PurpleAir Sensor Installation

I’ve had a Ambient Weather WS-1400-IP weather station installed for some time, reporting to Weather Underground. During the fires of previous years, I considered getting an air quality monitor, but I could never find anything worth the installation effort. During this year’s fire season I saw several ads for PurpleAir, advertising that they collaborate with Weather Underground, so I decided to purchase and install a PA-II outdoor sensor.

The installation instructions are sparse, and the device is not really what I would call rugged or weather proof. I would not put money it on it surviving outdoors for longer than a year, specifically because of the use a vanilla Micro-USB power plug that offers no corrosion protection. The unit I received came with a Nest outdoor camera power cable, but unlike the Nest camera that uses a watertight plug, the sensor uses an open USB cable. The instructions do say to point the open USB port downwards, instead I opted to seal it in using clear silicone sealer.

The ideal installation location would have been near my Rachio water sprinkler controller, where I have a waterproof enclosure with power, but that location is also near the HVAC, instant hot water heater, and dryer vents, so not ideal due to local air pollutants.

I installed the sensor next to my UniFi AC Mesh AP outdoor AP, the cables do look a bit messy, and if the sensor survives long enough, I may install an enclosure to clean up the cables.

Configuring the device is reasonably simple, but a mobile app would have been easier. Power up the device, connect to it’s WiFi access point, access a web page hosted by the device, configure the local WiFi SSID and password, connect to local WiFi, then register the device with PurpleAir. After all is done, I received a welcome email, and I could see the device on the PurpleAir map.

Next up, I have to figure out how to view combined weather and air quality data on Weather Underground, how to get a direct link to my sensor’s data (the map link shows an area only), and how to use the data API (I archive all my data).