It took me a long time to figure out how to flash custom software to my AirGradient ONE and then even longer to figure out how to do it entirely from the command-line, so I wrote up a tutorial for anyone else interested in doing the same:
Suggestions welcome for improving this process.
Nice article, thanks for sharing.
The Aside section is a bit harsh. Yes, there were issues, but they were fixed. Also, AG people are actually spending time on improving the displayed data and adding correction algorithms where necessary. And all this happens in the open. If you’re still unhappy, you can always flash esphome and use that. Not sure how many other companies are this open and allow this level of freedom with their monitors.
Thanks for reading!
The
Asidesection is a bit harsh. Yes, there were issues, but they were fixed. Also, AG people are actually spending time on improving the displayed data and adding correction algorithms where necessary. And all this happens in the open.
I still support the project and want it to improve, but candidly, I do find the quality of the documentation and software disappointing at this stage.
When you open the box, the only documentation is a link to the thank you page (https://www.airgradient[.]com/thank-you/), and then it’s four separate page navigations to find documentation for the device I purchased. And then there’s not even advice about how to set it up, just a link to the API documentation. I talked about this a year ago and AirGradient said they’d improve the documentation, and I haven’t seen any progress. Meanwhile, they’re quick to write a detailed rebuttal to a negative review.
I don’t know what issues you’re referring to that have been fixed, but I’m experiencing more issues with the latest firmware (3.3.8) than I had with the version I installed in January 2024.
I’m not trying to rag on the project, but I am frustrated and would like to see more investment in the documentation and pre-release quality assurance testing.
And, as I’m posting this, the forum software is blocking me with opaque “You can’t post a link to that host” messages because I’m trying to link to pages on the airgradient domain, so it just feels like I keep hitting careless errors.
If you have suggestions for improving the documentation in the GitHub repo, I encourage you to submit a PR with your suggested changes and maybe we can get it improved for the community.
If you have suggestions for the website, I encourage you to fill out the support form at https://www.airgradient.com/support/ and explain what is a rough user experience along with some suggestions on how to improve. This way it is tracked in their system and they can share it with the different team members.
The forum is a good place for discussions with other users as well, but when it comes to how the business is operating, I’ve had better experience with direct support.
I’ve also been asking for improvements on the API documentation that I haven’t seen yet, so I hear you on things that need to improve, but I try to offer some direct suggestions so it isn’t just “This isn’t good” and leave it up to them to live up to my expectations in a vacuum.
Yep, I’m contributing on their Github repos. I can’t link to them because Github is bizarrely one of the banned domains on this forum.
But I’m reporting issues and making fixes slowly, as I don’t want to waste my time. Last time I tried contributing, I spent several hours making fixes to my fork, and they rejected all of them because they did a complete rewrite of the code without warning anyone, so I don’t want to get burned again.
Apparently, every time I post to this thread, my previous post to this thread gets marked as spam?
@Achim_AirGradient - Is this intentional?
@mtlynch – I agree with your points about documentation, but I’d also like to mention that the team at AirGradient is always listening and working to improve. @Achim_AirGradient especially is always trying to ensure that everyone is heard by constantly engaging with the community. With my recent addition to the team, we’ve specifically allocated resources to enhancing our documentation and creating a more user-friendly FAQ on our website. This is one of the projects that @Ethan_AirGradient and I will be focusing on. We’re aware of our current limitations, and we’re committed to addressing them as best as we can.
RE: the firmware issues, it would be helpful if you could contact us via https://www.airgradient.com/support/ and let us know of the issues you’re having on 3.3.8 so we could document these and inform the team.
My original post in this thread is still blocked. Is that intentional?
I’ve also started a thread to discuss the link blocks, as I’m not sure why the forum is treating legitimate links to AirGradient or Github as spam:
Should be unblocked now. No, as I said before, this is not intentional. The forum hides posts with external links until they are reviewed manually. This is to prevent spam and potential phishing.
If repeat links are posted in comments, the post goes into review again.
Just a few quick notes from my side (it’s 4am here).
We unfortunately had a lot of spam coming into the forum and that somehow triggered discourse to be quite restrictive on published links etc. obviously our own ones should not be affected and we are looking into it.
As @Altair_AirGradient already mentioned we have put considerably additional resources into support and part of it is improving documentation. Our firmware quality made huge improvements over the last year as can be seen by many releases. This includes the documentation in the GitHub repository.
As some of the previous posters mentioned, we spent a very considerable amount last 12 months on improving calibration features in the dashboard and firmware. So the software gside has also been continuously improved.
The open-source nature of the product unfortunately makes it more complex to manage it as it allows a lot more customizations that a regular product doesn’t have.
Having said that, I agree that we need to improve the documentation and are working on it. However you also mention you find the software disappointing. Do you mean the firmware or dashboard? Can you give some examples what you are missing?
Lastly you mention the Wired review rebuttal. I am personally involved in this, and there is much more to the story than I can publish here but I don’t think it was necessary for you to pull this topic into this conversation. Let’s keep this focused on how we can improve the documentation.
Also, please let me know if you would be interested to hop on a call with me and Altair and we can also personally discuss your frustrations. Sometimes a more personal conversation can be very helpful (this is not to sidetrack this public conversation here, just an opportunity to get to know each other better).
The firmware.
I ran a version from January 2024 until recently, but it would lose WiFi connectivity several times per day. I thought maybe I just had a dud piece of hardware, but I saw the same behavior when I bought a second unit recently.
I flashed both to 3.3.8, and now one periodically gains and loses WiFi connectivity, and the other was doing the same and then just permanently lost it. I’ve never experienced a device that loses WiFi connectivity when it’s sitting six feet away from my WiFi AP, unobstructed.
I tried flashing to 3.3.9, which is marked as a stable release on Github, but it caused both units to fail to measure CO2 and temperature.
I also discovered the hard way that saying, “Never send data to AirGradient” means, “Never send data to any server, even a local one I specify explicitly.” And it seems that the only way to undo the setting is to totally erase flash and start over.
The meta-issue is that there are a lot of bugs that I just don’t even report or remember because I see AirGradient neglecting bug reports and PRs. For example, issue #316 on the Github repo has been sitting unaddressed for 3.5 months even though it’s a well-formed question. I submitted what I think is a pretty uncontroversial PR to airgradient-client and there’s been no response.
Sure, that would be great. Feel free to email me (either through my blog or to the email I used to place my AirGradient order), and we can figure out a time to hop on a call.
Sent you an email and looking forward to chat. After the call, we keep the forum here informed.
I ran a version from January 2024 until recently, but it would lose WiFi connectivity several times per day. I thought maybe I just had a dud piece of hardware, but I saw the same behavior when I bought a second unit recently.
It may be your wifi. I had the same issue until I upgraded my wifi to Unifi and created a specific SSID for these types of devices (with unifi’s option to optimize for IoT enabled). Now it’s rock-solid.