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User'S Manual: Dynamic Nanotem Concept Document
User'S Manual: Dynamic Nanotem Concept Document
01
Dynamic NanoTEM concept document
User’s Manual
Zonge Engineering
3322 E. Ft. Lowell
Tucson AZ 85716
January 8, 2008
DNT 0.01......................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1
INSTALLING DNT....................................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION
This manual covers the use of Zonge Engineering’s DNT (Dynamic NanoTem)
software. This software has a PDA component and a GDP (Zonge’s Geophysical
Data Processor) component. The PDA component is designed to run on a GPS
vendor PDA under Windows Mobile. PDA DNT software controls Zonge’s GDP
acquisition hardware via an active TCP/IP link with the GDP. Decay acquisitions
coordinated with transmitter turn off, are passed from the GDP to the PDA in real
time. The DNT software stores all incoming decays on the PDA flash card. GPS
information, if available is merged in real time resulting in a “mow the lawn”
graphical display. GPS vendor specific files are also stored on the PDA’s flash card
for latter post processing operations.
If you are interested in collecting data as quickly as possible, read the DNT
installation manual section followed by the Quick start manual section.
INSTALLING DNT
The DNT PDA software may be installed by laptop download.
After connecting your PDA to your LapTop, activate the Setup.EXE program from
your source of choice (a CD, or net download to your LapTop harddrive) and follow
the indicated dialog prompts. If you have a prior version of the DNT software on
your machine, the first operation of the Setup.EXE program will be to un-install your
prior version. You will have to run Setup.EXE a second time to install the
updated version.
After you have successfully installed the PDA DNT software, read the Quick Start
section of this manual.
QUICK START
This manual section will assist you in gathering data as quickly as possible. While
your softwares come pre-installed from Zonge, refer to the “Installing DNT” manual
section if you need to verify installation or are upgrading software.
In the upper left corner you should see the “NO GDP” indicator light change from red
to green, indicating an active TCP/IP link with the GDP. If this does not occur within
2 minutes, contact technical support. The GDP should also report current battery
voltage and cache block #.
Within the same time period, you should see the GPS LINKED indicator light
change from red to yellow indicating active communication with GPS hardware.
Once enough satellites have been acquired to provide accurate position information,
the indicator light will change to green.
Look to the lower right corner, and check that GDP and transmitter battery levels are
good, and that GDP internal hardware has passed self-check. All status lights
except for the “sync” light should be green.
At this point all your supporting hardware is active, and the system is ready to
perform acquisitions. The next section details a minimum setup required for
acquisition.
In the spirit of “quick start”, we will review the minimum setup necessary to get your
acquisition up and running. Parameters are grouped by topic on the Set Up screen,
so we’ll follow this natural organization.
In the “Survey” parameters section, make sure that you will be storing data to the
PDA. This is done by “clicking” on the PDA light to turn it green. If it is already
green, nothing need be done.
In the “Channels” parameters section, make sure that at least 1 channel is on. A
channel is “on” if it’s component is set to some other value besides “Off”.
This is done by right clicking the “component” parameter for your channel of interest.
A pop-up selection will appear, simply select the component whose geometry
matches your receiver antenna. Receiver antenna’s which are horizontal to the
ground are labeled “Z”.
In addition make sure the gain control setting, for all channels, is at “Auto”.
Select your transmitter ID. The Transmitter ID selects transmitter settings from a
look up file, including a default shunt resistor. Make sure the TX current is set to
“Max”. This tells the transmitter to maximize current output during your survey. The
GDP self-check operation will default the transmitter setting for you.
Use the “Done” button located on the lower right of the setup screen to complete
this quick start SetUp.
Changes made within the SetUp screen regarding channels will appear on the main
screen. You can use the lower section of the screen to monitor channels of your
choice in real time.
Channels not physically present in the GDP card cage, as well as those you have
turned off in the setup screen, will be disabled. For all physically present channels
which are on, you can select one or more channels to be graphed in real time. In
the display above, channel 1 has been selected for real time monitoring, which
channels 2 and 3 are either not present or have been turned off in the SetUp
screen. Note that your selection of monitor channels has no impact on GDP
performance.
