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rspear5 t1_jcffjmy wrote

Wish this had made the top during the east Palestine crash. Oh well, better now than never. Super excited about it though

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3226 t1_jcfhrwj wrote

The problems there were a lot more severe than airborne particulates though. One of the big problems was the chlorine compounds turning into phosgene. That isn't something that would be picked up by a detector like this.

Airborne particulates are generally good for getting an idea of general pollution levels. As well as being directly harmful, they often come from sources that produce other air pollutants.

One of the nasty things about the east Palestine crash was that the burning vinyl chloride produced specific hazardous compounds that were worse than just an airborne particulate count would suggest.

You actually can get phosgene detectors, but they cost a lot. Maybe clubbing together and getting one for a community might be more realistic, and then you can go around and check everyone's properties.

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Domukin t1_jcfk1ic wrote

I wonder how this compares to purple air sensors.

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Ok-Walrus4627 t1_jcfl2zz wrote

Don’t you think that the results are gonna be skewed due to how it’s seemingly attached to the car roof/ behind a bunch of other cars with exhaust emissions while driving?

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SANPres09 t1_jcfrl6g wrote

I read the article and couldn't find it they listed hardware somewhere for people to build it yourself. Do PM 2.5 or smaller kits exist somewhere?

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Tactically_Fat t1_jcfscg5 wrote

Purple Air sensors are...problematic and really cannot be relied upon.

There's no way to test/check them. Therefore, there's no way to determine if they're working properly. They are absolutely not approved in any fashion by the USEPA as any kind of reliable sampler.

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HolyGuide t1_jcftnu6 wrote

These altruists stole this idea from Norman Osborn in that Spiderman game!

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Ok-Walrus4627 t1_jcfu4wt wrote

Because the air that they’re measuring is from only one part of one’s environment. It’s as if I were to measure the quality of hiking trails and say it represents the overall quality of the mountain

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redratus t1_jcfvdlz wrote

Does anyone have a link to the parts, for purchase or printing?

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MAD_ELMO t1_jcfyyca wrote

Looked like a Last of Us promo for a sec

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No-Consideration4985 t1_jcfzkwn wrote

Lets just over exaggerate the overall emmissions by placing the sensors on top of a car? Great idea team. Next time lets just place them next to an active volcano or better yet lets just place it on a co2 effluent pipeline at breast level. Same way the professionals do it to measure global CO2 ofcourse.

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MoirasPurpleOrb t1_jcg0fwg wrote

Why do people need to check the air quality? Like what do you do if it’s poor? Not go outside?

I just fail to see why people want this, it’s not like I can adjust my day based on the quality of the air around me.

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fluffycats1 t1_jcg3dlc wrote

Because the numbers help us diagnose and address problems with our air more effectively than not having them. It also gives something for people to act on, especially the ones who don’t believe they’re affected by the issue.

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SuperSpikeVBall t1_jcg6oj6 wrote

In the US West, people check on the AQI all the time when there are forest fires. Kids get kept inside at recess, old folks are told not to go out, sporting events get cancelled.

Now that everyone has masks sitting around I see a lot more people mask up when it’s smoky.

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GeoAtreides t1_jcg8yw3 wrote

In the handbook for assembling, they're using a sensirion sensor (probably sps30) for particulate measurement and some unspecified "gas probes".

They're whole setup looks somehow more complicated than necessary. Would've been much easier with an ESP32 or Arduino board...

Unrelated, for VOCs measurement, Bosch has two sensors BME680 and BME688, which together with their proprietary algorithms (BSEC) and the BME AI studio, can be used for VOC measurement.

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a_a_ronc t1_jcg9usu wrote

Yeah I was looking at their assembly doc on my phone and saw it there, so just think they forgot it.

I’ll have to check out those Bosch sensors. I wanted to measure VOCs getting kicked off of resin 3D printers so was mostly just looking at full solution when I last looked.

EDIT: They responded on GitHub already. It’s listed in a separate tab of the BOM. So yeah, just an SPS30 and Bosch BME280

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raging_pastafarian t1_jcga2dj wrote

> The World Health Organization has estimated that it leads to over 4 million premature deaths worldwide annually.

I'm betting the number of people that have health complications from air quality issues is MUCH higher than 4 million. Total economic damage from burning fossil fuels is probably astronomical.

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iamnotazombie44 t1_jcgak77 wrote

This is all tragically true. I'm a chemist from across the country and I was crying for those people and that area the day I read the manifest. That area is fucked.

