Sunday, August 29, 2021

Week 3

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After a video call with Dr. Sabry earlier this week, some questions I had about my project were answered, such as when to buy the parts and what I should do in these early stages of my FYP. Dr. Sabry also suggested I use Raspberry Pi instead of Arduino for the project.

With that in mind, I did some research on several things :-

    • Pros and cons of Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi
    • Whether or not Arduino sensors are compatible with Raspberry Pi
    • ADC modules
    • Did some revision on Basic C programming
    • Found a website that teaches how to code Python
As the outcome of my research for this week, I learned that Raspberry Pi seems to be the more versatile and powerful alternative to Arduino, but its General Purpose Input/Outputs (GPIO) can only receive up to 3.3 Volts compared to 5 Volts in most Arduino units. However, the Raspberry Pi does have two 5 Volt power supplies to power up some sensors which require that amount of voltage.

On the other hand, I figured an ADC module such as an ADS1115 may be useful for my project as the sensors used will only pick up analog signals from the air and a method for converting them into digital signals before going through the Raspberry Pi may be required.
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Sunday, August 22, 2021

Week 2

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 I have received the FYP title registration receipt from Dr. Sabry, which indicates that I have been registered in UniKL BMI's system for the completion of my FYP 1.

I also received an article from Dr. Sabry which discusses the design of a quantum cascade laser-based multi-gas sensor for ambient air monitoring, which relates to my project. What I understand from the project in the article is that it focuses on monitoring CO, NO, NO2, N2O and SO2 and consists of two modules, a rack that encloses the laser driver, power supply and data-acquisition-card and a PC that displays the measurements of the gases detected.

Furthermore, I looked up suitable sensors for CO, NO, NO2 and SO2 should it be required for me to add these sensors to my project, but could only manage to find Arduino-compatible sensors for CO. The rest of the sensors are professional-level electrochemical sensors that are costly (Around 300 MYR ++ each).

Lastly, after Dr. Sabry consulted with Dr. Muhammad Noor about the bill-of-materials for my project, Dr. Muhammad Noor suggested I look up the Arduino Nano 33 IoT (ABX00027) instead, which comes equipped with a u-blox NINA-W10 module that allows wireless connectivity to Bluetooth, Arduino IoT  cloud, Blynk, IFTTT, Azure, Firebase and AWS IoT core softwares which may allow me to display the readings of my project on a computer instead of a LCD display.


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Saturday, August 14, 2021

Week 1

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After receiving some recommendations for what I should do for my final year project from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sabry, I began to do some research on how to create an air quality monitor using the development board Arduino. 

I found one article that describes how to build this air monitoring device and have began to look into the prices of the various components and sensors that are required for this project. So far, the cheapest place to get these sensors are by ordering them from China through Aliexpress.

Below are the list of sensors required for this project and the function they serve in an air quality monitor :-

    • PMS3005 PM 2.5 Sensor - Detects particulate matter in the air
    • MH-Z19 - Detects concentration of CO2
    • MP503 - Detects Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
    • MQ131 - Detects Ozone
    • DHT22 - Detects temperature and humidity

 There are also other components that are needed for this project as well, such as the Nextion 2.8" Display, DS3231 Real Time Clock, Arduino Pro Mini or Arduino Nano, an SPST switch, an SPDT switch,  some resistors, capacitors and two 2N3904 transistors.

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Monday, August 9, 2021