Hello everyone. I welcome you to my last blog as part of Summer of Sensors Design Challenge. This is my last blog post as part of competition, but maybe in the future I will post some post-deadline blog about longer-term measurements than I was able to do within competition period.

Non-sponsored challenger

I joined this competition as a non-sponsored challenger. I originally did not want to join it and for this reason I did not apply for it. But later I was thinking about it and decided to try it. I ordered ZMOD4510 EVKIT on my own and joined this competition. Later the HS4000-EVK evaluation kit for HS4000 Temperature and Humidity sensor was added to the kit but I was unable to source it. Sponsored challengers received it, but I as non-sponsored was unable to get it because it was never stocked by any distributor over whole contest period. I registered to stock notifications on all major distributors who offers it but even after more than 2 months I did not receive any email from anyone. So I was unable to play with Renesas Temperature and Humidity sensor, but this was not a big issue because I guess it was designed for temperature and humidity compensations of ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality Sensor only. In opposition I deeply examined ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality Sensor.

Blogs

As part of competition, I posted 8 (+ this one) blog posts. Here are links to all blog posts which I posted as part of this competition in this category:

• Blog #1: Introduction to my Air Quality Experiments
• Blog #2: Unboxing Renesas ZMOD4510-EVK
• Blog #3: Experimenting with ZMOD4510-EVK Software
• Blog #4: Tutorial: Using ZMOD4510 with Renesas EK-RA2L1 and FSP
• Blog #5: Adding Connectivity to the Project using Renesas DA16600 Wi-Fi Module
• Blog #6: Building Box for ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality Monitor and Going Outside
• Blog #7: Reducing Power Consumption
• Blog #8: ZMOD4510 Collected Data Analysis

As part of competition, I posted different types of blogs. Most blog post just documented by experiences with sensor. Some of them documented my progress on project. The most popular was my fourth blog which I designed as a tutorial. It is step-by step tutorial with lot of pictures. It is quite a unique resource on the internet because even Renesas do not publish so detailed tutorial. With over 4800 views (at the time of writing this blog post) it is most read blog post which I posted as part of this competition. Also note that view counters were for some resettled after latest Element14 system upgrade (and view counters are now referred as inaccurate) but this change nothing that it is my most popular blog post.

Going to the Github

Today I also posted all source codes of both firmware and web API to the Github. You can view them at: https://github.com/misaz/Air-Qaulity-Monitor

Experiments and Project

As part of competition, I mainly experimented with Renesas ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality Sensor, but I also tested other Renesas solutions. At the beginning I tested sensor with evaluation software provided by Renesas and for first-time I have seen sensor in the action. This experiment taught me timing of the sensor (it does not return values immediately as I thought at the beginning) and also I learnt about values which it returns in this phase. Later I utilized these skills when integrating sensor to the project. I decided to make my solution mainly using Renesas parts because competition is sponsored by Renesas (even I am non-sponsored challenger). For this reason, I chosen Renesas RA2L1 low-power microcontroller which I already had experiences with and for Wi-Fi connectivity I chosen DA16600 module which I have used for a first time. In my project I used Renesas Quick Connect Ecosystem which is now actively promoted by Renesas. It allows integration of sensors and connectivity easily with Renesas MCUs. Integration of sensor was easy and I posted detailed tutorial about it but integrating Wi-Fi module was quite a complicated because it is not supported by this ecosystem yet and I had to implement a lot things from the scratch. At the end I had solution which I deployed to the outdoor environment in the box. After first attempt my device ruined batter very fast, so I implemented several strategies for reducing device power consumption. At the end I analysed and described data from the device.

Interactions with other members

My participation in competition was not only about interacting with ZMOD4510 and making project but I also helped other members. This time it was not as intensive as for example in previous competition which I applied for because most time contestants was quiet and did not ask anything, but I still helped some members. For example, at main page of competition I helped with understanding if ZMOD4510 is indoor or outdoor sensor because at Farnell Store is wrong description and one contestant was confused by this. I helped also contestants in other categories even I did not join them.

Key learnings

As part of competition, I learnt a lot of new things. Some of them were already mentioned above, but for summary I write them in the list:

• I learnt about type of sensor (Air Quality) which was totally new to me.
• I learnt about Renesas portfolio of GAS sensors and learned theory of operation of these Indoor, Outdoor and Refrigerator Air Quality sensors.
• I learnt about Air Quality Indexes and standards.
• Interesting to me was that there are several algorithms (1^st gen and 2^nd generation in case of ZMOD4510) which can result to different outputs using the same sensor.
• I learnt about Renesas Quick Connect Ecosystem and used it in my project.
• I learnt about Renesas DA16600 Wi-Fi module and get practical experiences with them.
• I learnt a lot when facing constraints of connectivity to the Azure which resulted to redesigning my firmware multiple times. Very interesting experience.
• I learnt and tested several techniques for optimizing power consumption and now I know that there still lot of things to learn.
• I first time deployed battery powered device.
• I get better experiences with RA2L1 peripherals and clock subsystem when adjusting it for reducing power
• I better understood structure of jumpers on Renesas EK-RA2L1 board when reducing power consumption and disconnecting its part.

Summary

This competition was super fun. I originally did not want to join it but at the end I am satisfied. It consumed me a lot of time. Even after lot of time spend with sensor, there still remains some mystery of Qir Quality Sensors and their algorithms shipped inside SDK. Partially it is because sensor and SDK is big blackbox and is designed to be used as in this way. As part of my journey, I described most of my experiments and project in large details using blogs. I posted 9 (8 + this one) blogs. In Word they consist of 73 pages in A4 format, contains 69 images and consists of 80767 characters including spaces.

At the end I would like to thank all who read my blogs. There are several people who read most of my blogs, commented some and gave me valuable feedback on them. Thank you very much. I have good feeling from my tutorial which I posted as part of this competition because it is every day read by tens to hundreds of people so I think even after this contest end (in several hours) my outcome will be still valuable for others. I would also like to thank Element14 for organising this contest and all sponsors including Renesas who sponsored this category. All they allowed to run this big design challenge.

Next blog: Received Summer of Sensors Grand Prize Reward