MacroSeries Operations Manual
Contents
1. Although not all of these problems can be solved in the field there are some short procedures which can be used to quickly resolve the occasional problems of a MacroSeries instrument 1 a The first thing to do is to check the physical cable connections Disconnect and reconnect all cables to see if there was a bad connection b Try using a different computer and or a different instrument to see if the problem is a bad serial port c Make sure that the batteries are supplying sufficient power to the instrument at least 3 volts per stack of D cells and that the battery stacks are all making electrical contact d There could be a problem with the wiring in the external bulkhead connector To check this first disconnect the Bulkhead Adapter from the Interface Cable Next remove the instrument from its case unscrew and remove the white plastic cover on the logger amp plug the Interface Cable directly into the COM1 phone jack bottom row second from the right Retry Connecting to the instrument If these initial steps produce no results you should use the built in communication program in the Wizard software to continue troubleshooting 2 From the main menu of Wizard select Utility and then Connect Along the bottom of the Connect screen the communication parameters are displayed In most cases the settings should be Com1 19200 Baud No Parity 8 bits 1 stop bit To change any of these communication parameters press the F22. COASTAL S MACRO SERIES OPERATION MANUAL COASTAL LEASING INC 179 Sidney Street Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 Telephone 617 497 1122 Fax 617 497 1188 E mail coastal coastal usa com http www coastal usa com 2001 Coastal Leasing Inc Trademarks are property of their respective owners Specifications and pricing subject to change without notice 1 Introduction This manual describes the operation and general use of Coastal Leasing s MacroSeries of instrumentation The information is correct at the date of completion but is subject to change Coastal s instruments are built with simplicity of operation in mind Highly integrated hardware and software create a generation of oceanographic environmental and meteorologic instrument systems MacroSeries instruments have been used to measure directional waves wave height tides current flow temperature water level turbidity dissolved oxygen acceleration tilt wind speed and direction air pressure and many other parameters 2 Getting Started Note the following checklist of important items If you ignore these data may be lost and equipment damaged or destroyed Unpack the instrument Notify Coastal Leasing immediately if the box contents and packing list do not agree Check out the instrument immediately after receiving it as shipping damages some instruments Deploying a broken instrument only leads to frustration and additional expense Report any malfunction t
3. key and the Communication menu will be displayed Select and change any settings that may be incorrect Use the up down arrow keys to select changes and the Enter key to make them Press the Esc ape key when finished to get back to the Connect screen 3 After parameter verification you should have one of three outcomes a 10678 CL8 gt prompt is the normal response s correspond with the serial number b 10000 CL8 gt prompt means that the parameter files have been lost but if a compact flash card is installed data may still be recoverable c ablinking cursor means that the instrument has become deprogrammed and any data that may have been taken may or may not be recoverable 4 lf there is a 10678 CL8 gt prompt and the instrument is still not responding which is unlikely the problem is probably with the serial port of the PC Try another computer 5 If there is a 10000 CL8 gt prompt and you have a compact flash card with data which needs to be recovered first type C mm dd yyyy hh mm ss the current month day year space hour minute second and press Enter Then type G First you will see First make sure the logger clock is set which you just did Then when the screen asks if you want to restore parameters press Y You should see the 10678 CL8 gt prompt If not press Alt W to wake up the instrument and the prompt should appear Esc ape from the Connect screen and Read the data as you normally would 6 If there i
4. If you are unfamiliar with these commands consult your PC s user s manual On your PC move to the directory where the Wizard program resides i e C PROG COASTAL WIZARD If you need to load Wizard onto your PC see 3 1 Installing Wizard Run the program by typing Wizard Enter Hit any key to get past the title page You will now want to Initialize the instrument with your specific sampling parameters Once the instrument has been Initialized you will want to Monitor to verify sensor operation and deployment settings See 3 3 4 Initialize and 3 3 5 Monitor for instructions on doing this Exit Wizard by pressing Esc and disconnect the instrument from your PC Your Macro instrument is now ready to be deployed 2 2 Deploying Instrument Before deploying your MacroSeries instrument into water make sure that the communications port is sealed with supplied dummy plug Lubricate the O ring on the plug as well as the facial bulkhead O ring with silicone grease and insert into port making sure that the key and keyway are aligned Do not force the plug into the port as this may irreparably damage port pins The MacroSeries instrument is calibrated to be deployed in an upright position with the handle on top It is possible to deploy it in other orientations however an offset will need to be used in later calculations 6 All dissimilar metal to metal contact must be avoided in order to minimize the risk of corrosion of the instrument s housi
