PMSA003 Particulate Matter Sensor with Adapter Board

Monitor air pollution cheaply and accurately with this matchbox-sized PMSA003 particulate matter (PM) sensor from Plantower! It senses particulates of various sizes (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) from sources like smoke, dust, pollen, metal and organic particles and more.

The sensor has a small fan that sucks air through the sensor and past a laser that can detect both the number (and hence concentration) and size of particles in the surrounding air.

The sensor comes with an adapter board, allowing you to hook it up to a microcontroller with standard jumper wires using VCC/GND/RX/TX.

Here’s an example of a similar sensor in the range (pin-compatible so should work the same) hooked up to a Raspberry Pi Zero using just VCC/GND/RX/TX.

PMS5003 vs PMS7003 vs PMSA003

We stock three different models of particulate sensor from Plantower, so the first question you might have is ‘What’s the difference between the PMS5003, the PMS7003 and the PMSA003?’.

There’s a slight difference in price between the models, and from a technical perspective, here are the differences from Plantower’s website – there’s not a lot in it – physical size being the main difference along with slight differences in current usage:

Parameter	PMS5003	PMS7003	PMSA003	Unit
Particle Range of measurement	0.3~1.0;   1.0~2.5; 2.5~10	0.3~1.0;   1.0~2.5; 2.5~10	0.3~1.0;   1.0~2.5; 2.5~10	μm
Particle   Counting Efficiency	50%@0.3µm 98%@≥0.5µm	50%@0.3µm 98%@≥0.5µm	50%@0.3µm 98%@≥0.5µm
Particle Effective Range (PM2.5 standard)	0~500	0~500	0~500	μg/m³
Particle Maximum Range     （PM2.5 standard）*	≥1000	≥1000	≥1000	μg/m³
Particle   Resolution	1	1	1	μg/m³
Particle Maximum Consistency Error (PM2.5 standard data)	±10%@100~500µg/m³ ±10µg/m3@0～100µg/m³	±10%@100~500μg/m³ ±10μg/m³@0~100μg/m³	±10%@100~500μg/m³ ±10μg/m³@0~100μg/m³
Particle   Standard Volume	0.1	0.1	0.1	Litre（L）
Single   Response Time	<1	<1	<1	Second（s）
Total   Response Time	<10	<10	<10	Second（s）
DC   Power Supply	Typ: 5.0 Min: 4.5 Max :5.5	Typ: 5.0 Min: 4.5 Max :5.5	Typ: 5.0 Min: 4.5 Max :5.5	Volt（V）
Active   Current	≤100	≤100	≤100	mA
Standby   Current	≤10	≤10	≤2	mA
Interface   Level	L<0.8 @3.3 H>2.7@3.3	L<0.8 @3.3 H>2.7@3.3	L<0.8 @3.3 H>2.7@3.3	Volt（V）
Working   Temperature Range	-10~+60	-10~+60	-10~+60	℃
Working   Humidity Range	0~99	0~99	0~99
Storage   Temperature Range	-40~+80	-40~+80	-40~+80	℃
MTTF	≥3	≥3	≥3	Year
Physical Size	50mm×38mm×21mm	48mm×37mm×12mm	38mm×35mm×12mm	mm

Connection differences

• The PMS5003‘s connector is a Molex Picoblade i.e. a direct connection to the included wire.
  • This can be used with one of our adapter boards to break all six pins out to 2.54mm jumper wires.
• The PMS7003 and PMSA003 have small 2×5 block connectors which their included adapter board slots into.
  • This included adapter board only offers VCC/GND/RX/TX on the 2.54mm breakout (fine for Pi projects) and does not break out the SET or RST pins (unless you use the Picoblade header).

Release date

The sensors reduced in size each release, however, as per the table above, technically there’s very little difference between them. In order of old to new:

• • PMS5003
  • PMS7003
  • PMSA003

Features

• Plantower PMSA003 Particulate Matter (PM) Sensor (manufacturer link)
• Detects PM1, PM2.5, PM10 particulates
• Included adapter board
• UART serial interface
• Dimensions: 38mm×35mm×12mm

Note: There may be a blue protective film that covers the metal casing of the sensor, you can peel this off before use if so.

Package Contents

• 1x Plantower PMSA003 sensor
• 1x PMSA003 adapter board

Resources

Here are some projects and resources we found online using a similar (pin-compatible) PMS7003 sensor:

• Create a Pi Zero-powered air quality meter with PMS7003
• A minimalistic python interface for PMS7003 sensor
• Measure air quality with Raspberry Pi, PMS7003 sensor and Java
• The Plantower PMS5003 and PMS7003 Air Quality Sensor experiment (comparison blog)
• Long-term field comparison of multiple low-cost particulate matter sensors in an outdoor urban environment
• Plantower product page