BME690 4-in-1 Air Quality Breakout (Gas, Temperature, Pressure, Humidity)

This super-smart Bosch sensor measures temperature, pressure and humidity precisely. It also has an AI-enhanced gas scanner function.

Like previous sensors in the BME6XX series, this high-quality sensor can be used to monitor every aspect of your environment, taking high-precision measurements of temperature, pressure and humidity.

It also features a gas scanner function with extended measurements, which will react to changes in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) and the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to give a general measure of indoor or outdoor air quality. With Bosch’s software, you can analyse the gas readings further and train the algorithms to make inferences about specific air quality indicators, including the likelihood of bacteria growth and the presence of other organic contaminants. Improvements

Improvements from the previous BME688 sensor include lower power consumption and increased robustness in humid environments.

Want to get an idea of whether there’s adequate ventilation in your bedroom, your workshop, or workplace? Set up a BME690 on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W or Pico W and have it log sensor readings to a file or post them into your favourite home automation software or a web service like adafruit.io.

This breakout is compatible with our Breakout Garden system, where using breakouts is as easy as just popping it into one of the slots and starting to grow your project, create, and code. It’s also Qwiic/STEMMA QT compatible, which means it can be plugged into microcontrollers or HATs with a Qwiic or STEMMA QT connector using a handy cable.

Features

• Bosch BME690 4-in-1 environmental sensor with AI (datasheet)
• I2C interface, with address select via ADDR cuttable trace (0x76 or 0x77)
• Qwiic/STEMMA QT connector
• 3.3V or 5V compatible
• Reverse polarity protection (on Breakout Garden connector)
• Raspberry Pi-compatible pinout (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi (Python library)
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040/RP2350 (C++/MicroPython libraries)

Kit includes

• BME690 breakout
• 1×5 Pin header
• 1×5 Right-angle socket header

We’ve designed this breakout board so that you can solder on the piece of right-angle socket header and pop it straight onto the bottom left 5 pins on your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9). The right-angle header also has the advantage of positioning the breakout away from the Pi’s CPU so as to minimise radiated heat.

Software

Bosch provide a C library for this sensor, plus desktop tools for further analysis of the sensor data.

• Bosch C library
• Bosch BME688 and BME690 software

We also provide a Python library for use with Raspberry Pi computers.

• Python library

You can also use this breakout with Raspberry Pi Pico and other RP2040 and RP2350 powered microcontrollers, using C++ or one of our custom MicroPython builds.

• Download MicroPython for RP2040 boards
• Download MicroPython for RP2350 boards
• MicroPython example

Resources

• Schematic

Notes

• The trace on the back of the board marked ADDR can be cut to change the I2C address from the default of 0x76 to 0x77, meaning that you can use up to two sensors at the same time
• The BME280, BMP280 and BME6XX breakouts all share the same I2C addresses, so if you’re using two together then you’ll need to change the I2C address on one of them using the solder bridge or cuttable traces.
• Dimensions: approx 19mm x 19mm x 5mm (L x W x H, including connector)