A real-time gas monitoring system built on the ESP8266, pairing an MQ-2 sensor with a cyberpunk-styled live web dashboard, audible buzzer alerts, and multi-zone coverage for kitchens, labs, and storage areas.
Gas leaks in homes and labs are one of the most preventable causes of accidents, yet most spaces still rely on nothing more than smell to detect danger. This project set out to fix that with a low-cost, always-on monitoring node that any household or lab could deploy in an afternoon.
At the core is a NodeMCU ESP8266 paired with an MQ-2 gas sensor, calibrated to detect LPG, propane, methane, and smoke concentrations. Instead of a simple threshold buzzer, the system streams live PPM readings to a self-hosted dashboard over Wi-Fi, so you can watch trend lines and catch slow leaks before they become dangerous.
The dashboard itself was designed with a cyberpunk aesthetic — dark background, neon gauges, animated alert states — because a monitoring tool people actually want to glance at gets checked more often than one that looks like a spreadsheet.
Live PPM readings streamed over Wi-Fi via WebSocket, updating every 500ms with zero page reloads.
Visual, audible, and remote alerts trigger at configurable warning and danger thresholds.
Multiple sensor nodes report to a single dashboard, each independently zoned and labeled.
Sensor nodes sleep between reads to extend battery-powered deployment life significantly.
Rolling 24-hour PPM history stored locally, useful for spotting slow leaks over time.
Dashboard uses browser notifications so an open tab can alert you even when minimized.
This is a simulated version of the real dashboard gauge — it randomly drifts to show how the danger-zone animation and color transitions behave in production.
I take on consultancy and freelance electronics projects — from prototype to production.
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