Naneos Partector User manual

Partector
Aerosol Dosimeter
Operation Manual
English
September 2019
A nanoparticle dosimeter for easy workplace exposure monitoring

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Document information
© naneos particle solutions gmbh, 2019
Related device versions : V2_3, V2_4
Related firmware versions : >397
Document Date: 2019-09-20
Document Revision : K

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Abbreviations
DC diffusion charging, diffusion charger
HV high voltage
LED light-emitting diode
LDSA lung deposited surface area
SD micro Secure Digital memory card
Safety information
General notes and warnings
This operationmanual must be read completely before using the partector.
Incorrect use or handling and any consequences arising from this may
damage the device or endanger personnel.
The manufacturer declines all liability resulting from incorrect use and
handling.
Safety notes
Never operate the instrument at condensing conditions.
Do not blow into the instrument.
Do not open the partector as you may damage it.
Do not operate the partector with an open charger hatch.
The partector is a sensitive instrument made for measuring nanoparticles.
Sampling too much coarse dust will eventually lead to deteriorating
instrument performance. Use a cyclone when measuring in environments
where large number of microparticles might be present.
Do not operate the partector in an explosive atmosphere or in the
presence of flammable gases or fumes.
Have your instrument recalibrated once a year.

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Instrument specifications
Measured value: LDSA (Lung Deposited Surface Area)
Concentration range: 0-20’000 m2/cm3
Particle size range: 10 nm to 10 m
Displayed LDSA value is only accurate in the size
range of 20-400 nm; however, the instrument can
be used to measure micron-sized particles too.
Accuracy: ± 30 %
Noise floor: ~ 1 m2/cm3 in particle-free air
Time resolution: 4s (standard, faster as an option)
Airflow (active): 0.5 l/min
Battery power: 10h approximately
Charging: via USB
Data storage: SD-card
PC Interface: USB/serial by virtual COM-Port
Dimensions: 7.8 x 13.4 x 2.9 cm
Weight: 400 g
Checking the shipment contents
When unpacking the device, verify that you have received the following
items. If any of the components are missing or damaged, contact naneos.
Type
Items
Standard
Partector device
USB cable
SD-card 2 GB
SD/SD-card adapter or SD/USB-adapter
Neoprene sleeve (optional)
USB charger
Peli case

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Getting started
Instrument description
The partector is a portable, battery powered instrument to measure the
lung deposited surface area (LDSA) of nanoparticles. It displays the
measured data on a graphical display and stores it on a SD card. A user-
defined LDSA alarm level can be set. If the alarm level is exceeded, the
instrument’s internal buzzer is turned on to produce an audible warning.
Figure 1: Partector main parts
1 inlet 5 right soft key 9 USB Port
2 power button 6 middle soft key 10 charge LED
3 DC charger hatch 7 left soft key
4 display 8 SD card slot

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Aerosol inlet and outlet
The aerosol inlet is located at the top of the instrument. The internal pump
provides an air flow of about 0.5 l/min. The standard aerosol inlet has a 6
mm barb for tubing connection and contains a coarse wire mesh to keep
coarse dirt and small insects out of the instrument.
The air exits the device via the USB-port and SD-card
opening in the housing. Note that the air is not filtered
internally, so do not connect the instrument to hazardous
nanoparticle sources!
Tubing
When using the Partector with tubing (to attach the optional cyclone, or
for other purposes), make sure not to use conductive silicone tubing.
This type of tubing is frequently used because with conductive tubing,
there are no electrostatic losses of particles, and the silicone tubing is
very flexible. Unfortunately, this type of tubing releases silanes which
leed to rapid fouling of the Partector's corona wire. We recommend using
PVC tubing instead –a nice flexible version is Tygon S3 E-3603. If in
doubt about using tubing, please contact us. In any case, tubing should
only be as long as necessary to prevent particle losses in the tubing.
Supplying power
To charge the partector or to operate it for periods longer than the battery
lifetime, connect the partector USB port to a PC or Laptop or to a USB-
Charger to charge the device.
While charging, the blue charge LED on the front panel lights up. When
the partector is fully charged, it turns off.

