User Manual

Global Water Instrumentation
16
Troubleshooting
The biggest sour c e of trouble is due to insuff ic ient battery voltage. If the unit is
transmitting erratic ally or has s topped, look at the trend in battery voltage going back
a week or more. The batter y v oltage monitor can be a very good indic ator of what
the problem m ay be. Sudden changes in system voltage m ay be c aused by s udden
changes in the local environmental, an electrical pr oblem that is drawing exc es s iv e
current, or a problem with the char ging s y s tem. A slowly dropping voltage may
indicate that the batter y is losing its c apac ity and needs to be replac ed. Other signs
of this ar e that the problem will likely occur when going int o fall or winter, and that the
size of t he v oltage fluctuations f r om day to night will be larger than norm al.
Besides checking the battery voltage monitor at the database, there is another tool
for tr oubles hooting the syst em . LE D’s on the controller and radio modem show the
system oper ation, battery level, whether data is wait ing to be transmitted, and if a
satellite is being r ec eiv ed with sufficient signal strength.
SV: Sensor Voltage. This LED is r ed and has diff er ent functions depending on what
mode the sys tem is in. During the time that the analog sensors ar e powered up, t he
sensor warm -up time, it is lit continuous ly . When the syst em is in a standby mode
the LED blinks br iefly every 15 seconds w hen the bat tery voltage is above 12.0 volts,
and every 5 seconds when the voltage is belo w 12.0 volts,
RV: Radio Voltage. The LED is yellow and is lit while the radio modem is turned on.
The radio is on continuously when the battery voltage is above 12. 8 v olts. Below this
voltage, the radio is kept on only when attempting to t r ans mit.
TX: Transmit. This LED is green and is on when transmit ting data to the radio
modem. It als o blink s briefly ev er y 15 s ec onds when in standby mode and the
battery is abov e 12.8 volts.
Signal: Signal Str ength. This is a dual-c olor LE D that is on only when power is
applied to t he modem. The LED is green continuously when in standby mode and
receiving good signal strength. It blinks green every second w hen c om m unic ating
Signal
Buffer