CanAirIO Bike Computer Goes Mobile for Sharing Air Quality
CanAirIO is a citizen science project outfitted with sensors that measure air quality utilizing smartphones and other technologies.
Software engineer and cycling enthusiast Alvaro Antonio Vanegas became concerned with the air quality in his hometown of Bogota, Columbia. He had heard of an activist who was looking into the city's air quality problem, and the pair decided to partner together and design a low-cost sensor that could accurately measure the air quality (PM 2.5) and the CanAirIO (Spanish for canary, like those used to test air quality in mines) was born.
Their new CanAirIO Bike device is built around an ESP32 TTGO T7 microcontroller and features a Panasonic SN-GCJA5 air quality sensor, an OLED display module, a DC-DC converter, and a 103450 2000mAh battery. The CanAirIO connects to smartphones via Bluetooth, and cyclists can use the CanAirIO app to garner pollution data as they travel around town. That data can then be uploaded to the cloud, where it can be compared with data from other users.
The CanAirIO app also lets users run the device in two modes, including Mobile Station mode, which records tracks and points as users ride around town, and Fixed Station mode, which acts as a stationary device and can use local Wi-Fi.
Vanegas has provided a detailed walkthrough of the CanAirIO air quality measuring device on his project page.