SmartSolo IGU 16HR 3C (5 Hz) Short Period Node

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Smart Solo BD3C-5 (5 second) Broad-Band Node

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GPS Considerations

The GPS antenna is at the top and center of the unit, and will (usually) only receive signal with a clear sky view directly above. The signal is able to penetrate plastic and terracotta planters and a thin layer of soil, but may struggle if the soil layer is too thick. The BD3C will not start recording without first attaining a GPS lock.

Keeping the Instruments Clean

Use a (landfill, not compost) degradable bag when installing to keep the instrument clean. This will save you many hours of time cleaning them in preparation for their return. Here is a video demonstrating its effectiveness.

Charge Time, Instrument Life, and Charge During Storage & Shipping

Both nodes take about 6-8 hours to charge from flat and hold their charge reasonably well, however you may benefit from a "top up" charge immediately prior to deploy. The instruments should last around 30 days per cycle (recording at 250hz) with GPS on cycle on and bluetooth disabled.

Upon retrieval, the instruments should not be stored flat as this will damage the batteries. It is recommended to charge them back up "to orange" such that they are charged around ~50-60%. This is also acceptable for shipping.

Best Practices and Guide

Install

Logbook is required (used again for pick up & metadata creation) 

- station name 

- lat / long 

- team members 

- date and local time 

- SN of sensor 

- notes on site 

Place nodes in thick (“landfill biodegradable”) plastic bags in the hole 

Take compass measurement away from node and fences [make sure to adjust inclination angle] 

Take many photos from the site from different angles  

Add a precise site description to the notes such as distances and orientations from landmarks  

It will be very helpful in locating the instrument if you place a flag next to it, preferably in a color other than green or yellow. 

Make a mark (digital) of the instrument's location using a GPS device. Record the location both in your paper notes and on the GPS device. 

Download the GPS (Garmin) file to a laptop and share drive to share with other GPS devices 

Share photos in a shared location (Google photos, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc), but most useful are those added to a Google Maps/Earth location 

Create metadata .xml file

Removing/Demob

Download and then use the GPS file to locate the node  

Use Google Maps / Google Earth to create a kmz file that can then be imported onto your phone.   

Upload photos of the site   

- station name 

- latitude 

- longitude 

- elevation 

• SN of sensor – SN of battery (optional) 
• Site notes and name of location (e.g. Richards garden, Te Mini steam field eastern side)  

Upload photos into Google Earth and on a shared drive 

Before removing the instrument have your compass, tape, marker, pen, clipboard, logbook and compass ready (in tote bag!).  

Write the station name and the instrument’s serial number, along with 'D' and 'C' and ‘R’, each next to a box to indicate 'download' and 'charge'. Stick this label to the top of the instrument. When dealing with dozens or hundreds of these you WILL start to mix them up after a while! Having an easy visual cue keep them sorted will save you a great deal of confusion later on.

Take a photo of the entire setup node with the label on it + compass  

Use existing field logbook to note time, SN and station name plus any notes – including any issues with orientation or level or anything else 

Charging

Clean node prior to charging and harvesting the data 

Remove battery (and spike) from the sensor by twisting the spike part of the instrument 

Set 16 nodes into the charging box (spikes up) 

Red lights on the box next to the batteries will come on and remain a steady red light while charging. This will change to orange, then to green, then to flashing green when fully charged.

This is a good time to check the "C" box on your temporary labels to mark that the unit has been charged

Downloading and Converting Data to MiniSeed

The first thing to do is to register the nodes in the system, so the software can recognize them. To do this, go to the folder where the “SmartSoloApps SoloLite” was installed. Then right-click the deviceconfig.exe program to “run as an administrator” and save the file to the directory of “deviceconfig” (snapshot below). Note that to avoid registering the same node twice, you can simply replace the file each time you do the registration. 

Then open the “SoloLite” software, and just go to “File” to make a new project. In this case, you do not need to find the exact 16 nodes that were grouped for script writing. Do not worry about the settings for the seismic recordings for the next window to pop up, as the only way to reset the instruments (e.g., sampling rate, gain etc) is to write script to re-program them. 

Once you create the new project, your Data Transfer View panel on the bottom right of the window will show these nodes that have properly connected to the data harvest, including series number, data size etc. It is okay if the “Prospect not matched”, which simply means the project you just created does not match the one you made to program them. Simply select all these nodes, and right click to “force download”, which will initiate the downloading process. Once they are done, you will see new folders created for each slot at your Downloaded Data panel on the top left of the window. 

At this stage, it means that the raw DLL data of the recording has been downloaded successfully to your local machine. To output data in readable format, such as SAC or miniSEED, click the “Tool” menu and select “export seismic data”. The parameters here should be straightforward to set and tailored to personal reference.

A list of ANU group preferred parameters can be found at the end of this session. One thing to note is that the “Sample Interval” must be set exactly to this used to reset the nodes. Once you are done with the setting, click “prepare” before “run”. If everything works correctly, you should see the reformatting process from the small panel on the bottom left of this popped up window. 

Now the data should be ready. Then you can select these data and right click to output the GPS information associated with them. 

When downloading, all the green lights on the nodes will blink. The associated red lights on the rack will flash when it is downloading, and make sure to disconnect the nodes before you unplug anything. Be careful: if the laptop goes to sleep, the download process will pause. 

When downloading, ensure that all metadata is saved along with the file. 

Start and endtime: the system will automatically find the earliest time of the data and set that as the starting time. However, you can set the time a day earlier with a sharp start of 00:00:00. In this case, all the outputted data segments will be 24 hours long starting from midnight.

Once downloaded, mark the "D" box on your temporary labels!

Converting data

Check the data all have been converted to miniseed correctly  

– 3 files per station per day  

• Files are the same size (NOTE if having memory issues one or more of the components may have 0-1 kb) 
• ~ 5 Gb / node / month 

Tick ‘R’ box on the node label 

Cleaning

If the nodes are placed in a thick plastic bag at the time of installation, the cleaning procedure should be straightforward. If not you have a lot of work to do before they are returned to us!

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