Why can't I get details on air quality?

[WalkingKnight]

"Air quality is bad".

Great, Arlo.  What are you tracking?

"CO, VOCs, that kind of thing."

Fantastic, Arlo.  Which one was it?

"None of your business."

AWESOME.

You have the data, please share it with your end users?  Seriously, what is wrong with you guys?  I can't correct a problem unless I KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS.

[ShayneS]

Hi @WalkingKnight

I have added a screenshot for you with information pertaining the air quality & values it measures. You can find this information by clicking/pressing the air quality button >  ( i ) next to the Air Quality title. Please see the screenshot below.

[WalkingKnight]

Yes, wow, thank you for showing me exactly what I found in the documentation.  SO USEFUL.

What I want to know is specifically WHAT made Arlo decide that the air quality was abnormal.  Arlo is obviously tracking and measuring a lot of different compounds--why can't it tell me which compound it detected in abnormal quantities?  Instead, all I get is "very abnormal" which doesn't tell me a damned thing.  Was it isobutane?  Was it hydrogen?  How about methane?  You guys do realize that each of these compounds indicates a different problem in the baby's environment, right?  And that I can't correct the problem unless I know, specifically, what the problem is?  

So please tell your UI engineers that when it reads "abnormal", a parent needs to be able to touch that and get a specific measurement of the compound or compounds that caused the alert, so I can tell whether I have a carbon monoxide problem, or maybe my child just farts a lot.  Kinda important.

[DamianR]

That is expecting a bit much from the device.
The sensor for VOCs is not a gas chromatograph.
It cant identify between individual compounds.
(Thats a bit beyond the scope of a home product for $200)...
The most you get is an indication in the rise of the TOTAL level of these compounds.
Have you considered removing any cabbage based baby food products from the pantry ??

[WalkingKnight]

I'm not asking for specific compounds.  It clearly measures three separate types of compounds to generate an "air quality" rating.  I want to know the specific levels of each category that generated the "abnormal" or "very abnormal" rating.  As it is clearly collecting and analyzing that data, there shouldn't be any reason that I can't drill down into the rating to see whether I've got a collection of VOCs causing my problem, or CO, or whatever the third thing is (can't remember off the top of my head, don't feel like looking through the docs again).  It could be a mix, I get it, but at least show me the data the device collected so I've got something to work from instead of just "very abnormal".

[DamianR]

At this price point, I'm not sure it will be running independent sensors for multiple classes of pollutant. The unit itself may just get a single good/bad/ugly status from the sensor.
Maybe somwbody out there knows which sensor it is using ? That would be a first step in determining capability