Main Content

A simple array of a few Particle Argons to monitor and report environmental conditions of a mesh network of several spaces.

The basis for this project was to utilize a collection of Particle Argons to gather, publish, and chart data pertaining to environmental conditions. The purpose of this data is to aid in the monitoring of a room or space remotely over the internet, as opposed to requiring a physical connection. This allows for separate spaces to be observed from anywhere with internet access. The way this works is through the utilization of the Particle.publish and Particle.subscribe functions provided by the Particle API. These functions send and receive messages from other devices in your network. Our project utilizes two independent air monitor modules that communicate with a central data handling hub. This third Argon transmits data to ThingSpeak and Discord, and also communicates back to the air monitors to ensure their proper function as well as meet project requirements. Additionally, the monitors communicate with each other by sending conditional acknowledgements back and forth, with accompanying LED visual confirmations using the onboard RGB LED. These LEDs work much like a Useless Machine, with each one repetitively triggering an event that assigns an updated value to a variable, which subsequently triggers the other argon back to the original value, repeating the process indefinitely.

A case was designed to house the components for the project. The main part of the case was 3D printed and the lid was CNC machined from carbon fiber for aesthetics. Files can be found on Thingiverse.”

Link to article