CuPIDO: Site 8 Messages, 22 Entries..

1 test tip at 15:44.

A.J.I. and Steve S. arrived at 15:40 and left at 15:55

Activities:
- Rnet was clean
- 1 test tip at 15:44

Changed Rnet nighttime calibration coefficient from -10.84 to 10.84 at 
2:01 MST.

A.J.I. and Steve O. arrived at 2:01 MST at station 8 on August 11,2006

activities:
- Changed Rnet nighttime calibration coefficient from -10.84 to 10.84 at 
2:02 MST 

visited site 8 from about 0000-0050Z

Activities:
- swap usb
- update software (including change of config /ttyS5 -> /ttyS8
- ~0010: change sign of nighttime Rnet coefficient. Apparently failed to do 
  this.  Will try again tomorrow. 
- ~0035: Replaced Rnet upper dome. (This one was abraded on the top when I installed
  it 2 days ago, but I wasn't able to fix it then.)  Unplugged logger during 
  this operation.
- orientation for AJ

one test rain tip at 13:58

Net radiometer dome was punctured and cracked.

Replaced with Q94125, (cal: +8.75, -10.84) at aboud 13:45, Aug 8.

Visited site for routine maintenance.  Arrived 13;35,  
Oncley, Maclean, Susanne Grossman-Clarke from ASU.

Net radiometer dome is punctured and cracked, looks like a bird peck.

Did not have small phillips to replace dome, so swapped
in spare unit:  Q94125,  +8.75, -10.84.  Entered coefs
into CR10.


Downloaded new software, swapped usb.

Test rain tip at 13:58.

Photos.


Left 14:00

The GOES data recovery from station 8 has been spotty since
the morning of Jul 25.

At 17:00 MST  I visited the site and installed
new software, which provides status information
in /var/tmp/goes.log, and does a soft reset
of the transmitter if it is not responding.

This site has a SE model 1200, 
software build 10/14/2004 16:08:26.
The GOES GPS is on top of a T post.  
RF cable surge arrestor grounded with the solar panel.

Measured 7.5 watts during transmission at 00:48:30Z.

Status file shows a good GOES clock, within 100 msec
of the system clock.  Saw no errors during 5 or 6
transmissions.

Did not reboot viper or power cycle the GOES transmitter.

Left 17:58 MST

Inspected rain gauge: no varmints
Recorded one tip for test.

Gordon found wind direction off by 180 degrees.
Changed BD from 249 to 69 at 14:42 MST

Found net radiometer level off by 1/2 bubble to east.
Corrected level and cleaned radiometer.

Visited site 8 14:17 - 14:47 MST

Swapped USB disk; taped GOES cooler

Model 1200 GOES transmitter connected to ttyS8

17jul06 15:45-17:00

Purpose: routine maintenance


GOES pvc elbows installed, raised off ground to help improve ventillation.

	Note: this SE1200 s/n 1031, with gps antenna s/n 2537881
	took very long to set its clock.  After 45 minutes a power cycle
	and reboot of the data system did work and the transmitter's
	clock was set allowing the dsm to proceed and telemeter data.

	Check this unit in Boulder for abberations.

17jul06 15:45-17:00

Purpose: routine maintenance

rnet cleaned 16:15
	appeared clean prior to 'cleaning'

17jul06 15:45-17:00

Purpose: routine maintenance

USB data storage retrieved and swapped

GOES pvc elbows installed, raised off ground to help improve ventillation.

See also rad cleaning, goes note

6jul06 12:20-15:45

Rnet cleaned at 13:00 and leveled.
There had been a few residue spots on the bottom dome.

6jul06 12:20-15:45

Purpose: station was not reporting for most of last night and today.

Upon arrival the data system was still running, collecting and
archiving the data.  However there were indications of continuing
system problems on both the goes and the USB drive.  In addition the
/var/log/messages indicated some 'ttyS5 opened' despite the logger now
being on ttyS8.

