The crowdfunding campaign of ANAVI Gas Detector has ended successfully and we are proceeding to manufacturing. All stretch goals have been met: every backer with receive cool stickers and we will continue posting regular video updates. The estimated shipping date is Nov 22, 2019. You can still place pre-orders until then.

To celebrate the successful campaign I would like to share with you a funny video of how ANAVI Gas Detector can be used in a do-it-yourself breathalyzer, with MQ-3 gas sensor module and a lot of LEGO bricks.

Although ANAVI Gas Detector has been designed and optimized specially for MQ-135 gas sensor module for monitoring air quality, the board is compatible with other analog gas sensor modules at 5V like MQ-3, which is a low-cost analog sensor module for detecting alcohol. It is suitable for alcohol checkers and breathalyzers. According to the datasheet it has high sensitivity to alcohol and small sensitivity to benzine. The disadvantage is that is that it is not very accurate and requires calibration. The pre-heat time is over 24 hours. This means you need to place it in a room with clean air and keep the sensor running for more than 24 hours when you turn it on for very first time. This is a one-time procedure, after that the sensor just needs a few minutes to start working.

Last weekend, using a case built with parts from LEGO® Medium Creative Brick Box 10696, I made a "do it yourself" breathalyzer and went on a bar crawl in Kapana creative district in my hometown Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Have a look at the video to see the whole process. I shared the simple Arduino sketch for MQ-3 and ANAVI Gas Detector in GitHub.

Building a breathalyzer with MQ-3 was a fun experiment with mixed results. The video contains some hilarious epic fails. Obviously, the conclusion is that MQ-3 requires very good calibration in the environment that it will work. The do it yourself breathalyzer isn’t very accurate and some improvements must be made to the Arduino sketch. It is just a hobby project provided "as is", without any warranty. Drink responsibly. Never drink and drive.

For more details have a look at the YouTube video and the article at Hackster.io.

Thanks for supporting the crowdfunding campaign of ANAVI Gas Detector! Please stay tuned for more updates and video. We will also keep you informed about the manufacturing process.

Thanks,
Leon