Show HN: A home environment sensor from a Raspberry Pi and an e-paper device (opens in new tab)

I hack electronics as a hobby, and I'm am constantly amazed by the incredible prices of even the simplest screens. I can buy a Nexus 7 that includes a CPU, RAM, video card, SSD, wifi, a battery, and a 7" touchscreen for the same price I can buy a 5.6" non-touch screen at 720p [1]. And no, that doesn't include the battery or any of the tablet hardware. That's just the screen.

There's literally no reason why displays need to be as expensive as they are when a normal person wants to buy them, seeing as how Apple and Google et al have no problem sourcing them for much, much, MUCH less.

[1] http://www.adafruit.com/products/1666

A Kindle Paperwhite's display is only $40, so their additional expenses are incredibly high.

http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Amazon-Kindle-Paperwhite-Displ...

It's unsubsidized by media sales, so the price doesn't seem outlandish at all.

When you phrase it like that it sounds really bad.

How about a ruggedized wifi eink display with a fully featured HTML5 application stack, long autonomy and awesome support.

Is that a better value proposition?

A particulate sensor can be used to cheaply monitor the appropriate size range for pollen. Of course, it just senses light scattering, so other air polluting particulates of a similar size will be indistinguishable. Large particulates greater than 10 - 100 microns in diameter are likely to be pollen in an outdoor environment, but they can also be combustion related particulates. More information can be obtained from sensors that measure light polarization, which may allow one to differentiate pollen from other particulates of similar size.

A quick Google search leads me to the GP2Y1010AU0F Compact Optical Dust Sensor[1][2], which you can get on ebay for cheap. Hope that helps!

[1] http://sharp-world.com/products/device/lineup/data/pdf/datas...

[2] http://sensorapp.net/?p=479

Depends on what you call 'reasonable', but the answer is likely 'no'. The 'Air Quality Egg' was a kickstarter project a year and a half ago, but they failed to produce a calibrated device. Measuring particles is doable, it's the calibration that is the issue. Most of these sensors don't show useful measures for air pollution, although most claim they do.