I wanted to report that you can detect these compounds an organo-halide detector, they are relatively cheap sensors to detect refrigerants. They work on detecting the X - C bond, where X is F, Cl, Be, or I.

It's a pretty common for refrigeration people and in water testing. They are not cheap, but not prohibitive either.

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PsymonFyrestar t1_jcgb4y9 wrote

Oh no, air quality poor. Better hold my breath until i get 20 miles outside the city!

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Maktube t1_jcgd3lr wrote

They're not really accurate to the extent that you'd want the government basing health-related decisions on their readings (I'm not sure any crowd-sourced thing could be reliable enough, either), but they're fantastic for what they are, which is 1, widely distributed and 2, consistent.

Kind of like citizen weather stations, they're not a replacement for the government data, but they're an excellent supplement to it.

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hazpat t1_jcgdz3o wrote

I would believe they can be tested in a very similar matter to professional sensors. My top of the line detectors are just calibrated to zero, which i assume is extremely easy to do on the purple. You simply apply a filter and make sure levels drop to 0. There are no mid range calibration for particulate matter. It is nearly impossible to produce a standard concentration aerosol.

Now if it is also testing for gasses or vapors, it would need to be calibrated with standards

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oakteaphone t1_jcgejap wrote

>it’s not like I can adjust my day based on the quality of the air around me.

It's actually commonly done in parts of the world. I was occasionally wearing masks for more than a year before the pandemic.

And that's the solution. Reduce outdoor activity where possible (especially exercise), keep windows closed, and wear a mask if you must go out.

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Tactically_Fat t1_jcgf4ya wrote

Need to be able to audit flow.

And flow is related to temperature and pressure.

Agreed that a simple leak check can be peformed with a HEPA filter.

PM samplers that can/have met Federal Equivalency Methods status are all able to be calibrated to atmospheric conditions as well as having these things audited / verified.

A lot of this is done so that the data generated can be defensible should the need arise.

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Tactically_Fat t1_jcgfe5y wrote

Some things can be an excellent supplement - but when purple air readings are way off from properly calibrated, maintained, and audited Federal Equivalency Methods or Federal Reference Methods instruments - they leave a LOT to be desired. A lot.

ETA: things that involve moving air at rates that are supposed to be constant - and/or able to compensate for changing atmospheric conditions aren't quite the same as solid-state temperature sensors, rain gauges, or even wind vanes.

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hazpat t1_jcghwce wrote

Flow meters are usualy built in and auto adjust. Checking flow with a rotometer is fast and simple.

Most meters operate under factory calibration factors that are acceptable under most conditions. You can, but are not required by any regs, to set user calibration factors based on local conditions. This is a very tedious process that you don't typically see people do unless they are in abnormal conditions like constant fog or whatever. On my meters temp and pressure sensors are built in, no idea about the purple, but I would trust the particulate data if it passed a flow and zero check.

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PacoTaco321 t1_jcgmdfa wrote

So does the default weather app on my phone. I'm not sure why someone would need their own meter when there's so many ways to do so already. If you are in a situation that you have to worry about checking air quality in a highly localized area, you should probably just avoid being there altogether.

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Enzo_GS t1_jcgowon wrote

there is a pizzaria chimney right next to my room's window, i wonder if this can help me

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red_purple_red t1_jcgrz2e wrote

Open-source means open for the NSA to covertly install backdoors.

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John_Yossarian t1_jcgtx7z wrote

> Would've been much easier with an ESP32 or Arduino board...

That's what I came here looking for. I made an ESP32/BME680 climate sensor a few months ago and haven't gotten around to calibrating/deploying it, was hoping I could pivot and turn it into an outdoor citizen science project

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-peas- t1_jcgv5ro wrote

I made & coded my own array of various sensors and have a blower/laser pm2.5 sensor, and I care not about its scientific accuracy, but I care about its ability to be able to tell me when air quality on my deck gets worse. It does that immediately with an LED that shines into my window with various colors depending on EPA air quality math. It could be huge percentages off scientifically accurate, but its going to tell me that the air quality got much worse. Its pm2.5 numbers are close to other stations around me regardless, but it definitely isn't a scientific instrument.

I'm not sure if most people buying these things care about its scientific accuracy, mainly just if things are getting worse outside.

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Yobanyyo t1_jcgxc06 wrote

I live in a stretch of land called Cancer Alley, tons of industry right next door to the state Capitol.

