K-Patents PR-23 Troubleshooting Guide - Manual (Page 7)

TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
FOR PR-23 ALL MODELS 7 (14)
January 9, 2015
K-PATENTS OY

Postal Address: P.O.Box 77, FI-01511 Vantaa, Finland

Street Address: Elannontie 5, FI-01510 Vantaa, Finland

Tel. int.+358 207 291 570
Fax int.+358 207 291 577  [email protected]  www.kpatents.com  Vat No. FI03035575  Business ID 0303557-5  Registered in Helsinki
2.2 Interpretation of the Diagnostic Values
The instrument has several diagnostic values that can be used to inspect the condition of the instrument and
for troubleshooting purposes. Especially, the LED and the QF-value can be informative when interpreting the
optical images.
Table 1 Instrument diagnostic values
Explanation Units / Range
CONC Concentration several units
TEMP Temperature °C / °F
CCD Light activation of the CCD %
nD Refractive index -
CALC Calculated concentration raw value
QF Quality factor typically 0-200
LED Amount of light from the LED 0-100 %
HD TEMP Inside temperature alarm at 65 °C
HD HUM Inside humidity alarm at 60 %
Measurement status: Indicates the current status of the measurement. It also displays error messages. The
messages can be as follows: Normal operation, No sample, Prism wash, Recovering, No sensor, High
sensor humidity, etc. The complete list of different messages with descriptions can be found in the instruction
manual.
TEMP = Temperature element of the instrument is located on the tip of the sensor probe. The temperature
element is one of the first components affected by prism gasket leakage. Typically the leakage is detected
from abnormal temperature readings as the resistance of the PT-1000 temperature element increases when
it is corroded. If the electric circuit is cut off, the temperature will drop to -273.14 °C.
QF = Quality of the optical image which is individual for every application. Quality factor indicates the
steepness of the slope in the optical image and thus the stability of the measurement. However, in some
applications QF values might be approx. 40-50 which is still good, whereas in other applications the QF is up
to 170. Therefore, it is important to keep track on the QF value so that the changes in QF are recorded.
Generally, significantly decreased QF values are seen with bad optical images that have resulted in prism
coating or erosion.
LED = Optimal value for LED is between 3 and 25 %. Higher LED values indicate blockage on the light path,
which can be a result of coating or prism erosion. High LED values are often shown with bad optical images,
i.e. with weak slopes.