AirGradient Forum

The Portable Air Quality Monitor We Couldn’t Find - Built Openly, Built Together

AirGradient Blog
#1

Interest in a portable AirGradient monitor has been building for a long time. We’ve heard it from customers who want something they can take with them day to day, from researchers who need a device that can move easily between environments, and internally from our own team. The idea kept resurfacing, and the same question always followed: if we were going to carry a portable air quality monitor ourselves, what would it actually need to be?

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.airgradient.com/blog/airgradient-go-announcement/
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#2

Excited to see this process!

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#3
#4

This is welcome news indeed. I have been using the Aranet 4 for to monitor CO2. Apart from the obvious monitoring my office at work (e.g., how long can I keep the door shut for before CO2 builds up too much), I also use it for deciding when to use a mask (for infection control) in public spaces, meetings, and on transport.

This has provided insights such as our car needs to be on a moderate fan setting and definitely not on the recirculating setting, commercial flights can have CO2 values over 2500 ppm
(I hope the pilots have fresher air than the passengers).

I would find it valuable to have particle monitoring as well. With regard to sensors, CO2, particles, temperature, and humidity are all that I would be after. The Aranet has a pressure sensor but, other than identifying flights, I don’t find it useful.

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#5

Yes, PM, CO2, Temperature and Humidity are definitely set to be included. We are also looking on potentially adding Pressure, and VOCs.

The pressure sensor can be helpful in calibrating altitude impacts on the CO2 measurements.

#6

Super excited for this one. What is the best way to follow along?

#7

You can follow the blog and sign up here: AirGradient GO Interest Form

#8

+1 for pressure sensor. The pressure sensor could also be used to predict the weather. GitHub - HAuser1234/homeassistant-local-weather-forecast: Homeassistant local weather forecast. ~90% accurate*

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#9

Hope to try Airgradient Go soon.

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#10

I hope the display will be e-ink! Thank you

#11

Hi @manuelmagic! It will be an e-ink :slight_smile:

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#12

What kind of battery will it have? My Aranet uses 2 AAs and the battery life is much longer than any USB-charged product I’ve used.

#14

It will use a pouch battery with USB charging. We looked at more standard sizes like AA and 18650 batteries as we wanted to use them for the sake of repairability, but we couldn’t find a good way to keep the device relatively compact and have decent battery life with these battery sizes.

With that said, the Aranet is able to have an incredible battery life because it only houses an NDIR sensor. These are already very low power sensors, and the SenseAir Sunrise is further designed for minimal power consumption. The issue in multi-pollutant devices is the PM sensor, as these require vastly more power to run. This is the reason that portable PM sensors like the AirBeam or Atmotube Pro always have significantly less battery life than dedicated CO2 monitors like the Aranet4 Home or INKBIRD IAM-T1.

#15

How durable will this be? My interest is wearing the GO at work where it may constantly hit things as I move around.

Will it have PD fast charging?

#16

Thanks for the question @Austin_Richards! From my personal testing of the enclosure over the past few weeks, I can tell you it is quite durable already on the pre-production units. Durability is a big focus for us as we’re designing it to handle real-world use, including more demanding scenarios like being worn during active work (e.g. firefighters measuring smoke exposure). So the goal is that it can take bumps and knocks throughout a normal working day without issues.

On charging: it won’t support PD fast charging for now as fast charging tends to generate more heat.

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#17

Will the AirGradient Go be tested and certified, similar to the fully assembled AirGradient Indoor/Outdoor monitors? If so, will they include a test report?

#18

Some ideas addressing practical usability:

  • Please add options to chose measurement selection, rate and strategy – for both connected and mobile use –, to allow to conserve mobile power as needed. Extended example geared toward mobile use: let us select GPS update frequency depending on movement speed, let us select PM sensor reading depending on moved distance, …
  • Same goes for conserving memory if you need to stretch available memory over a certain time…
  • maybe allow internal memory expansion using an inexpensive microSD card for those who need it?
  • you might want include an inexpensive accelerometer to guess when to take the next GPS reading, or at least how to adjust the GPS update frequency
  • allow to configure for minimal charging in order not to disturb the temperature/humidity/[…] readings
  • allow to charge by simply placing the monitor in a dock (sold separately?) which can stay connected to USB power or…
  • …even better: give this dock an additional solar cell input connector, with efficent power conversion to take most out of the available radiated power… and if charged by solar power, let the monitor know that it might/should maximise charging speed…
  • BLE data access protocoll: implement queries using time (span) and/or area as selector/key; that way you can easily check the values for certain spots or time intervalls… (depends on device memory and download speed – if it’s fast enough, it’s easier to sort that out on the receiving end…)
#19

Hi @cosmic_driftr,

Yes, this is the intention! It will take a while to get certifications, but they will come with a test report similar to our other pre-built devices.

#20

Hello AirGradient team,

Are there any plans to offer a more affordable “kit” version of the AirGradient Go, similar to the Indoor and Outdoor monitors?

Will it be possible to use the AirGradient Go without the battery installed, powered only via the USB port (for example, once the battery is no longer functional)?

Will the pouch battery be user-replaceable? If so, will it be a commonly available (standard-like) type, or only available through your shop?

Thank you!

#21

Hi @TMan - at the moment we don’t have plans to offer the Go as a kit version as the assembly is complicated but if the assembly becomes simpler in a future version - I could see it being offered as a kit version.

Will it be possible to use the AirGradient Go without the battery installed, powered only via the USB port (for example, once the battery is no longer functional)?

Yes, you can power the Go without the battery. We have pass through charging as well so if you leave it plugged in, the battery won’t be damaged.

Will the pouch battery be user-replaceable? If so, will it be a commonly available (standard-like) type, or only available through your shop?

We try to use commonly available parts as much as possible. Yes, the battery is user replaceable.