5. compact flash without following the procedure described below or you may lose a portion of your data To Read serially Once the Read option is selected the program will ask the instrument for its settings Then it will verify the downloading of the data with a yes no question If YJes the data will be loaded into memory and then offloaded into a file on the PC The first 3 Characters of that file name will be the calendar day the instrument was Initialized followed by the 4 least significant numbers of the instrument s serial number followed by an R The file extension will be the file number of the raw data file Example 2653122R 001 means that it is the first 001 R aw data file for instrument number 1 3122 which was Initialized on the 265 th day of the year With multiple files the extension will change to show the file number Example 2653122R 002 The program will alert you if a file with the same name already exists in the directory It will overwrite the old files so if the old files are important select N o press the Esc key and Quit the program Then either rename the old files or move them into another directory Once all the raw data has been offloaded from the instrument the Wizard program will automatically select the Examine option To Read through Compact Flash reader If you have a lot of data you may wish to Read the data externally in order to speed up the process of downloading First go to Utilities and
6. no data in the instrument to be Read and there is no maintenance required on the instrument When an instrument arrives from Coastal Leasing Inc the Startup Parameters have been set to start into the future The battery capacity has been checked to verify that they will be sufficient for the planned deployment or fresh batteries have been installed Under most circumstances the instrument does not need to be opened Setup your PC You need an IBM PC or compatible with at least 512 kb of memory available and a serial port Copy the files on the Wizard disk to a subdirectory of your choice on your hard drive See 3 1 Installing Wizard Connect the XSJ 7 CCP bulkhead connector end of the serial communication cable supplied by Coastal to the MacroSeries system Connect the DB 9 connector end to the serial port COM1 on the PC If your PC does not have an available COM1 then COM2 can be used if necessary as described in the Utilities Section amp Do not connect to the parallel port of the PC Use extreme care in aligning the keyway of the end cap s connector Do not force insertion as you may irreparably damage the connector Be sure that when reinstalling the XSJ 7 DSP dummy sealing plug or communications cable that the mating surfaces are clean and that a facial O ring on the BCR is in place Check the PC clock Wizard uses the PC clock to set the Macro instrument clock If necessary change the PC clock by using the DOS TIME and DATE commands
7. Use the up down arrow keys to select changes and the Enter key to make them Press the ESC key to get back to the prompt Pressing ESC at the prompt and answering Y will escape the Connect option and bring you back to the Main Menu 4 Maintenance 4 1 Hardware O rings amp Anodes It is recommended to use fully cleaned or new O rings for every deployment Three O rings should be in place 1 on the outside rim of the top cap 1 in the face seal of the bulkhead connector communications port and 1 on the end of the dummy plug Be sure to carefully clean not only the O rings but also the O ring mating surfaces on the pressure case and end cap with isopropyl alcohol Lubricate the O rings lightly with silicone grease Dow Corning DC 4 or Parker O ring lubricant is recommended being sure in the process to check that the rings are clean and free of surface defects cuts hair dirt etc which would prevent proper sealing Once the O rings have been seated the pressure case should be closed Carefully slide the electronics into the housing and secure the screws Make sure that the zinc anode is attached to the top plate and has continuous electrical contact to the housing with either a metal bar or wire This can be done with an ohmmeter making sure that there is negligible resistance between the anode and the case Replace zinc anode CAMP 34762 when it has lost as much as a half of its mass or earlier if the rate of deterioration of t
