Manual-EC-5-sensor-E..
Contents
1. e a EC 5 Specifications Measurement Time 10ms milliseconds Accuracy at least 0 03 m3 m all soils up to 8 dS m With soil specific calibration 02 m m 2 Resolution 0 001 m m VWC in mineral soils 0 25 in growing media Power Requirements 2 5VDC 3 6VDC 10mA Output 10 40 of excitation voltage 250 1000mV at 2500mV excitation Operating Environment 40 to 60 C Range of Measurement O to saturation Sensor dimensions 8 9cm x 1 8cm x 0 7cm Cable length 5m standard custom lengths or extension cables are available Connector types 3 5 mm plug or stripped and tinned lead wires Data Logger Compatibility not exclusive Decagon Em5b Em50 series loggers Campbell Scientific CR10X 21X 23X CRI1000 CR3000 etc EC 5 User s Manual 1 Introduction Customer Support If you ever need assistance with your EC 5 or if you just have questions or feedback there are several ways to contact us Customer service representatives are available to speak with you Monday thru Friday between 8am and 5pm Pacific time Phone 1 509 332 5600 Fax 1 509 332 5158 E mail support decagon com or sales decagon com If contacting us by email or fax please include as part of your message your name address phone and fax num ber along with a description of your problem NOTE If you purchased your EC 5 through a distribu tor please contact them for assistance Warran2. Dielectric permittivity 14 E E mail 2 Extension cables 6 F Fax 2 I Installation 7 M Measurement range 1 Mineral soil calibration 14 19 EC 5 User s Manual Index O Orientation of sensor 8 P Phone number 2 Plug wiring configuration 5 Potting soil 15 Power requirements 1 Program 10 R Range 1 Removing sensor 8 Rockwool 16 S Seller s liability 2 Sensor calibration 13 installation instructions 7 orientation 8 specifications 1 Short cut directions 11 Specifications 1 T Troubleshooting 16 W Warranty 2 Wiring diagrams 5 20
3. at a much higher measurement frequency Therefore its general calibration equation should apply for all mineral soils up to 8 dS m saturation extract Its calibration equations are shown below for mineral soil potting soil and rock wool growing media Dielectric Permittivity Dielectric permittivity can be used to determine volu metric water content using external published equations such as the Topp equation Dielectric permittivity is given by 1 1 0570 x 10 RAW 3 57500 x 10 RAW 3 95570 x 109 RAW 1 53153 where RAW is the output from the Decagon data logger using 3V excitation If you are using a non Decagon data logger dielectric permittivity is given by 1 3 33260 x 10 mV 7 02180 x 10 mV 5 11647 x 109 mV 1 30746 Mineral Soils According to our tests a single calibration eguation will generally suffice for all mineral soil types with electrical conductivities from 0 1 dS m to 10 dS m saturation extract Volumetric water content is given by 6 8 5 104 RAW 0 48 1 14 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data where RAW is the output from the Decagon data logger using 3V excitation If you are using a non Decagon data logger VWC is given by 11 9 104 mV 0 401 2 where mV is the output of the sensor when excited at 2500 mV Please note that the equation will reach a maximum at 60 volumetric water content VWC in pure water To display da
4. direct connection with no chance of the sensor becom ing un plugged however it then cannot be used in the future with a Decagon Em50 or Em5 logger The other 5 EC 5 User s Manual 2 About the EC 5 choice is to obtain an adapter cable from Decagon The 3 wire sensor adapter cable has a connector for the sen sor jack on one end and three wires on the other end for connection to a data logger this type of wire is often referred to as a pigtail adapter Both the sensor wire and adapter cable wire have the same wire output shown in Fig 3 the white wire is excitation red is output and the bare wire is ground Analog out Red Ground Bare Excitation White Fig 3 3 wire cable wiring configuration Extended cable lengths Decagon recommends that you purchase customized cable lengths if your project requires longer cable leads Custom cable lengths may be requested with a 3 5mm connector or stripped amp tinned end EC 5 User s Manual 3 Installing the Sensors 3 Installing the Sensors MO When selecting a site for installation it is important to remember that the soil adjacent to the sensor surface has the strongest influence on the sensor reading and that the sensor measures the volumetric water content Therefore any air gaps or excessive soil compaction around the sensor can profoundly influence the read ings Also do not install the sensors adjacent to large metal objects
