Makers, developers and electronic enthusiasts looking for a way to add a digital smell detector, sensor and nose to their project may be interested in a new piece of hardware called the Smell Inspector, designed by SmartNanotubes Technologies based in Germany. The Smell Inspector takes the form of a developers kit and ready to use electronic nose and has been specifically designed to be integrated into smart systems. Smell inspector is a digital nose, which works with the same principle as a human nose. Train it and create your own specific use case for single gases, gas mixtures or smells.
The Smell Inspector consists of a Smell Board iX164 with four Smell iX16 detectors, and can easily be connected to a PC, tablet or smartphone thanks to the included Smell Annotator software. The Smell Inspector is compatible with both Raspberry Pi and Arduino platforms and can be easily integrated into existing projects if required. Providing full functionality to read signals from all 64 individual detectors every 1.8 s and send them out in ASCII format.
Backer early bird pledges are now available for the recently launched project from roughly $303 or £219 (depending on current exchange rates). If the Smell Inspector campaign successfully raises its required pledge goal and the project completion progresses smoothly, worldwide shipping is expected to take place sometime around November 2021. To learn more about the Smell Inspector developer kit project watch the promotional video below.
This is our core invention: The first multi-channel gas detector chip designed to conquer the mass market. The sensor elements contain fine-tuned carbon nanomaterials which make the chip highly sensitive, small, energy efficient and affordable. There are four Smell iX16 detector chips on the electronic board. The current version has 64 detectors (16 channels per detector chip) with a size of less than 1sqmm (0.08sqinch) each. Further miniaturization and / or increasing the number of detectors can easily be done. The detector chip Smell iX16 only needs 1 ตW of power supply. It can thus be powered by various host devices, energy harvesters or batteries. Smell iX16 is designed for use in unlimited miniaturized electronic and IoT applications in various areas. The detector chip has a high sensitivity to different gases and VOCs.”
Smell Inspector:
- Dimensions: 166 x 64 x 31 mm / 6.54 x 2.52 x 1.22 inch (LxWxH)
- Power consumption: max. 0.28 W
- Weight: 130 g / 0.29 lb
- Materials: Smell Board iX16x4, housing
Smell Board iX16x4:
- Dimensions: 157 x 40 mm and 67 x 50 mm / 6.18 x 1.58 inch and 2.64 x 1.97 (LxW)
- Power consumption: max. 0.28 W
- Weight: 45 g / 0.1 lb
- Materials: 4 Smell iX16 detector chipss, 2 PCBs
- Read-out time: all 64 channels every 1.8 s
- Read-out format: ASCII
- Serial interface
- Compatibility: Compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi
Smell iX16:
- Dimensions: 22 x 8 mm / 0.87 x 0.32 inch (LxW)
- Power consumption: 1 μW
- Weight: 0.1 g / 0.0002 lb
- Materials: 16 chemiresistor-type nanomaterial based gas detectors, Kapton foil, particle filter
- Temperature: 0°C to +40°C / 32°F to +104°F
- Sensitivity: High sensitivity to different gases and VOCs (<80 ppb for NH3, PH3, H2S)
Smell Annotator:
- Smell recognition
- Smell digitalization and annotation
- Visualization of measurements
- Saving measurements and loading saved data
- Data format: CSV
For a complete list of all available project pledges, stretch goals, extra media and detailed specs for the developer kit, jump over to the official Smell Inspector crowd funding campaign page by following the link below.
Source: Smell Inspector digital nose developer kit
