Remote access operation of particle counter devices
An airborne or liquid particle sensor with a number of advanced features is disclosed. The sensor includes an output channel generating an electrical signal for a particle passing through the sensor, where the electrical signal includes information related to the pulse. The information is processed by the sensor to determine a value that indicates a more accurate particle mass for a sample period than the average mass.
1 . A remotely operated particle counter system comprising:
a particle counter having an enclosure including a light detecting particle sensor and a memory, the light detecting particle sensor device being configured to detect airborne particles passing through light from a light source wherein the airborne particles pass between an air intake and an air exhaust of the particle counter, the light detecting particle sensor further including at least three output channels wherein the light detecting particle sensor generates an electrical signal for each particle counted among a plurality of particles passing through the light detecting particle sensor;
a signal processing circuit connected to the light detecting particle sensor and the memory, the signal processing circuit generating digitized pulse height data wherein the pulse height data that are more than a threshold value, the threshold value being different for each of at least three output channels that are counted to generate digitized particle count data, and wherein the memory receives the digitized particle count data for the at least three output channels for data storage;
an instrument controller connected to the signal processing circuit to control operation of the particle counter and to process processes the digitized particle count data and wherein the plurality of at least three particle counting channels are latched simultaneously in response to an instrument controller request; and
an interface controller connected to the instrument controller and operating an interface to a network such that a remote user can remotely access and control a particle counting operation of the particle counter.
2 . The system in claim 1 , wherein the interface controller is connected to a remote computer with the network, the remote computer operating a web browser to access particle count data stored in the system memory.
3 . The system in claim 1 , wherein the interface controller connects to an external device operated by a concurrent user of the particle counter.
4 . The system in claim 3 , wherein the system further comprises a data storage device that receives logged data from the memory.
5 . The system in claim 1 , wherein the instrument controller is connected to a user interface wherein a concurrent user operates the instrument controller.
6 . The system in claim 5 , wherein the user interface further comprises a touchscreen display.
7 . The system in claim 5 , wherein the user interface comprises a tablet computer having a display.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuit further comprises an analog to digital converter and a data processor that is configured to generate the digitized pulse height data.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuit comprises a front end pulse processor with a field programmable gate array (FPGA).
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instrument controller is connected to the signal processing circuit and the memory, the instrument controller configured to set the threshold.
11 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a battery providing power to a particle counter display wherein the display graphically depicts particle count data for each of a plurality of output channels.
12 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a power controller that controls power distribution to the particle counter from a battery.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the particle counter comprises a link to a network including a plurality of light detecting particle sensor devices that are connected to a data storage device with the network.
14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the light detecting particle sensor comprises a photodetector that detects particles passing through a light beam.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the light beam is generated by a laser or light emitting diode (LED).
16 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a pulse log buffer that stores a pulse height, a pulse width, an arrival time and increments a counter.
17 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a pump or fan providing an airflow through the light detecting particle sensor.
18 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each channel processing particle data counts particles within for a different particle size range.
19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the light detecting particle sensor comprises a light detector that is connected to an amplifier, an analog to digital converter and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide front end parallel processing of detected signals.
20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each particle counted is recorded with a time stamped data field.
21 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuit comprises a data processor configured to operate a graphical interface on the display, wherein graphical data can be displayed as a function of time.
22 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a portable unit that further comprises a power source and power controller having a power save mode.