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Operational YESDASM Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ Legend:All Products
Product Class (Data Acquisition)
This Product (YESDASM)

3. Operational

1. I want to set up a UVB-1, MFR, UVMFR, or SPUV site and only download data every few days on my YESDAS-2. Is unattended operation doable? What about the TSI and RSS?

Yes, absolutely. For radiometers such as the UVB-1, MFR-7, UVMFR-7 and SPUV-10, the YESDAS supports automated remote unattended operation. However, depending on the number of instruments, you will likely want to order the PCMCIA-2 memory card option.

For our TSI and RSS instruments, you can expect to collect anywhere from 1 to 32mb of data per day, depending on data rates. Thus a local PC or a 24-hour, 7 day a week Internet connection is good to have. In cases where it is infeasible to have a network connection, the TSI-880's optional DSM-420 data storage module supports 420Mb of removable storage.

2. What do I need to do to make the YESDAS Y2K compliant?

Your YESDAS-2 data logger systems and application software are "year 2000-ready." However, you must also test the PC you run the software on to ensure that it has a BIOS chip that can correctly handles the date change.

If you have now upgraded your original PCs from Windows 3.X and DOS to Windows 9x/NT, you must upgrade your software (DosBand) to at least YESDAS Manager 2.0.

YESDAS-1 system was obsoleted by YESDAS-2 in 1995. We strongly recommend YESDAS-1 users to upgrade to YESDAS-2. Nonetheless, we wrote the DSP-1 software carefully to handle four year dates, and we are not currently aware of any year 2000 issues with the DSP-1 package used in YESDAS-1.

To explain more fully, three factors that need to be checked:

1. The YES application software (YESTALK, DOSBAND, DSP-1, YESDAS Manager for Win9x/NT)

2. The PC's motherboard BIOS that runs the application software

3. The data logger hardware itself (there is a clock inside both the YESDAS-2 and the CR-10 on the YESDAS-1)

More detail:

1. Although your YESDAS-2 data logger system and application software may be "year 2000-ready", you must also test the PC you run the software on to ensure that it has a BIOS chip that can correctly handles the date change. That is, the YESTALK/DOSBAND/YESDAS-Manager (new package for Windows95/NT - see item #2 below) will request the PC to tell it what the time and date are. If the PC's clock or BIOS chip have a Year 2K bug in it, then the software won't know this. Therefore the PC must be year-2000 compliant as well as the software.

So to verify that your PCs have up to date BIOS chips there are several free third-party year-2000 test tools available on the world wide web. A good site is NSTL: browse www.nstl.com to find a program called "Ymark2000." Download this program and run it on all your PCs. If problems are detected, you will need to replace any BIOS or motherboards of PCs that have clock or BIOS problems.

2. If you have now upgraded your original PCs from Windows 3.X and DOS to Windows 95, you must upgrade your software (DosBand) to YESDAS Manager 2.0. Also note that while YESDAS Manager supports all YESDAS-2 systems, it does not support older YESDAS-1 hardware.

3. YESDAS-1 systems were made obsolete by YESDAS-2 nearly four years ago. However, we wrote the DSP-1 software carefully to properly handle four year dates and we are not currently aware of any year 2000 issues with the DSP-1 software package. However, since YES did not design the CR-10, we cannot guarantee that the CSI CR-10 does not have a year-2000 problem. While we are fairly sure the CR-10 + DSP-1 package does not have any year-2000 issues, we recommend that YESDAS-1 owners upgrade older YESDAS-1 systems to YESDAS-2 sometime before January, 2000. Finally, you also need to check the BIOS in the PC' s that you run the DSP-1 software on. In general most Year-2000 problems are on older PC BIOS's. A simple way around is to reset the PC's date manually on the morning of Jan 1, 2000.

