The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2019
Pimoroni's Enviro+ turns Raspberry Pi into a citizen-science air quality monitor
Sheffield maker Pimoroni's Enviro+ board turns a Raspberry Pi into an air-quality station feeding open-data networks; its 2019 Show HN drew 397 points.
Pimoroni
What the business is
Pimoroni, a Sheffield company selling Raspberry Pi add-ons since 2012, makes Enviro+ Air Quality — a fully-assembled pHAT-format board measuring pollutant gases and particulates plus temperature, pressure, humidity, light and noise, with a colour LCD and Python library.
How it started
Pimoroni developed Enviro+ Air Quality in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, aiming to let anyone contribute real-time air-quality data from their local area to open projects such as Sensor Community. The reasoning: fine-grained datasets show how pollution shifts through time and across a city, and the more devices feeding data, the better the dataset becomes.
What happened
The line reached Hacker News as a Show HN on 2019-06-14, drawing 397 points and 82 comments. The board packs a BME280, LTR-559, MICS6814 analog gas sensor, ADC, MEMS microphone and 0.96-inch colour LCD, with an optional PMS5003 particulate sensor and a Python library that includes an example for pushing data to Sensor Community. Pimoroni kept supporting the line: 2021 boards shipped with an ADS1115 instead of the ADS1015 during parts shortages, with the library updated to auto-detect the change.
How it ended up
As of the 2026 product page the line is still being sold: Enviro at £22.50 (was £30) and Enviro+ Air Quality at £54, with 160 customer reviews, the Sensor Community integration still promoted and the Python library still maintained.
Background
Pimoroni is a Sheffield company that has made Raspberry Pi add-ons since 2012. Its Enviro+ Air Quality board, developed with the University of Sheffield, measures pollutant gases and particulates plus temperature, pressure, humidity, light and noise, and is designed to feed real-time data to open projects such as Sensor Community.
The bet was that affordable, fully-assembled hardware would turn Raspberry Pi owners into a distributed environmental-monitoring network: fine-grained data across a city shows how air quality shifts over time and place, and the more devices contribute, the better the dataset. The product page is explicit that the gas sensor is qualitative without calibration, pairing honesty about limits with a simple path to useful particulate data.
The line reached Hacker News as a Show HN on 2019-06-14, drawing 397 points and 82 comments from the maker and developer audience it targets. Pimoroni kept the product current: an open Python library with Sensor Community examples, published schematics, and 2021 boards that swapped ADC chips during parts shortages while the library was updated to auto-detect them.
As of the 2026 product page, Enviro and Enviro+ Air Quality are still sold — Enviro at £22.50 (was £30) and Enviro+ at £54, out of stock at the time of the fetch — with 160 customer reviews and the citizen-science pitch intact. The source is a product page, so Pimoroni's overall revenue and business results are not documented here.
What has to be true
- The audience signal was strong and specific: 397 points and 82 comments on Hacker News on 2019-06-14 from the exact maker and developer community that buys Raspberry Pi hardware.
- The design made the network effect real: collaboration with the University of Sheffield and a Python example wired each board into Sensor Community, giving buyers a purpose beyond owning a gadget.
- The product was honest about its limits — the gas sensor gives qualitative readings without calibration, while particulate monitoring through the add-on PMS5003 was the credible path to useful data.
- Longevity is evidence: still listed in 2026 with 160 reviews, and library support maintained through a 2021 parts-shortage chip swap.
What can be applied
A citizen-science product wins when the instrument is cheap, assembled and open, and when each unit plugs into an existing data network so buyers are contributing science rather than owning a gadget.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 the product line is live: Enviro is in stock at £22.50 (was £30), Enviro+ Air Quality is listed at £54 and was out of stock when the page was fetched, and the page carries 160 reviews and still promotes the Sensor Community integration. The material is a product page, so Pimoroni's revenue, headcount or wider strategy are not documented in this case.
Sources
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