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I've been interested in environmental sensing for a long time - mainly for monitoring renewable energy sources. I've been collecting interesting sensors for a while and one of those was a "Nova PM Sensor SDS011 High Precision Laser PM2.5 Air Quality Detection Sensor" (mine came from Bang Good, but available in lots of places). This is quite a large sensor with a fan to control air flow over a laser detection sensor. The datasheet is available here.     The data is obtainable via a digital output (pulses when particles are detected) or via a serial connection (at a default of...

In this activity we are going to build a soalr powered car. This uses the motor to spins some wheels and make our car move! The main issue with making our car is that the motor is not very powerful. This means we have to make sure the car is as efficient as possible and that any friction is low. Friction is the resitance to motion. Try pushing different objects along the floor - some will be harder to push and some will be easier. If you push a large book along the floor then it might be quite difficult....

In this activity we are going to investigate how much sunlight the is each day. To do this we are going to built two different types of sunlight indicator. These will give an idea of how bright the sun is and can be used for further experiments! Solar Dial We are going to need the solar PV connected to the motor again! So please wire your kit up like this: When the sun is bright the motor will spin very quickly. This is too quick for us to easily see and count how many times it has spun around. So...