ESP8266 Provides WiFi Logging To IKEA’s Air High quality Sensor
Launched again in June, the IKEA VINDRIKTNING is a $12 USD sensor that makes use of coloured LEDs to point the relative air high quality in your house relying on what number of particles it sucks up. Seeking to enhance on this simplistic interface, [Sören Beye] tacked an ESP8266 to the board so it can broadcast sensor readings out over MQTT.
Whereas a few of us would have been tempted to intestine the VINDRIKTNING and fasten its particle sensor on to the ESP8266, the strategy [Sören] has used is definitely fairly elegant. Moderately than changing IKEA’s electronics, the microcontroller is solely listening in on the UART communications between the sensor and the unique controller. This not solely preserves the inventory performance of the VINDRIKTNING, however simplifies the code because the ESP doesn’t have to do almost as a lot.
All it is advisable to do if you wish to carry out this modification is solder a pair wires to handy take a look at pads on the VINDRIKTNING board, then flash the firmware (or write your personal model), and also you’re good to go. There’s loads of room contained in the case for the ESP8266, although it’s possible you’ll need to tape it down so it doesn’t affect air move.
Whereas not required, [Sören] additionally recommends making a small modification to the VINDRIKTNING which makes it a bit quieter. Apparently the 5 V fan contained in the sensor is sometimes revved up by the unique controller, fairly than stored at a steady degree you could mentally tune out. However by attaching the sensor’s fan to the ESP8266’s 3.3 V pin, it can run constantly at a decrease pace.
We’ve seen custom firmware for IKEA products before, however this strategy, which retains the system’s performance intact no matter what’s been flashed to the secondary microcontroller, is especially interesting for these of us who can’t appear to maintain the gremlins out of our code.
[Thanks to nexgensri for the tip.]