5. such as metal poles or stakes This can attenuate the sensor s electromagnetic field and adversely affect output readings Because the EC 5 has gaps between its prongs it is also important to consider the size of the media you are inserting the sensor into It is possible to get sticks bark roots or other material stuck between the sensor prongs which will adversely affect readings Finally be careful when inserting the sensors into dense soil as the prongs will break if exces sive sideways force is used when pushing them in Procedure When installing the EC 5 it is best to maximize contact between the sensor and the soil 1 The EC 5 sensor was designed for easy installation into the soil After digging a hole to the desired depth push the prongs on the sensor into undis turbed soil at the bottom of the hole or into the side wall of the hole Make sure that the prongs and black overmolding are buried completely as shown below EC 5 User s Manual 3 Installing the Sensors The sensor may be difficult to insert into extremely compact or dry soil If you have difficulty inserting the sensor try loosening the soil somewhat or wet ting the soil Never pound it in 2 Carefully backfill the hole to match the bulk density of the surrounding soil Be careful not to bend the black overmolding connecting the sensor to the cable To watch a video on proper installation of the sensor go to www decagon com install Or
6. EC 5 Soil Moisture Sensor User s Manual Version 1 DECAGON DEVICES Decagon Devices Inc 2365 NE Hopkins Court Pullman WA 99163 USA 509 332 5600 Trademarks ECH20 is a registered trademark of Decagon Devices Inc All rights reserved 2001 2012 Decagon Devices Inc All rights reserved EC 5 User s Manual Table of Contents Contents 1 Introduction 1 EC 5 Specifications 1 Customer Support eeeeeee 2 Warranty Information 2 Seller s Liability cceeeees 2 2 About the EC 5 4 Sensor Features 0eeeeeee 4 Wiring Diagrams ouni 5 3 5mm Plug Wiring 5 Wiring to Non Decagon Data Loggers 5 Extended cable lengths 6 3 Installing the Sensors 7 Procedure s saoikea sine parca wee wake aja N 7 Orientation xc sexe for Te Bees eee Maes 8 Removing the Sensor 8 4 Collecting Data 9 Data Logger Requirements 9 Connecting to a Data Logger 10 Sample Program 205 10 SCWin Short Cut Directions 11 Calibration ssa sic solaa aN is 8 13 Sensor Calibration Values 13 Troubleshooting eeeeees 16 Declaration of Conformity 17 Ines a Sisal EC 5 User s Manual Table of Contents EC 5 User s Manual 1 Introduction 1 Introduction
7. efore contacting Decagon about the sensor do the following e Check to make sure the connections to the data logger are both correct and secure e Ensure that your data logger s batteries are not dead or weakened If you encounter problems that aren t due to the data logger please contact Decagon at 509 332 5600 or at support decagon com 16 EC 5 User s Manual Declaration of Conformity Declaration of Conformity a a UMMM S Application of Council Directive 89 336 EE6 Standards to which conformity EN61326 1998 is declared EN51022 1998 Manufacturer s Name Decagon Devices Inc 2365 NE Hopkins Court Pullman WA 99163 USA Type of Eguipment Soil moisture sensor Model Number EC 5 Year of First Manufacture 2001 This is to certify that the EC 5 ECH O soil moisture sensor manufactured by Decagon Devices Inc a cor poration based in Pullman Washington USA meets or exceeds the standards for CE compliance as per the Council Directives noted above All instruments are built at the factory at Decagon and pertinent testing doc umentation is freely available for verification 17 EC 5 User s Manual Declaration of Conformity 18 EC 5 User s Manual Index Index A Accuracy 1 C Calibration 13 for mineral soil 14 for potting soil 15 for rockwool 16 Customer support 2 D Data logger 1 connecting to 10 requirements 9 sample program 10 Declaration of conformity 17
