Recently we’ve had more and more customers using Tools.Valarm.net for remote air quality monitoring, like PM2.5, dust, and specific gases.
You’ll learn more in this write-up about Valarm air quality monitoring units we built last week for the Southern California Air Quality Management District (a.k.a. SC-AQMD, or just simply AQMD). The AQMD government agency is responsible for air quality monitoring and compliance throughout southern California in the U.S.
Have a look at the map below from Tools.Valarm.Net, which shows the GPS-tagged, real-time air quality sensor information on an Esri map! These boxes will mostly be stationary, although they’re ready to go mobile at any time.
You can see 1 of the Valarm boxes here that uses a 3G GSM Sensor Hub to send Industrial IoT sensor information to Tools.Valarm.net from Alphasense and sensors made by other manufacturers to monitor:
Particulate Matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) with an Alphasense OPC-N2 particle counter sensor connected to a SPI sensor adapter- Ozone (O3) with an Alphasense B4 ozone sensor and echem328 circuit board connected to a TTL Serial sensor adapter
- Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Ozone (O3) with an Alphasense B4 NO2 + O3 sensor and echem328 circuit board connected to a TTL Serial sensor adapter
- Ambient Temperature
- Relative Humidity
- Barometric Pressure
- GPS / GNSS for latitude, longitude location
Why is there a GPS sensor in these mostly stationary air quality monitoring boxes? Well, they can easily be made mobile and you’ll instantly have GPS geo-tagged, moving air quality sensor information. Or, even if they’re stationary, they’re occasionally picked up and moved, e.g., from 1 refinery to another, so you’ll know exactly where the box is and what the air quality is.
However, the most important feature the GPS adds is a super precise + accurate time stamp. The GPS receives timestamps from satellites at the rate of 10 per second. The air quality monitoring scientists and technicians at AQMD really need the best timestamp the can get, and a timestamp that is exactly the same between all of the units. The GPS / GNSS sensor solves this issue. Using the clock and time from the GPS on all of the different air quality monitoring boxes lets you know exactly what happened at a specific instant across the whole area you’re monitoring.
The Alphasense OPC-N2 particulate matter sensor connects to Valarm Tools Cloud using a SPI sensor adapter that’s connected to a 3G GSM Sensor Hub.
The O3 and NO2 sensors are attached to echem328 boards that connect to TTL Serial Sensor Adapters, which are connected to the GSM 3G Sensor Hub that sends all of the real-time, GPS-tagged air quality information to Tools.Valarm.net.
Some of the boxes are solar powered with solar panels and solar charge controller. Others are powered by mains, standard 110V wall outlet power.
Valarm is a flexible Industrial IoT solution so you can use the power source that works best for you. Similarly, you can use the internet connectivity that works best for you, e.g., use sensor hubs that send your sensor data to Tools.Valarm.net via GSM cell network, WiFi, or ethernet.
You’ll see fans and ducts inside the air quality monitoring boxes in order to flush fresh air through the system. Otherwise the inside of the box would get super hot! The pagoda on the side of the box protects the meteo sensor from weather elements like rain and snow while sensing the outdoor, ambient temperature, humidity, and pressure.
Note that Tools.Valarm.net is an open platform so you can use sensors made by any sensor manufacturer. Our customers use air quality sensors manufactured by Alphasense (example here), Dylos (example here), Yoctopuce (example here), AirBeam (example here), and other sensor hardware companies like Clairair.
And we’re quite flexible with how your Industrial IoT devices connect to Valarm Tools Cloud. We’ll help you remotely monitor sensors using any internet connectivity, like 3G/4G GSM mobile cell networks, LTE, WiFi, Ethernet, LPWAN, or RPMA like Ingenu.
Why these Alphasense air quality sensors and this equipment?
This air quality sensor hardware was tested at the AQMD Sensor Performance Evaluation Center – AQ-SPEC. AQ-SPEC shows the performance of cost-effective air quality sensors. AQMD has a federal, EPA equivalent testing facility for demonstrating the performance of air quality sensors from a variety of manufacturers vs. industry standard sensors and federal government EPA approved sensors. You can learn more on the AQ-SPEC page.
(Nota: Haga un clic por aquí para leer esta historia de cliente de monitoreo remoto de calidad de aire en Castellano / Español)
How can you visualize and receive alerts for you and your organizations Industrial IoT sensors? Have a look at our web-based dashboards for remote monitoring and sensor telemetry. You can see all of your real-time Industrial IoT information on any device with a web browser, like your phone or tablet.
Take a gander at our Customer Stories page to see how our customers in various industries use Valarm Industrial IoT solutions for monitoring flood warning systems, natural resources, vehicles and high tech transport trucks, agriculture, oil & gas, mining, water, and air quality.
Want to learn more about air quality and pollution monitoring?
See our general overview Page on Pollution and Air Quality Monitoring.
Questions?
Do you and your teams need remote monitoring, sensor telemetry, and Industrial IoT solutions?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Info@Valarm.net! We’ll help you monitor anything, anywhere.
We understand the challenges for helping customers with Industrial IoT application needs and we’re happy to chat with you to learn what’s going to work best for you.