For me it would be a fun project, second I don't trust the industry to self report, third I don't always trust state agencies due to how governance and the petrochemical industry fuck in the same bed.

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what595654 t1_jcgzrjl wrote

Did you not read what he said? You are just looking at whether it goes up or down. Being perfectly accurate is not necessary.

Its like if you had a weight scale. If it told you, tomorrow that you gained 15.3 lbs, and you repeated... and it said 13.9 lbs... 17.6 lbs, so on. It doesnt matter the exactness. The point is, your weight went up a lot in one day. That is good enough to make decisions on. Not for scientific studies.

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AnEngineer2018 t1_jch0gwl wrote

Burning any chemical with chlorine would be an incredibly ineffective way to produce phosgene gas. Past 200C it’s just going to form chlorine and carbon monoxide, which elemental chlorine in the air is probably going to find some nitrogen to team up with, hence the widely reported pool smell.

Just leaving any chemical with chlorine on the ground is likely to just deep through the ground until it finds a source of sodium and the sodium and chlorine do what they do best.

Between the pool smell, rashes and burns, and dead things in ditch water, and ignoring god know what other chemicals are just in ditch water from field run off, most likely explanation is that some people, and animals, were just exposed to elemental chlorine dissolved in water.

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I-seddit t1_jch3c84 wrote

In the paper it defines "low cost" as less than $2500 - so I'm curious what the actual part cost is...

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HarmoniousJ t1_jch94b7 wrote

Do not mobile for any program that needs a moderately steady connection, that is also dealing in precise minute by minute measurements.

Is that better? Mobile is still lacking in precision work, whether or not that will be true in a few years is up for grabs still.

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HarmoniousJ t1_jchcgs8 wrote

Look, your favorite platform is not under attack right now. That's not the point I'm trying to make.

What I'm saying is that some programming work is better off using an ethernet cable than a cellular connection. Sorry my guy, mobile is not what they use in MIT for weather updates or small incremental changes. They still use ethernet for that.

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HarmoniousJ t1_jchdqd0 wrote

There's a difference between one wanting something to be true and whether or not it actually is. I know you love your mobile and use it for everything but it's still not the fastest.

And I'm not saying this will always be the case, I'm just saying you live in a future that doesn't exist yet.

Believe me, I'd love to be able to program everything using my Fold 3 but the damn thing hates most things that aren't Android.

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Maktube t1_jche2z8 wrote

When the right conversion is applied -- as it is by default -- PA2 sensors are actually pretty close to the official EPA sensors. Like, they produce the exact same AQI 90-95% of the time, and they're within 5ug/m^3 >98% of the time. They predict the wrong category (good/moderate/UHSG/etc) basically never (<1% of the time) and when they do it's typically because the value was right on the line between two categories.

Even if that weren't the case, though, they fill in a major gap in the EPA sensor setup that no one talks about. There aren't that many EPA sensors out there, but if you go to the EPA website to look at air quality, it will show you a value for everywhere on the map. It does this by interpolating between sensor stations and taking into account weather data. This is often not just wrong, but so wildly wrong that I think it's irresponsible to even show it. The PA2 sensors could be a factor of 2 off the official values and still be more useful than that map, because they're everywhere and they're consistent. They would regularly report dangerous air quality values in regions that the EPA map does not, which is a lot more valuable than being right on the money in terms of the actual numbers (though again, they pretty much are always right on the money).

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HarmoniousJ t1_jchek8y wrote

You should probably brush up on connectivity, No one except for you seems to want to die on this hill that mobile is more effective than ethernet with speed.

Most programmers seem to know this already.

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iRhcp182 t1_jchf5ki wrote

What you see in your weather app is very different from what the city scanner shows. How air quality is usually measured is by using 5-6 fixed research grade sensors. The measurements from these stations are used plus some meteorological variables (wind speed+direction, relative humidity, temperature) to model air quality over a larger area. The city scanners however show that air quality can differ a factor 10 on a micro scale. Meaning that these models can wildly over or under estimate air quality at specific locations. These scanners are thus used to create a higher resolution air quality map.

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JasonDJ t1_jchfens wrote

Like Reddit, the huge for-profit social media empire that still had an 8 hour long near-full outage a couple days ago? Yeah.

Except it seems like there’s a lot more client-side stuff happening on this non-profit open-source site. From what I could load before by browser crashed, at least.

