EasyQ

Technical and operational features of the EasyQ

4.  Operational information

Setting up

When the EasyQ is connected to the PC and externally powered by the AC adaptor, click the communications menu and specify port number and baud rate setting. Check the instrument communication and verify that the instrument is alive by activating the Terminal Emulator window and press the Send break button to send a "Break" signal over the serial port. A break causes the instrument to report an identification string. Start the planning module by clicking "Deployment", "Planning", "Use Existing". Two menu's for instrument settings and power levels are available, called "standard" and "advanced". See figure 5 and 6. Full details are described in the manual.

Figure 5. Standard menu

 Figure 6. Advanced menu

Stage Check

When the EasyQ is mounted on the pole and put into the water, the stage check can be done. This check assists you to adjust the EasyQ's tilt, pressure offset and stage threshold. Figure 7 shows an example of this display.


Figure 7. Example display from a Stage Check. This display shows three successive echoes. The surface is located at a distance of 0.58 m above the EasyQ, in the lowest of the three echoes. The position of the Stage reading is indicated with a horizontal white dashed line. The second and third echoes are multiple bounces. A dashed magenta line shows the depth, based on the pressure sensor and two red dashed lines show the bounds set around the pressure sensor. The dashed green line, labeled "Amplitude" shows the echo intensity and the dashed yellow line, labeled "Quality" shows the stage quality factor. The heavy vertical red line indicated the threshold quality value. The EasyQ will only accept stage measurement that rise above the threshold.

Range check

The Range Check lets you check the channel to make sure that there are no obstructions in the beams and that you have sufficient backscatter to measure your velocity data. Figure 8 shows a typical Range Check Display.


Figure 8. Range Check Display. The dashed lines show the end of the blanking region and the center of the three velocity cells. The signal strengths from the two velocity beams are shown with the white and yellow lines. The EasyQ can collect good data as long as the echo amplitude remains above about 25 counts. The green region shows where velocity data could be collected.

Main Menu

Operation of the EasyQ is controlled from the main menu.


Figure 9. Main menu

The main menu is divided into 8 areas:
  1. The top menu gives easy access to all functions included in the EasyQ software.
  2. The second row contains shortcuts to main functions. Click on the preferred icon to access the preferred function.
  3. The system window contains product data for the EasyQ.
  4. The status window displays current system status
  5. The velocity window displays velocity and amplitude data
  6. The sensor data window displays sensor status
  7. The graphic view gives a graphical presentation of data selected in the data selection menu (8)
  9. The data selection menu is used for selecting the types of data to be viewed.
The user can familiarize with the online help system integrated in the EasyQ software. Above is a short description of some of the features of the EasyQ. Extended information such as data collection, deployment planning, data recording, data handling etc are described in the manual, included in the EasyQ delivery.