ARTE
BELLEZA Y BIENESTAR
ARTESANÍA
CULTURA E HISTORIA
ENTRETENIMIENTO
MEDIO AMBIENTE
COMIDA Y BEBIDAS
FUTURO VERDE
INGENIERÍA INVERSA
CIENCIAS
DEPORTES
TECNOLOGÍA
TECNOLOGÍA VESTIBLE
Building an Air-Quality Monitor
Ed

Creado por

Ed

13. julio 2026FI
1
0
0
0
0

Building an Air-Quality Monitor

Build a traffic-light air-quality monitor. An MQ-135 sensor responds to smoke, fumes, alcohol, CO2 and other gases; the Arduino compares the reading to clean air and lights a green, yellow or red LED for good, moderate or poor air. A hands-on way to watch indoor air change — with the honest limit that it shows RELATIVE quality, not a calibrated ppm figure.

Intermedio
1-2 hours

Instrucciones

1

Wire the sensor and three LEDs

On the breadboard: MQ-135 VCC to Arduino 5V, GND to GND, and its analog output (AOUT) to A0. Wire three LEDs — ideally green, yellow and red — to pins 5, 6 and 7, each through a 330 Ω resistor to GND (long leg to the pin).

Materiales para este paso:

Arduino Uno R3Arduino Uno R31 pieza
MQ-135 Air Quality Sensor ModuleMQ-135 Air Quality Sensor Module1 pieza
LED - Basic 5mm (25 pack)LED - Basic 5mm (25 pack)1 paquete
Resistor 330 Ohm 1/6 Watt PTH - 20 packResistor 330 Ohm 1/6 Watt PTH - 20 pack1 paquete
BreadboardBreadboard1 pieza
Jumper Wires (Male-to-Male)Jumper Wires (Male-to-Male)1 paquete
2

Connect and open the IDE

Plug the Arduino into your computer with the USB cable, open the Arduino IDE, and select Arduino Uno and its serial port.

Materiales para este paso:

USB-B CableUSB-B Cable1 pieza

Herramientas necesarias:

Computer with Arduino IDEComputer with Arduino IDE
3

Upload the traffic-light sketch

Paste this sketch and upload. It warms the sensor, records a clean-air baseline, then lights green for good air, yellow for moderate and red for poor. Open the Serial Monitor to see the raw reading.

air_quality_monitor.inoarduino
// Traffic-light air-quality monitor using an MQ-135 sensor.
// Shows RELATIVE air quality vs a clean-air baseline - not a calibrated ppm meter.
// MQ-135 analog out on A0; green LED pin 5, yellow pin 6, red pin 7.

const int MQ135_PIN = A0;
const int GREEN_PIN = 5;
const int YELLOW_PIN = 6;
const int RED_PIN = 7;

int cleanAir = 0;             // baseline, set at startup
const int MODERATE = 80;     // rise above baseline -> moderate
const int POOR = 200;        // rise above baseline -> poor

void setup() {
  pinMode(GREEN_PIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(YELLOW_PIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(RED_PIN, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);

  Serial.println("Warming up MQ-135 (2 min) in clean air...");
  delay(120000);
  cleanAir = analogRead(MQ135_PIN);
  Serial.print("Clean-air baseline: ");
  Serial.println(cleanAir);
}

void loop() {
  int reading = analogRead(MQ135_PIN);
  int rise = reading - cleanAir;
  Serial.println(reading);

  digitalWrite(GREEN_PIN, LOW);
  digitalWrite(YELLOW_PIN, LOW);
  digitalWrite(RED_PIN, LOW);

  if (rise >= POOR) {
    digitalWrite(RED_PIN, HIGH);       // poor
  } else if (rise >= MODERATE) {
    digitalWrite(YELLOW_PIN, HIGH);    // moderate
  } else {
    digitalWrite(GREEN_PIN, HIGH);     // good
  }
  delay(500);
}
4

Warm up, baseline and test

Run it in fresh air and let the 2-minute warm-up set the baseline (a new MQ-135 also needs a 24–48 h burn-in to settle). Then test it: breathe on it, spray a little deodorant nearby, or hold a blown-out match's smoke close — it should climb to yellow then red, and return to green in clean air. Tune MODERATE and POOR to change the thresholds.

5

Know the limits

The MQ-135 reacts to many gases at once and gives a RELATIVE reading, not a calibrated CO2 or ppm value — despite what some tutorials claim, real ppm needs proper calibration against known concentrations. It also drifts and needs re-baselining. Treat this as an air-change indicator and a great sensing project, not a laboratory instrument.

Materiales

7

Herramientas requeridas

1
Total estimado
MX$899.00

Blueprints relacionados

Estos blueprints comparten conocimiento — técnicas, materiales o principios

CC0 Dominio público

Este Blueprint se publica bajo CC0. Eres libre de copiar, modificar, distribuir y usar este trabajo para cualquier propósito, sin pedir permiso.

Apoya al Maker comprando productos a través de su Blueprint, donde gana una Comisión del Maker establecida por los vendedores, o crea una nueva iteración de este Blueprint e inclúyela como conexión en tu propio Blueprint para compartir ingresos.

Discusión

(0)

Iniciar sesión para unirte a la discusión

Cargando comentarios...