PMS5003I and Enviro Indoor?

Support
1

I recently purchased an Enviro Indoor from Micro Center. I was planning to use it for my child’s Environmental Science class. Now that we have it set up, I realize that I should have researched more on the difference between the Indoor and the Urban. Initially I had the impression that the Urban was the same unit, but came with accessories for outdoor use. I now realize that the Urban comes with an additional sensor, the PMS5003I. Micro Center didn’t carry the Urban anyway, so I didn’t research as much as I should have.

Anyway, my question is can I connect the PMS5003I to the Indoor? It appears that the connector is compatible, but I am not sure if it needs separate power (I understand that it will reduce the life of the power pack if it does)? Also, will the software/firmware on the Indoor support the addition of the PMS5003I.

I’d prefer not to buy an Urban if I can make the Indoor work.

Thanks in advance

2

The Indoor doesn’t have a PMS connector. Not that I can see on the product page. The Enviro+ does, but the Indoor doesn’t. It’s marked PM on the Enviro+.

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3

What you could do: buy the PMS5003 from Adafruit (Pimoroni is currently out of stock). They have a variant that uses the QW/St, so that would work.

The Adafruit does not need separate power, but of course every PMS5003 will draw a lot more current than the Pico alone: Pico is about 25mA idle, the PMS5003 is something like max 100mA (from the specs). I could test this if it is important.

On an absolute scale these 100mA are not much, so a decent LiPo will bring you through the day.

I have no idea regarding your question about the software, since I always write my own software.

4

Thanks for the quick responses.

I’ll take a look at the Adafruit sensor.

5

Be sure to buy the I2C variant with Stemma/Qt. They also have an alternative with serial (uart) interface like the Pimoroni one.

Regardless of the hardware, you should also check the software. If you are no developer, than you depend on existing out-of-the-box solutions which can be tricky if you just mix hardware.

6

Yeah, that’s a good point. I decided to just get the Urban for now so she can work on her labs. Maybe later I’ll play with adding on a unit. I have programming experience, but am by no means a developer.

Thanks for the advice!

7

That’s a good starting point. If you need any help with your code, you can always post it here and ask for guidance.