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Turning the device on and off
To turn the device on, press the power button. To turn it off, press and
hold the power button for two seconds and release it when the goodbye
message appears.
Insert / remove SD-card
To store data on the microSD-card, insert it in the partector as shown in
the graph till it snaps in.
To remove the SD-card, press on the inserted card which will force the
release. To insert the card in your SD-card slot on a PC you need to insert
the card first in the SD/SD-card adapter or SD/USB adapter provided.
Recording measurements on the SD-card
If a SD-card is inserted in the partector at startup, the device
automatically starts recording on the SD-card when the device is turned
on. It automatically generates a filename depending on start date, time
and device serial. For more information about this, read the “partector data
file” section.
If you insert the SD-card while the device is running, the data
logging will not start automatically. You need to turn the device
on after inserting the card.
Do not remove the SD-card while the device is running. The
data file needs to be closed properly, otherwise it will be
corrupt.
Figure 2a: Inserting
the SD-card
Figure 2b: Inserting the SD-
card into the adapter

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Keypad functions & symbols
In the picture below you can see the partector display screens:
Figure 3: Partector menu screens
Home screen
On the home screen you can see the LDSA concentration, date and time
and also the charge state of the battery. If no key is pressed for more than
one minute, the display goes dark to prolong battery life. By pressing any
key, the display turns on again.
The lightning symbol indicates that the high
voltage in the charger is on and working properly.
The blinking red dot indicates that data is being
written on SD-Card.
The exclamation mark indicates that an error
occurred at some point during the current

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measurement.
Below the measurement value, you can see the
maximum value since turning on the device.
The approximate flow rate is displayed in yellow.
The flow is measured from the time delay
between charging pulse and electrometer signal;
therefore, at low measurement values, it cannot
be determined accurately. In this case, the
display changes to --- lpm.
Color coding of LDSA values
The LDSA display is color-coded to provide a quick assessment of air
quality. LDSA values below 50 m2/cm3 are displayed in green, values
above 250 m2/cm3 in red, and values in between in yellow.
Figure 4: color coding of LDSA values
Electrometer gain calibration
The partector contains an in-circuit electrometer gain measurement, which
is executed once per hour. The gain measurement takes 20s, and during
this time no LDSA measurement is possible. During the gain
measurement, the LDSA value is displayed in white in a sequence of first
000, then the gain value in % (approximately 100) and finally again 000.

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Figure 5: Display during gain measurement.
Measuring the gain periodically ensures that your data is correct, and
that the aging of the instrument is taken into account properly.
Info screen
The info screen displays device specific system information:
Serial: serial number of the device
Minutes: total operating time in minutes
LDSAmin: LDSA value integrated over time
Pulses: number of high voltage charging pulses
Calib: calibration factor
Date: date of calibration
Pressing the “status” soft button brings you to the status screen. Pressing
the “alarm” soft button brings you to the alarm screen.
Status screen
The status screen shows the most important device data.
RH,T internal relative humidity [%] and temperature [°C]
BATT battery voltage
ADC electrometer signal
HV charger corona voltage
Idiff charger diffusion current
Config screen
In the config screen, you can change some settings of the partector
Alarm level: use the “up” and “down” soft key to change the alarm level
to the desired value. When the measurement value exceeds the alarm
level, the internal buzzer of the partector will produce an audible warning.

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Low power mode: you can choose whether the device should operate in
low-power mode or not. In low power mode, the display turns off
automatically after a few minutes of inactivity to increase battery lifetime.
Pressing any button (also the power button) will turn on the display again.
The display will also turn on automatically if an error message is displayed.
Time and Date: the internal clock of the partector has an accuracy of
about 1s per day. It does not change to daylight saving time and back
automatically. Therefore, you may need to set the clock from time to time.
Press the “next” soft button until you are on the field you want to modify,
then use the “up” and “down” soft buttons to change the field’s value.
Selftest: if the periodically electrometer gain calibration is incompatible
with your measurement process, you can turn it off here.
Statistics screen
The statistics screen allows you to view events detected in the past. By
pressing + and –you can change the shown time axis from minute to hour
and day.
Extended operation information
Different inlet options
The partector comes with a standard inlet –a 6mm tube fitting with a steel
mesh. You can use either this or you can add a cyclone in front of the tube
inlet to remove coarse particles. The internal pump cannot support high
pressure drops, so you should not use an impactor.
The partector is a miniature instrument with an extremely
sensitive internal electrometer. Fibers or dust particles which
are larger than about 1mm in size can produce short circuits in
the instrument. Therefore, the tube inlet has a steel mesh to
prevent really coarse dust particles or small insects from entering the
instrument. If you do not use the inlet, you risk aspirating coarse dust that
may result in a deteriorated instrument performance.
We recommend the use of a cyclone if you are measuring in environments
where a large number of coarse particles are present. For example, the

