excited, but have some questions...

[jasonistre]

I want to build a dashboard that shows Temperature\Humidity\Co2 for 5-8 different areas.  I've been looking off and on for quite awhile for something that might work and got excited just now finding your device!

When do you expect to have a battery powered model?
Would disabling the wifi and using RF use less power or more?
What power adapter do you recommend?  Any specific ones that are high quality?
Would this device work in a hot attic that fluctuates from 32F-140F (0C-60C)?
Would this device work outside under a roof overhang where it was shielded from the elements but exposed to 70-95% humidity?

I'm new to all this, but looking at using Home Assistant on rPi 2 or 3.  Is that good or bad idea?  Any thoughts?

[admin]

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your interest! To your questions

-> Battery Powered
I hope to have more news in a month. I have ordered a batch of 100 pcbs last month and they arrived. But i still haven't got time to check them. It is highly probbale that they woudn't work So i expect to have something working around May
-> Disabling Wifi
In general the device sleeps most of the time, and wakes up on configured intervals to send data. With Wifi enabled, on each iteration it needs ~80ma for 10 seconds. With RF only it would need ~30ma for 2 seconds. But you also need to consider the CO2 Sensor needs to work for 60 seconds @10ma until it gets stable result, and the Dust sensor - for 30 seconds @60ma. Once the VOC sensor is ready it will consume 8 ma permanently

For power adapters all in all the device consumes up to 200 ma when Wifi sends data. There are though some crappy ones from aliexpress for 1$ that have lots of noise. One of then even burned one CO2 sensor. But after that i started adding a diode to limit the voltage, and an additional capacitor to smooth a bit the input ripple. Though i haven't yet had time to check in detail how it behaves, but i believe it should be fine. Also too long (2+ meters) and thin USB cables are not too good, as some of them would drop more than 0.5v @ 200 ma, and then the CO2 sensor would not work (4.7v minimum)

About the temperature
Both the CO2 sensor and the Dust sensor work above -10, the CO2 sensor is up to 70, but the Dust sensor is up to 50
Anyway i plan to add a feature to shut down the Dust sensor if temperatures go outside of it's range.
But the storage temperature of the dust sensor is also specified at 60 degrees C
High humidity - 95% is not a problem for both sensors

And about home assistant - yeah - there are lots of people using it. So it will work. There was a topic even here, some fellow tried integrating with mqtt, and eventually he succeeded... i need to find where it was