Difference between revisions of "MHZ19"

From RevSpace
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 15: Line 15:
 
The sensor then looks at the relative intensity of the light at two different frequencies.
 
The sensor then looks at the relative intensity of the light at two different frequencies.
 
The CO2 gas inside the air absorbs light strongly at very specific wavelengths, allowing a determination of the concentration (ppm) of CO2.
 
The CO2 gas inside the air absorbs light strongly at very specific wavelengths, allowing a determination of the concentration (ppm) of CO2.
This is then compensated for temperature and pressure for increased accuracy.
+
This is then compensated for temperature (and pressure?) for increased accuracy.
 
See also [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondispersive_infrared_sensor wikipedia] for this measurement principle.
 
See also [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondispersive_infrared_sensor wikipedia] for this measurement principle.
 
A new measurement is started every 5 seconds, you can actually see a small amount of light coming out of the sensor while it's measuring.
 
A new measurement is started every 5 seconds, you can actually see a small amount of light coming out of the sensor while it's measuring.
Line 39: Line 39:
  
 
Some of these commands appear in the MHZ-19<bold>B</bold> datasheet, but appear to work a little differently for the MH-Z19.
 
Some of these commands appear in the MHZ-19<bold>B</bold> datasheet, but appear to work a little differently for the MH-Z19.
 +
 +
=== command 0x86 response frame ===
 +
A response to command 0x86 typically looks like this:
 +
<pre>
 +
HH LL TT SS U1 U2
 +
</pre>
 +
where
 +
* HH/LL is the CO2 ppm value
 +
* TT is the temperature in degrees Celcius, plus 40
 +
* SS is some kind of status byte, this byte always has only one bit set!
 +
* U1/U2 is some unknown value, perhaps related to pressure?
 +
 +
==== Log of response at startup ====
 +
Below is a log of the sensor response to the 0x86 measurement command while starting up.
 +
The first couple of measurement seem to be invalid.
 +
 +
<pre>
 +
RAW: 00 80 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 07 D0 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 00 05 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 01 2D 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 40 3A 98
 +
RAW: 28 97 47 40 3A 98
 +
RAW: 03 84 47 40 2B 43
 +
RAW: 03 85 47 40 2B 19
 +
RAW: 03 86 47 40 2A F9
 +
RAW: 03 87 47 40 2A E1
 +
</pre>
 +
 +
The first measurement shows a ppm value of 128, a temperature of 31 degrees C, a "status" byte of 01 and the "unknown" value of 0x3a98 (= 15000).
 +
The second measurement shows a high ppm value of 2000 ppm (the max value within the ppm range).
 +
The third measurement shows a low ppm value of 5 ppm.
 +
The fourth measurement shows a ppm value of 301 ppm.
 +
The fifth measurement shows a very high ppm value of 10391.
 +
The final measurement shows a realistic indoors ppm value of 0x387 = 903 ppm.
 +
The "unknown value" (byte 4/5) typically settles down to 10500 or so.
 +
 +
So, it takes some time before the measurement stabilizes, proposed heuristic for a valid reading:
 +
* "status byte" has to be 0x40
 +
* "unknown value" has to be lower than 15000

Revision as of 12:17, 22 October 2016

Project MHZ19
Mhz19.jpg
Some research into the MH-Z19 CO2 sensor
Status Initializing
Contact bertrik
Last Update 2016-10-22

Introduction

This page is about the MH-Z19 CO2 sensor and some experiments done with it.

This sensor gives a digital (serial) output of the CO2 concentration in air, in parts-per-million (ppm). It uses the optical measurement principle of measuring CO2, which should be much more accurate than the inexpensive electro-chemical sensors you can find. As far as I know, the optical measurement principle uses a broadband light-source to send some light through an air-sample. The sensor then looks at the relative intensity of the light at two different frequencies. The CO2 gas inside the air absorbs light strongly at very specific wavelengths, allowing a determination of the concentration (ppm) of CO2. This is then compensated for temperature (and pressure?) for increased accuracy. See also wikipedia for this measurement principle. A new measurement is started every 5 seconds, you can actually see a small amount of light coming out of the sensor while it's measuring.

The MH-Z19 is the cheapest optical CO2 sensor I could find on AliExpress, about E22,-.

Hardware and reference data

See the manufacturer MH-Z19 page.

Software

See this github repo for code using this sensor with an ESP8266 board (WeMos D1 mini). It publishes the CO2 concentration to topic "bertrik/co2" on test.mosquitto.org every 5 seconds.

It seems that support for this sensor was recently added to ESPEasy.

Extended commands

Normally, this sensor is read out using a command/response sequence over serial.

It appears that there are some additional command beyond just reading the CO2 concentration:

  • some calibration commands, e.g. to let the sensor know when it's breathing pure nitrogen (0 ppm), or some reference gas with a known CO2 concentration (e.g. 400 ppm)
  • command XX, to enable/disable the ABC-algorithm (automatic baseline correction)
  • command YY, to set the measurement range of the sensor in steps of 1000 ppm

Some of these commands appear in the MHZ-19<bold>B</bold> datasheet, but appear to work a little differently for the MH-Z19.

command 0x86 response frame

A response to command 0x86 typically looks like this:

HH LL TT SS U1 U2

where

  • HH/LL is the CO2 ppm value
  • TT is the temperature in degrees Celcius, plus 40
  • SS is some kind of status byte, this byte always has only one bit set!
  • U1/U2 is some unknown value, perhaps related to pressure?

Log of response at startup

Below is a log of the sensor response to the 0x86 measurement command while starting up. The first couple of measurement seem to be invalid.

RAW: 00 80 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 07 D0 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 00 05 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 01 2D 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 01 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 40 3A 98
RAW: 28 97 47 40 3A 98
RAW: 03 84 47 40 2B 43
RAW: 03 85 47 40 2B 19
RAW: 03 86 47 40 2A F9
RAW: 03 87 47 40 2A E1

The first measurement shows a ppm value of 128, a temperature of 31 degrees C, a "status" byte of 01 and the "unknown" value of 0x3a98 (= 15000). The second measurement shows a high ppm value of 2000 ppm (the max value within the ppm range). The third measurement shows a low ppm value of 5 ppm. The fourth measurement shows a ppm value of 301 ppm. The fifth measurement shows a very high ppm value of 10391. The final measurement shows a realistic indoors ppm value of 0x387 = 903 ppm. The "unknown value" (byte 4/5) typically settles down to 10500 or so.

So, it takes some time before the measurement stabilizes, proposed heuristic for a valid reading:

  • "status byte" has to be 0x40
  • "unknown value" has to be lower than 15000