Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

Posted on
Sat Oct 07, 2017 10:58 pm
mpoulson offline
Posts: 79
Joined: Jan 02, 2011

Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

This is the initial release of a beta of the PurpleAir Sensor plugin.

Install the plugin from https://github.com/mpoulson/Indigo-Purp ... /0.1.3.zip

This plugin supports sensors from http://www.purpleair.com

Supports measuring the following
-PM1.0
-PM2.5
-PM10.0
-Temperature
-Humidity
-Pressure
-DewPoint

Supports
- PA-II - Outdoor sensor
- PA-I - Indoor sensor

Allows you to trigger a fan when the indoor air quality passes into unsafe limits or many other actions!

Please let me know if you have any problems.

Posted on
Thu Oct 19, 2017 8:47 pm
rehafer offline
Posts: 279
Joined: Feb 08, 2013

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

Wunderground.com is trying to build a network of PA-IIs to track air quality.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/purpl ... -run-money

Posted on
Fri Aug 28, 2020 3:15 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

I'm very excited to find this plug-in (I live in California where smoke is a big issue).
I have two sensors - one outside and one inside our home. I'm hoping that I can use the particulate data to manage our home furnace fan - running the fan with a MERV 13 filter is an effective way to clean the air inside the house. FWIW, at purpleair.com, in addition to the wunderground feed, I can use the custom field to send the data from my sensors to a website.
It's not clear to me what to enter in the plug-in 'Sensor Address' field, and how to capture the data from my sensors.
I'm hoping you can help me with this.
Thank you,
Bob

Posted on
Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:00 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

The configured address is the IP address of the PurpleAir sensor,.

I have 4 of these, and the plugin seems to work fine

Posted on
Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:20 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

Great. I should be able to manage that.
Thank you.

Posted on
Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:39 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

To follow up, you will need to determine the IP addresses of your sensors.
I’s suggest looking at the logs/leases of the DHCP server on your network, knowing the sensor’s MAC address (device ID on label) will help

Posted on
Fri Aug 28, 2020 6:46 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

That I can actually do.

Posted on
Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:47 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

I'm connected, but have a couple of questions:
1) The number being reported to the website (LRAPA corrected and real time) does not equal any of the values labeled as current1, current10 or current 25. These seem like the most likely ones, but am hoping you understand their meaning; and
2) Unless current25 is the one I should be using, how do I capture the other values with either an Indigo trigger or action group, or alternatively, a Python script?

Posted on
Sat Aug 29, 2020 4:12 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

I just noticed that the value I want is PM2.5.
It's not clear to me how to refresh the values. I changed the plug-in refresh interval to1.
The device details field now shows only the time of the last update, but none of the values I saw previously.
Sorry - stumbling a bit here.

Posted on
Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:25 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

Apparently I was not as careful as you are being when I set this up.
I just played around with the website.
If I set the website to display "Real Time Raw PM2.5 in µg/m", that number seems to be really close to what I see in Indigo.
Seems like it would be better if this plugin would return all the different flavors of measurements.....

Posted on
Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:28 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

I would not expect Indigo/plugin to show anything other than the current value (but I am no expert)
I log to a SQL DB, so I am thinking that all previous measurements are in there....not that I've looked

Posted on
Sat Aug 29, 2020 7:07 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

OK, attached is a screenshot of what I see in the SQL DB.

Screen Shot 2020-08-29 at 6.06.18 PM.jpg
DB table for PurpleAir local device
Screen Shot 2020-08-29 at 6.06.18 PM.jpg (109.86 KiB) Viewed 4913 times

Posted on
Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:15 pm
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

It seems there was magic overnight.
Now indigo is being update constantly with a value, but there are no data in the device details page - so not clear what the number is..
However, on the iOS Indigo app, all the details are available, and the value being reported on Indigo is the 2.5 number (the one of interest).
I hope this state of affairs holds. Problem is, I don't believe in magic. Any ideas what is happening?

Posted on
Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:15 am
SMUSEBY offline
Posts: 505
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Location: California

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

This morning, Indigo is no longer updating purple air aqi values - on either the computer or iOS. I can't think of anything i did that might explain this change.

Posted on
Mon Aug 31, 2020 2:28 pm
dcjackson offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 29, 2016

Re: Initial Beta release of PurpleAir Sensor plugin

one hypothesis is that maybe this plugin might benefit from some additional development...

i’m not a strong python dev, and haven’t ever written an Indigo plug-in, so I am not the ideal candidate,
I’ll put this on my very long ‘maybe someday’ list, but don’t hold your breath waiting

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