Routine Field Techniques – Beam Checks

1. Routine Field Techniques – Beam Checks Streamflow Record Computation using ADVMs and Index Velocity Methods Office of Surface Water

2. Overview • Importance of beam checks • How-to • Examples of good/bad beam checks

3. Why Beam Checks? • Beam checks or amplitude plots are a powerful tool for:

4. Beam Check Policies • Record and evaluate a beam check every site visit • What do I look for? • Obstruction before, within, or near measurement volume • Sufficient scatterers • Transducer failure • Biofouling, reduced signal strength

5. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 1. Connect SonTek cable to laptop and open SonUtils

6. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 2. Click green window next to selected COM port and click “Connect” In this example, we are using COM6. Default com baud rate is 9600 (set at factory based on system type) 3. Click “Break” button – you should see a “Wake up” message

7. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 4. Click “Beam Check” button. A new window should open.

8. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 5. Click “Start”, then “Averaging”, then “Record”. 6. Save and name beam check file according to your office’s data archival plan (e.g. stationid_YYYYMMDD)

9. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 7. Average and record a minimum of 50 pings before you evaluate.

10. How-To: SonTek ADVMs 8. When finished, click “Stop” and close the beam check window.

11. How-To: TRDI ADVMs • Due to current software limitations, it’s best to evaluate beam checks for ChannelMastersby reviewing internal record files

12. How To: TRDI ADVMs 1. Connect TRDI cable to laptop and open BBTalk 2. Select “Channel Master” from list of Devices and appropriate COM port, then click Next

13. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 3. Select communication settings and click Next. Default is: 115200 baud, No parity, 1 stop bit, and no flow control.

14. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 4. In Options window, only “Send break on New Connection is needed”. Click Finish.

15. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 5. You should see a response from instrument. Check ADVM time by typing TS? at the > prompt. 6. Record results on field sheet or in SWAMI. Reset if needed by typing TS YY/MM/DD,HH:MM:SS

16. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 7. Download internal recorder. Go to File – Recover Loop Recorder. Name file according to your office’s data archival plan and select output directory.

17. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 8. After download, close BBTalk and open WinHADCP. Click “Data Playback/Processing”.

18. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 9. Select recorder file just downloaded and click “Open”.

19. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 10. If green LED is not shown, click on Set Averaging to ensure averaging interval is 60 seconds.

20. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 11. Click the number “1” next to the interval window. In window, change to 60 sec under Time Averaging. Also check range average start and end in the Range Averaging window. Click OK twice.

21. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 12. Click Start Playback.

22. How-To: TRDI ADVMs 13. Review intensity profile plot in data. Step through data using arrows at upper left. In graph on lower right, right click and select View – Intensity to view signal amplitudes.

23. Beam Check Examples

24. Good Beam Checks

25. Good Beam Checks

26. Good Beam Checks

27. What is This?

28. Good Beam Checks

29. Beam Checks with Problems

30. Beam Checks with Problems

31. Beam Checks with Problems

32. Beam Checks with Problems

33. Beam Checks with Problems

34. Beam Checks with Problems

35. Instrument Problem—high noise floor Beam Checks with Problems

36. Beam Checks with Problems

37. What’s Going On Here?

38. Automatic Beam Checks

39. Beam Check Exercise