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It seems a lot of air quality monitors, such as the PurpleAir PA-II [1] , are just wrapping the Plantower PMS5003 [2], which is a turnkey particle sensor which

It seems a lot of air quality monitors, such as the PurpleAir PA-II [1] , are just wrapping the Plantower PMS5003 [2], which is a turnkey particle sensor which integrates laser sensors, airflow, and MCU to perform measurements and spit out results on a serial bus. I'm pretty surprised by the lack of diversity in the "consumer" market. [1] https://www2.purpleair.com/products/purpleair-pa-ii?variant=40067691708513 https://www2.purpleair.com/products/purpleair-pa-ii?variant=... [2] available e.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686

samtho 3y ago
I’ve used a lot of different sensors for random purposes and it’s almost always the same few companies (or a knockoff of them) at each the price point. Building a sensor-on-ic is more comparable to the process that pharmaceutical companies go through in their R&D rather than traditional logic chip makers. It’s a lot of experimenting, use of non-standard materials, and pushing fabrication techniques to their limits. They don’t have to disclose how it’s made in the same way as pharmaceutical companies are required to, however, which means they have a monopoly on the tech until someone decaps the IC and reverse engineers it.