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Sensor Forum Looking for odor sensor
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  • bathroom
  • odor
  • smell
  • sensor
Related

Looking for odor sensor

ocwo92
ocwo92 over 9 years ago

I'm looking for an odor sensor--specifically, one that senses those bathroom odors that make people reach for the air conditioner.

 

I realize it's possible to hook up a methane detector near the, ahem, exhaust, but this will only detect some odors. The contents of the John tend to produce an unpleasant smell that is often more persistent than the winds passed in the process.


Of course, a better-safe-than-sorry approach would be to decide that if someone is sitting on the can for some time, then they're probably doing big business and the fan should be turned on regardless of any smell. This would eliminate the indirect message telling you how you're affecting the climate, but for noise reduction purposes it might be better to leave the fan off until there's an actual use for it. (Which, I suppose, is a way of saying that only certain matter should hit the fan.)

 

But, does any such odor sensor actually exist?

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to ocwo92 +1
    Looks like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole_test will detect, but it is microbiology test with bateria. C
  • gadget.iom
    0 gadget.iom over 9 years ago

    https://community.particle.io/t/voc-indoor-air-quality-sensor-iaq-as-mlv-from-appliedsensor/11441/4

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  • ocwo92
    0 ocwo92 over 9 years ago in reply to gadget.iom

    I'm pretty sure that's not what I'm looking for, because according to the datasheet, the TP-401 detects gases. It may detect a wider array of gases than just methane, but the key is that unless I'm mistaken, the major contributor to an unpleasant bathroom odor isn't gaseous. It consists of compunds that are carried by the air which is already in the room.

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  • dougw
    0 dougw over 9 years ago

    I'm not sure what gasses cause the objectionable odor you have but here is a breakdown of the low-cost MQ series and what they are good at.

    It might be worth trying an MQ136....

    Arduino Playground - MQGasSensors

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  • ocwo92
    0 ocwo92 over 9 years ago in reply to dougw

    I may be mistaken here, but I think there are two main sources of the objectionable odor. One is when the occupant breaks a wind, in which case a CH4 or H2S sensor might pick up the scent, so to speak.

    But the major contributor to the smell, I think, is the stool. The stool smells because of a compound called skatole or 3-methylindole, which attaches itself to the atmospheric air already present in the room. So, its detection would seem to require a sensor that detects specific airborne compounds rather than gases.

    Of course, there's always room for experiments with various gas sensors, but in this case theory seems to indicate that using gas sensors is not the right idea.

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  • clem57
    0 clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to ocwo92

    Looks like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole_test will detect, but it is microbiology test with bateria.

    C

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  • ocwo92
    0 ocwo92 over 9 years ago in reply to clem57

    Yes, I suspected a sensor employing nano-biology might be required. I know such sensors are being developed, and I thought that maybe sensors like this might be available. I just didn't want to bias my question in that direction in case other solutions were readily available.

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  • peterjcs23
    0 peterjcs23 over 9 years ago

    20 years ago I did a project for Aromscan plc who made an aroma sensor based on a fet transistor with a permeable coating. They went bust but you could try to track down if their technology still exists.

     

    Also the kind of detector (thermal conductivity) you get on the output of a gas chromatograph can detect organic gases.

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