SparkFun's Environmental Combo Breakout Sensor Board Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts

SparkFun has announced the launch of a new environmental sensor breakout board, based on its existing Bosch Sensortec BME280 board but now boasting a ScioSense ENS160 gas sensor alongside it.

"The SparkFun ENS160/BME280 Environmental Combo Breakout takes care of all your atmospheric-quality sensing needs with the popular ENS160 and BME280 ICs," SparkFun's Chris McCarty writes of the company's latest launch. "To make it even easier to use this breakout, all communication is enacted exclusively via I2C, utilizing our handy Qwiic system. However, if you prefer a breadboard, we still have broken-out 0.1in. spaced pins."

The "combo" part of the breakout board's name refers, of course, to the two sensors on board. The Bosch Sensortec BME280 takes care of temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure; the ScioSense ENS160 monitors equivalent carbon dioxide (eCO₂) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in parts per million and parts per billion respectively — and can combine the two to generate an Air Quality Index (AQI) value.

The ENS160, which replaces the end-of-life CCS811, comes with another trick up its sleeve: "The ENS160 also has a feature that allows it to fine-tune its readings if it can access the current humidity and temperature," McCarty explains, which is something the BME280 is ready to provide. "This allows the sensors to work together to give us more accurate readings than they’d be able to provide."

The board is now available to order on the SparkFun store at $29.95 before volume discounts; McCarty notes that it comes with its I2C addresses preconfigured, and necessitates the use of a multiplexer to set up more than one breakout board on a single I2C bus.