Sudden breakdown of SDS011?

The sensor is not even 4 months in use and it suddenly died on me. This is pretty bad, I must say. That’s not what I paid those 60 euros for. Is there something known regarding this that I don’t know about?
I set the debug log to max logging, and this is what it says, totally non-descriptive of the non-functional sensor;

ws: data json...
ws: data json...
ws: data json...
R/ SHT3x
Temperature (°C): 7.26
Humidity (%): 83.76
----
/R SHT3x
## Sending to sensor.community - SHT3x
Succeeded - api.sensor.community
## Sending to madavi.de: 
Succeeded - api-rrd.madavi.de
## Sending to opensensemap: 
Succeeded - ingress.opensensemap.org
## Sending to Server FS App: 
Succeeded - server.chillibits.com
## Sending to custom api: 
Succeeded - api.aqi.eco
Time for Sending (ms): 1237
ws: data json...
ws: data json...
ws: data json...

This is not the output of max. debug level… Or it’s only the part that is shown on the sensor internal website. The whole debug output is only shown via serial interface. It’s enough that it would fill the RAM in short time so it’s not shown completely on the website.
But hey this is an open source project. If the code isn’t good enough for you then you could help us impvove it.

In any case the output should show the attempts to read the SDS011. But there isn’t shown anything. So please check that the SDS011 is active in the local sensor config (there should be rows for the SDS011 on the page ‘Actual values’).

And in some cases it’s just a cable that lost contact. So you should check this first.

It wasn’t any of the hardware or cabling. I just pulled out the power-plug, waited 10 seconds, put it back in and the sensor worked again. Strange… I will probably put a timer on it that will auto-switch it off every month at 5 in the morning or so to prevent this.

Commercial systems with the SDS such as Clarity start at round 600 Euros. I’ve used dozens of the SDS and found that occasionally they show up reading high and i have to toss. Such is the life of a DIY project. You really shouldn’t have to reboot automatically. We used PCB for our setup, but you should check your wiring as a possible cause of failure. The SDS is considered a very good small particle sensor in industry. It is an older, robust design with a larger fan, inlet tube, and better laser chamber than some of the new offerings.

What are you saying? No, it wasn’t the cabling. If it had been that, it would not just start working again after a power cycle.

That’s what I do everyday (buy a cheap timer an schedule a power-off/on) and since then no problems anymore!
Louis

I had a similar thing happening to me today when I noticed that the sensor was not reporting any values. I rebooted from the web interface but it didn’t solve the issue, then I pulled the plug off and then put it back in and that settled it. That won’t be very convenient for projects remotely located.

Can you send us the specs of the power supply / USB charger you use. Most of the issues come from that…
To be sure, choose a 2,4 A one.

None of us “choose” a power supply, as it comes delivered with the sensor kit.
And no, it was clearly not related to the power supply. Mine is even powered behind a UPS, protected against surges and outages.

I had exactly the same thing as @air-ais about two weeks ago.

Temp and humidity were being reported, but there was no data from the SDS.

Reboot via the web interface didn’t fix it.
But a hard power cycle resolved it.

I am using the “official” Nettigo power supply so shouldn’t be down to a lack of juice.

I am also using the nettigo kit. It is interesting that all of us users reporting this issue seem to use that, but correlation does not always mean causation.

We’ll wait and see whether this happens again.

Recognize the problem of not transmitting the values of the air sensor but only the values of temperature and humidity.
The solution here was also to replace the supplied power supply with a heavier power supply (3A).