I’d like to find a Air Quality monitor for around $50 if possible that does PM2.5 but possibly PM1.0 and PM10 detection, realtime but allows you to see trends over time, has wifi/bluetooth connectivity and a decent iPhone app.
Make your own, I have and whilst it’s worked out a bit more than $50 a unit as I had to buy 5 PCBs building some more was easy enough to do.
There is no phone app but if you run Home Assistant you can use that as an app/tracker and configure your own displays.
Bit of soldering and ordering some bits from Aliexpress but nothing too taxing and the 3 I’m currently running are giving me some good data.
https://www.printables.com/refresh?redirectUrl=%2Fmodel%2F1079858-3d-printer-emission-sensor-array-sensorbox-v2
I bought one for $36 on Amazon, but not sure if it is as sensitive as you are looking for. I found that the reading are usually very very low in the house almost all the time, wasn’t sure if it was working, but the other day the readings shot way up, the weather service was giving hazardous air alerts, then checked the smoke map for northern Wisconsin and the smoke coming down from canada was really bad. So I guess it works.
Dont know how this translates to where you are
Thanks. I like that I’d have total control over everything although I don’t know if I want to commit that much time to it.
Which sensor did you get off of Amazon?
Thanks. I found it on the US site. Temtop Air Quality Monitor
That one is $35 or $45 USD. It seems to do the basic readings so it might be a good one to start with.
All cheap ones are basically only providing a relatively accurate PM2.5 count and very inaccurate eVOC index. Or just gives you a VOC trend. I find the trend feature quite useless because usually when it’s showing something, it’s either the neighbour cooking a bbq or my printer purging…
What is an eVOC?
A while ago I looked into air quality monitors and from what I learned it costs like at least $250 to get one that really monitors counts air particles something like the IQ Air Quality monitor. Temptop makes some decent ones available on amazon.
I don’t know how much you can depend on those $50 monitors.
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I only The Ewoks from Star Wars, quite cute and fluffy, not that smart though 
What would you need one for?
Are you sleeping next to your printer?
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I use the AirGradient ONE, been pretty reliable so far.
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If you’re looking for a $50 bargain air quality monitor, watch out for fakes and counterfeits. Youtube has documentaries about it.
I have read good things about AIR Gradient One, but it’s ~$300, which is far removed from $50.
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These people are ruthless now. They will counterfeit anything.
-Safety gear and meters, no problem.
-Burn down your house, no problem. Fake circuit breakers are huge on Amazon and Ebay.
-Mexican prescriptions are testing positive for small amounts of Fentanyl instead of the actual medicine that cost more.
-Just saw on to catch a smuggler (old episode) and they had pallets and pallets of fake N95 masks from China during covid.
estimated VOC - otherwise known as a guess.
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Oof, for me it was €148 ($163), shipping included to Belgium. Weirdly I didn’t have to pay any import tax or custom fees.
this one: Temtop Air Quality Monitor, Indoor Thermometer Portable AQI PM2.5, Temperature, Humidity Detector for Home, Office or School, Air Quality Tester, Battery Powered, Magnetic Suction, but I think you all ready know that. I know it is a marginal one, but I wasn’t going to spend $250 on one either. I though about building one with my raspberry pi but the particle sensor was backordered so gave up on that idea. since my printer is on the porch, with 9 windows I can open up for ventilation, I am not to concern about the fumes it puts out. I really got it cause my wife was concerned about the air quality of our house in general, nothing to do with the printer, but I thought why not, had it sitting by the printer for a couple of weeks and there was no change with the air quality when the printer was running or not. So…was really surprised when it started registering the smoke from Canada.
Yeah, it pays to shop around:
Ah, I did get it from them directly though but went with the kit. Took maybe 5 minutes to assemble it. Sure, I don’t have a test report or warranty but it’s a big difference in price.
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