I am trying to get data from a few sensors in an area around Karachi. The Purple Air map (here: Real-Time Air Quality Map | PurpleAir) shows one sensor is online and 5-6 are offline.
However, when I use the api: /v1/sensors/ (without no optional params) only one of the sensors in this area (id 40839) is returned in the response. None of the other sensors are returned.
However, what’s strange is that if I find the ID from the Purple Air map (e.g. one sensor has an ID of 101015) and then I try to access that sensor directly using /v1/sensors/101015/ then I can get the data.
To me, it appears that the /v1/sensors/ call only returns active sensors, as opposed to all of them. The api call should in fact return all sensors, unless I optionally filtered them using the available params.
Here’s some pseudo code:
response = requests.get('/v1/sensors/', data={'fields': 'name'})
// response returns a list of all sensors, but some aren't included. E.g. ID 101015, 56159 aren't returned
response = requests.get('/v1/sensors/101015', data={})
// response returns data for this sensor, even though it didn't appear in the above list of sensors.
Why might one want to get old sensors that haven’t been updated in a long time? One reason is for historical data purposes.