Environmental sensor can detect a wide range of VOCs

Parallax BME680 Environmental Sensor couples a gas sensor with air pressure, humidity, and ambient air temperature sensing functions. This device is available now from Mouser. The sensor is housed in a compact PCB with a six-pin male header. The device is supported by BlocklyProp visual programming and C libraries for the Propeller multicore microcontroller. Code for other controllers is offered from the Bosch Github repository.

The device detects a broad range of VOCs and provides overvoltage, reverse polarity and signal contention protection of all signal pins. The sensor is compatible with 3.3V and 5V microcontrollers and offers breadboard-friendly six-pin header with 0.1" spacing, plus two mounting holes.

The sensor is suitable for air quality monitoring; home automation and control; weather forecast, warning system for high temp, low-humidity conditions; context awareness, e.g. skin moisture detection, room change detection; vertical velocity indicator (rise/sink speed); indoor navigation, e.g. change of floor detection, elevator detection; and altitude tracking and calories expenditure for sports activities applications.