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This library is for the RAD-0301 meter, marketed as a the co2meter.com mini CO2 meter. I don't know if it works with any other models but as I have one of these, I can tell you it works from my linux machines.

You're probably going 'Wow that's expensive for a CO2 meter when I can goto Aliexpress and get one for $10!' This is actually pretty cheap for a NDIR sensor which is what one should use for CO2 monitoring. The cheapo $10 sensors are all VOC sensors that require calibration and can be affected by airborne pollutants like alcohol.

I believe this is only 100ppm accuracy, the 5-10ppm resolution sensors are many hundreds of dollars. It's fine enough for casual air quality measurements.



For $20, you can get the MH Z-19, which is a NDIR type. You can talk to it over UART, and it comes in a 5000ppm and 2000ppm model IIRC. Decent documentation, and a good little sensor.

The S8-0053 looks interesting, but I have no experience with it. Also NDIR, boasts +- 40ppm accuraxy -- the room air might not even be that homogeneous...

The cheap ones are electrochemical, and they're not even that cheap.

https://sandboxelectronics.com/files/SEN-000007/MG811.pdf


Problem with it is that it autorecalibrates itself every 24hrs as far as I remember. It is a problem in room monitoring where you have constant high CO2- you'd have to take the sensor outside to fix it's reference level.


The core device is typically on the order of $50-$150 US, but with many of the sensors that CO2meter sells, you're also getting a microcontroller, display, power supply, etc. You'll frequently find temperature and humidity sensors and also barometric pressure sensors rolled into that, since NDIR is affected by all those things.

So the price of a good, fully realized NDIR CO2 meter is comparable with any low-volume, moderate precision, moderate complexity electronic device.


Andreas Spiess has a good video on VOC vs CO2 sensors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL0L-nic9Vw


His channel is a goldmine for anyone who plays around with ESP-32 microcontrollers or similar devices




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