A dust sensor alarm to alert people when there is dust or smoke in the air outside so that they can shut windows, remove washing from the clothes line or take other precautions. This would enable people to shut the windows before the pollution gets inside their house.

 

Hello

Do you know of any affordable dust sensors that would work for the below purpose?

I am thinking of wiring a dust sensor to an alarm to alert people when to shut the windows or get washing off the line. I am hoping it would alert us when someone is creating dust or smoke in our area. For example, when the neighbours mow their lawn or burn off.  It can be annoying when dust or smoke fills the house before we are aware of it to shut the window. If we can set up a sensor alarm system it could alert us to shut our windows before the dust or smoke gets in the house. I am not sure if any low cost smoke or dust sensors would be sensitive enough to detect that without many false alarms. Do you know of any?

 

A dust or pollution alarm outside people’s windows would be very useful, because inside a house they normally do not know how much dust or pollution is outside until it enters the house. It would be much better to stop the pollution before it comes in. The dust, smoke or other pollution outside the house can suddenly increase before people are aware of it inside their house. This is because it takes time to enter and fill the home. People may be a long way from the window, which would mean that the pollution would fill their home before they are aware of it.

I found a couple of sensors that may do the job. However, I would need someone to wire them up. I am not sure if you could do this or if you know who could.

What do you think of the sensors below?

http://www.dema.net/pdf/sharp/gp2y1010au_e.pdf
http://www.globalspec.com/FeaturedProducts/Detail/Particle_Sensor_Unit_PPD20V/41209/0
http://www.scientek.com.tw/upload/ETR_Omicron_II.pdf

I also have a sensor here that may work and could send you some info on it if you want or show you if you visit.

I thought about how such a dust sensor could work. It may have to be automatically cleaned every few seconds or minutes so that it will start sampling from a clean start. Otherwise, it could have had dust in it previously and it would wrongly indicate that dust is in the air when the dust has gone. The automatic cleaning could be done by a jet or water or air. The amount of dust could be collected in a volume of air by a fan that blows the air into a funnel towards the sensor to concentrate the dust. The sensor may also need to trap the dust to collect it so that a sample could be taken. This could be done in a bowl of water or by a static cloth. The bowl of water could be automatically emptied and cleaned every few seconds or minutes. A sensor would detect the amount of dust particles in the water or on the cloth.

It would be worthwhile doing some research to find a dust sensor alarm because there may be some demand now considering the large dust storms here in Australia. If such a dust sensor alarm system can be found or developed at a low cost, it could have a lot of potential, as many people may want to buy one because they have similar problems to the one described above.

 

I have many other electronic projects which would benefit many people and I need help to set them up. Please see http://www.advantagein.com/electronics


I also have many websites with new ideas, including separate free groups, unique inventions with advantages, and rare information with solutions to help people. Please see http://www.advantagein.com/community.htm for a brief summary.  I would appreciate your feedback and help. Are you able to swap links or share any letters that I could send you?

 

My contact details are below.

Richard Hole,
9 Leonard St,
Tolga Qld 4882,
Australia.
Ph 07 4095 5447 within Australia or +617 4095 5447 if you are not in Australia. If NA on that number, Ph 07 4095 4354 within Australia or +617 4095 4354.

Email richard(at)truesolutions.info . Note replace (at) with @ and use electronic as the subject.

Please share this letter with other people and let me know who could help with any of these ideas. It would be appreciated if you could print it out and display it. I could also send you some photocopies or a link to a printer friendly format. I also have this letter as an email that you can share.


Your help would be appreciated
Regards Richard.