8. ientation The sensor can be oriented in any direction However orienting the flat side perpendicular to the surface of the soil will minimize effects on downward water move ment Removing the Sensor When removing the sensor from the soil do not pull it out of the soil by the cable Doing so may break inter nal connections and make the sensor unusable EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data 4 Collecting Data Data Logger Requirements The EC 5 sensor is designed to work most efficiently with Decagon s 5 channel Em5b Em50 or ProCheck handheld readout All Decagon readout devices use a 3 0V excitation The sensors however may be adapted for use with other data loggers such as those from Campbell Scientific Inc for example The EC 5 requires an excitation volt age in the range of 2 to 3 6 volts The sensors produce an output voltage that depends on the dielectric constant of the medium surrounding the sensor and ranges between 10 and 50 of the excitation voltage Any data logger which can produce a 2 5 to 3 6V excitation with approximately 10 millisecond duration and read a volt level signal with 12 bit or better resolution should be compatible with the EC 5 sensor The current reguire ment for the EC 5 is 10mA at 2 5V NOTE EC 5 sensors are intended only for use with data loggers and readout devices which can provide short excitation pulses leaving the sensors turned off most of the time Continuous excita
9. ines End Program SCWin Short Cut Directions The following are instructions for using Campbell Sci entific s SCWin Short Cut program to read the EC 5 soil moisture sensor 1 Download EchoCSI zip from http www deca gon com appnotes EchoCSlIappnote pdf 2 Unzip the folder EchoCSI zip 3 Locate the file containing SCWin exe It should be in C Program Files Campbellsci SCWin Place the 11 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data following files from the unzipped EchoCSI zip folder into the folder with SCWin exe AM1632Z MUX AM416Z MUX EC10 SCS EC101632 SCS EC10416 SCS EC20 SCS EC201632 SCS EC20416 SCS EC5 SCS EC5632 SCS EC5416 SCS SCWIN DECAGON CNT SCWIN DECAGON HLP Note If you are not able to find this directory path search for the folder that contains SCWIN exe and place the files into that folder 4 Open up SCWin exe Short Cut If you are using a 5 V 3 copy of LoggerNet there is a tab for SCWin Short Cut on the tool bar Select New to start a new program to read the EC 5 a Select the data logger you will be using to read the sensors b Select the measurement interval a shorter measure ment interval i e 1 sec is sometimes desirable when testing the sensor Click on Sensors this should open a new page with a file tree on it 12 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data 7 Under the Sensors file tree double click on Meteorological a
10. nd then select Soil Moisture 8 Choose EC 5 Sensor Calibration Decagon s ECH O Utility and DataTrac3 automatically apply factory calibrations to the sensors output data However this general calibration may not be applicable for all soil types For added accuracy we encourage our customers to perform soil specific calibrations The calibration equation that you will use depends on where you will be using it If you will be using it with sensors connected to a non Decagon data logger you will need to use the 2500 mV calibration If you use any Decagon software DataTrac3 ECH O Utility etc or the user calibration menu in the ProCheck you will need to use the RAW calibration The difference between the two is the slope constant To increase the resolution of the sensor output Decagon uses all avail able increments of the 12 bit number value of 4096 where the measurement is stored Thus the output of the sensors read by the ProCheck and Decagon loggers must be multiplied by 0 61 AND the 2500 mV slope to give the right value Sensor Calibration Values Following is a list of the both the millivolt and RAW calibration values for the EC 5 where 0 is the volumet ric water content mV is the millivolt output of the sen sor and where x is the RAW sensor output 13 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data The EC 5 is much less sensitive to variation in texture and electrical conductivity because it runs
11. of merchant ability and fitness for a particular purpose not expressly set forth herein EC 5 User s Manual 2 About the EC 5 2 About the EC 5 TA The two prong design and higher measurement fre quency allows the EC 5 to measure VWC from 0 to 100 VWC of saturated soils is generally 40 60 depending on the soil type and allows accurate mea surement of all soils and soilless medias with a wide range of salinities Sensor Features Circuitry Sensor Fig 1 EC 5 diagram EC 5 User s Manual 2 About the EC 5 Wiring Diagrams 3 5mm Plug Wiring The EC 5 comes with a 3 5mm stereo plug connector This allows for rapid connection directly to Decagon s Em50 and Em5 loggers and the ProCheck Below is a diagram showing the wiring configuration for this con nector Analog iw war Ii Ground Excitation Fig 2 3 5mm Stereo Plug wiring configuration Wiring to Non Decagon Data Loggers Models with stripped and tinned leads are pre config ured for connecting to non Decagon data loggers Sim ply wire the lead into the data logger as described in Connecting to a Data Logger in Chapter 4 If your model uses the standard 3 5mm plug you have two choices when attaching the sensor to non Decagon data loggers First you can clip off the plug on the sen sor cable strip and tin the wires and wire it directly into the data logger This has the advantage of creating a
