SparkFun Launches a Dual-Sensor Qwiic Air Quality Board, Powered by Sensirion's SCD41 and SEN55

Just hook up a Qwiic cable and you're ready to start measuring particular matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, and more.

Gareth Halfacree
28 days agoSensors / HW101

SparkFun has announced a new indoor air quality sensor, which combines two Sensirion sensor modules — the SCD41 photoacoustic gas sensor and SEN55 particular matter and volatile organic compound sensor — on a single board with Qwiic connectors for solder-free experimentation: the SparkFun Indoor Air Quality Combo Sensor.

"The SparkFun Indoor Air Quality Sensor — SCD41, SEN55 (Qwiic) combines two excellent indoor air quality sensors, the SCD41 and SEN55 from Sensirion," SparkFun's Chris McCarty explains. "These sensors provide a comprehensive indoor air quality sensor that measures CO₂, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM1.0, 2.5, 4, and 10), temperature, and relative humidity."

If one sensor won't do, how about two? SparkFun's latest air quality monitor board packs two of Sensirion's finest. (📹: SparkFun)

Designed for covering a broad range of elements contributing to air quality, the dual-sensor board uses Senisirion's SCD41 PASens photoacoustic sensor to detect carbon dioxide in a range of 0-40,000 parts per million (ppm) with a claimed ±40ppm plus five per cent accuracy between 400 and 5,000ppm. The sensor also offers a full-range relative humidity sensor, good to ±9 percentage points, and a temperature sensor with ±1.5 degree accuracy.

This is placed alongside Sensirion's SEN55, which measures particulate matter in PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4, and PM10 size categories with a range of 0-1,000μg/m³ and a ±10 per cent accuracy and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with a range of 0-1,000ppm and a ±15 per cent device-to-device variation — delivered to the host device as "Index Points" from 1-500, along with a nitrous oxide (NOx) index measurement. As with the SCD41, the SEN55 also includes temperature and humidity sensing — the latter used to improve the accuracy of VOC sensing.

The two sensors are presented as separate devices on an I2C bus, on a board that has two Qwiic connectors for solderless hookup. "[It] takes care of all the pesky power requirements of the SEN55 and SCD41 with onboard DC voltage conversion," McCarty promises, "allowing a simple, single Qwiic connection for power and communication."

The SparkFun Indoor Air Quality Combo Sensor is now available on the company store, priced at $124.95 before volume discounts; more information is available in the official hookup guide.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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