A high-density, real-time air quality and environment monitor running on a Raspberry Pi with a Pimoroni Enviro+ HAT. Five pages on the 160×80 ST7735 screen (indoor air, particulates, outdoor weather, gas, CO₂), changed by a wave over the proximity sensor, with persistent SQLite logging.
enviro_screens.py draws each page; a hand over the LTR559 proximity sensor moves to the next one. Corner dots show which page is on.
| Page | Shows |
|---|---|
| 1 · Glance | EPA AQI gauge (2024 PM2.5 table); indoor °F, humidity, pressure; outdoor °F and humidity from the Ambient station with trend |
| 2 · Air | PM1, PM2.5, PM10 in µg/m³ with trend lines on one shared scale |
| 3 · Outside | Wind direction, speed and gust; UV; daily rain (Ambient station) |
| 4 · Gas | Oxidising, reducing, NH3 sensor resistance in kΩ with trends |
| 5 · CO₂ | SCD41 CO₂ in ppm, colored by the UBA guide-value bands, with a trend |
A missing or failed reading shows -- and leaves a gap in its trend; it is never drawn as zero. Outdoor values older than display.outdoor_stale_s show --.
Color coding: the AQI gauge and PM2.5 value use the EPA category colors (Good green, Moderate yellow, Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups orange, Unhealthy red, Very Unhealthy purple, Hazardous maroon). Indoor temperature, humidity and gas values use the green/yellow/orange (gas: red) bands in thresholds.
| Sensor | Chip | Measures | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | BME280 | °F (self-heat compensated) | Constant offset calibration.self_heat_offset_c in the CONFIG_PATH document |
| Humidity | BME280 | % RH | |
| Pressure | BME280 | hPa | |
| Light | LTR559 | Lux | Also used as proximity sensor |
| Oxidising gas | MICS6814 | kΩ (NO₂, O₃) | Higher resistance = cleaner air |
| Reducing gas | MICS6814 | kΩ (CO, VOCs) | Lower resistance = more pollution |
| Ammonia | MICS6814 | kΩ (NH₃) | Lower resistance = more pollution |
| PM1.0 | PMS5003 | µg/m³ | External particulate sensor |
| PM2.5 | PMS5003 | µg/m³ | Fine particles — primary AQI metric |
| PM10 | PMS5003 | µg/m³ | Coarse particles |
| CO₂ | SCD41 | ppm | Adafruit breakout, I2C 0x62; photoacoustic NDIR, one sample per 5 s, BME280 pressure compensation |
| Temperature, humidity | SCD41 | °C, % RH | Stored as the sensor reports them (factory 4 °C offset); the indoor temperature and humidity on screen and in Grafana |
flowchart LR
subgraph Hardware
BME280 -->|I2C| PI
LTR559 -->|I2C| PI
MICS6814 -->|I2C/ADC| PI
PMS5003 -->|UART| PI
SCD41 -->|I2C| PI
end
subgraph PI["Raspberry Pi"]
enviro_dash3.py
ambient_wx.py
nws_wx.py
provider_collector.py
dynamic_config.pi5.json
end
subgraph Canonical["Canonical tier"]
RAW[("📥 raw-capture/\nprovider responses as received")]
end
subgraph Derived["Derived tier"]
SQLITE[("🗄️ SQLite\nenviro.db")]
end
subgraph Outputs
DISPLAY["🖥️ ST7735\n160×80 Display"]
GRAFANA["📈 Grafana\n(container, reads enviro.db)"]
OFFSITE[("☁️ Offsite backup\nverified by remote hash")]
end
dynamic_config.pi5.json -->|hot-reload| enviro_dash3.py
enviro_dash3.py --> DISPLAY
enviro_dash3.py -->|every 60s| SQLITE
ambient_wx.py & nws_wx.py & provider_collector.py -->|response bytes| RAW
ambient_wx.py & nws_wx.py & provider_collector.py -->|projected rows| SQLITE
RAW -->|replay| SQLITE
SQLITE --> GRAFANA
RAW & SQLITE -->|daily| OFFSITE
| Component | Where to buy |
|---|---|
| Pimoroni Enviro+ | Pimoroni |
| PMS5003 Particulate Sensor | Pimoroni |
| Raspberry Pi (3 B+, 4, 5, or Zero 2 W) | Various |
| Adafruit SCD-41 CO₂ Sensor | Adafruit |
git clone https://github.com/pimoroni/enviroplus-python
cd enviroplus-python
./install.shgit clone https://github.com/strommy76/enviroplus.git ~/projects/enviroplus
cd ~/projects/enviropluspip install -r requirements.txtcp .env.example .env # add credentials — secrets only, no tuning values here| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
SQLITE_PATH |
Path to SQLite database |
CONFIG_PATH |
Path to the dashboard config document (dynamic_config.pi5.json) |
NWS_API_BASE_URL |
NWS API base URL |
NWS_STATIONS |
Ordered NWS station identifiers; first fresh observation wins |
NWS_USER_AGENT |
NWS-required caller identification |
NWS_POLL_S |
NWS poll interval in seconds |
NWS_SHUTDOWN_CHECK_S |
NWS service shutdown check cadence in seconds |
NWS_MAX_OBSERVATION_AGE_S |
Maximum accepted NWS latest-observation age in seconds |
NWS_COLLECTION_LOOKBACK_S |
Bounded NWS observations query window in seconds |
All tuning values (calibration, thresholds, intervals, display) live in the CONFIG_PATH document — see below.
sudo systemctl link "$PWD/enviro_dash.service"
sudo systemctl enable --now enviro_dashCheck status:
sudo systemctl status enviro_dash
journalctl -u enviro_dash -f # or tail -f enviro_dash.log; each service has its own <service>.logBefore using this deployment example, reconcile the unit's device bindings and
operations-alert template with the target host. Repository content does not select
the active hardware unit; prove that binding from the running service manager as
required by PROJECT-CONFIG.md. Preserve and compare an existing copied unit as
described in the repair plan. For the repaired display,
GPIO9 is DC; pi-config owns the spi0-2cs,no_miso firmware binding that frees it.