8. dless of the Sampling Enable Period setting Entering a non zero number here means that sampling will only be enabled every time this number of minutes has elapsed The start of the first such interval will be the same time as the start of your earliest defined burst or average sample The number of minutes it will be enabled for is defined by the Sampling Enable Period gt Enter a Sampling Enable Period When Sampling Enable Interval is set to a non zero value entering 0 here means that sampling will ALWAYS be DISABLED regardless of settings in the burst and average sections below Entering a non zero value here means that sampling will be enabled for that many minutes During this period sampling will take place as defined in the burst and average sections The number of minutes between each of these enabled periods is defined by the Sampling Enable Interval gt EX Interval Period Action 0 any Sampling is always enabled non zero 0 Sampling is always disabled 60 15 Enabled for 15 min every hour 1440 120 Enabled for 2 hours every day Enter an average and or burst if supported Interval in Minutes This is the interval of how often you want to acquire a new set of average or burst data A new set of data will be initiated every time this many minutes has elapsed Enter the average and or burst if supported Sample Period 01sec This is how often you want to sample the sensors during an average or burst acquisition This n
9. en all of the settings are correct hold the Ctrl key down and press Enter to accept the settings and send them to the program The program will ask if you want to continue with Initialization by saving the parameters Enter Y and press Enter It will then ask you to write these parameters to a file with a name of the instrument serial number and extension of PRM This file name will most likely already exist on your PC s hard drive and the program will warn you of this There is very little reason to not overwrite this file if the data from the instrument has already been read Even if this is the first deployment of the instrument the file on the disk has no real deployment settings so it is safe to overwrite Once the file has been written to disk the program will ask you to Initialize the instrument There is a warning about losing any existing data at this point so if the data in the instrument are important and have not been Read yet enter N and Read it otherwise enter Y The instrument is now set and will start recording data based on the parameter settings Use the Monitor function now to verify sensor operation and deployment settings 3 3 5 Monitor This option shows the real time readings of the instrument s sensors It is helpful in checking to see if the instrument is operating correctly Data is displayed in the engineering units selected for the deployment 3 3 6 Process This option converts raw data files into proce
10. he anode so indicates 4 2 Batteries Prior to replacing batteries make sure that any existing data has been Read from the instrument Relnitializing will erase all previous data Next open the Macro instrument pressure case by taking out the screws and sliding the electronics carefully out of the case Each battery board consists of 9 alkaline D cells Paper tubes are used to hold individual D cells in stacks Alternately Bright Star Battery Company Model 7542 triple D cells are also suitable Remove all batteries from the board and check the battery contacts for any signs of corrosion If all looks good replace one stack at a time securing with thick elastic bands gt lt NOTE When changing the batteries remove all 3 stacks from the battery board before replacing any 1 stack The 1 3N cells located in the plastic electronics box will not need to be replaced as often as the D cells as they are only used as a backup power device amp DO NOT remove both the D cells and the 1 3N cells at the same time or the instrument will have to be entirely reprogrammed After replacing batteries note the battery voltage displayed in the lower corner of the Wizard screen The voltage should read about 12 5 V 5 Troubleshooting When an instrument is initially connected to the computer and the Wizard program is started if no response is received an error message will be displayed The instrument is not responding check connection
11. isplayed to the left of each sample Bursts are stamped with seconds and hundredths Averages are stamped with hours and minutes These special keys control the listing window Esc Exits data listing mode Enter Scrolls a line and then pauses Space Scrolls a window and the pauses Other keys Pause or resume scrolling 3 3 4 Initialize This option is used to set and start your next deployment It will erase any previous data stored in the instrument so 6 never Initialize an instrument until all previously collected data has been Read It is very important that the Date and Time of the PC is correct as the Wizard program uses these to set the start of the deployment Check them before running Wizard and if they are wrong change them Once selected Initialize will request the instrument s attention and then load the settings from the instrument into the program The Deployment Settings window will then be displayed Enter a Deployment Title of a maximum of 31 characters Then enter a start date and time for averages and or bursts if supported This is the date and time of the very first sample to be taken gt Anew option in the Macro Series software is Sampling Enable Interval and Period To default out of using this option simply enter 0 in both sections gt Enter a Sampling Enable Interval Entering 0 here means that sampling as defined by the burst and average sections below will ALWAYS be enabled regar