To start your acquisition, press the acquisition control button located at the upper
center of the screen.
You acquisition will begin. You should see the GDP block number increment at
each new data block is gathered by the GDP. You survey grid will show a colored
rectangle for each acquired data block. In the absence of grid sizing information
(the Grid Setup screen), 10 pixels per meter will be used to size the displayed
rectangle based on the TX X, and TX Y parameter values on the SetUp screen. As
you move the DNT cart, you should see the displayed rectangle displays follow the
cart.
You should also see a real time graph for channels you have chosen to display in
real time.
The delay parameters are used to mitigate the contribution of system response to
the measured values in the early times of the decay.
Size and composition of objects embedded in the energized earth volume affect the
duration and magnitude of measured decays. Use of the windowing parameters as
well as the channel sample rate parameter control the length of time for which a
decay is measured.
When first booted, the DNT software will try to establish communication with GDP
and GPS hardware. This is an on-going process, allowing you to turn on and/or
connect devices in any order.
When the system detects the GDP, it queries the GDP for current status and self
check. The GDP LINKED light will change from red to green, indicating active
communication with the GDP.
Likewise when active communication with a GPS receiver antenna occurs the GPS
linked light will change from red to yellow. The light will change to green when
enough satellites have been acquired to provide accurate position information.
Checking status
When communication is initially established with the GDP, a self check of internal
hardware is performed. This includes the optional internal transmitter as well as
installed cards. Functional status is displayed as green, problems are shown in red.
A successful self test is shown below:
The GDP light indicates that the timing card, internal bus communications, and
mother board are present and functional.
The GDP battery light, when green, indicates the GDP’s internal battery is greater
than 11.7 volts. A yellow GDP battery light means the battery is greater than 11.2
volts, but less than or equal to 11.7 volts. A red GDP battery light means an
external battery or charger should be attached to the GDP. If you see the “GDP
LINKED” light go out in conjunction with a red GDP battery light, then the GDP has
shut down for low battery.
The TX battery light, when green, indicates the internal transmitter battery is greater
than 11.2 volts. The TX battery light when red, can indicate low battery, or that the
battery is not connected to the DNT system.
The TX link light, indicates that the main GDP hardware is in communication with
the internal transmitter. This communication takes place over one of the GDP’s
internal serial ports, and the TX link light indicates the status of that link. This status
light can change not only during initial self test operations, but during acquisition
operations as well.
The Cards light, indicates that all installed cards in the GDP passed their self test.
The Sync light, indicates that the acquisition operation is operating in real time at the
specified frequency. Initial self check operations do not affect this status light.
Decays must be gathered for each active channel at a given time depth. Raw data
points for each active channel are binned according to a windowing scheme,
packaged with status information, and streamed to the selected storage location.
Simplistically, this cycle must be completed before the next transmitter pulse or the
acquisition operation will fall behind the hardware. The ability of the software to stay
synchronized with the hardware, is a function of active channels, operation
frequency and cycles, and time depth associated with windowing each decay. A
pre-configured set up file can be used to default all configuration parameters in the
DNT software.
The upper left corner of the DNT screen is used to control high level operation of the
acquisition. Once the GDP is successfully linked with the controlling PDA,
acquisitions may be started and stopped by using the STOPPED/RUNNING button
located immediately to the right of the GDP LINKED button. Note that an active
GDP link with good status, is needed before any acquisition operations can be
performed.
Before starting the acquisition, select your operational frequency by right clicking the
“Frequency” box. The operational frequency is the rate at which measured decays
will be collected.
In conjunction with the operational frequency, you will want to pick a cycle count.
Divide the operational frequency by your choice of cycle count to determine the
effective acquisition frequency. The optimum frequency/cycle count choice
depends on the ambient 60hz/harmonics noise.
Finally, you must decide if you want survey line numbers to increment automatically
at each stop/start cycle in the survey. This can be convenient during production
operations.
