This is a project to provide users an interface (´´´read_waveplus.py´´´) to read current sensor values from the Airthings Wave Plus devices using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
Airthings Wave Plus is a smart IAQ monitor with Radon detection, including sensors for temperature, air presssure, humidity, TVOCs and CO2.
The first step is to setup the Raspberry Pi with Raspbian. An installation guide for Raspbian can be found on the Raspberry Pi website. In short: download the Raspbian image and write it to a micro SD card.
To continue, you need access to the Raspberry Pi using either a monitor and keyboard, or by connecting through WiFi or ethernet from another computer. The latter option does not require an external screen or keyboard and is called “headless” setup. To access a headless setup, you must first activate SSH on the Pi. This can be done by creating a file named ssh in the boot partition of the SD card. Connect to the Pi using SSH from a command line interface (terminal):
´´´ $ ssh [email protected] ´´´
The default password for the “pi” user is “raspberry”.
In the terminal window on you Raspberry Pi:
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ bluetoothctl [bluetooth]# power on [bluetooth]# show ´´´
After issuing the command ´´´show´´´, a list of bluetooth settings will be printed to the Raspberry Pi terminal window. Look for “Powered: yes”.
Note: The ´´´read_waveplus.py´´´ script is only compatible with Python2.7.
The next step is to install the bluepy Python library for talking to the BLE stack. For the current released version for Python 2.7:
´´´
pi@raspberrypi:$ sudo apt-get install python-pip libglib2.0-dev
pi@raspberrypi:$ sudo pip2 install bluepy==1.2.0
´´´
Make sure your Raspberry Pi has git installed
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ git --version ´´´
or install git to be able to clone this repo.
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ sudo apt-get install git ´´´
Additionally, the ´´´read_waveplus.py´´´ script depends on the ´´´tableprint´´´ module to print nicely formated sensor data to the Raspberry Pi terminal at run-time.
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ sudo pip2 install tableprint==0.8.0 ´´´
Note: The ´´´read_waveplus.py´´´ script has been tested with bluepy==1.2.0 and tableprint==0.8.0. You may download the latest versions at your own risk.
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ sudo git clone https://github.com/Airthings/waveplus.git ´´´
To read the sensor data from the Airthings Wave Plus using the ´´´read_waveplus.py´´´ script, you need the 10-digit serial number of the device. This can be found under the magnetic backplate of your Airthings Wave Plus.
If your device is paired and connected to e.g. a phone, you may need to turn off bluetooth on your phone while using this script.
´´´cd´´´ into the waveplus directory
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~$ cd waveplus ´´´
Run the Python script “read_waveplus.py” in the following way:
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~/waveplus $ sudo python2 read_waveplus.py [SN] terminal ´´´
where you change [SN] with the 10-digit serial number.
After a short delay, the script will print the current sensor values to the Raspberry Pi terminal window. Exit the script using “Ctrl + c”.
If you want to pipe the results to a text-file, you can run the script in the following way:
´´´ pi@raspberrypi:~/waveplus $ sudo python2 read_waveplus.py [SN] pipe > yourfile.txt ´´´
where you change [SN] with the 10-digit serial number. Exit the script using “Ctrl + c”.
| sensor | units | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Humidity | %rH | |
| Temperature | °C | |
| Radon short term average | Bq/m3 | First measurement available 1 hour after inserting batteries |
| Radon long term average | Bq/m3 | First measurement available 1 hour after inserting batteries |
| Relative atmospheric pressure | hPa | |
| CO2 level | ppm | |
| TVOC level | ppb | Total volatile organic compounds level |
Initial release 12-Dec-2018