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Building an Air-Quality Monitor
Ed

Yenziwe ngu-

Ed

13. uNtulikazi 2026FI
35
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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.

Ophakathi
1-2 hours

Imiyalelo

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).

Izinto zokwakha zalesi sinyathelo:

Arduino Uno R3Arduino Uno R31 ucezu
Imoduli ye-sensor yekhwalithi yomoya MQ-135Imoduli ye-sensor yekhwalithi yomoya MQ-1351 ucezu
I-LED engu-5 mmI-LED engu-5 mm1 iphakethe
I-resistor engu-330 ohmI-resistor engu-330 ohm1 iphakethe
Ibhodi LokuhlolaIbhodi Lokuhlola1 ucezu
Izintambo ZokuxhumaIzintambo Zokuxhuma1 iphakethe
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.

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Ikhompyutha Ene-Arduino IDEIkhompyutha Ene-Arduino IDE
Ikhebula le-USB-BIkhebula le-USB-B
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.

Izinto

6

Amathuluzi Adingekayo

3

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