Plantower PMS5003 / PMS7003
Also known as: PMS5003 · PMS7003 · PMS5003T · Air quality
The DIY particulate default: the sensor behind most home PM2.5 dashboards and half the community air-quality maps. Wildfire smoke, cooking and traffic show up instantly.
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At a glance
⚑ flag an error| Measures | pm |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | Laser-scattering PM1.0/2.5/10; good for trends, not reference-grade |
| Interface | UART (9600 baud) |
| Supply | 5 V (fan), 3.3 V logic |
| Battery-viable | No (continuous draw) |
| ESPHome | Native ESPHome component — pmsx003 |
| Typical price | $10-16 (street, varies) |
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Which one do I buy?
vs Sensirion SEN55: the SEN is quieter, longer-lived and all-in-one at ~2x the price. vs the IKEA Vindriktning hack: the PMS is simply better data for similar money.
Clone check
Good for
Gotchas to know
- The fan wears out — duty-cycle it in ESPHome (measure a minute, rest ten) for multi-year life.
- PMS5003T swaps the PM10 channel for temperature/humidity; know which you're buying.
- The premium alternative is Sensirion SEN54/55 (~$25–35, native sen5x, adds VOC/NOx/T/RH in one) — rising fast.
Wiring it up
Give it a hardware UART (UART1/2 on any ESP32) rather than software serial. Any dev board works; the DevKitC class is the default host, and if you're building a sensor-plus-screen device, pick a display board with spare pins like the JC3248W535.