model ONE with me in my vehicle for some testing of air quality while driving. i’m both curious about general AQ in vehicles, but also want to test different cabin air filters to see if one purported to be HEPA with a carbon filter actually improves filtration. but without a wifi connection, the data is only displayed on the device’s screen and not stored or uploaded to the cloud.

i’m curious if you can connect a model ONE (or Outdoor model for that matter) to a cell phone hotspot.

anyone tried this? searching results in no similar attempts.

#2

Hi there — I just ordered my first monitor so this is all theory, but I do something similar with a field robot (Waveshare rover, Raspberry Pi based) that talks back to my LAN and Home Assistant from anywhere: it runs Tailscale (free mesh VPN) directly on the Pi, so any internet connection — including my phone’s hotspot — gets it home.

One caveat I’ve since learned: that trick needs a device that can run a Tailscale client. The AirGradient’s ESP32 can’t, and hotspot clients don’t inherit the phone’s VPN. So for remote use I’m looking at either (a) letting it log to the AirGradient cloud while away, or (b) a small travel router running Tailscale as a subnet router, so my home HA can poll the monitor through it. If I get it working I’ll report back — the goal is readings near the EPA superfund cleanup site by my house.

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#3

Hi @wsm, the AirGradient ONE and Open Air work and report the air quality data to the AirGradient Dashboard normally when they are connected to a mobile phone hotspot. Please make sure that your mobile phone hotspot works on the 2.4 GHz band and that the hotspot security is set to WPA2-Personal.

#4

I’ve performed mobile O-1PST data logging using a small wifi router and a phone running python code under termux, and a battery. If using a phone hotspot you’ll have to find the IP assigned to the O-1PST.

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#5

Hi @relwin, could you share more about your approach to this? Is it similar to what you mentioned in Adding BT data logging to the O-1PST, and combined with a phone perform mobile data logging , but in this case, you use the Wi-Fi router instead of Bluetooth? Thanks!

#6

This is based on AG’s example python code. It creates a CSV file with timestamps,GPS,and AG sensor data:

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#7

Thank you for sharing this! Please feel free to share your project with us and the community.

#8

for posterity, i figured it out and it’s relatively straightforward:

(iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 26.6, AirGradient ONE)

  1. Make sure you’re not within range of the Wifi your AirGradient device is setup to connect to.
  2. Turn on Hotspot on your mobile. iOS has an option to turn on “Maximize Compatibility.” turn that on, as i believe it produces the 2.4Ghz signal needed for your AirGradient device.
  3. Power cycle your AirGradient device.
  4. It will start broadcasting it’s Wifi and start looking for a Wifi network to connect to. Connect to it’s Wifi. (might have to scan the QR on the back of the device)
  5. Configure Wifi, connecting to your Hotspot. (I had to manually add my Hotspot initially, but after that it popped up the next time))

it will then default to that network after power cycles going forward.

a question for Tai or anyone else at AirGradient:
would it be possible to have the device store multiple Wifi networks configs and automatically connect to the one with the strongest signal?
i’m not an expert, but it appears the current system “forgets” any previous network, and you have to go through this process any time you change networks.

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#9

@wsm thank you for sharing about the ‘Maximize Compatibility’ on iOS! That is correct, the ‘Maximize Compatibility’ on iOS enables a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi hotspot.

Regarding the Wi-Fi feature, you understand correctly that the current firmware only stores one Wi-Fi credential, and you will have to go through the Wi-Fi provisioning process again to change the Wi-Fi network.

We don’t currently have a feature that supports storing multiple Wi-Fi networks, but that sounds really interesting. I can bring this up with my team to discuss the possibility of developing a feature like this.

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