What I want to do

In October and early November, some first draft prototypes of passive PM monitors were deployed in central Wisconsin and Chicago.

The samples have now been sent back to @Amber_wise, @pagyebo & @damarquis at CSU, and we got some feedback on the ease of deployment.

Deployment Feedback: hardware

Overall, putting the samples out and bringing them back in was easy. the styrofoam cups used to isolate and hold the stubs worked well for the most part, but they had to be cut down a bit to slide in and out of the tube.

The plates largely stayed level, although after some large wind events (20mph+) they were found off-level. The thumb screws were also a little too small.

Hardware Changes

The tripod ball head may not be up to snuff with holding the plates level. I also mounted the ball head towards the outside edge of the plates. Perhaps a more central mounting point would work better?

The 4-40 screws and thumb screws used in the design gave people some trouble overall, and they are only available in some hardware stores. I'm going to change out the parts for 6-32 screws which are more common and larger.

I'm going to try to find a larger mailing tube that fits the styrofoam cups better, or find smaller styrofoam cups.

Leveling the two plates to each other has been a setup issue-- I'm going to try to find some spacers rather than use nuts to hold the plates level to each other.

Deployment Feedback: sample info

very recently we've found that a portion of the analysis is dependent on knowing the viscosity of the air during the collection period. In short, we need to collect data on daily weather. Some of our collaborators suggested during the deployment that it would be good to have that info, and they were right!

For future deployments we need to make a sample logging sheet including * date & time of sample deployment * date & time of sample collection * pressure * temperature * rain/no rain * reported wind speed & direction * notes on whether the housing stayed level