Arduino gas sensor applications

Using gas sensors and an Arduino, you can build different kind of applications.

Examples of gas sensors:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2) : MG-811
  • carbon monoxide (CO): MQ-9
  • total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs): CCS811
  • equivalent carbon dioxide (eCO2): CCS811
  • metal oxide (MOX): CCS811
  • ammonia: MQ-137
  • air quality: MQ-135

Example applications:

  1. Using a VOC and an ammonia  sensor, you can build a “food sniffer”:  more than 100 different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected in decomposing beef, pork, poultry and fish.
  2. Internet broadcasting weather station (CO2, temperature, humidity) made with Arduino

Live data:

arduino_wetter_online

arduino_weather_inside

1. Data shown on display / Internet broadcast:

  • CO2 (ppm)
  • Temperature (°C)
  • Humidity (%)

2. ThingSpeak Channelhttps://thingspeak.com/channels/126011

3. Download Arduino code

4. Calibration of MQ135 sensor for CO2
4.1. Measure RLOAD (kOhm) on your sensor PCB and adjust ‘RLOAD’ in MQ135.h
mq135_schematics
4.2. Find out the current atmospheric CO2: https://www.co2.earth/ and adjust ‘ATMOCO2‘ in MQ135.h
4.3. Let the sensor heat-up for 24 hours, leaving it in open air, then look for the ‘RZERO‘ output at Arduino start via Arduino IDE serial console (CTRL+SHIFT+M) and adjust ‘RZERO’ in MQ135.h

5. Ventilation
Ensure there’s enough ventilation, otherwise your case will heat-up, and measurements will be wrong.

Thermal image
thermal_image1

 

 

3 thoughts on “Arduino gas sensor applications”

  1. Hi there, I read you topic, and can you please answer on this questions:
    1. how to measure RLOAD (in KOhm) on sensor PCB?
    2. how to find RZERO?
    thanks
    regards

    1. Hello Roberto,

      1. You can measure RLOAD using an ordinary Ohm-multimeter. I have added the sensor PCB schematics above and shown in it where to measure RL.
      2. Let the sensor heat-up for 24 hours, leaving it in open air, then look for the ‘RZERO‘ output at Arduino start via Arduino IDE serial console (CTRL+SHIFT+M) and adjust ‘RZERO’ in MQ135.h

      Regards,
      Alexander

  2. Nice project but i have one question..

    Why you use MG-811 as co2 sensor instead of cheep mq135 sensor..??
    (you don’t use it because they are also sensitive to other gases is it true..?? )

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