Advanced Bosch BME688 Breakout Board for Raspberry Pi

With this combined air quality sensor from Bosch (BME688) for the Raspberry Pi, you can measure various ambient air parameters:

• Air quality (IAQ – indoor air quality index), calculated by Bosch software (BSEC library).
• Air temperature
• Air pressure
• Air humidity
• VOC values in the air

The sensor is the successor of the popular BME680. In addition to its features, it offers gas analysis, supported by machine learning. Using the BME AI Studio software, the sensor can be trained to detect different gas mixtures and their presence (e.g. coffee).

The designers of this board have taken many steps to remove the common pitfalls of similar designs. They’ve considered falsified readings (due to SBC heat), soldering requirements, additional connectivity options and more, to create the ultimate gas sensor for your Raspberry Pi!

Features

The sensor is mounted on our easy to use I2C breakout board. This CO2 sensor board has many advantages over similar products:

• Simply plug it into Raspberry Pi GPIO port (1B – 4B, Zero series)
• Breakout pins compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico – it can be plugged directly into the breadboard side by side with a Pico with soldered headers
• The breakout board is mounted pointing away from the Raspberry Pi, which allows a more precise temperature measurement – the sensor is not directly above the Raspberry Pi SoC, so the temperature and humidity measurement are not falsified
• Using our BME688 breakout board with breadboards is especially convenient thanks to zero-solder technology: The unpopulated header (X1) has slight offsets between the holes. This way, the pin strip (included) can be easily inserted and wedged into the header. The result: our gas sensor breakout board can be plugged directly onto breadboards without soldering! Of course, the pin strip can also be soldered into the header to achieve higher mechanical stability.
• Two Grove-compatible I2C interface connectors complete the breakout board and allow easy connection to other platforms, e.g. Arduino (3V3!), and some ESP32 boards.

Works with PiCockpit!

Using the FREE PiCockpit.com web interface for your Raspberry Pi you can view the sensor values from anywhere in the world, including charts that show you temperature fluctuations and more in real-time.

Zero programming knowledge is required, with a ton of other useful features (for example, monitor the Raspberry Pi SoC temperature).

Specification

Sensor Measuring Range

• Pressure: 300…1100 hPa
• Humidity: 0…100%
• Temperature: -40…85° C

Sensor Features

• Low power consumption (3.9 mA in standard gas scan mode, value for BME688 sensor chip)
• Resistive VOC measurement (volatile organic compounds)
• IAQ (indoor air quality) calculation with BSEC Library from Bosch
• Identification of different gas mixtures, the sensor is trainable for this using Bosch’s AI Studio

Interfaces

• I2C interface for communication with the BME688
• Raspberry Pi computer compatible header
• Unpopulated header, pinout is Pico-compatible (zero solder technology)
• 2 x Grove-compatible expansion jacks (I2C / 3.3V)
• 3.3 V data level (compatible with Raspberry Pi)
• 3.3 V supply voltage

2x Grove-compatible Expansion Jacks (I2C / 3.3V)

• When connected to Raspberry Pi single board computers, the built-in LDO voltage converter uses the 5 V supply voltage from the Raspberry Pi to provide enough power via the two Grove-compatible sockets at 3.3 V.
  Tip: You can use the J1 jumper to run the BME688 boards under two different addresses – thus up to two BME688 breakout boards can be driven through one I2C port, for example connected together as Grove compatible modules!

More features

• Address of BME688 adjustable via J1 and GPIO pin (ADDR)
• Two mounting holes
• Bar for cable ties, allows easy mounting
• BME688 sensor module is thermally decoupled to a large extent (-> higher measurement accuracy!)

Resources

• Breakout Board Documentation & Sample Code
• Bosch BME688 Software
• Bosch BME688 Documentation

Package Contents

• 1x Air Quality Sensor BME688 Breakout Board
• 1x 6-pin pin-strip header