Are there good sensors for pollen?

I would be your best sensor. If there is a single pollen around, I cry, sneeze, sniff and suffer .

I'm curious too how / if this can get detected  by some sensor.

I thought they used filters and tissues to catch samples, then count under a microscope...

Perhaps they do, or maybe it's just too new of a thing?

There are some very expensive pollen detectors that provide a pollen count, if you can afford them.

The low cost particle detectors have a hard time with particles of pollen size. The readings from these sensors are not useful indications of pollen.

Determining the type of pollen is a whole magnitude tougher problem, probably requiring a fancy microscope.

Similar to Jan - I am a great detector for ragweed and oak pollen.

I keep looking at new low-cost sensors to see if they can detect pollen, but so far have not found a good solution.

I think such a sensor is feasible, just hasn't quite made it to market yet.

Perhaps a "sensor" though more of a detector, using a camera and lenses could work?

Me and CharlieKat are good detectors too. The other cat and human are fine.

I can see the usefulness of having a pollen/dust sensor for the house, to remember to run the filter more often.

-Nico

cstanton  wrote:

 

Perhaps they do, or maybe it's just too new of a thing?

Design Challenge!

I couldn't yet locate a purchaseable sensor from Mitsubishi. Searching some more...

You can use the laser particle sensors to get an indication of how much pollen is in the air.

They have a large particle size compared to normal dust.

DAB

Ragweed pollen is about 17 um in diameter and oak pollen is about 30 um in diameter.

Camera chip pixel sizes range from about 2 um to 10 um so it should be possible to make a system that can obtain both pollen count and pollen size.

Hi Christopher,

There's a fancy Sensirion sensor hereSensirion sensor here, looks like it reports different particle size ranges, which is unique. It isn't cheap, but for that functionality maybe it's worth it.

Farnell had a lower-cost Sharp sensor (I'm guessing the Sharp and the Mitsubishi ones are originally intended for air-con?) but I can't find it any more, and I can't recall what particle range size it sensed : (

The issue is that most laser particulate monitor sensors just can't know the difference between smoke, dust and pollen. There were attempts to produce sensors that better distinguished pollen by using certain properties like polarization of light or the waveform as it impinges on a beam of light as pollen usually have irregular surface shapes, but so far, these have been very limited and expensive to my knowledge.

Mitsubishi were the only ones I know to have issued a press release about it but I've never been able to obtain the parts. The only commercial one seems to be the PS2 which is sold under a number of brands but seems to be about $2,300 - see https://www.omnicontrols.com/product/ps2-pollen-sensor/  and https://www.shinyei.co.jp/stc/eng/products/optical/ps2.html  for example.

- Gough