Indoor Air Quality Indicator

There are many like it, - but this one is mine!

I want my project to be about indoor environments that support wellbeing and being able to work efficiently. The idea is to make a device that measures parameters like moist, noise, CO2, temperature, light, smoke etc. and gives a feedback (light, sound. movement etc) to people nearby, so they can do something about it. I can see my project in private homes (bathrooms/ bedrooms) and also in offices, schools etc.A more personal perspective is that I would like to see a locally developed Air Quality Indicator hanging in all 10 makerspaces at my University.(also see "about me" page"). It might also log and share the data in order to take good decisions across our Campuses........

It should also have a nice design that visualizes what´s going on and that tells a story

This is what the project should incorporate

- 2D and 3D design - additive and subtractive fabrication processes, - electronics design and production, - embedded microcontroller design, - interfacing, and programming, - system integration and packaging

Questions to be answered in the slides and video

Who's done what beforehand? What did you design? What materials and components were used? Where did they come from? How much did they cost? What parts and systems were made? What processes were used? What questions were answered? What worked? What didn't? How was it evaluated? What are the implications?

A sketch of the idea and a first prototype

The basic idea is that a moisture and temperature sensor activates an actuator (servo or motor) that makes a model/something visual like e.g. a fish move.

There are 2 main categories in this project.

The electronics and the packaging of it.

The design and manufacturing of the visualization.:

About the electronics and the packaging of it

The PCB has a moisture and temperature sensor buildt in and is prepared with connectivity for e.g servo, lightstrip and I2C.

PCB - Schematics of the development board where you can see the components:

I am also concidering what to do with the data that I am collecting. Right know I use the serial plotter in Arduino to get a visulization of the data and I use processing to create a txt file to store the data.

As packaging I am thinking of a 3D printed box that can be attached on e.g. wall. At the moment (beginning af May) I am figuring out if I can take the PCB file from KiCad and import it into Fusion and then design a box around it.

About the design and manufacturing of the visualization.:

As a visual I want to design a fish in fusion. At the moment a protype of the fusion design looks like this:

For further customisation I have imported the model into Fusion slicer and used a constructio techique that is called stacked slices:

I have made a prototype in half size to test assembly:

At the moment (beginning of May) I am still conciering the material for the fish, - but i am thinking plywood right now and I am going to test that in the coming days.

Planning my time

Here you find a diagram for the project with a list of tasks to be done and a schedule for doing them: LINK:Time planner

What is already there?

My research has shown that there already are solutions like the one I am working on ( I didn´t know that when I started) and some of the come quite close:

Birdie® ━ Award winning danish Design.

From the website of the company: When the indoor climate becomes unhealthy, Birdie® falls down and reminds you to ventilate. When the indoor climate is good again, Birdie revives automatically.”LINK

AirBird® - For a healthier indoor climate

From the website of the company: AirBird is a fantastic solution for improving your indoor climate. It combines bird sounds and soft light to create a soothing atmosphere that promotes healthy ventilation habits.LINK

Other solutions

Inspiration

I find inspiration in cases where animals have been used to alert people when conditions get harmful/dangerous, - like canaries in mines to detect gasses, honeybees to detect pollution, frogs as weatherstations, elephants to detect potential earthquakes etc.

My plan is to design the fish in Fusion and then manufacture it using a technique where I either create and assemble stacked or interlocked slices of lasercut pieces

Old stuff and reflections along the way

As mentioned earlier I imaginge the AQI to be hanging on walls or be placed on desks e.g in classrooms, offices, homes and the like.

This is a first iteration on a lasercut design of a bee for visualization:

I also tried to 3D model my design, - with a rather different result.The workflow: Tinkercad>Fusion360>CURA

This is how it looks when 3D printed

Review 16/2

I presented my idea at the review 16/2 – 2024 and got some very useful feedback. I have now adjusted my projectidea to start with 1 parameter, e.g. air humidity, and to start visualizing the item to fabricate. At this point I have to decide which parameter to measure and which animal I want to use for visualization. I imagine the machine will be hanging on the wall. If things work out with a working prototype I can expand with further parameters and visualizations. Maybe even adding a datalogger and uploading some of the data to citizen science projects e.g. smartcitizen.me or others.

Initial sketches

It measures (input=output): temperature=display, noise=speaker for alarm if its too loud, speaker for meditative music if its too silent, co2=??, time (20 min. rule)= LEDs green, yellow and red light, Light: a light turns on. On the sides you have pixograms the gives feedback on the things measured