I hooked up both the MH-Z19B and CCS811 CO₂ sensors side by side and logged data for a full week. The results? They mostly follow the same trends—but actual readings vary wildly, sometimes by 1000+ ppm. Which one’s accurate? Hard to say without a calibrated reference…

Picked up a CJMCU-811 CO₂ and air quality sensor to compare it with my go-to MH-Z19B. It’s smaller, cheaper, uses I2C, and reacts super fast (you can literally breathe on it and watch the values change). One of my two units didn’t work, though—so quality might be hit or miss.

In Part 2 of my CO₂ sensor project, I set up the MH-Z19b with Arduino and ESP8266 using PlatformIO. Added WiFi-based configuration with my own WiFiConfig library, and used RecurringTask to keep everything responsive without blocking the loop. It’s simple, wireless, and super easy to tweak from your browser!

While building my CO2 sensor, I wanted to manage the device over WiFi—no buttons, no cables. So, I made a sleek web-based config panel using VueJS and Tailwind CSS, all running right on the ESP8266. Here’s how I replaced manual setup with a modern, async, file-based config system.