# Air particulate matter monitoring

**URL:** <https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561>\
**Category:** Applications\
**Tags:** latin-america\
**Created:** [23 September 2026 02:35 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561 "2026-09-23T02:35:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nanocastro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@nanocastro](https://openflexure.discourse.group/u/nanocastro)\
**Post date:** [23 September 2026 02:35 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561/1 "2026-09-23T02:35:44Z")

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Hi all  
We’ve been using some low-cost air particles monitoring devices to teach about air pollution and time series analysis to students. Just to make the whole thing a little less abstract we started experimenting with the [bike particle accelerator](https://www.printables.com/model/131190-bike-particle-accelerator)by @vsaggiomo and some simple [passive monitoring](https://www.airnow.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/air_strips.pdf) for particle collection.

 ![scan_0007_stitched](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/openflexure/original/2X/b/b96bedb125809944b492600319820eaa6281e16d.jpeg)

and then we started to test some image analysis for counting, sizing and classifying. We are just starting but looks good so far.

 ![scan_0002_stitched_annotated_morphology](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/openflexure/original/2X/2/22cb7ee265caaad3aadb02614bf8787611c74ea8.jpeg)

We are gathering some material [in this repo](https://gitlab.com/tecnabiertas/sensorcommunity)

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**Author:** ![vsaggiomo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/58956e/32.png) [@vsaggiomo](https://openflexure.discourse.group/u/vsaggiomo)\
**Post date:** [23 September 2026 06:11 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561/2 "2026-09-23T06:11:13Z")

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that looks very interesting. Do you know if there are also classifier for pollen (or spores)? We were trying to use it for biodiversity/microplastics monitoring, but then this project slowly died at the end of one of my drawer. So, very interesting to see it running in the wild somewhere else than here.

We have also a newer version with better airflow. Let me check if I can attach it here 🙂

[bike impactor v4.stl](https://openflexure.discourse.group/uploads/short-url/3pKrqbALhmm7PXUE3uvWwsBX1kW.stl) (2.0 MB)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nanocastro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@nanocastro](https://openflexure.discourse.group/u/nanocastro)\
**Post date:** [23 September 2026 12:32 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561/3 "2026-09-23T12:32:51Z")

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Thank for the new version 🙂  
We started to design a [two stage impactor](https://gitlab.com/tecnabiertas/sensorcommunity/-/blob/main/Particle_collection/README_impactador_2_etapas.md?ref_type=heads) also using slides and a standard blower for educational purposes and to check the separation

Not sure about the pollen classifications… there was a [previous post about pollen](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/pollen-microscopy/1112) where a database was mentioned but no experience with that

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**Author:** ![vsaggiomo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/58956e/32.png) [@vsaggiomo](https://openflexure.discourse.group/u/vsaggiomo)\
**Post date:** [25 September 2026 08:58 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561/4 "2026-09-25T08:58:36Z")

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nice design. But pay attention that what you need (especially for multiple stage impactors) is vacuum to force air in (this gives you a better laminar flow). And also you get less contamination from the blower itself. There are some portable vacuum that should work ok.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nanocastro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@nanocastro](https://openflexure.discourse.group/u/nanocastro)\
**Post date:** [25 September 2026 16:43 UTC](https://openflexure.discourse.group/t/air-particulate-matter-monitoring/2561/5 "2026-09-25T16:43:52Z")

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yeah… I’ve said blower but we are going to use it as vacuum. We are still figuring out how to measure the flow rate (the design is Reynolds number dependent so…)