ZIO QWIIC PM2.5 Air Quality Sensor on the Raspberry Pi

The ZIO QWIIC PM2.5 air quality sensor uses a laser that is scattered by the air passing through it by the included blower fan. The scattered light is detected by the sensor to count the number of particulates in the air. This can then be easily collected over I2C and utilised in your project to measure the air quality or make up a weather report system. The board contains two QWIIC connectors to easily add it to the ZIO QWIIC ecosystem or can be connected to directly over I2C via the breakout pins. The ZIO board also contains a 3.3v to 5v boost circuit to power the sensor’s on board fan.

Here’s how we setup the ZIO QWIIC Light Sensor on the Raspberry Pi.

Step 1 Setup the Raspberry Pi

Check out this super quick video on how to setup the Raspberry Pi.

Step 2 Connect

Connect the Zio development board with PM1.0/2.5/10 Sensor to the Raspberry Pi via the ZIO QWIIC HAT.

Step 2 enable the I2C bus

Either from the Raspberry Pi’s desktop or via SSH, Open the terminal and type in:

sudo raspi-config and press enter.

Using your keyboards arrow keys, select ‘5 Interfacing Options’ and press enter.

Scroll down to ‘P5 I2C’ and press enter.

Then select ‘<Yes>’ and press enter to enable the I2C interface for the ZIO QWIIC ecosystem.

Select ‘<Ok>’ and ‘<Finish>’ to return to the terminal.

Step 3 Download python script

Whilst still in the terminal type:

sudo git clone https://github.com/machineshopuk/PM1.0-2.5-10

This will generate a folder called 2-5PM, enter it by typing:

cd PM1.0-2.5-10

Then run the script by typing:

python 2-5PM.py

The script will output PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 values to the terminal in µg/m³.