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| Author | Topic:EC-TM suddenly stopped working.. No data from serial | 194 Views |
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EC-TM suddenly stopped working.. No data from serial
6 April 2012 at 8:29am
Hello to all,
I have EC-TM which suddenly stopped responding after working for few days. When i checked the output it's sending:
<0><0>øþ and nothing else.
I dont know what happened to it suddenly.
I used to provide 5v as excitation. The excitation circuit is self made and used iris mote and mda300. Excitation is taken from the excitaion generated by mda300.
Can anyone tell me what's wrong here. Please need help badly.
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Re: EC-TM suddenly stopped working.. No data from serial
25 April 2012 at 11:59am
Hello,
Sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your message, we have had some technical difficulties with our forums that we are just now sorting out.
If you are not getting a serial string upon exciting the sensor, then the sensor may have failed. Please double check your cables to make certain that they have not been damaged by rodents or human activities such as harvesting or mowing.
What type of datalogger are you reading it from? It is good to test sensors on an independent reader if possible to rule out datalogger problems.
Unfortunately, the EC-TM has been discontinued for a couple of years so your sensor is out of its one-year warranty. Please contact support@decagon.com, or your local distributor (http://www.decagon.com/where-to-buy/) for specific support regarding sensor replacements.
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Re: EC-TM suddenly stopped working.. No data from serial
2 May 2012 at 12:26am
Hello Virgil,
Actually, the sensor which was not working suddenly started first sending all garbage but around 15 bytes of string and than later on started working. But in between sometimes it gives garbage values. I dont understand how suddenly it's working.
Also, i double checked the connecting wire which was fine. I'm using independent reader only to read data from sensor.
I'm using my sensor in open where temperature at day time reaches to about 41 degree Celsius. Wires are not covered with anything. So do you think because of heat data may be getting corrupted? Also, if sensor can withstand 40 to 60 degree celsius?regards
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Re: EC-TM suddenly stopped working.. No data from serial
3 May 2012 at 4:32pm
Hmmmn,
I do not think that the heat can corrupt the data, but warming and cooling can expand (or contract) solder joints in the sensor or in the connector. There are 2 joints in the sensor that can be susceptible to this, and as they age in the field this can develop. The stereo connector is one solder joint that can develop this over time, particularly if the cable is frequently bent or twisted near the connector that solder joint can be broken. If you have bare leads rather than a stereo connector disregard this part.
The neck of the probe where the cable joins it is another susceptible point. One way to test if this may be the case is to set your sensors up to read continuously, then move the cable around near these joints. If the reading changes or jumps or goes to NA, then the problem is likely this joint.
Can you visibly inspect the probe or is it completely buried? The condition of the overmold is another variable of interest.
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