I’m using the environment sensor in my current setup and I’m getting values of ~20000. Where can I read more on how are those values calculated or what exactly do they mean. I see on the datasheet page that it should be the IAQ index but as far as I’ve searched online, this IAQ value should be ~100 (if normal)?
Hello @digib,
The Bosch BME680 does not output the IAQ value even they write it on their [webpage](Gas Sensor BME680 | Bosch Sensortec].
The output of the Bosch BME680 is the gas resistance of the air. The higher the value, the cleaner the air. It is better explained in the BME680 datasheet chapter 3.4.1 Gas sensor resistance readout.
To get the IAQ value you need to use the Bosch Sensortec Environmental Cluster..
We did not include the BSEC in our examples because it is Bosch closed source and it’s installation caused problems. The BSEC is precompiled code and avaiable for selected MCU only.
The IAQ is calculated by BSEC from the gas resistance, the humidity and the temperature. Bosch algorithm is proprietary and not released as open source.
So basically the bosh algorithm is a math formula that has the IAQ value as a result and its only input data are BME680’s values, temperature, and humidity? If that’s so then it’s too bad we don’t know this formula as my current sensor has those exact sensors on it and I could easily calculate the IAQ so I can relate to other measurements from around the world.
As I said, the BSEC library for Arduino is available => BSEC-Arduino-library. Feel free to use it.
In the past it required some patches in the Arduino BSP’s, that’s why we didn’t use it in the examples.