DustDuino
question:dustduino

## What is it? DustDuino can help individuals with limited resources monitor PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, indoors or outdoors. It uses [Shinyei PPD42NS](http://www.sca-shinyei.com/pdf/PPD42NS.pdf), a $15USD optical sensor that uses an LED and a lens to determine the concentration of dust in a partially closed chamber that draws in air from its surroundings. The sensor data is received by an [Arduino](http://www.arduino.cc/) development board and transmitted to Xively. Prototypes of DustDuino have been successfully built and used in various indoor and outdoor locations. Also see the [Data Logging page](/w/data-logging) for more on setting up and using different dataloggers, and for more tutorials. ### Questions [questions:dustduino] **** ## Why make one? The health effects attributed to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) rank it among the risk factors with the highest health impacts in the world, [accounting for over 3.2 million premature deaths annually](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es2025752). In October 2013, the World Health Organization [announced](http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/pr221_E.pdf) they consider particulate matter, a major component of indoor and outdoor air pollution, as a Group 1 carcinogen along with tobacco smoke and asbestos. ## What can the DustDuino Do? From the [Data Quality Research Note](http://publiclab.org/notes/Willie/03-06-2015/dustduino-data-quality) Test results indicate that DustDuino provides accurate and useful information, albeit of a somewhat limited scope and under certain conditions. An academic [study](http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/7/605/2014/amtd-7-605-2014.pdf) which compared the Shenyei particulate matter sensor to costlier models used by governments, researchers, and companies found that this low-cost sensor produced results equivalent to much more expensive ones when analyzing data at hourly intervals. Testing with reference monitors conducted in [Berkeley, California in late 2013](http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/7/605/2014/amtd-7-605-2014.pdf) concluded that the results of the low-cost sensor were about equivalent to much more expensive ones when analyzing data at hourly intervals. ”Performance at 1 [hour] integration times was comparable to commercially available optical instruments costing considerably more.” Testing in high PM2.5 environments such as the city of Xi'an, China also has shown [high correlations between the Shenyei and reference monitors](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749115000160). By setting up a variety of monitors throughout the city, researchers were able to identify the High-technology Zone site as a potential PM2.5 hotspot with sustained high concentrations compared to the city average throughout the day. There are still some unknowns with regard to the sensor - for example, whether it needs to be co-located with higher-quality instruments for calibration, and whether it could be used in extreme environments. There are also some limitations - the sensor may not produce high-quality information at time intervals shorter than an hour, ## Activities [activities:dustduino] **** ## Photos [![DustDuino.jpg](https://i.publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/003/998/medium/DustDuino.jpg)](https://i.publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/003/998/original/DustDuino.jpg) ## Research Notes [notes:dustduino] ## DustDuino Sketches The DustDuino board enables a variety of power, connectivity, and sensor configurations each of which require custom programming to process and send data. As the name would suggest, the DustDuino can be programmed with Arduino libraries and contributors to the project have made a number of Arduino sketches already. A full list of them is available on [DustDuino.org](http://dustduino.org/) ## Scientific Journal Articles | Title | Author(s) | |-------------------------|---------------------| | A [distributed network of low-cost continuous reading sensors](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749115000160) to measure spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5 in Xi'an, China; January 13, 2015 [PDF LINK](http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0269749115000160/1-s2.0-S0269749115000160-main.pdf?_tid=9ca954e2-ae5c-11e4-9076-00000aacb35f&acdnat=1423267531_78064379fb071e29e3cf180d34d15365) | Meiling Gao, Junji Cao, Edmund Seto | [Field calibrations of a low-cost aerosol sensor at a regulatory monitoring site in California](http://atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/7/605/2014/amtd-7-605-2014.pdf); January 27, 2014. | DM Holstius et al ## External Tutorials | Website | Overview | |-------------------------|---------------------| | [Mental Munitions](http://www.mentalmunition.com/2013/10/measure-air-pollution-in-your-home-or.html) | The original documentation blog post | | [Earth Journalism Network- Civic Science & Sensors Program](earthjournalism.net/projects/citizen-science-sensors)| A project page reviewing EJN's sensor journalism pilot project | ## News Articles | Publication | Title | |-------------------------|---------------------| | Nature | [Environmental science: Pollution patrol](http://www.nature.com/news/environmental-science-pollution-patrol-1.16654) | | Scientific American | [Dust in the Wind: How Data Visualization can Help the Environment](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/dust-in-the-wind-how-data-visualization-can-help-the-environment/) | | Newsweek | [How Civic Science Is Changing Environmentalism](http://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/how-civic-science-changing-environmentalism-279777.html) |...


