Project OAQ : An Open Air Quality Sampler

Project OAQ, An Open Source Air Quality Sampler designed in the form factor of an everyday carry gadget for measuring Temperature, Humidity, Particulate Matter, VOCs and effectively Air Quality Index

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The Problem Air pollution claims approximately 8 million lives every year. Everyone breathing the atmosphere of this planet is affected by it. Yet, the biggest barrier to combating air pollution is a simple lack of localized awareness about its constituents.

We want to change that. The Solution: Project OAQ Project OAQ is a fully open-source, portable, and battery-powered air pollution monitor. It provides real-time AQI values and the exact concentrations of the most influential airborne pollutants. Built for accessibility and actual daily usage.

Key Features

  1. Ultra-Affordable: Build it yourself for under $25.
  2. Zero SMD Soldering: 100% Through-hole PCB design makes it the perfect weekend project for beginners.
  3. Everyday Carry (EDC): Designed to look Discrete. It draws less attention, highly portable, powered by a standard rechargeable 18650 Li-ion battery.
  4. Privacy First (100% Offline): No cloud dependency. Connects via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a local app.
  5. Pollution-Aware UX: Features a built-in buzzer alert system to notify you when air quality reaches dangerous levels.
  6. Smart Home Ready: Easily integrates with Home Assistant for home automation based on air quality triggers.
  7. Customizable Enclosure: 3D printable files included.

Core Technology and Hardware

  1. Our hardware is built around a custom, compact MCU-based PCB measuring just 52mm × 30mm. It utilizes a modular sensor architecture, allowing you to choose the particulate sensor that fits your budget and availability.

Measurement Type

  1. Temperature and Humidity : DHT22
  2. Gases/VOC : BME680/SGP41
  3. Particulate Matter (PM) : Supported Sensors : ZH03, PMS5003 / PMS9003, SPS30, SDS011, MPM14, ZH06

How We Calculate AQI Calculates a sub-index for each detected pollutant. Uses breakpoint-based linear interpolation to standardize values. Applies sensor fusion for enriched context. Determines the Final AQI: Final AQI = max(sub-indices).

Simple and Community-Driven: Codebase designed for readability. Future Roadmap: Over-The-Air (OTA) updates and plug-and-play binary support are currently in development.

The Mobile App

  1. BLE Communication: Fast, low-power pairing.
  2. Comprehensive Dashboards: View AQI alongside raw data from all individual sensors.
  3. Local Logging: Exports data locally as .txt files for your own data science projects.

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