In the past 6 months, Smoggies are operating and providing useful air quality insights to the users and the communities all around the world. Right now, there are more than 250 units in total, worldwide.

I decided to see how polluted the air was for my 8 volunteers during the month of February, 2020. Let’s set the record straight and remind ourselves that the WHO guideline stipulates that PM2.5 not exceed 10μg/m3 annual mean, or 25μg/m3 24-hour mean.

Around the World

• In Canada, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits over 20 times by reaching concentrations as high as 366μg/m3.
• In Denmark, PM2.5 concentrations were in acceptable ranges with maximum concentration at 63μg/m3.
• In Germany, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits over 7 times by reaching concentrations as high as 320μg/m3.
• In Greece, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits over 10 times by reaching concentrations as high as 146μg/m3.
• In Guatemala, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits over 9 times by reaching concentrations as high as 109μg/m3.
• In Rumania, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits only once by reaching concentrations as high as 111μg/m3.
• In Spain, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits only once by reaching concentrations as high as 128μg/m3.
• In Serbia, PM2.5 concentrations surpassed the “safe” limits every day for all 29 days of February by reaching concentrations as high as 1,583μg/m3.

I was shocked to see that only 1 out of 8 volunteers was able to breathe acceptable clean air, so Denmark well done! 👏 On the other hand, Serbia desperately needs clean air in order for the citizens to exercise their right to breathe clean air — anapneism.

New Design

As you may have noticed from the lead image at the top. The devices now come in a new improved custom design case which may vary depending the sensor that comes along. Below you can see the Smoggie-PM and the Smoggie-CO2.

Hardware

The new Hardware iteration has 3 LEDs which will provide “local” visual indications.

New firmware

We started on Hardware (HW) version 2 and Software (SW) version 7 and now we are on the HW version 3 and SW version 15.

A lot of bugs have been ironed down and some new features are present in the new software. Now, Smoggie-PM doesn’t take continuous measurements in order to prolong its life as a result the little fan turns off when not needed.

Users can now select the WiFi network they want to connect instead of writing the SSID name. The latest firmware lets the user change the Smoggie local access point password, which is used to configure the unit.

If you want to update your device you will need to contact uRADMonitor, the company that develops the device, and they will send you the new firmware file. Here you will find some instructions and the contact form.