HabitatMap Blog
open-source
- Sensors & Instruments
AirBeam Mini vs. PurpleAir: The Clear Choice for Clean Air Monitoring
When it comes to air quality monitoring, there’s no shortage of options, but not all monitors are built with you in mind. If you’re looking for a monitor that’s accurate, mobile...
Read more - Education
Breathe Better With AirCasting Actions
AirCasting Actions is a free resource for helping you and your community actively understand the air you are breathing and start taking action to improve it. Whether you’re a co...
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AirBeam3 Technical Specifications, Operation & Performance
AirBeam is a low-cost, palm-sized air quality instrument that measures hyperlocal concentrations of harmful microscopic particles in the air.
Read more - Open Source Software
Government Measured Air Quality Data Now Available
Governments throughout the world employ scientists and technicians to operate and maintain networks of expensive and precise air quality instruments. The measurements from these...
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AirBeam2 “Quite Accurate” According to Newly Released Performance Evaluation
During the summer and fall of 2018, South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) evaluated the field performance of the AirBeam2 against three Federal Equivalent Method ...
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Raspberry Pi AirBeam Data Logger
Every semester I tell my students at Medgar Evers College that to be a great research chemist, you need to be a bit of everything: a bit plumber, a bit electrician, and especial...
Read more - Health
Using Community Science & Open Source Tools to Promote Community Health
UPROSE staffers Jason Gomez and Brian Gonzalez - seen above walking the streets of Sunset Park, Brooklyn - discuss how they used the AirBeam + AirCasting to measure air pollutio...
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AirBeam2 Technical Specifications, Operation & Performance
Hardware SpecificationsWeight: 5 ouncesParticle Sensor: Plantower PMS7003Relative Humidity Sensor: Honeywell HIH-5030-001Temperature Sensor: Microchip MCP9700T-E/TTBluetooth: No...
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Adding an NO2 sensor to the AirBeam
Some months ago, I took part in the Mobicitair experiment led by ATMO Auvergne Rhône Alpes, an agency that monitors air quality in southeastern France Mobitcitair uses the AirBe...
Read more - Open Source Software
1,000 AirBeams Worldwide
With over 1,000 AirBeams in use worldwide and more than 100 million data points, the AirCasting platform is now one of the largest open-source databases of community-collected a...
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Reprogram Your AirBeam
The AirBeam - HabitatMap’s low-cost, open-source air quality instrument for measuring PM2.5 - can be reprogrammed to meet the specific needs of your monitoring initiative. Don’t...
Read more - Sensors & Instruments
Watch Our Kickstarter Video & Get An AirBeam
After more than 3 years of research and development and 6 prototypes, we finally cracked the code on bringing a low-cost, portable, accurate, open-source air quality monitor to ...
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AirBeam Technical Specifications, Operation & Performance
Hardware SpecificationsWeight: 7 ouncesParticle Sensor: Shinyei PPD60PVTemperature & Relative Humidity Sensor: MaxDetect RH03Bluetooth: Nova MDCS42, Version 2.1+EDRMicrocont...
Read more - Open Source Software
The AirCasting App Gets a Makeover
We launched the AirCasting app in December 2011. Over the past two years we've rolled out a slew of new features but never had a chance to rethink the user interface. That is u...
Read more - Sensors & Instruments
Air Quality Scientist Goes AirCasting (Part 2): Smokers Beware!
Last week, I wrote about AirCasting with my Car-Neph. This week, I want to tell you about my Backpack-Neph.The below image provides an overhead view of the Puget Sound Clean Air...
Read more - Sensors & Instruments
Air Quality Scientist Goes AirCasting (Part 1)
I've worked at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) in Seattle for a little over ten years with a team that has monitored air quality here since 1967. We focus on measuring ...
Read more - Sensors & Instruments
Evaluating Low-Cost Gas Sensors
One of the major challenges facing air quality scientists and citizen scientists is the dearth of information available regarding the performance of low-cost gas sensors. Though...
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Make Your Own AirCasting Particle Monitor
Join us Tuesday, October 8th for the third installment of Make Magazine's Urban Sensor Hack. The event takes place on Google Hangout and is free and open to the public. During o...
Read more - Education
AirCasting: Education Edition
In the spring we had lots of fun teaching students how to make AirCasting compatible air monitors and luminescent accessories. For details on these educational programs, along ...
Read more - Health
My Air, My Health Challenge Update
We submitted our solution to the My Air, My Health Challenge judges a few weeks back. We won't know who won until they make the official announcement at the Health Datapalooza I...
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My Air, My Health Challenge
We're delighted to be finalists for the EPA/NIEHS/HHS sponsored My Air, My Health Challenge</. Together with researchers and engineers from Carnegie Mellon University and New...
Read more - Sensors & Instruments
AirCasting Goes West Coast for Urban Prototyping
We had a blast last weekend in downtown San Francisco exhibiting AirCasting as part of the Urban Prototyping festival organized by the Grey Area Arts Foundation. We let folks ch...
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Lighten Up! Introducing AirCasting Luminescence
We've just released the step-by-step instruction manual detailing how to make your own AirCasting luminescent apparel. AirCasting Luminescence uses a IOIO microcontroller to con...
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Meet the AirCasting Air Monitor
We’re excited to announce the release of the step-by-step instruction manual for the AirCasting Air Monitor. This handy guide has all the information you need to build your very...
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Come EcoHack with AirCasting!
Join AirCasting at EcoHack NYC this weekend, 4/20 - 4/21. I'll be giving an ignite talk Friday night to rally contributors for Saturday's Hackathon. I've posted my ignite talk a...
Read more - Open Source Software
AirCasting Gets a New & Improved Maps Interface
Have a look at AirCasting's new and improved maps interface. You can now perform a variety of targeted searches on the CrowdMap and Sessions map, permalink your map view, and s...
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AirCasting in Action
After taking time this weekend and yesterday to do more testing, we officially launched AirCasting today. Below I've described a couple of my recent sessions to illustrate AirC...
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Set Your Mic Max to Record Accurate Sound Level Readings
Different phones have different “microphone maximums”: the maximum sound level, as measured in decibels (dB), that the microphone can record. For most phones this is around 100 ...
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AirCasting is Live!
We released the AirCasting app to the Android Market late last night and the AirCasting website went live today! After spending the weekend testing and contributing data to the...
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