Methane is a highly flammable gas and is a reason for many fire related incidents. So, I decided to make a methane sensing drone to check for gas leaks. We can easily replace methane sensor with an alcohol, CNG, or smoke sensor... or whatever you wish to detect.
DetailsI have heard many instances of deadly fires caused due to methane leakage. So decided to make a project with a thought of detecting methane leaks before hand and stopping such disasters before it happens.
In this project, I made methane sensing drone using PlutoX and an MQ2 sensor.
MQ-2 gas sensor has high sensitvity to methane, propane and hydrogen. It could be used to sense LPG and other combustible steam, and has a low cost and is suitable for different applications.
I integrated this sensor with PlutoX drone, and by which I can print on the screen methane detected if it sense a leak. It can also be used to take flight to reach you or drop the height if it detects methane over some threshold value. Just with some simple coding, you can make the drone do what you want it to do.
This drone can be easily used to detect other gases by simply changing the sensor.
MQ2 - Methane, butane, LPG, smoke
MQ3 - Alcohol, ethanol, smoke
MQ4 - Methane, CNG gas
MQ5 - Natural gas, LPG
MQ6 - LPG, butane gas
MQ7 - Carbon monoxide
MQ8 - Hydrogen gas
MQ9 - Carbon monoxide, flammable gasses
Build InstructionsStep 1
- PlutoX
- PrimusX board
- PrimusX breakout board
- MQ2 gas sensor
- Double sided tape
- Zip-tie
Step 2
- MQ2 sensor needs a 5V input
- Solder the connector cables to GND, VCC, ADC pin out (Pin 19)
- Place the sensor and tie it properly
Step 3
- Breakout board gives power to MQ2 sensor
- GitHub link to read the sensor data
- Convert the input data to equivalent voltage
- Set some specific threshold — if the sensor data is greater than a threshold, arm the drone and set a specific height to take off
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