Project Aura is an ESP32‑based DIY air quality monitor that combines a touchscreen display and industrial sensors. It is fully integrated with the Home Assistant open-source home automation platform.
The words “DIY” and “open source” often imply manufacturing the board yourself and soldering components, but that’s not the case for Project Aura. It’s based on off-the-shelf components connected through cables without any soldering requirements, while the enclosure can be 3D printed. The firmware is equally easy to install through a one-click web installer.
Project Aura key components:
- Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3 – ESP32-S3 board with 16MB flash, 4.3-inch IPS display (800×480) with capacitive touch. Similar to the ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3B but using PH2.0 connectors instead of a terminal block for I/Os
- Sensirion SEN66 + Adafruit breakout for data capture
- PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10 particle levels (full spectrum of particles from smoke to pollen)
- CO2, VOC, and NOx for air freshness, volatile chemicals, and exhaust gases.
- Temperature and humidity
- Sensirion SFA30 formaldehyde sensor. Note: optional; if you don’t connect the sensor, the interface card will display AQI instead of HCHO. Firmware support for the next-gen SFA40 is a work-in-progress
- Adafruit pressure sensors (DPS310, BMP580, or BMP581) & I2C Hub. The firmware will automatically identify the sensor and plot pressure change graphs (deltas) for 3 hours and 24 hours to warn you of weather changes.
- Adafruit PCF8523 real-time clock with a battery
- Various cables and screws
Note that the Adafruit SEN6x breakout is currently out of stock, so if you plan to build it yourself, you may need to wait for it or find an alternative source or breakout board.
The firmware features a touch user interface implemented with the LVGL library, a local web setup portal, and MQTT support for Home Assistant discovery. The UI is comprised of the main dashboard, settings, theme selection, MQTT configuration, screen timeout and wake-up/sleep times, and time and data configuration. It supports eight languages includes English, German, Chinese, and more. Since the code is open-source, you should be able to easily add your own language.
The firmware requires PlatformIO CLI or VSCode + PlatformIO extension, and is built with Arduino ESP32 core 3.1.1 (itself based on the ESP-IDF 5.3.x). The source code, binary releases, and instructions to build and flash the firmware (from the command line) can be found on GitHub. The web installer mentioned in the introduction can be found on the project’s website, but is only available to the project’s backers.
Project Aura is possibly the nicest-looking DIY air quality monitor around, but it’s not the only one. The open-source hardware AirGradient ONE Kit, designed and manufactured here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is based on an ESP32-C3 SoC and has gotten good reviews, including from us. However, it only features a small 1.3-inch OLED, instead of the cool 4.3-inch touchscreen display in the Aura.
You can either build the air quality monitor by yourself or purchase it pre-assembled (if in stock). The first method is a crowdfunding campaign organized by the maker of the project (21CNCStudio), where you can pledge $25 to get access to the 3D‑printable enclosure files (STL), a detailed assembly guide (PDF), and a backer code for the web installer. You’ll need to purchase the components by yourself, and the total cost should be around $200 with the optional SFA30 sensor. It’s the first time I noticed a crowdfunding campaign on MakerWorld, owned by BambuLab, a 3D printer company. Another option is to purchase a fully-assembled unit on Smartdomo for 139 Euros or 189 Euros without/with the SFA30 sensor. The only problem is that it’s currently out of stock, but you can register to get notified once it’s back in stock.
Via Adafruit
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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