The Survey Grid display provides graphical tracking of DNT cart measurements
merged with GPS position. In the SetUp screen you have the option of loading a
graphical background corresponding to your survey location. Your survey grid is
physically 400X480 pixels, so a survey area of 400X480 meters surveyed with a 1
meter square cart would yield a display of 1 pixel per cart measurement with a
resolution of 1 square meter.
If you don’t configure the Survey Grid, it defaults to a resolution of 10 pixels per
meter, yielding a 40 X 50 meter display. The size of the rectangle plotted at each
measurement, is determined by the receiver antenna size set in the “SetUp” display.
Receiver antenna size is determined from the Antenna ID field.
To customize the Survey Grid display, double click it. The GridSetup screen will be
displayed. Use this screen to control the resolution of the Survey Grid display.
You can load an optional Survey Grid image to be used as the background.
Use the ImageOrientation field to describe how the vertical axis of the image is
offset from True North.
Use the ImageScale field to define how many pixels are in a meter for the image.
Note that this is a floating point field, so values such as 0.0125 are valid..
You can use the “Resurvey” section of the set up screen if you want your survey or
re-survey area drawn on your image map. The main intent of this section is allow
resurvey of “gaps”, where each gap is defined as a polygon of points. Points are
defined as pairs and define the edges of your arbitrary shape. While it’s unlikely a
simple “gap” would just be a long rectangle, a simple 4 sided polygon needing 4
points to define it. More likely your polygons will be diamonds or canoe shapes.
The test square at the right can be used to check the qualitative shape of your
entered polygon.
You can load your resurvey polygon points, using a file. The file should be ASCII,
i.e. a text file, and should contain a pair of points on each line, one line for each
“corner” of the polygon. The loaded points will be displayed in the
“ManualResurvey” array.
The points are in meter offsets from a known base station position. Easterly offsets
are entered in the “X” box, while Northerly offsets are entered in the “Y”. Your point
set can either relist the first point to close the polygon, or let the program close
automatically.
Use the SurveyOrientation field to describe the orientation of the Survey Grid display
as an offset from True North.
Use the SurveyScale field to describe the displayed resolution in the Survey Grid
display on the main screen. The units of this field are pixels per meter. Values of 5
to 10 should be typical if you want to see meaningful coverage displays.
The real time channel display allows you to control which channels are displayed in
real time. A choice of full decay or profile is possible.
In the example above, channels 2 and 3 are either turned off or not present in the
GDP. In the example below, while all 3 channels are active, only channel 1 will be
displayed in real time.
You can activate/deactivate channels for real time display at any time, even if the
acquisition is currently taking place.
If a “profile” display is selected, then all active channels will have only a single
window value displayed for each measured decay. The single window value is
simply plotted in order of appearance, and is only nominally related to position in the
survey.
Select the window to be profiled in the indicated box. If this is changed while
profiling is active, past profile values will not be updated to reflect the new
monitoring window.
Configuration files can be used to load saved or pre-configured values for all DNT
set-up parameters. Use the “Configuration File” control to browse for and use
configuration files. Use the “Load” or “Save” buttons appropriately.
Survey Parameters
You can store data on the GDP’s flash card, in the GDP’s memory, or in the PDA.
Selecting the GDP’s memory or the PDA as the storage target will maximize your
acquisition performance. Storing onto the GDP’s flash card can significantly slow
your acquisition. If you do not have the PDA selected as a storage target, only
acquisition status, GDP block #, and a single profile channel will be displayed in real
time on the PDA.
If you are storing data on the GDP, and less than 1MB of storage remains, the GDP
status light will change from green to red.
You can also set the “Line Increment” control to a positive or negative value. If you
enable auto line incrementing on the main DNT control screen, your initial line # will
be incremented or decremented as entered. An entry of zero disables auto-line
increment/decrement.
Channel Parameters
Channel parameters define how physical GDP channels are used in subsequent
acquisitions.
Green “Gain” and “Level” lights mean the GDP card passed its gain stage and level
self checks. When no data blocks have been acquired, the WindowVal field will
contain the actual measurement of a 1 Volt calibration signal fed into the card.
Otherwise it will contain the latest value of the monitoring window associated with
the most recently acquired decay.
Gain settings apply to all active channels. Currently there is no method for having
different gain modes operating on individual channels.