All tunable runtime values live here. The running script watches this file and hot-reloads within 2 seconds of any change — no restart needed.
{
"calibration": {
"self_heat_offset_c": 6.35, ← measured BME280 self-heat (see its provenance key)
"bme_samples": 3 ← BME280 readings averaged per loop (reduces noise)
},
"intervals": {
"publish_s": 60, ← length of the interval each readings row covers
"display_refresh_s": 2 ← display update rate
},
"thresholds": { ... }, ← color bands for temperature, humidity, gas and CO₂
"display": { ... } ← proximity tap level, outdoor staleness
}To recalibrate temperature: re-measure the offset against a reference over 5-minute means and update self_heat_offset_c; its self_heat_offset_provenance records how the current value was measured. Then rebuild the affected days with python local_sensors.py --replay DAY....
The BME280 sits close to the Pi's CPU and reads high. On this Pi 5 with M.2 spacing the error is a near-constant pedestal, so the derived temp_f subtracts a measured constant, calibration.self_heat_offset_c, and humidity is corrected for the same self-heating with the Magnus formula. The SCD41, mounted clear of the Pi, supplies the indoor temperature and humidity on screen; both sensors are recorded.
| Store | Tier | Contents |
|---|---|---|
raw-capture/local_sensors/<day>.ndjson |
1, canonical | Every loop's reads, each as its driver returned it; a failed read is recorded as that lane's error |
readings (SQLite) |
2, derived | One row per publish interval, projected by local_sensors.derive_row with the config's calibration |
Live and local_sensors.py --replay DAY... use the same projection, so a calibration change is applied to past days by replaying them. A row is keyed by its interval's start (rows from before Tier 1 are keyed by their write time), and replaying a day rewrites that day's rows, on the current publish_s grid. Replay a day once it has ended. Rows from before the first local_sensors record have no Tier 1 reads: they are kept as written and never rebuilt, dropped or overwritten. Live and replay differ only around a process restart: live never writes the interval open at shutdown and writes the one open at restart from its post-restart reads; replay writes both from all their reads.
Known-bad spans in the authoritative readings table. Rows are kept as written; these notes are how a reader knows to discount them.
| Span (UTC) | Columns | Issue |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-30 → 2026-08-05 | pm1, pm25, pm10 |
~85,000 PMS5003 read timeouts; the code of the time re-stored the last good values as fresh, so PM in this span is largely repeats. Fixed 2026-10-11 (failed reads now store NULL). |
| 2026-09-17 00:26 → 2026-10-11 12:48 | all | No rows: the dashboard could not start after kernel 6.18.50 claimed GPIO9 (fixed by pi-config spi0-2cs,no_miso). |
CREATE TABLE readings (
ts TEXT PRIMARY KEY, -- UTC: "2026-03-15 21:30:00"; interval start (write time before Tier 1)
temp_f REAL,
humidity REAL,
pressure REAL,
lux REAL,
oxidising REAL,
reducing REAL,
ammonia REAL,
pm1 REAL,
pm25 REAL,
pm10 REAL,
cpu_temp_c REAL, -- Pi CPU temperature (°C)
cpu_load REAL, -- 1-minute load average
mem_free_mb REAL, -- available memory (MB)
uptime_s INTEGER, -- system uptime (seconds)
co2_ppm REAL, -- SCD41 CO2 (ppm); NULL when no sample that interval
scd41_temp_c REAL, -- SCD41 temperature (°C), as reported
scd41_rh REAL -- SCD41 relative humidity (%), as reported
);Query example — correlate CPU temp with sensor drift:
SELECT ts, temp_f, cpu_temp_c, cpu_load
FROM readings
WHERE ts >= '2026-03-15 22:00:00'
ORDER BY ts;| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Pimoroni Enviro+ Python library | https://github.com/pimoroni/enviroplus-python |
| PMS5003 Python library | https://github.com/pimoroni/pms5003-python |
| LTR559 Python library | https://github.com/pimoroni/ltr559-python |
| Pimoroni Enviro+ product page | https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/enviro-plus |
| Pimoroni learning: Enviro+ | https://learn.pimoroni.com/article/getting-started-with-enviro-plus |
| MICS6814 datasheet | https://www.sgxsensortech.com/content/uploads/2015/02/1143_Datasheet-MiCS-6814-rev-8.pdf |
| PMS5003 datasheet | https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/aq-spec/resources-page/plantower-pms5003-manual_v2-3.pdf |
| Adafruit SCD-41 guide | https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-scd-40-and-scd-41 |
| Sensirion SCD4x Python driver | https://github.com/Sensirion/python-i2c-scd4x |
| UBA indoor CO₂ guide values (CO₂ display bands) | Bundesgesundheitsblatt 2008, 51:1358–1369 |
- 10-sensor dashboard on ST7735 display
- CPU temperature compensation (constant self-heat offset since 2026-07-30)
- SQLite logging with UTC timestamps + Pi telemetry
- Rotating log file
- systemd service with auto-restart
- Hot-reloadable dashboard config, single source of truth
- BME280 averaging for noise reduction
- Every local sensor read retained in Tier 1;
readingsderived and replayable - Ruff linting with pre-commit hook (referee not installed)
- Adafruit SCD-41 CO₂ sensor integration
- Grafana dashboard on AI host via Tailscale
- Migrate to Raspberry Pi 5