Krakow (Poland) is the city I have been living in for over a decade. For some years now it has been demonized in media for pollution and overall bad air quality. I have to admit, the air quality is not perfect, but I often wonder if in small towns, where there are no large factories, no electrical plants nearby and car traffic is not such a problem, the air quality is so much better? Is that really true or just lobbying and political games. In Poland the cheapest way to provide heat in winter is still to burn coal in furnace and in small towns there is no city heat distribution network, most of the households do that instead of using alternative ways.
I use pollution mask when I go outside in winter and I have air filter at home. But when I am at work, does the room I work in really have better air quality than outside? Krakow has 7 professional air quality stations which feed data approximately once an hour. However, the closest station to my location in around 3 km in line of sight, on the other side of the river. So, this data from the nearest station does not have to be accurate in my location. Some time ago I wanted to design and create small, portable PM2.5/PM10 meter that I could put on my balcony and take it with me when I go for a walk to know if I am safe. But like with some other projects there was one problem - too little free time. Last winter went by and still I have not even started the design.
Recently I was chosen for Autodesk Eagle PCB Road Test. Now, I have to find some time. I decided that in order to evaluate Eagle 8 features I will design PCB for the PM2.5/PM10 sensor and after I send the PCB to manufacture I will write a review that is due till June 2nd. That means that I have 8 weeks. I will try to write a blog post every week with project updates and describe the whole process from an idea to sending gerber files. So, if I got you interested, see you next time.