I’m not faulting this site, either. If anything the biggest fault is auto-loading a world map. It’d probably be better to not do that and either get location and zoom in locally, or ask for location. I’d also think that it’s probably better to scrape programmatically (I.e., have something on a HomeAssistant Dashboard that gets the air quality for your specific location) and I’d guess that most people wouldn’t interact with the main page directly.

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JasonDJ t1_jchh4fj wrote

I wouldn’t even so much say “lazy” as “underfunded”. Takes money to pay devs, takes money to build servers. More server side operations requires more servers which requires more money. Cheaper to push that to the client.

Plus I get the suspicion that their front end map dashboard is a nice-to-have but the primary use-case is API…especially in mobile. Not knowing anything about this site/app though.

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HarmoniousJ t1_jchodbj wrote

Out of all my devices in the fully connected home, the phone is the least reliable.

Dunno why you champion it, maybe you'll have a better argument for a comparable reliability x speed in a few years but it lacks that right now.

The most confusing part about this conversation is that I'm using a lot of different platforms for programming. There is no contest, mobile still underperforms my other equipment. You'd be aware of its shortcomings too if you did what I did.

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CARLEtheCamry t1_jchpkey wrote

I live less than 20 miles downwind from East Palestine. In the immediate aftermath local subs were full of panic posts about "omg death cloud, look at PurpleAir!".

Turns out it just got cold, and people burned wood. Happens frequently with the Cracker Plant as well, people try to correlate PurpleAir with it, it's always wood burners.

You're using the sensors right. It should be more of general guidance, leave the actual testing to scientists. Like, I wouldn't walk into a hazmat scene with my air purifier if it's sensor was green.

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TricoMex t1_jchq3wh wrote

But didn't you hear? If they can't be calibrated and tested they're useless! /s

I don't know where these people with absolutist views come from honestly.

It's like amazing bills and laws being rejected because they don't resolve an issue 100%.

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Etzix t1_jchsmha wrote

IoT is my job. We deal with millions of devices that send data over the air. If our websites didnt work on a tablet our customers would leave us. You have no idea what you are talking about.

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HarmoniousJ t1_jchsx90 wrote

Not even really talking about websites, talking about data that needs to be constantly refreshed. The moisture sensor in my yard isn't running off a website but it still runs smoother on a PC vs. my phone/android interface.

You sure you know enough about what I'm talking about?

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Etzix t1_jchu66a wrote

You are viewing that data somewhere, either a website or an app on your phone or both. Ofcourse if you are doing a bunch of calculations on the client your PC will be faster. That has little to nothing to do with the tiny difference in internet speed/reliability (especially if we are talking minute based data).

If the above site is slow/crashes, its shoddy code work. They are doing way too many calculations on the frontend instead of on the server, or they are sending way too many requests (like many requests each second).

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speech_freedom t1_jci53by wrote

We also measure Beijing's Air Quality and publishes it for free. I suppose China is not that generous to publish ours. Fuck China.

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iamaredditboy t1_jci62fh wrote

Isn’t air quality data published already online

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JohnEdwa t1_jcia5hw wrote

But it doesn't have to be that expensive. That Purpleair Flex has a BME688, $13.5 in single quantity (<$7 if you buy in bulk), and two PMS-6003 which are around $40 in single quantity. Asking for $270 for a device that's idea is to gather crowd sourced data is a bit steep.

Meanwhile the European project uses a kit that costs less than $50 to put together, and that's in single quantity by people ordering the stuff from aliexpress.

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markmaksym t1_jcibibk wrote

I live next to a top 3 busiest airport in the US. Wonder how much shit is spewed out in the air every 30 seconds that a plane passes over my house.

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qichael t1_jcigsz4 wrote

i would actually rather they be working on an AI model that starts a nuclear conflict

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shalol t1_jciihf9 wrote

> Beyond that, mobile safari is the backing engine for all browsers on ios devices, even Chrome.

^(*Because Apple forces every IOS browser to use their engine, everything is just a reskin of safari)

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jqubed t1_jcik7k2 wrote

So around 3x component cost? That sounds about right for a consumer electronics product in the U.S. Maybe high if they’re keeping data from the devices for commercial use.

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JimJohnes t1_jcipyi3 wrote

Market share of iOS is less than half that of Android (27% vs 72%). Same goes for Chrome and Chromium based browsers - so that's where web developers priorities of optimization and debugging are.

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douglasg14b t1_jciros5 wrote

> That's.... a long list

The list has 19 components, that's not a long list at all?