Author Comment Last activity Moderation
xose "Hi erumenig, find the Shinyei PPD42 sensor, core of the dustduino, here https://www.seeedstudio.com/category/Grove-Dust-Sensor-p-1050.html " | Read more » over 6 years ago
erumenig "Warren and Willie, hello! I would like to thank you for these informations. I heard about them. I'll try to contact the Garoa. Thank you again. " | Read more » over 6 years ago
willie "Hi @erumenig we used mostly off the shelf components to build the dustduino kit. The only really unique piece was the acrylic case. We worked with ..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Hi, Eduardo - sounds interesting! Maybe @schroyer @willie know -- are these parts still available for purchase? " | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Hello -- this is a question for @Schroyer, I believe, who's the creator of the #DustDuino. " | Read more » over 7 years ago
nshapiro "This might be a question for @Willie who developed the DustDuino project. @mathew has a nice overview of optical dust sending here and towards the..." | Read more » over 7 years ago
mathew "@apacheguy you may want to check out http://openpipekit.github.io/ for systems closer to what you describe! " | Read more » almost 8 years ago
warren "Hi, apacheguy - those sound like good suggestions; if you leave a comment on this original DustDuino note, Matthew Schroyer will get an email notif..." | Read more » almost 8 years ago
tomtobback "hi @guolivar, thanks for the suggestions, i had a look at the ODIN and PACMAN and see that you use the Sharp sensor, which i believe outputs a volt..." | Read more » over 8 years ago
guolivar "Hi there @tomtobback ! Just to clarify ... I'm in no way associated with the DustDuino team ... I'm just a "concerned citizen" ;-) I am an air qu..." | Read more » over 8 years ago
tomtobback "hi @guolivar, thanks a lot for the feedback, much appreciated. i understand that this is a practical, empirical solution, that could be correct mos..." | Read more » over 8 years ago
guolivar "You first need to remember that PM10 and PM2.5 are measures of "mass" of particles in the air (micrograms/m3) while P1 and P2 give "counts" per vol..." | Read more » over 8 years ago
mathew "@nshapiro is right, there is no low cost speciation of dust particles. That is usually done in a mass spectrometer or x-ray diffraction spectromete..." | Read more » almost 9 years ago
nshapiro "I was thinking about this more on my ride home last night. Although you might not be able to say what the particulates are with an inexpensive opti..." | Read more » almost 9 years ago
nshapiro "I think you are not going to find a low cost means of speciating, of parsing kinds of particles in the air, other than their size. Speaking of ant..." | Read more » almost 9 years ago
warren "Hi - @donblair wrote up a great overview of how particulate air sensing works, here: http://publiclab.org/notes/donblair/05-03-2014/how-do-we-measu..." | Read more » almost 9 years ago
warren "I agree that a non-wifi DustDuino variant would be so great -- much cheaper and simpler, for many uses where the WiFi isn't required. Both are grea..." | Read more » about 9 years ago
mathew "The Dustduino is still in development-- a more mature commercial monitor like the Dylos may be more appropriate in the short-term. We'd love assis..." | Read more » about 9 years ago
mathew "currently the dust counts for the dustduino are unverified and should not yet be relied on for quantitative measurements. also, the sensor is desig..." | Read more » about 9 years ago
JSummers "Hi KP55, I think that the first thing you will need to know is how much data you need to acquire between data retrievals. That will determine how ..." | Read more » about 9 years ago
Wig "Health effects for those living in near busy roadway environments are substantial - roughly 50% or more increased risk of childhood asthma, cardiov..." | Read more » over 9 years ago