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Looking for a cheap dopamine hit ;) (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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I love playing with my HA and associated devices. I suspect that most of you reading this get a bit of a jolt every time you add and incorporate a new sensor, camera, integration and get to play with it.

I have all the door/window sensors and locks/covers, every angle of my exterior covered with cameras, alarm, network devices, appliances, sprinklers, household devices covered.

Any ideas for a new thing I can play with?

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[–] 5 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Have you got any air quality sensors? Particulates, CO2, VOCs, CO, Radon, there’s a while bunch of sensors, and a variety of DIY projects to put them together.

It also has the practical benefit of maybe improving your health.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    My CO2 sensor has dramatically changed my routines. My space isn't small - maybe 1200 square feet/100 sq m - but it must be pretty well sealed, because I can easily see my own breathing add to CO2. Nevermind cooking on the gas stove. Treadmill time adds 500+ ppm.

    Now, I open windows every chance I get (which isn't super often, because the dewpoint is 70 oF/20 oC in Atlanta), and I've shifted a lot of my cooking to an electric tea kettle, hot plate, and toaster oven.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    Do you have a suggestion for a good air quality sensor (especially for CO2 and VOCs) that outputs reliable results, works over ZigBee and is preferably battery powered? I had a CO2 sensor once but that needed to be calibrated outside really frequently so I stopped using it.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    If you want a whole kit then the AirGradient ones look pretty nice

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Thanks for the recommendation. That is pretty pricey but if it works, that's fine. Though probably not feasible to have in every room then :D

    But I assume it also needs periodic recalibration for the CO2 sensor, right?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    The CO2 sensor calibration thing is inherent in the technology. They drift, a lot, and without occasional reference to a known standard, there's no way to know whether "1000" is really 1000, or 500, or 2000, but exactly how that gets implemented seems to vary a lot. I have an SCD30 board from Adafruit, which internally records CO2 minima and, over the course of week or so, adjusts its calibration so that minimum is 420. That means no special calibration procedure, but it does have to be somewhere that it gets periodic fresh air exposure.

    There's a newer, photoacoustic sensor technology that doesn't seem to require continuous recalibration, but (at least this one: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/22956 ) require an extensive initial calibration.

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