YSI 6200 - Manual (Page 70)

YSI 6200 DAS USER Manual
YSI/Massachusetts 508.748.0366, Fax 508.748.2543 Page 7-3
and monitoring power consumption using the battery voltage indicator (internal sensor). Based
on your findings, decide on the interrogation frequency.
Installing the 6200 at the Field Site
Having mimicked your field/base setup, you may now move your 6200 DCP to the field to install
it in the supporting structures that should already be in place. Remove the battery during
transport. The DCP will stop collecting data when the battery is removed, however the internal
clock and configuration will not be lost.
Next you should permanently mount the DCP enclosure and connect power charging sources
(AC or solar panel), communication hardware such as antenna or phone connection and the
sensors that you will be using. Be sure to connect the antennas before any power source is
applied. See Appendix E for installation examples. Lastly, reinstall the battery and reconnect
the battery leads. The design of the 6200 DCP should allow these steps to be accomplished
rather quickly. The 6200 DCP should now be able to communicate with the base station and will
transfer data at the next scheduled interrogation time. During the field station installation, if
EcoWatch was left running, the base station will try to interrogate with the 6200 DCP on its
schedule. After the entire above installation is completed, data should begin to appear on the
EcoWatch DCP data collection screen.
7.3 Verifying Field/Base Communication from the Field
We recommend that you have a person at the base station verify that when all connections are
made at the field station. This is just to verify that EcoWatch DCP and the 6200 DCP are
functioning properly and the interrogations are collecting data. You may choose to use walkie-
talkies, cell phone, or another voice radio link to the base station person to verify the link, to
check battery voltage, and to assure that no errors are occurring. To avoid waiting you may have
the base station person use the 6200: Interrogate Now command to retrieve any data that may
be in memory.
You now have an unattended field station collecting data at your specified intervals and relaying
that information to base station software (EcoWatch DCP) for remote monitoring.
CAUTION!
Secure DCP enclosure with a padlock to prevent access
by other than qualified personnel.
7.4 Collecting Data with EcoWatch DCP
In this section you will see in some detail the steps needed to open a new file in EcoWatch DCP
for communicating with the field station DCP and collecting data from sensors that are connected
to this station. Let us assume that the communication link is phone modem, the power source is
battery and both sonde and meteorological sensors are connected. Assume at this point that all
hardware is connected. You are about to take the 6200 DCP to the field for permanent
installation. Follow the example below, extending this to your particular application if power
and/or communication modes differ.
Start by opening EcoWatch DCP, if it is not already running.