Connect your sensor

Plug in the unit, join its setup Wi-Fi, enter your school network and registration token, and watch the first readings arrive. About 15 minutes.

The detailed steps below are in English for now. Translations are on the way.

The SchoolAir unit is a small Raspberry Pi computer with a Sensirion air sensor attached. It measures fine dust, volatile compounds, temperature and humidity, and on some models CO₂, and sends the readings to your school's dashboard over your Wi-Fi. This page gets one unit from the box to its first reading. The dashboard has a longer version with photographs of every cable, linked in step 1.

Before you start

• The SchoolAir unit, its micro-USB cable and a wall charger.
• The name and password of the Wi-Fi network the unit will use. Ask IT if the school has a separate network for devices.
• Your registration token: an 8-character code such as Ab3Xy7Kz. Your coordinator gets it from the dashboard under Advanced → Generate a unit-registration token. One token per unit.
• A phone or laptop that can join a different Wi-Fi network for a few minutes.
• A place for the unit: at breathing height, away from windows, radiators and the whiteboard cleaner. A shelf at the back of the room is ideal.

Steps

1. Assemble the hardware, if it arrived in parts

   Most kits ship assembled. If yours came as a sensor, a small breakout board, cables and a Raspberry Pi, follow the Kit Assembly tab of the SchoolAIR Unit Guide. It has a photo of every connector and a pin diagram for the Raspberry Pi header. The chain is: sensor → 6-pin cable → breakout board → Qwiic cable → Raspberry Pi. The sensor's connector is on its underside and is keyed, so it only fits one way.

   Power goes into the port marked PWR IN, the rightmost of the two micro-USB ports. The other one does nothing useful here.

2. Plug it in and wait

   Connect the charger. Nothing will appear on the unit itself. Wait three to five minutes, longer on the very first boot, while it starts up.

3. Join the unit's own Wi-Fi

   On your phone or laptop, open the Wi-Fi settings and join the network called SchoolAir_Setup. It has no password. Your device may warn that this network has no internet. That is expected; stay connected.

   If you do not see it after five minutes, unplug the unit, wait ten seconds and plug it back in.

4. Open the setup page

   Many phones show a sign-in pop-up automatically. If not, open a browser and go to http://192.168.4.1. Type the http:// part yourself. Some browsers insist on https and then show an error; if that happens, try a different browser or add http:// explicitly.

5. Register the unit

   The setup page walks you through two short screens:

   • Network and token. Choose your school Wi-Fi from the list or type its name, enter the password, and enter your registration token.
   • Where it lives. A site name such as Main building, an asset name such as Room 12 North, and whether it is indoors or outdoors. These are the labels you will see on the dashboard, so make them ones a colleague would recognise.

   Press Register and wait up to 30 seconds. On success the page confirms, the SchoolAir_Setup network disappears, and your phone drops back to its usual Wi-Fi. That is the sign it worked.

6. Watch the first reading arrive

   Readings are taken every five minutes during school hours and uploaded in batches, so allow up to two hours for the first data. Then look in two places:

   • dashboard.schoolair.org, where your coordinator signs in to see charts for every unit.
   • Your school's page on schoolair.org, where the Air quality sensor status block lists each unit as online or offline. The first unit to report also unlocks the live chart on that page.

If something goes wrong

I cannot see the SchoolAir_Setup network

Give it five full minutes after plugging in. Check the cable is in the PWR IN port and the charger is at least 2 A. If the unit was registered before and the school Wi-Fi is reachable, it will not open the setup network at all; that is normal.

The setup page will not open

Make sure your phone is still on SchoolAir_Setup and not back on the school network. Type http://192.168.4.1 exactly, with http://. Turn off mobile data on a phone; some phones route the browser through it when the Wi-Fi has no internet.

Registration fails with the right password

Move the unit closer to the access point for the first registration. Some school networks only admit approved devices; IT may need to allow the unit's hardware address, which the setup page shows.

Registered, but no data after two hours

Check the unit is still powered and the network it joined has internet. Unplug it for ten seconds and plug it back in. If the sensor status block on your school page still shows it offline the next morning, write to [email protected] with the asset name you gave it.

I do not have a token

Only a coordinator with a dashboard login can generate one. If you are the coordinator and cannot sign in, use the sign-in link on your school's portal page.

For the classroom

Three things a class can do with a unit in its first week, no preparation needed:

• Placement experiment. Put the unit by the window for a day, then by the door, then at the back. Which reading changed most, and why might that be?
• Read the CO₂ curve. Find the moment the class walked in, and the moment someone opened a window. Estimate how long a fully closed room takes to pass 1,000 ppm.
• Keep a log. One student a day writes down the 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. readings for PM2.5 and CO₂. After a month, compare with the guideline values.