PurpleAir has announced its latest product - an ultra-compact PM sensor that is about the size of a USB flash drive. You can find more information here:
The device has not yet been released, but I’m looking forward to trying it when it is! To my knowledge, this will be the smallest particulate matter monitor on the market, and it’s made possible by the ultra-small Bosch BMV080 sensor. While it’s hard to tell exactly how this performs until studies come out, the stated accuracy on the Bosch’s website puts it on par with other common sensors like those from Plantower (used in PurpleAir’s other monitors, and by AirGradient among other manufacturers). Here are the accuracy figures:
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± 10 µg/m³ @ 0 — 100 µg/m³
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± 10% of measured value @ 101 — 1000 µg/m³
Back to the Pixel: this is quite an interesting device because of its size, but it’s important to remember that it has no connectivity or even an internal power source. This means that, despite being perfectly suited to being a portable device due to its size, this isn’t truly portable (unless you don’t mind also carrying a power bank with you). I think this is a bit of a missed opportunity, as even just a battery (without connectivity) could have made this a great portable device.
With that said, I still look forward to testing this, and it’s very exciting to see how small PM sensors are becoming! I hope this new sensor can cause a monitor ‘revolution’ like the SCD41 did for ultra-small CO2 monitors.