I have a cigar lounge with a ventilation system, I would like to detect the "level" of cigar or cigarette smoke in the room. But I am not sure what sensor to go for, since these smokes contains a lot of different substances and I really want to measure the "smoke-level".
I have been looking for cigarette smoke detectors/sensors online but all I can find is detection systems with alarm output. I want to monitor the levels, to determine e.g. if it's rising or declining.
Any suggestions for what kind of sensor I could use?
Update:
After doing some experiments, I ended up with a solution that works pretty good. I am using an MQ-2 sensor, which I am reading with an Arduino. I calculate the mean and standard deviation of the last 5 minutes, and compare it with the mean from the last three seconds. If there is an increase above 3 sigma, lasting for a couple of seconds, the "smoke" alarm flashes.
It also triggers on a couple of other things; like farting and using compressed air in a can.
Best Answer
I'm not entirely sure if this will be useful in your situation - but the way your typical smoke detector works is by measuring the radioactive decay, apparently Americum is at least used in some of them.
But I just learned something new (thanks, Wikipedia!) - apparently some smoke detectors use optical sensors!
So you should be able to do something similar in your lounge. It may take several sensors and combine their inputs. Obviously you'll have to deal with the fact that the smoke distribution probably isn't initially uniform. Potentially you could add an extractor to your room (not sure if that's desirable as I don't smoke) and measure the smoke levels there.
Not sure if there are any pre-built solutions, but perhaps you could gut several optical smoke alarms for their sensors.