Electronic – Looking for an inexpensive Smoke Detection Sensor

atmegasensorsmoke-sensor

As the title says, I am looking for a smoke detection sensor. Took a look from SparkFun to Mouser and did not find anything. Is there a part you would recommend? I would prefer something that interfaces with the ATMEGA168/ATMEGA328 via a single wire or two wire interface. Would prefer to avoid a SPI or Serial interface as my circuit already utilizes those pins.

Bumped into a few sensors on Ebay but they were $15+. Is this normal? Is there a cheaper alternative that works great? Should I just buy a cheap smoke alarm and extract the sensor that way?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best Answer

The MQ-2 Flammable Gas/Smoke sensor might be what you are looking for.
Datasheet: http://www.pololu.com/file/download/MQ2.pdf?file_id=0J309

Here is one source: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1480
They also have a carrier board to make it easy to interface.

It does not provide a digital interface, but provides an analog voltage that could easily be read by the ATMEGA168/ATMEGA328