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About This Station

DIY air quality monitoring from Nimman, Chiang Mai

Running since 2020
Hardware
Air Quality Sensor
Sensirion SPS30
Laser scattering particle sensor measuring PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4, and PM10. Swiss precision upgrade from the trusty SDS011.
PM1.0 PM2.5 PM10 Feb 2026
Air Quality Sensor (Retired)
Nova SDS011
The legend. Survived 6 years on a Chiang Mai balcony, mass smoke seasons, and countless monsoons. Retired 8 Feb 2026 with full honours. 🫡
2020–2026 ~$20 absolute trooper
Compute
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2
Reads sensor data, processes AQI calculations, and FTPs everything to Singapore every 5 minutes.
ARM Cortex-A72 5-min intervals FTP upload
Camera
EZVIZ C3WN
Outdoor WiFi camera capturing snapshots of Doi Suthep. Because sometimes you need to see the haze to believe it.
1080p WiFi snapshot.jpg
Enclosure
Plastic Drawer Set™
Zero weatherproofing. Just vibes. Mounted on a Nimman balcony, battered daily by tropical UV and monsoon rains since 2020. Still running.
IP rating: LOL UV hardened monsoon tested
Infrastructure
Hosting
Domain Name Sanity - Singapore
Low-latency hosting in Singapore. Pi uploads via FTP, server handles the web frontend and data storage.
Singapore DC MySQL PHP
Data Flow
SPS30
→
Raspberry Pi 4
→
Upload to Server
→
You
Why build this? During burning season (Feb-Apr), Chiang Mai's air quality can get apocalyptic. Third party monitoring services exist, but where's the fun in that? This station has been running 24/7 since 2020, surviving everything the Thai climate throws at it — all from a plastic drawer on a balcony.
Credit where it's due: The original monitoring script and web page were based on this excellent HackerNoon article by Open School Solutions. If you want to build your own, start there.
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