If you have selected one of the auto gain modes, the stages will be used to show
actual gain values obtained by the auto gain routine within the GDP. While you can
set values for gain stages when operating in autogain mode, these values will be
ignored once acquisition begins.
Transmitter Parameters
The SetUp screen contains a group of parameters concerning the operation of the
transmitter. The two main parameters which affect operation, are the TX Shunt, and
TX current controls.
If you a using an antenna which is not listed or was built by a third party, select the
“3rd Party” option in the Transmitter ID field. Upon selection of the “3rd Party” choice,
three additional fields will be displayed.
Enter the length and width of your transmitter antenna, as well as the number of
turns or loops of wire in the antenna. Note that the shunt resistor will not be
defaulted, and you will have to determine the optimum value for bleeding off system
response.
A poor choice of resistor, can lead to a sustained system response which can mask
the actual decay being measured. You will need a scope to test system response,
contact Zonge Engineering if you are not familiar with Shunt Resistor determination
procedures.
If set to “Manual”, the internal transmitter will attempt to hold the current output
constant at the entered value.
Receiver Parameters
Receiver parameters are used to record physical information about the receiver
antenna. A subtlety, is that the entered antenna ID is used to calculate rectangular
plot rectangle size on the Survey Grid display.
Like Transmitter parameters, a selection of “3rd Party” will display additional fields
allowing you to record physical properties of your antenna.
Decay Parameters
These parameters control how DNT decays are measured and processed prior to
storage. Choice of these parameters results in processing of raw measured values
which cannot be reversed.
Naturally, your selection of window set has performance ramifications. The shallow
window set can be collected in approximately 1/3 the time of the Zonge Standard
window set. In all cases, even with Custom Window sets, 31 windows must be
defined.
You can scroll through the “Window Widths” display, making changes as needed. If
you have “Zonge Standard” or “Shallow” windows selected when you activate the
“Window Widths” display, the values for that window set will be used to default the
“Window Widths” display. As soon as you make a change to the “Window Widths”
display, the “Windows” selection control will automatically change to “Custom”.
The transmitter/receiver antenna pair stores transmitter turn off energy internally.
Time must be allowed for the shunt resistor to dissipate this energy. The Antenna
delay field is used for this purpose. Finally the anti-alias filter on the A/D board has
a time dependent behavior, this delay is added into the total delay prior to beginning
decay measurements.
ARCHIVING DATA
Data cache have pre-defined names which are kept the same for stability between
jobs. The cache on the GDP is always named NTFAST.DNT, while the cache on
the PDA is always named NTPDA.DNT. However, after collecting your data cache
you may rename it according to the procedures associated with your specific job.
Use the “Archive” button located below the “Setup” button on the lower right side of
the DNT main screen. The archive screen is controlled by using the file browser
control. Click the folder icon to the right of the “DNT archive” control to bring up a
standard browse dialog. Upon selecting or entering a file, DNT data will be
archived.
Use the “Remain” meter to estimate how much storage space is left on your target
device (see the setup screen section of this manual for selection of target device).
SYSTEM ERRORS
ABORT
This severity level will cause automatic termination of the software. An
acknowledgement dialog will be presented, and the program will terminate following
acknowledgement. Errors with this severity are rare and if you get one you should
note the message in the acknowledgement box, and contact Zonge for technical
support.
STOP
The stop severity level means that data collection can no longer continue because
data quality will be un-acceptable. Examples include loss of communication with
either the GDP or internal transmitter during acquisition operation, inconsistent
setup between the physical GDP and the GDP setup screen, or conflict with the
physical reality of the hardware.
CONTINUE
The continue severity level means that the error will not affect data quality, but the
operator should be made aware of the condition. Errors of this severity will cause
an acknowledgement dialog to appear. Upon acknowledgement processing will
continue. For example, a current below a given threshold will cause this error, and
is often indicative of an unconneted/unpowered/weak powered transmitter.
INFORMATION
The information severity level means that the error is so trivial that the operator
should not be bothered. Processing will continue un-interrupted and a message will
be logged to the System Status window.