3. What is the advantage of the YESDAS-2 PCMCIA memory card option?

The PCMCIA memory card option actually provides three key enhancements for the YESDAS-2:

1. It greatly expands the system memory (either 1 or 2 Mb) , providing you with 1-2 months of capacity assuming a sampling rate of 1 set per minute. This permits you to take non-averaged data (which you can average together later on your local computer).

2. It has its own battery backup that protects your data, even during a prolonged system shutdown.

3. Since it is a PCMCIA type-I card, it permits hot-swapping during operation. An untrained user can swap the card with an empty one to permit you to retrieve data from remote systems that are not on phone lines.

4. For many months the shadowband shaded the diffuser correctly, but getting closer to the summer solstice, we notice it does not appear to have enough length to shadow the diffuser completely. Each day the gap of shadow becomes slightly larger.

This is happening near summer solstice … it is not adjusted correctly. This will crete significant, non-correctable measurement errors to direct-and-diffuse around solar noon. Here are some things to try to get it aligned:

1. Using a protractor, cut a small (roughly 3") triangle of thin cardboard with the angle of your site latitude. Now slip the triangle under the motor case between the stand and the motor housing, to verify your motor's shaft angle is equal to your site latitude. Has to be within about a degree, once set you can forget it. I realize you said you did this, but verify it.

2. Check that your motor assembly is pressed all the way back against the machined slide (a both points top and bottom), If there is a small gap loosen the screw and press the motor hard against the slide and re-tighten the clamp.

3. Use a bubble level to verify the diffuser is level in both planes. Do not let the bubble level come in contact with the white diffuser, which is soft. Do not worry about the level of the base itself you want to check the level right at the black diffuse ring.

4. Assuming the above three items are set correctly, the band may have been bent slightly out of round. Gently bend it down (not too much). Do this around solar noon.

For further help, our free tech support is now provided on line:

http://www.yesinc.com/support/index.html

Please submit your additional request at our support system:

http://www.yesinc.com/support/supportwizard.html

5. Why do I get the error "Unable to compile the solar info file (Found "LAMDAS" ..... Expected "LAMBDAS" (Wrong Info Type?))" when I try to apply solar angular correction?

You have an early version of a .sol file. Simply add a 'B' to the LAMDAS between the M and D. The LAMDAS statement is located on the second line of the .sol file. You can open the .sol file for editing by browsing the "other files" tab in the data files window. Then double clicking your .sol file. Be sure to save the file. Do not change anything else in the .sol file.

6. How long does it take for the memory in a YESDAS-2 datalogger to fill up?

A basic YESDAS-2 has 32Kb of built in memory, but most YESDAS systems are sold with memory card (PCMCIA) options. With the standard size 32Kb buffer, assuming an MFR-7 is connected and taking 15 second samples, the 32Kb buffer would fill up in approximately 30 hours. YESDAS Manager contains a built-in "projected memory usage calculator."

With a 1 MB memory card, a MFR-7 with YESDAS-2 can retrieve data for 40 days assuming sampling every 15 seconds and averaging four samples together before storing, i.e., one-minute storage intervals. It also assumes there are 12 hours of daylight at the site. A YESDAS-2 logs data during the daytime only. So, if there are fewer daylight hours at the site, say 10 hours, then the card would fill up in 48 days; if there are more daylight hours, you'll have less time before it fills up. Also keep in mind that the MFR uses seven channels, and takes three measurements on each (direct-normal, diffuse, total), so 21 data points are stored for each sample. Most instruments typically require just one channel per measurement.

7. Can additional weather sensors be added to the MFR/UVMFR, SPUV or YESDAS-2 logger?

Yes. Since the MFR-7 occupies only 8 channels and YESDAS-2 has 32 analog and 6 digital inputs, you can connect up to 24 other auxiliary inputs. We have supplied systems with SPUV-10's and MFR-7s from a single YESDAS-2. Depending on the number of sensors and the sampling rate, you may also want to order a memory card option to hold all the data that the sensors create.

 

 

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This page was last updated on Monday, September 11, 2006 .