“I really wanted to like this product cause it offers what we all want from a home monitoring device. It is configurable, comes with good provisioning help, and is infinitely customizable since it runs python.
However, in practice it is ok for a small POC project but not for sustained use, as I learned the hard way. I have lost 2 of these. One was in a stevenson screen outside the house and rusted and I assumed that perhaps it isnt meant to be used like that. But then, another one failed indoors that was in a bathroom. This was on top of a cabinet, so no accidental splashes, and alongside an non-smart humidity sensor which has worked for more than a year. So essentially a humidity meter that cant stand humidity! And this happened fairly quickly, I dont think I've had this specific piece for even a month.
And this is on top of the other issues of not being able to measure battery level, batteries running out every few weeks despite using recommended settings, etc. Initially, i assumed the software updates might have been able to iron the issues out, but the longer I try it the more I feel there are some hardware issues and this should isnt packaged and advertised appropriately for its capabilities.”
Ahoy Basil
We've just seen this review - very sorry for the delay in replying! If you haven't already, please could you get in touch with us at support@pimoroni.com with some more info about how your units have failed and we'll do our best to help?
“Very useful. Provisioning was flawless and works well with adafruit but I now have it writing to a Matt broker with no issues. Only gotcha so far are the humidity and temp sensors readings as they are a bit low compared to the sensor they are replacing.”
“Buyer beware. DO NOT BUY THIS BOARD FOR VOC.
The good...
-Super simple and very creative setup
-Great power efficiency
-Easy to integrate
The rest....
So disappointed with this board and the article on Toms hardware that recommended it claiming it could provide VOC data. The out of the box configuration gives you no VOC data or information. While the chip included can sample data, making use of this data requires you to take data samples and train an algorithm. This leaves me with a few problems.
1) I am not a data scientist or a chemist. Most tinker types are not.
2)I do not know what chemicals are in my home to even train the algorithm against
3)I have found zero resources online providing pre-trained algorithms.
This is a sample of data actually provided by the board in its default configuration.
{"readings": {"pressure": 988.33, "temperature": 27.86, "color_temperature": 3204, "humidity": 36.11, "luminance": 75}, "nickname": "enviro-main", "timestamp": "2022-09-04 00:55:03"}
Don't take my word for it. Here is a completely unanswered issue listed on Pimoroni's GitHub page.
https://github.com/pimoroni/enviro/issues/34
I am totally willing to eat my words and admit I am wrong if you can prove me wrong. In fact I would welcome it, because I would love to use the VOC feature. Yes I have seen Bosch videos on training an AI model. Yes it could be done. Yes training the models on the surface seems simple enough. But I don't have high concentration samples of deadly, dangerous, and concerning compounds to train models. Not to mention training an efficient and usable model is a whole different level. Then you have to write a bunch of code around the model to analyze samples.”
