Blog

9/8/16

Summary: Light winds, < 5 m/s, out of the W. Mostly clear skies. We did get some rain last night
                 Plan today is to work in the base on the NR01 and display/data issues.
                 Site 11 could be a potential location for the rad/soil instruments.

Actions past 24 hours:

• Marsh visit in the alternoon to site 15, 11, and 5
• site 15 - removed NR01 mote #1 to repair SWin
• site 11 - replace questionable TRH probe
• site 5 - replace TRH housing due to flaky Ifan values
• Helped UD get lidar system hooked up to internet

To dos:

•  work on NR01 and hardware to extend height of rain gauge mounting stakes
•  work on Rsync

Sensor status:

T/RH:  ok
P: ok
2D Gill: ok
csat u,v:  ok
csat ldiag: ok
csat w, tc: ok
EC150: ok
motes: ok, mote #1 removed with NR01 (no soil senors at mote #1 and #3)
Wetness: ok
radiation: ok
Tsoil: ok
Gsoil: questionable at mote#2
Qsoil: ok
Cvsoil: not responding
Vbatt: ok, battery at site 15 getting low at night, will monitor

In looking at my latest version of the w'w' vs wind direction plot, I see that I didn't site S15 in the best location.  For wind directions from the NNE (one of the preferred directions to observe tower wakes), the flow at S15 appears to be influenced by the high ground/clump of trees to its North.  I found that this plot was much better behaved when I used S8 as the reference.  I'll keep on looking at this issue...

        Gary and I went to the Marsh around 16:30 hoping to catch the low tide. Unfortunately
we were to early to go under the bridge so we had to go the long way. We did accomplish a number of tasks.
(1) remove NR01  for repair work, S15, (2) replace the TRH housing at S5 due to flaky I fan, and replace the
TRH at site 11. We were able to get under the bride coming back at about 18:30. 

10:00   I just notice the TRH at 5 is not showing on cockpit; however, talking directly to the
            DSM shows the sensor is coming in. The fan current is low so it maybe a test in
            in cockpit that set TRH to RIP due to the low current. Since this fan current has been acting
            funny we will plan to replace the TRH housing. 

9/7/16

Summary: Winds out of the N, NW at 5 m/s. Clear skies.
                 May go into the Marsh today to deal with TRH at 11 and NR01 at 15.
                 Site 8 power still down due to bad monitor board. John will send a care
                 package with some spares.
                 Discovered problem in TP01 firmware. Make fix last night and will work with
                 Boulder to reprogram spare boards. 

Actions past 24 hours:

• Marsh visit yesterday. Did not get done what we wanted due to extreme water levels at sites.
• Work on TP01 issue

To dos:

•  reprogram TP01 boards in Boulder
•  potential visit to site 11 and 15

Sensor status:

T/RH:  ok, s11 T is questionable
P: ok
2D Gill: ok
csat u,v:  ok
csat ldiag: ok
csat w, tc: ok
EC150: ok
motes: ok (no soil senors at mote #1 and #3)
Wetness: ok
radiation: ok, SWin at mote#1 is bad
Tsoil: ok
Gsoil: questionable at mote#2
Qsoil: ok
Cvsoil: not responding
Vbatt: ok

The trip to the Marsh was not as successful as we had hoped. The water at S15 was the highest
we have seen. It was possible to float the boat to the station, solar panels, and the radiation systems.
The estimated water level was 15" above the foot pads. This visit was about 1.5 to 2 hours after high tide.
Gary did put on the extra plugs to protect the exposed Mote Binder connectors. We did not remove
The bad NR01 at Mote #1.

We then went on to 8 to try and fix the power/monitoring system. No luck.

After 8 we explored the remaining sites, except 1,2, and 3, to determine which offered the best location for the rain guage
and the radiation/soil system. All sites were in water of varying depth but not as bad as 15.

Our next trip to the Marsh will be at low tide to check out our options for the rad/soil and the rain gauge.

~10:40  Gary restarted the DSM which got the BT link to mote #2 running again.

9/6/16

Summary: Winds out of the N, NW at 6 to 12 m/s. Clear skies.
                 The plan to day is spend some time in the Marsh.

Actions past 24 hours:

• continue work in base on looking at data

To dos:

•  visit site 8 to repair power
  
•  visit site 15 to bring bad NR01 back to base and check out mote #2
  
• visit site a few other sites as potential energy balance locations and install rain gauge
  

Sensor status:

T/RH:  ok
P: ok, Pirga now scaled correctly on cockpit
2D Gill: ok
csat u,v:  ok
csat ldiag: ok
csat w, tc: ok
EC150: ok
motes: mote#2 not coming in
Wetness: ok
radiation: ok, SWin at mote#1 is questionable
Tsoil: down
Gsoil: down
Qsoil: down
Cvsoil: not responding
Vbatt: ok

The short wave incoming signal from mote #1 is bad. I expect this is a loose connection to the PIC.
The sensor will need to be brought back to the base for repairs.
Since we have 2 other NR01s at this site I do not see the need to immediately fix it unless we decide to
move it and mote #4 to other sites that are more favorable to soil installation.

9/5/16

Summary: Winds 5 to 10 m/s out of the NE. Partly cloudy skies.

Actions past 24 hours:

• Gary worked on data issues while I covered the cat boat and spent time on spare sensors
• station 13 is back on the air, came back on its own

To dos:

•  explore issue with rad/soil data messages from motes
• depending on weather may go to 8 to fix power issue
  

Sensor status:

T/RH:  ok, Ifan on 5 still jumping around. Ifan on tower 40m is high, may need to change its cutoff from 80ma to 100ma
P: ok, Oncley noted that Pirga is in Kpa units not mb
2D Gill: ok
csat u,v:  ok
csat ldiag: ok
csat w, tc: ok
EC150: ok
motes: ok, still need to resolve issue with messages coming in
Wetness: ok
radiation: ok, SWin at mote#1 is questionable
Tsoil: ok
Gsoil: ok
Qsoil: ok
Cvsoil: not responding
Battery: ok except for 8, no message being sent

9/4/16

Summary:

5 to 10 m/s winds from the NE. Partly cloudy skies.
All stations up except for 13. 

Actions past 24 hours:

• Gary worked on data issues
• High tide was about 1.5' - 2' above normal

To dos:

Sensor status:

STATION 13 DOWN

T/RH:  ok, Ifan on 5 still jumping around
P: ok, except for Pirga
2D Gill: ok, some spiking over the last 24 hrs on 2,6,15
csat u,v:  ok
csat ldiag: ok
csat w, tc: ok
EC150: ok, Pirga questionable
motes: communicating
Wetness: ok
radiation: ok
Tsoil: ok
Gsoil: ok
Qsoil: ok
Cvsoil: not responding
Battery: ok except for 8, no message being sent, tio did not bring it back

A recent trip to station 15 at high tide.

12:45   Power cycle on TRH.50m brought sensor back to life.