Josés Carlos and Palma today adjusted the PITCH of the ops center antenna, which immediately brought tse13 and rne06 online, and improved the connection to rne07. So, for the first time, we now have all links to the ne ridge in place and working. With these links up, we are also able to get to many of the sites in the valley and sw ridge – now 17 total stations. There are another 4 sites that should be on the network, but aren't connected. An additional 3 sites are on the network, but the data system won't connect. So...progress, but still some work to do.
We think we've figured out our problem with the RMYoung sonics – our power supplies are not producing high enough voltage. The RMY has a minimum voltage requirement of 12V and our power supplies are producing 12V. However, the voltage drop through as much as 55m of DC cable (from the fuse boxes on the power drop through the DSM to the sensor) has been 0.5V or more. tnw11, for example, was reporting Vdsm=11.2V. We note that the minimum voltage for all other sensors is below 10.5V, so this is a problem specific to the RMYs. This explanation is consistent with these sensors working in the ops center (and earlier, at ARL), but not on the tower.
The solution is to use higher-voltage power supplies for the (7) masts that have RMYs and AC power. (Solar-powered stations should have batteries providing nominally 12.7V.) We've ordered 14 V supplies that we will bring with us on the next trip. (They need to have our DC power connector added to them before use, which is easiest to do in the lab.)
20m.tse11
Noticed that some Ifans were 0:
tse13.80m: wouldn't respond to control-R, but came back up with a power cycle (pio)
tse13.2m: responds to control-R, but immediately fan is 0. I tried increasing the current limit to 200mA, and still is immediately 0. I suspect this is the VERTEX fan-monitoring-board-dead issue.
tse06.60m: responds to control-R, but immediately fan is 0. I tried increasing the current limit to 200mA, and still is immediately 0. I suspect this is the VERTEX fan-monitoring-board-dead issue.
tse09.100m: wouldn't respond to control-R, but came back up with a power cycle (pio)
Last (part) day in the field – I am writing this from Lisbon...
All but 2 masts that have been constructed are now powered up and collecting data. There are 7 masts remaining to be prepped in the ops center. There are 2? masts that have DTU sensors but have not yet been configured to send their data to our system (easy for them to do once they are on the network). We also have a handful of sensor issues (mostly RMYoung sonics) that are reporting continuously bad values. Also, standard maintenance, such as cleaning the radiometers, has not been done (though the rain is performing much of this task!). We had staged equipment at the two remaining constructed towers, but pulled this equipment off again for safekeeping until we next arrive.
Much of the network is functioning. HOWEVER, the primary mast that we have set up to get data out of the valley (rne07) failed to pair with the ops center. Thus we are receiving less than half of the masts that are working. (rne07 did power up after the quick work by the electricians to resolve a power issue at this site this morning.) The best guess is that the antenna is not pointed correctly, but time didn't allow us to fix it. Unfortunately, this means that ISS also is unable to connect with the network, so Gary reinstalled a cell modem at that site.
We also consolidated our mess at the ops center.
The German/Danish group also is leaving today (having placed many of the lidars), so no one will be on site for a while.
(Wifi wasn't working in my hotel last night, so this is late...)
A mixed day:
- rsw05, rsw07, and tnw03 all instrumented. Just need to hook up power (that we weren't supplied to do – will happen today)
- added access point for west slope on rsw06
- half instrumented v07
So...we've decided to remove tse02 prep (which I did this morning), which will leave 2 towers built here, but not instrumented, and fly home on our original schedule.
Measure and record tower guy wire tensions when appropriate. Two tension meters are available, will be stored in ops center. Bring a sharpie if planning on measuring tension to label tower leg. Living document available to anyone with access to the Perdiago Project Management Google Doc.It is located in the ISFS folder, or by the link below.
Site staged for future install. Power is available and verified at tower.
To do:
- Soil install
- Install and verify tower instrumentation
Valley site staged for future install. Power is available and verified at tower.
To do:
- Soil install
- Install and verify instrumentation
Slow progress today. Split into same 3 crews, except two crews also had 2 each INEGI climbers. Each INEGI crew installed 2 towers:
- tnw09: up, with solar power. Connects to network, but connection not yet built to get out of the valley.
- tnw11: up, installed, but all 3 RMYs report continuous bad data. This is very odd, since they worked in the ops center and (some) other RMYs work elsewhere in the experiment, so we don't think we're doing something systematically wrong.
- rne06: up, installed, on network, but it appears that the 20m sonic anemometer head was not plugged in – an easy fix.
- rne07: installed (including soils), but DC power connection is not live (even when a power supply was swapped with tnw11). Not clear what is going on.
The 3rd crew prepped v06 and v07 at the base of the tower and measured remaining guy wire tensions. We also installed soil sensors at tse02.
More prep work also was done at the ops center.
The question is where to go from here...
Station is up and sensors reporting, EXCEPT CSAT3A at 20m. Since it doesn't show a sonic head connected (using enter, D shows "SN0000" for the sonic), the fix should be just plugging in the head to the EC100.
Ted and Gary staged the sensors yesterday, all except for the Licor since we were missing the boom clamp. Here are the serial numbers:
- Licor 1166
- Nr01 2537
- EC100 1821
- Csat3 1120
- Csat3a 2033
Lessons learned: We should have demonstrated how to connect the Licor and sonics on the ground, before the climbers went up.
After the install Gary checked the data:
- Licor working.
- GPS working.
- CSAT3 at 10m wind and temperature measurements looked good.
- 20m CSAT3A winds are nan, as noted above by Steve.
- NR01 reporting.
- Attached soil mote, I think all the measurements look ok. The mote voltage is only 9-10V.
- The Ubiquiti nanobeam ethernet cable was too short, so Ted decided to move it down 2m from the top to reach the DSM at the usual height.
- The soil bulgin cable barely reaches, so it might be a good idea to string some cord between tower and tree next to mote and hang the cable from that.
Since the ops center power outage noted in the blog ops center power was off, the power has gone out three times two evenings ago and at least twice last evening. Each time it's the main breaker that has tripped and must be reset, and (afaik) always in the evening with the overhead fluorescent lights on. Power will stay on for around 30 minutes before tripping again. Yesterday I think the overhead lights were on all day, but the power didn't go out until the evening. Someone please correct me where this report is wrong.
- Seems like we should report this problem to the person responsible for the ops center and see if they can get an electrician to investigate the problem. Maybe the main breaker needs to be replaced or upgraded.