12. ta on a scale from 0 to 100 VWC should be modeled with a quadratic equation which would result in a 100 VWC in water but a linear equation fits the mineral soil VWC range as well as the quadratic and linear equations are easier to deal with especially since mineral soil typically saturates at 40 50 VWC Potting soil The following equations can be used to convert EC 5 output to water content in potting soil We tested several types of potting soil Sunshine mix Miracle Grow Pot ting Mix and Custom Nursery soil at several salinities and found that VWC is given by 1 3 10 RAW 0 696 3 for a Decagon data logger or 6 2 11 10 mV 0 675 4 for a data logger with 2500mV excitation 15 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data Rockwool The EC 5 was calibrated in Grodan Master rockwool with solution electrical conductivities of 0 2 1 0 1 5 2 0 and 4 5 dS m Volumetric water content can be cal culated using 6 28 107 RAW 1 37 x 109 RAW 0 183 5 for a Decagon data logger or 2 63 10 mV 5 07 x 10 mV 0 0394 6 for a data logger with 2500 mV excitation NOTE These calibration constants only apply to 2500mV excitations use of these numbers with any other excitation voltage will result in erroneous readings Troubleshooting If you encounter problems with the EC 5 they most likely will manifest themselves in the form of incorrect or erroneous readings B
13. tion not only wastes battery power but may under certain circumstances cause the sensor to exceed government specified limits on electromagnetic emissions Do not continuously power the EC 5 sensor EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data Connecting to a Data Logger Connect the wires to the data logger as shown with the supply wire white connected to the excitation the ana log out wire red to an analog input and the bare ground wire to ground Analog Supply out Ground EXC H Analog In Data Logger Fig 5 Data logger configuration Sample Program The following program is an example that can be used with Campbell Scientific s CR10X data logger and our EC 5 sensor at a 2500mV excitation CR10X Example ECH2O Data Logger Program for CR10X Wiring White Excitation Channel 1 Red Input Single Ended Channel 1 Black Ground Table 1 Program 10 EC 5 User s Manual 4 Collecting Data 01 1 Execution Interval seconds Factory calibration equations for ECH2O probes convert mV output of ECH2O to volumetric water content VWC m3 m3 EC 5 VWC 0 00119 mV 0 400 Excite Delay SE P4 21 Reps 5 2500 mV Slow Range 1 SE Channel 1 Excite all reps w Exchan 1 1 Delay 0 01 sec units 2500 mV Excitation 1 Loc Probe VWC 00119 Multiplier 4 Offset OON oONr on Table 2 Program 02 0 0000 Execution Interval seconds Table 3 Subrout
14. ty Information The EC 5 has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee and a one year warranty EC 5 User s Manual 1 Introduction Seller s Liability Seller warrants new equipment of its own manufacture against defective workmanship and materials for a period of one year from date of receipt of equipment the results of ordinary wear and tear neglect misuse accident and excessive deterioration due to corrosion from any cause are not to be considered a defect but Seller s liability for defective parts shall in no event exceed the furnishing of replacement parts F O B the factory where originally manufactured Material and equipment covered hereby which is not manufactured by Seller shall be covered only by the warranty of its manufacturer Seller shall not be liable to Buyer for loss damage or injuries to persons including death or to property or things of whatsoever kind including but not without limitation loss of anticipated profits occa sioned by or arising out of the installation operation use misuse nonuse repair or replacement of said mate rial and equipment or out of the use of any method or process for which the same may be employed The use of this equipment constitutes Buyer s acceptance of the terms set forth in this warranty There are no under standings representations or warranties of any kind express implied statutory or otherwise including but without limitation the implied warranties
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