12. ng Make sure that the zinc anode is attached to the top plate and has continuous electrical contact to the housing with either a metal bar or wire In instruments such as the MacroFlow which have an internal compass nonferrous materials should be used so that the compass measures accurately In deployment and recovery it is essential to avoid all direct impact to any external sensor For example the carbon electrodes on the Marsh McBirney sensor which protrude from the sensor assembly are extremely delicate and can be fractured or damaged by impact All deployments are generally site instrument and project specific For ideas on which type of deployment is right for your use it is best to contact Coastal directly 2 3 Recovering and Stopping Instrument After taking the instrument out of the water it should first be rinsed in fresh water Note any possible damage to the case or top plate assembly Once the instrument is recovered the Wizard Read and Examine Sections 3 3 2 amp 3 3 3 functions are used to recover and review data The best way to stop the instrument after reading data is to Initialize instrument to start at a distant future time Otherwise the data remains in the instrument and the instrument keeps sampling until the memory is full the batteries are drained or the unit is relnitialized Remember that relnitializing erases all previous data so download all data before relnitializing 3 Software Wizard The Wizard s
13. nter However the first time an instrument is used start with the Initialize function Pressing Esc generally aborts a step and returns to the previous menu or question The standard screen has several windows Instrument Top left Summarizes instrument configuration and deployment Main Center left Shows key menu function accessed by highlighting Function Bottom left Reports function status defines required inputs Version Top right Reports Wizard version and computer date and time Gauges Center right Shows battery and memory status Alert Bottom right Prompts for input 3 3 Wizard Commands QUIT Exit program and return to system prompt READ Download raw data from the instrument into files on the PC EXAMINE Display raw data files as plots or as a listing INITIALIZE Start or restart your deployment Erases old data making all memory available MONITOR Display instrument s readings in a real time mode PROCESS Convert raw data files into ASCII files with engineering units UTILITIES Support functions and information 3 3 1 Quit This option will Quit the Wizard program and return to the system A yes no question is asked prior to Quitting of the Wizard program 3 3 2 Read This option is used to download any raw data that resides in the instrument s memory If your instrument has a compact flash you may read your data either serially through the instrument or externally through a compact flash reader 6 Do not remove the
14. o Coastal immediately Handle the sensors with great care especially the Marsh McBirney current sensor the Falmouth Scientific CTD sensor and Paroscientific pressure gauges The current sensor probe has soft graphite electrodes which are easily gouged or damaged The CTD sensor is encased in ceramic which can be easily chipped or broken The Paros pressure sensor will be permanently damaged if overranged by 20 Sensor operation should always be verified prior to any deployment Simple bench or field tests should be sufficient for most applications This involves Monitoring the instrument under known conditions and making sure that sensed parameters are consistent with ambient input or controlled excitation This should always be done before deploying a MacroSeries instrument Carefully Examine the data as soon as possible after data collection If something goes wrong during the retrieval of data or the data appear unreasonable resolve the problem before relnitializing the Macro instrument Start by consulting the other chapters in this manual If the problem is still unresolved call Coastal There may be some chance to retrieve the data Never modify the equipment Do not open or tamper with the electronics sensors or compact flash these are not user serviceable With all this in mind you are now ready to deploy the instrument 2 1 Pre Deployment This section assumes the instrument is being deployed for the first time there is
