So recently in a thread there was some discussion of various air quality testers based on the PMS5003 sensor which are available on eBay.
I recently got mine and did a bit of testing in the shop.
So far I have tested it with a few cuts on various pieces of machinery, and I'm not sure what to make of the results.
First, the unit appears to be operating correctly, reporting the PM2.5 number, temperature, and relative humidity. From what I can tell with other sensors in the shop, and humidity, and temperature appear to be correct. Second, it does appear to be reporting a PM2.5 number which fluctuates depending on what's going on.
My concern with the accuracy comes from the lack of response to most tools in the shop. I have run the table saw, miter saw, and band saw within inches of the sensor, and seldom get it above about 10-15 ug/m^3, even with no dust collection.
I have managed to get it to spike, going as high as 50-300 ug/m^3, but the only by sitting it 2" away from my rigid belt sander, and running a piece of pine against the belt for 10-20 seconds, with dust collection turned off. Even with that, the numbers quickly start to go down into the 100s ug/m^3, and then 15-30 ug/m^3 after the operation ends.
Is this pretty normal behavior, or is the sensor under reporting the amount of dust in the air?