The Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller is a handy little board and rather capable, given its size. Paired with the right hardware, makers can build some surprisingly sophisticated systems. Today we’re sharing a simple but useful project put together by maker and developer Ensar Karabudak. Using a Pico LTE board from Sixfab, he created an air quality monitor that sends notifications using Telegram.
The project integrates a tool called Thingspeak. This is an open-source system Karabudak is taking advantage of that enables him to use Telegram. Information is transferred from the Pico to Thingspeak via MQTT. Details about what the air quality sensor detects are then transmitted to Telegram.
There are three main aspects of air quality that the sensor is able to register. The sensor reports total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), equivalent CO2 (eCO2), and air quality index (AQI). According to Karabudak, the idea behind this project was to both monitor the air quality and raise awareness about air quality in general and how it impacts public health.
A full parts list is provided for the project. It doesn’t take much hardware to recreate this setup. A Sixfab Pico LTE is used as the main board. It’s connected to an ENS160 SparkFun indoor air quality sensor using a qwiic cable. The only thing left is a power cable for the Pico and you’re ready to get started.
The system is programmed using MicroPythong along with the ENS160 library, which has tools for the sensor module. It works in tandem with Thingspeak, accessing its API to make contact with Telegram. You can read more about how the software works and how to set it up over at the project page shared to Hackster.
If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the project page over at Hackster and be sure to follow Ensar Karabudak for more cool creations.