15. o designate a new pathway for Wizard 6 02 ex COASTAL WIZARD 6 02 The file format of the Wizard program is Wizard Executable files Wizard Prm Parameter files Wizard Doc Help files Wizard Dat RawRaw data files Wizard Dat Prc Processed data files It is very important that the Date and Time of the PC is correct as the Wizard program uses these to set the start of the deployment Check them before running Wizard and if they are wrong change them 3 2 Running Wizard To begin using the Wizard software after it has been installed first switch to the directory containing the Wizard program For example if the program resides in a directory called C PROG COASTAL WIZARD type CD PROG COASTAL WIZARD and press Enter Then type Wizard and press Enter Once loaded Wizard will display a title page Press Enter to start using the program When running the Wizard software remember the following Wizard is user friendly and includes on line help to answer questions If unclear about a Wizard prompt press the F1 key to retrieve any available help Wizard makes extensive use of menus Making a menu selection can be done in two ways press the key of the first letter of the desired selection or move the highlight using arrow keys Once your selection is highlighted press Enter Wizard will follow a standard sequence of Read Examine and Initialize so in most cases you can proceed through the menus by simply pressing E
16. oftware that accompanies the instrumentation is a menu driven PC compatible program complete with on line Help accessible by pressing the F1 key at any time The Wizard software runs all of Coastal Leasing s Macro Series series of instruments Only one copy of Wizard is required XX NOTE At this time the new Wizard V 6 02 designed for the MacroSeries is not compatible with the older Wizard V 5 07 and earlier designed for the Micro Mini Series of instruments In the near future they will be compatible and new versions of the software will be distributed 3 1 Installing Wizard Before you can run the Wizard program it must be installed onto the hard drive of a PC Itis recommended that the Wizard software be installed into its own sub directory To install the Wizard software insert the supplied floppy disk into the drive and enter the following command INSTALL S D PATH where S is the source floppy drive usually A or B D is the destination drive usually C PATH is the optional full directory path on the destination drive Directory must already exist on drive Example INSTALL A C PROG COASTAL XX NOTE If no path is specified the install routine will create a directory C RPROG COASTAL WIZARD and install all of the files into it This is the standard default and is the usual pathway used lt NOTE If you already have Wizard 5 07 installed and wish to continue to use it for Micro Mini instruments be sure t
17. onds then reconnect the main batteries by reconnecting the modular plug Next reinsert the red jumper onto the logger board d Go to the Connect screen If there is no compact flash in the instrument the 10000 CL8 gt prompt should appear Recalibrate the instrument with following instructions Recalibrating the Macro Series Logger If the instrument has a compact flash it might take a minute before the 10000 CL8 gt prompt appears Follow above step 5 to retreive data from the compact flash 9 If none of the above steps restores communications the remaining options would be a Coastal could possibly send an exchange set of electronics b Tobe absolutely sure the problem is solved consider sending the entire system back for checkout and service 5 1 Recalibrating the MacroSeries Logger From the directory in which you will start the WIZARD program example C WIZARD enter the following to start WIZARD in the Programming amp Calibration mode ex C WIZARD Wizard PROgram Enter The title page will appear showing information such as WIZARD version and the start time of this session but most importantly it indicates that the Wizard Programming and Calibration Utility is in use Hit any key to continue A four item Main menu will appear Arrow down until the Calibrate option is highlighted Press Enter to select this option Select from files matching prm prm press Enter A list of parameter files will be di
18. s a 10000 CL8 gt prompt and there is no compact flash card any data along with the instrument s parameter files have been lost and the instrument needs to be Recalibrated See following instructions Recalibrating the Macro Series Logger 7 If there is merely a blinking cursor a First press F2 arrow down to the Baud settings press Enter arrow down to 9600 and press Enter again to change the baud rate Press Esc to return to the Connect screen b Ifa TOM8 gt prompt appears press G then Enter The screen will say that it s jumping to address H and then a line of gibberish will appear Change the baud rate back to 19200 A 10000 CL8 gt prompt should then appear Follow above Step 5 directions or following instructions Recalibrating the Macro Series Logger c Ifthe TOM8 gt prompt does not appear change the baud rate back to 19200 and go to step 8 8 If there is still no response from the logger it can easily be reprogrammed according to the following directions Note that if the instrument has a compact flash card data may still be recoverable If there is no additional flash memory in the instrument the data is lost a Disconnect the main battery supply by disconnecting either the modular phone plug on the battery board or the Power phone plug on the bottom right hand corner of the logger b Remove the red jumper located between the small 1 3N batteries on the logger board c Wait approximately ten sec