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SKC GS-3 cyclone would be useful for this purpose.
http://www.skcinc.com/prod/225-100.asp
If you are certain that you have no coarse particles in your air (which is
normally the case in ambient air), then you can also use the tube inlet.
The partector data file
To view the measured and stored partector data, remove the SD and
insert it in your PC as described in a previous section. Now you either
download the partector data analysis tool from the naneos website to view
the data or you open the data file with your favourite data analysis program
(Excel, Origin, Igor etc). The data file is a simple tab-delimited text file. File
names encode the recording time and device serial no. For example, if
you start recording a file on 2nd August at 12:35 with a device with the
serial no. 19, the file name will be stored in the folder 08_02 with the file
name 019_1235.txt. Parameters like relative humidity, temperature,
battery voltage etc. will only be recorded every 10 seconds.
The partector analysis tool allows you to quickly view graphs of all
instrument parameters, to average data in different intervals, and to
combine measured data with a GPS signal and plot it in Google Earth.
Read the separate quick guide on our website for more information.

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Error messages
Error conditions
Whenever an operation parameter of the partector is outside of its
normal range, a warning message appears on the partector screen. The
warning shows up in red on the home screen:
Figure 6: generic warning message on home screen
There are different reasons for warnings to appear, and a click on the
“show” soft button will display details on the warning. Some error
conditions may disappear again by themselves (particularly such related
to high humidity), upon which the warning message will also disappear
again. However, it can be important to know that an error occurred, and
therefore, a red exclamation mark remains in the title bar as a reminder
that an error occurred at some point:
Figure 7: home screen after recovery from an error condition
The following table gives an overview over the possible error conditions
and on what to do to remove them.

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message
possible cause
what to do
SD card error:
“Card missing?”
“file_fopen”
“mkdir”
“efs_init”
- no SD card inserted
- SD card initialisation
problem
- bad card format
- insert SD card
- reboot device
- format SD card
Pulse low error
- too high relative
humidity
- device
contamination
- try measurement with lower
humidity
- contact naneos
Pulse high error
- diffusion current
does not reach
setpoint
- open charger hatch and
clean corona wire as
described in the next
section. If the message
still appears, contact
naneos.
Buffer overflow
- software loop time
delayed.
- report error to naneos. You
can still measure with the
device if it only appears
infrequently.
RH error
- relative humidity is
very high and may
hinder measurement
- if possibly, measure at
lower RH (dryer)
EM zero offset
high
- high RH
- device
contamination
- if possibly, measure at
lower RH (dryer)
Some of the error conditions are rather harmless (e.g. high electrometer
zero offset, high RH error), whereas especially the pulse errors will
interfere with a correct measurement. If you experience frequent errors,
please contact us by email, and send us a description of the error
message, what you were doing when it occurred, and if possible, the
data file of that measurement.

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Maintenance
Cleaning the corona wire of the charger
Turn the device off before cleaning the corona wire! During operation, the
corona wire is at high voltage and you will receive a slight shock if you
touch it.
Open the two screws marked in figure 7 with a philips screw driver.
Remove the charger hatch. Check condition of sealing o-ring. Contact
naneos for a replacement if it is brittle or has visible cracks. Take an artist’s
brush and carefully slide it along the thin HV wire. Too much force can
break the corona wire!
Figure 8: Charger hatch closed (left) and opened (right)
Disposal
The device contains a lithium ion battery and must be disposed of
accordingly. Under no circumstances should it be disposed of with
domestic refuse, nor crushed or burnt. Naneos offers to take products
back for correct disposal.

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Standards, approvals and patents
The partector is in conformity with the provisions of the following European
Directives:
2004/108/EC Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) (successor of
89/336/EEC with amendments)
2011/65/EC Restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS)
The technology of the partector is patent pending.
Related documents
Partector quick start guide:
www.naneos.ch/pdf/partector_quick_guide.pdf
Partector data analysis tool quick start guide:
www.naneos.ch/pdf/javatool_quick_guide.pdf
In-depth explanation of lung-deposited surface are (LDSA)
www.naneos.ch/pdf/LDSA.pdf

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Customer service & contact
naneos particle solutions gmbh
Dorfstrasse 69
5210 Windisch
Switzerland
Mail: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]
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