> $100ish just for the enclosure and unknown for the electronics.

The model numbers are there, you can price them out! It's not a big mystery.

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resilient_bird t1_jcit9s9 wrote

Well, of course, but if you didn’t burn any fossil fuels, more than half of the worlds population would probably starve (fertilizer, tractors, distribution, refrigeration, cooking), so there’s that. Like the reality is we’re married to it until something better is developed.

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kilgore_trout8989 t1_jciv0vr wrote

19 entries is like the BOM size for a tiny homemade LCD display haha. Some of these components are like a couple bucks, in bulk. Switches, buck converters, USB ports, accelerometers, etc. are probably things just lying around the house of this kind of things target audience.

Edit: They'd also likely be able to build their own enclosures with a 3d printer.

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FourOff t1_jcj42nd wrote

I built one with a feather board and BME680 (for weather and gas sensor). Still ~$150 with a few add-ons for a “plug and play” (plus programming) option. My neighbor has a Purple Air I can compare to and it comes out pretty close (after some tweaking).

1 x Flanged Weatherproof Enclosure With PG-7 Cable Glands[ID:3931] = $9.95

1 x Adafruit Feather M4 Express - Featuring ATSAMD51 (ATSAMD51 Cortex M4) [ID:3857] = $22.95

1 x Adafruit AirLift FeatherWing – ESP32 WiFi Co-Processor[ID:4264] = $12.95

1 x Adafruit PMSA003I Air Quality Breakout (STEMMA QT / Qwiic) [ID:4632] = $44.95

1 x Adafruit BME680 - Temperature, Humidity, Pressure and Gas Sensor (STEMMA QT) [ID:3660] = $18.95

1 x FeatherWing Doubler - Prototyping Add-on For All Feather Boards[ID:2890] = $7.50

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin Cable - 100mm Long[ID:4210] = $0.95

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin to Premium Male Headers Cable (150mm Long) [ID:4209] = $0.95

1 x Stacking Headers for Feather - 12-pin and 16-pin female headers[ID:2830] = $1.25

1 x USB A/Micro Cable - 2m[ID:2185] = $4.95

1 x Lithium Ion Polymer Battery Ideal For Feathers - 3.7V 400mAh[ID:3898] = $6.95

1 x STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-Pin Cable (50mm Long) [ID:4399] = $0.95

1 x Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB - Single[ID:1609] = $0.00 —————————————————— Sub-Total: $133.25

Edited to fix weird type size and spacing on the order I copy/pasted.

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djabula64 t1_jcjk2se wrote

And do what with that information? Stop breathing that cheap air?

1

LUX1337 t1_jcjwsh2 wrote

> It's a luxury brand pretending it's technology

What does that even mean? Pretending it's technology? What?

> made by child labor.

Pretty sure every other Android phone is also made by child labor. Fairphone is probably going to be the only company where you get a smartphone that is made ethically.

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monkeyman8568 t1_jck2j99 wrote

How about focusing on making air clean instead of creating technology to check our micro local air pollution? Just sayin

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saltyload t1_jckl0ys wrote

I would rather not know wtf I am breathing. I mean let’s say it’s horrible air quality…what am I suppose to do? Move?

1

redldr1 t1_jckne11 wrote

Only Apple has gone out of its way to say they are child labor free, and yet for three years they were told about the cobalt mines.

But, you can defend your cult, it's like fox news. Facts don't matter, you can't educate stupid.

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chefbobbyjay t1_jcl5wo4 wrote

Ok so now you have something telling you (what you probably already know) the air sucks. Now what?

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fakecore t1_jcld36x wrote

I'm just tired of constantly having to read these edgy shit takes.

"Defend your cult" give me a break. I'm not defending anything and if you would read you'd see that. Every company involved in child labor is awful, including Apple.

Just because Apple claims they are child labor free (which btw I'm not even sure if they claim they are, would be helpful if you'd provide a source) doesn't make everyone else less bad for doing it.

And the comparison with alt-right fox news is just offensive lol. But hey, free karma.

Simping for any company that does horrible stuff is dumb. That's simping for Apple, but also just as much simping for Google.

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doll-haus t1_jcmus3j wrote

You're likely talking about mobile power saving features. Either pausing the app or dialing back the WiFi.

Or your phone is just shit. There's no reason for, say, basic streaming telemetry to be worse on mobile, and for many of us it isn't. (I access netdata and graphana from mobile)

0