19. select the Connect option When in the blue screen at the prompt type W to write the remainder of the data from the logger to the flash card Next type to close the file and prep the flash card for removal You will be prompted to remove the power from the logger then remove compact flash To do so open up the white electronics box unclip the phone plug marked Power on the logger board and remove the compact flash card Then place the flash card in the reader to read the data 3 3 3 Examine The Examine option uses two formats to display the raw data The Plot option shows graphs of the data and the List option lists data as a time series Plot Displays auto scaled graphs of average and or burst data Each page can display up to 256 data points The deployment title type of data instrument name software version and serial number are displayed at the top of each page The channel number sensor type and engineering units are displayed for each channel Bursts are referenced by minute second and averages are referenced by hour minute These special keys control the plot window Esc Exits display mode Enter Displays next page of data Space Displays next page of data Other keys Pause or resume automatic paging List Lists average or burst data as a time series The date time and data type sequence and year if the window is big enough are displayed at the window top If there is room on the screen the time is d
20. splayed Use the up down arrow keys to highlight the correct serial number Press enter to checkmark the file and hold the ctrl and enter down together to send the parameter file to the instrument WARNING This discards stored data Calibrate instrument N Press Y to continue Note M8 deployment will start in 1 month To alter reinit after cal This message means the instrument will start to take data one month after calibration is complete You should after quitting the Programming amp Calibration mode of WIZARD run WIZARD and Initialize the instrument with real deployment settings Hit any key to continue The instrument s attention will be requested and the parameter file will be sent to the instrument It will then digest the parameters The program will then request the instrument s attention and load the settings from the instrument The four item Main Menu will appear Select Quit and quit the Programming amp Calibration utility of Wizard Start WIZARD as you normally would type Wizard Enter and Initialize the instrument
21. ssed ASCII files in engineering units Data file names look very similar to the raw data file names The first 3 characters of the file name will be the calendar day the instrument was initialized followed by the 4 least significant numbers of the instrument s serial number followed by an A for an average file or a B for a burst file The file extension will be the file number of the processed file Example 2653122A 001 2653122B 001 With multiple files the extension will change to show the file number Example 2653122A 002 2653122B 002 All processed data files are comma delimited ASCII type files so they are easily imported into many spreadsheet programs 3 3 7 Utilities A few Utilities are available with this option About Useful for finding out about the instrument s deployment settings Wizard program and Coastal Leasing Inc Connect This Utility will allow you to to check on many functions of your nstrument It is most commonly used to change the serial port settings of the PC Go to Connect and press Enter If the instrument is communicating properly with the PC a 10678 CL8 gt prompt will be displayed If the prompt does not appear automatically try pressing Alt W In most cases the settings should be COM1 19200 Baud No Parity 8 bits 1 stop bit To change any of these communication parameters press the F2 key and the Communication menu will be displayed Select and change any settings that may be incorrect
22. umber is in hundredths of seconds so a entry of 50 represents 1 2 second Enter the Average Samples to Average and or Number of Samples to Burst if bursts are supported This is the number of sample sets of the sensor you want to average together or the number of burst sensor sets you want to record If 60 is entered for an average mode and its Sample Period is 50 1 2 second the instrument will stay on averaging the sensors every 1 2 second and stay on for 30 seconds 60 x 1 2 second If 512 is entered for a burst mode and the Sensor Period is set to 50 1 2 seconds then the instrument will stay on for 256 seconds 512 x 1 2 seconds recording each of the 512 sensor samples in memory lt NOTE Wave spectral analysis programs require the Number of Samples to Burst to be a power of 2 64 256 1024 If both bursts and averages are enabled and both a burst and an average are to occur at the same time the burst takes priority You also have the option of turning on or off each individual sensor that is available in either average mode or burst mode Be careful not to disable any parameter that you want to record The Monitor mode parameters can also be changed however the default settings are usually adequate as these settings only affect the real time monitoring of the instrument As any of the parameters are changed the Deployment Limit is recalculated based on memory or battery whichever is the limiting one Wh
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