LiV Pi - DIY Indoor Air Quality Monitor

by LiV Raspberry Pi

10K345

Intro: LiV Pi - DIY Indoor Air Quality Monitor

LiV Pi is a sensor expansion board that turns your Raspberry Pi into a modern indoor air quality monitoring device.

  • Use it in your living room
  • Use it to test the air quality in your bedroom
  • Use in in your greenhouse to measure CO2 levels: higher levels of CO2 make plants grow bigger and faster
  • Use it in your garage: gasoline and diesel engines give off large amounts of CO2
  • Use it in the conference room at work

LiV measures CO2, temperature, humidity and air pressure.

LiV is open source. All LiV Pi hardware and software files are here.

Read about LiV Pi here.

LiV Pi features here.


STEP 1: Get Your LiV Pi PCB and Connectors

Option 1: You can download the PCB schematics, KiCad PCB files and BOM from LiV GitHub repository. You can etch your PCB or fabricate your board at your favourite PCB fab shop.

Option 2: You can purchase the PCB Kit and the parts on this store: LiV Pi store

STEP 2: Solder LiV Pi Board

Option 1: solder LiV Pi board according to instructions here . Source your sensors, LCD screen and RTC module.

Option 2: buy a fully assembled board and parts on this store: LiV Pi on tindie

STEP 3: Assemble LiV Pi

Assemble LiV Pi following these instructions.

STEP 4: Install Software, Configure and Test

Download LiV Pi software image from here. Write software image on SD card. Configure device following the instructions below the download link.

STEP 5: Connect to LiV Pi Using an XMPP/Jabber Client

Send and receive commands to/from LiV using your Jabber client. LiV XMPP user manual is here.

STEP 6: Test LiV Pi Intranet Website

Point your browser to LiV Intranet and check current measurements.

STEP 7: Connect LiV Pi to Your Preferred IoT Platfrom

Write some Python code to connect to your preferred IoT platform. Currently sample code for connecting to: DeviceHive, ThingSpeak, Xively, data.sparkfun.com, Emoncms, analog.io is provided in LiV repository on GitHub.

STEP 8: Build a Custom Case for Your LiV Pi

Build your own enclosure.

5 Comments

CreationWorkshop 7 years ago

Dear LiV Raspberry Pi, What parts do I need to build the most advanced version? Could you give me a discount if I buy on Tindie?

BoboTheEpic 8 years ago

How accurate is the finished product? I'd like to set a few of these up just for the sake of curiosity.

LiV Raspberry Pi 8 years ago

Hello,

Sensor accuracy info for LiV RPi is available here. If you do a search on amazon.com for "indoor air quality monitor CO2" you will see quite a few similar devices that sell in the USD 125-300 range. Most of them use the same auto-calibrating CO2 sensor that LiV uses. Please go to step 7 on this page if you want to find out more about the K30 sensor. Please send me an email at the info address listed on www.livrpi.com if you would like to find out more about LiV's accuracy or the device in general. If you are interested in testing LiV RPi, I might be able to offer you a discount if you order your unit on tindie.

Best Regards,

-Alfred