GOES: ck_goes showed the 'wrong channel' problem.  Due to consistency
of problems over the last few days, decided to swap the transmitter
and put in the spare unit: SE1200-1031. This continued to show other
problems despite rebooting the daq.  Errors included 'wrong goes-id'
and the normal clock not yet set.  Tried using the wattmeter and never
saw a message go out even when the ck_goes appeared normal beyond 1/2
hour and more when the gps should have locked.

Footnote: I tried using my pc test software version to both
transmitters directly and had problems.  Neither completely worked for
setting the id, and clock for the se120.  I hadn't tried it on this
particular portable previously and am not sure which version of the
code was on it, however it should have worked.

Ultimately after trying both transmitters again, I left the SE1200
running and rebooted the system a few times in the process including
full box power cycling.  USB problems continued intermittently.  I had
intended to take the old transmitter to st9 and put it there,
retrieving the other working goes unit to put in st8, however, Greg
reported that st8 began reporting while on the way so we decided to
let it run and see what happens overnight.

This station may have been zapped by a storm discharge (it is very
close to a modest sized water tank of the park), and/or it has box
wiring or other hardware problems.

5jul06 9:25-10:30

Purpose: station was down since last night 8gmt when a thunderstorm was in the area and rain.

Data system was still running and collecting data.

GOES was not responding to the dsm queries.  A power cycle got things going again.
Note: some water in the goes cooler box despite being under the pv array makes me concerned that this could be an issue so i taped the sio connector which was on the bottom of the box.

Data uploaded to aster.
New software installed but not the xml due to it's unique 'ttyS8' for logger.

The GOES system had stopped transmitting on Site 8, resulting in no web plots. It was confirmed that the system had written local data during the outage. The GOES system responded after power cycling the GOES and rebooting the Viper. This same procedure lasted only 8 hours or so the previous night and so bears watching.

The pathology is not evident using ck_goes because you get the same error when GOES is up as when it is down at this site. That is, the test signal provides an error message that includes 'invalid channel' (it takes one GOES cycle for this particular error to appear after a reboot because the GOES transmitter hasn't received clock information - resulting in a different error). This is a false indication of an error and so other methods of verifying GOES x-mission should be used.

RMY boom angle is 249.

This value replaced the previously existing value of 108 at 1655 2 July.

7/1/06 13:30-15:35 local

Purpose: Station had been down, Rnet odd

Data System:
- Initial checkout: showed data was being collected but many 'stats_proc' errors of bad time tag in the log.  I copied the log to the bison pc.
Aside, procomm connect to the adam had garbage characters instead of printable.  Restarted procomm 3 times before it was normal...may have been port?
ck_goes showed the se120 was not responding.  A power cycle fixed that except the next ck_goes had errors such as 'clock not loaded.'   Nevertheless, i watched at least 2 more cycles and there was no transmit.  A third ck_goes also failed.
At this point I rebooted the viper and after that the goes did work.
- installed new xml file:
- swapped usb: cruzer #512-1 out; lexar #512-11 in
- installed new xml loaded
- bootup OK
- goes seems OK
- Logger down.

Logger Problems:
Initially we thought we'd seen the logger reporting in a data_stats, however after the new xml was loaded, it was not responding.  Tests revealed it was working on ttyS2, ttyS6, ttyS8 and the trh for the most part was working on ttyS5 although not every time.  Determined ttyS5 (cable/board?) is bad and moved the logger to ttyS8 and it worked.  This mean't editing the xml file:
NOTE NOTE NOTE: st1 has a unique xml file locally that puts the logger on ttyS8 insteal of ttyS5 !!


Note: Gordon said that the 'stats_proc' timetag errors were probably from a slow responding sensor not getting the values transferred in time.  This may also have caused the goes lock-up.  So it is possible that the logger on a bad port may have been the root problem.  Perhaps even the wierdness on the rnet....we'll keep watching.