Final Project

X-Breath

X-Breath

X-Breath is a sleek decorative piece equipped with air-sensing capabilities for CO2, TVOC, particulate matter, temperature, and humidity in its ambient environment. Your browser does not support the video tag. License This project is shared under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Overview What will it Do? I will develop a device capable of measuring CO2 Levels of the surrounding in addition to (Temperature, Humidity, TVOC, and Particulate Matter) then the device will push these Information to an online platform for monitoring.

1. Ideation

Research and Motivation Crafting a project emerges as a straightforward endeavor when guided by a well-defined plan and meticulous breakdown. However, translating this simplicity into reality proves to be a nuanced challenge, commencing with the inception of an idea – a point where my creative journey encounters a stumbling block. Since the beginning of December 2023, I’ve embarked on a quest to crystallize a concept that resonates with my aspirations. Regrettably, my progress has been impeded by the persistent emergence of technical hurdles, casting shadows on the potential realization of my envisioned accomplishment.

2. Plan

Plan My plan focus on 5 different stages Stage 1 (Spiral 1) Collecting Data AIR -- O2 .-- Co2 .-- Other air particles Small to mid size Made of wood Stage 2 (Spiral 2) Full of RGB’s Having a Screen Try changing the MCU Stage 3 (Spiral 3) Enhance the Shape and the quality of the packaging Build an app or just link it to blynk IOT ESP32 Stage 4 (Spiral 4) Add Speaker “Amplifier circuit is needed” Try make the size smaller Try making the device rechargeable “Stand alone” Charging circuit is required Stage 5 (Spiral 5) Build it using 3D printer Small rounded shape Easy to carry RGB, No Screen, IOT Connected Project Sketch System Diagram Schedule

3. Research

As planned I’m looking to create a device able to monitor the Surrounding air and check the quality of it. Air Quality Is a phrase refers to how clean the Air is and the amount of particles this air carry. When air quality is good, the air is clear and contains only small amounts of solid particle and chemical pollutants. Poor air quality, which contains high levels of pollutants, is often hazy and dangerous to health and the environment.

4. Sensors

As per My previous research I have to collect (CO2 , Particulate Matter (PM), Volatile organic compounds (VOC), Temperature, and Humidity) to obtain the quality of the indoor AIR so below I will list the needed sensors to collect the required data and their primary test. List of sensors. ID Sensor Measured Value LINK Price Datasheet 1 SCD30 CO2, Temp, Hum LINK $51.4 LINK 2 PMS5003 PM1, PM2.5, PM10 LINK $39.

5. IOT Cloud

As for the platform I want to use, I have previously tested two platform in the Interface and Application Programming week and I have decided to use thinger.io because it have more options in terms of data monitoring and data analysis after the data reaches the platform, But unfortunately this platform is not cheap if I want to expand the sensor data im collecting, So I decided to go with Arduino cloud and buy the maker plan So I can push all my data to the cloud and have 90 days of data retention.

6. Embedded Design and Fabrication

I have previously finished all testing for the hardware and the circuit is ready but it’s built using a breadboard now I need to design a new PCB board and make sure all my circuit is fully integrated on this board. As I have shown before my circuit is working 100% as I want and it is pushing data to the IOT platform as I want but I need now to make this complected messy looking circuit to a sleek lovely board with no complication when looking to it.

7. Housing Design and Fabrication

After finalizing all the Electrical requirement and the Board fabrication which the core of my project I need now a good representation for this core which can be a sleek piece on the corner or in the middle of the setting area which can’t go wrong when the person eye come to it and it attract the others attention. Previously I have decided to use ARABISC look on the front of the piece.

8. Wood processing and assembling

NOw After I have finalized the process of fabrication I need to assemble the housing all together with the PCB, But before that I need to make sure that this wood will stay in great shape as long as possible so i decided to give this wood some process to increase its life span and also to protect it from the Humidity and other weather conditions. This Process is the coating process as I will put a chemical liquid on the wood to protect it (This chemical is called Sanding Sealer)

9. Stand Design And Fabrication

After finalizing all the Housing Part and the needed to have every thing working as needed, Now I need to design and fabricate the stand for the housing to sit on and also enclosure for the PM2.5 Sensor –> This Is why I have decided to build this part. This part needs to be simple and compact, able to carry the housing piece and contain the PM2.5 sensor without any complications.

10. Final Product

Alhamdulillah, all our previous efforts have culminated in outstanding results. Every component is meticulously designed and functioning flawlessly. Moreover, the Electronics component, the core of our product, seamlessly transmits data to the Cloud as required. Now I will show Up the final assembly for all the parts together and a brief about what next in the future. This Is the final look of the project To know More about this in a brief LINK.

