How to Build a Tech Owl That Will Make You Air Quality Wise #CitizenScience #Arduino #DIY #science #air
This owl is not only an adorable DIY project, but a practical air quality monitor. Posted by Team Oizom (Anith Patel and Sohil Patel) on Hackster.io, AirOwl uses an Arduino 101, a dust sensor and Adafruit Neopixels to reveal air quality. Data is displayed in three ways—through a mobile Blynk app, the color of the owl’s eyes and within Arduino’s serial monitor. Of course the eyes are most fun, enabling you to get an instant read from a distance. Green=safe environment, Blue=take care and Red= danger.
The app is easy to put in place and uses BLE to bring data into gauges for the different particulate matter types. The team has placed instructions for setting up the app on their project page, as well as links to Github for the owl design files, PCB files and code. This project won 3rd place (student) in Hackster’s Earth Day: Planet Pulse contest. For any teacher incorporating STEM education, this would be a great project to build and monitor throughout the year, especially if your classroom has windows that open. Even if you don’t have the capability to produce the pro owl design, you could still work with cardboard and opaque paper to create a similar look, paired with the breadboard version of electronics. Sending big high fives to Team Oizom for creating a project that is well suited for classrooms and citizen scientists.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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