When registering a sensor, you have the option of making it public or private. A private sensor will only be visible on the map for the device’s owner and those they share the appropriate information with.
To view your private sensor on the PurpleAir map, reference this article: View Your Sensor on the Map.
How can I view my private sensor in Home Assistant, e.g. allow my API key access to my private sensors, or a special API key for my private sensor?
Hi @ptr727
I’m not exactly sure how your home assistant integration is working. Normally through the API you can just provide a sensor’s read key to access private data.
PurpleAir has an official HA integration, that requires the use of API read keys, the sensor read key is not the same as the API keys (I tried it does not work).
So it seems I need to somehow have the develop API key configured to allow access to my hidden sensor.
Or is there another way?
Hi @ptr727
That is not an official PA and HA integration. Although it is widely used, we do not support any official integrations.
There is no way to enable a certain private sensor on an API read key, you need both your API read key and the sensor’s read key to retrieve private data. If there is not an option to input the sensor’s read key in the integration anywhere, then you’ll need to either make your sensor public or contact the creator of the integration and request that feature.
I understand it is not an “official” PA integration, but it does use the official PA developer API.
The reason I made my sensor private is because the map confuses people when indoor sensors show clean air mixed with dirty air sensors and no obvious way to show it is an indoor sensor.
E.g. during LA fires my neighbors asked me why my sensors says air is clean while it is all smokey outside. So I made my indoor sensor private as to not confuse people in distress looking at the map.
A way to solve the problem is to not show indoor sensors on the map, or not be default show indoor sensors on the map, or allow my developer API key access to my private sensors.
For me the right solution is to allow develop API keys access to private sensors, e.g. by verifying developer email is same as registered sensor email.
Indoor sensors have a black outline while outdoor sensors do not, so that’s the best way to tell them apart.
Additionally, if you want to hide indoor sensors, and only display outdoor ones, you can uncheck the “indoor sensors” option in the Configuration Menu.
Take a look at our Map Guide for more information on the Configuration Menu and how to use the Map in the best way for you!
Not very obvious in my humble opinion, and by the confusion of my neighbors not obvious for them either.
Regardless, I’m still interested in finding out how to get access to my private sensors using the API key based API?
Very fair. Would it be more clear if there were a legend? Perhaps down in the corner where the AQI legend is.
Regarding your API key, please send in a request to contact@purpleair.com. We’ll be happy to help!
I am not a UX expert, so can’t really comment on implementation details that require some user testing, but I do wonder what the use case is for seeing the indoor air quality in other peoples houses on the map, maybe indoor sensors could by default be disabled?
