Hi, as a part of my project, I am working on an air quality monitor and a flammable gas detector. I have done a bit of research before selecting the sensors. After going through a lot of tutorials and articles, I used this Types of gas sensors article as a reference and thought of using the MQ series sensors for the project. The main positives I see in them are that they are cheap and will fit in my budget, and there are a ton of tutorials for these sensors. But, my question is, are they reliable? Do I go with them or should I choose some other sensor? Is the preheating period of 24 hours necessary? It would be really helpful if some one could point me in the right direction.
Air quality in a general sense is just too general I think.
If you’re looking into flammable gas detection, I would use a type with a integrated control/processing circuit, like the CCS811 or ENS160. These have a digital interface that is relatively easy to interface to a microcontroller like the ESP8266 or ESP32. The MQ type sensors draw a lot of current, need additional circuitry for analog processing, probably need more calibration and compensation.
Both the MQ-type and newer types with integrated control/processing circuit are not very specific in my experience, sensitive to a really broad range of volatiles.
Hi, thanks for the suggestions. They both look like good candidates. But the only thing I’m hesitant about is their price. But worth a try.