3. Research

Posted April 11, 2024

As planned I’m looking to create a device able to monitor the Surrounding air and check the quality of it.

Air Quality

Is a phrase refers to how clean the Air is and the amount of particles this air carry.

  • When air quality is good, the air is clear and contains only small amounts of solid particle and chemical pollutants.
  • Poor air quality, which contains high levels of pollutants, is often hazy and dangerous to health and the environment.
  • Air quality is described according to the Air Quality Index (AQI), which is based on the concentration of pollutants present in the air at a particular location.

Why does air quality changes ?

  • It changes because the air is not stable and moving so the air quality can change from day to day.

Some of the affects on the air quality:

  1. Human Actions and behaviors.
  2. Wind speed and direction.
  3. Temperature

AQI (Air Quality Index)

Is an Indicator shows how polluted currently the Air is or how polluted it is forecast to become.

AQI Chart

So here we have six different colors we can benefit from.

It might be a very good Idea to add a visual indicator to the project.

AQI outdoor and Indoor

Usually AQI is measured for the outdoor only by calculating the particles within the air (PM2.5 and PM10) in addition to toxic gases {co(Carbon monoxide), SO2(Sulfur dioxide), and NO2(Nitrogen dioxide)} in addition to the ozone levels.

In my case I want to calculate the AQI indoor so I will focus on different gases and other values, Such as ( CO2 {Carbon dioxide}, PM2.5(2.5 micron particles) and VOC’s {Volatile Organic Compounds}).

As seen in the Outdoor AQI –> CO2 is not considered as this value is balanced in the environment to be between (400 and 450 ppm) so there is no need to have it as a value.

But in Indoors the CO2 levels are much higher due to the lack of ventilation specially in the very (Hot and cold) countries.

EX: IN Qatar summer days the temperature exceeds (50 C) due to this all the houses are using Air conditioning (different types) this leads to Unventilated houses during the day, some times this can be the case for the whole month even all the summer days this can lead to serious situations if the level of toxic gases raises inside houses.

EX: In Jordan winter days the situation is more serious as the houses there are not built in a way to achieve good air exchange if the windows and the doors are closed, This usually happens in winter as most of the families are staying home and they are using heat appliances without safety most of the time as they are using it in closed rooms and some of them are using wood heating appliances which leads to the increase of both {CO2 and CO}. Some serious situations happened previously with families reaching gas suffocation and some loosed their life.

This device might be a great help in such cases to monitor toxic gases in the indoor environment.

Indoor pollutant

  1. Fuel-burning combustion appliances
  2. Tobacco products
  3. Products for household cleaning and maintenance, personal care, or hobbies
  4. Central heating and cooling systems and humidification devices
  5. Excess moisture

–> And much more, but the relative importance of any single source depends on how much of a given pollutant it emits and how hazardous those emissions are.

Pollutant Summary

  • Temperature and Humidity : its the first and foremost an issue of comfort for the building occupants. but also have been found that high temperature and humidity may increase the concentrations of certain pollutants. in addition to that this increase the risk of mould growth indoor which might cause illness (Sick building syndrome).

  • CO2 : According to Studies as CO2 levels increase the negative impact on the human.

    • The following chart shows how CO2 level impacts human decision making.

    AQI Chart

    View

  • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) : refer to a large group of carbon-containing substances including hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, and organic acids. They are particularly concentrated indoors due to internal sources from interior products and building materials such as furniture, plastics, carpets, wallpapers, cleaning materials, copy machines, lacquers, solvents, synthetic fragrances, insecticides and thirdhand tobacco smoke.

    • The indoor impact of VOCs has greater health implications since people spend time predominantly in buildings. This makes them an important air pollutant to monitor as they have toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, genotoxic, and teratogenic effects on humans.

  • Particulate Matter (PM2.5 - PM10) : is the sum of all solid and liquid particles suspended in air many of which are hazardous. This complex mixture includes both organic and inorganic particles, such as dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets.

    • Researches Shows that long-term exposure to PM2.5 significantly increased not only the chances of cardiopulmonary problems but also the mortality of lung cancers.

    Particles sizes

Question : What is the difference between PM2.5 and VOC’s ?

VOC’c are organic compounds that easily become vapors or gases. Along with carbon, they contain elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, sulfur or nitrogen. On the other hand PM2.5 are mixture includes both organic and inorganic particles, such as dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplet.

According to this Research I will be looking for (CO2, VOC’s, PM2.5, Temperature, and Humidity).

Source Files:

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Breeze Technologies

Smart Citizen

Air quality monitor (DIY)