i = How to Operate Gmoist Program The Soil-moisture testing program is based on hot keys since there was no mouse. What you see in the picture below is the main menu screen, There are a total of 3 tests you can control. You ~© can run any of the:independently from the others, but they all use the same program. What [ mean is that you can set up Test 1 fwhile) Test 3 is running. In this document [ use a convention where the command and highlighted hot-key look like this: (Qluit means that you press the "q” OQ or "Q" key on the keyboard to execute the Quit command. ® ( How the Program Works nn [When you first start up the test program, everything isin a waiting mode. The clock is w~N) 4 ticking, but that's about all. Don't worry about the wrong clock time, its just used to keep track how long the tests are running, so felative tim is all that is important. Besides this is a pre 2k “computer and it wont keep track of dates very well either (no problem, just weird) What you may see on the screen, however is a “flicker” every 1 second, because the program is constantly running on a I-second interrupt loop. The loop works like this, sack 1. Check timer, ifit has been 1 second since the previous loop, start the data read Shae 2. If the , check the pressure and volume (same as what is on the ©) _ big LED readout on the controller itself). Ifit is time to record the data, then store it 3. If the test is running forward, turn the controller forward one "tek (=1> mm). if the inn) tesis is running backward, turn the controller backward one “tick”. ——— 3 4, Wait for next time. ‘The important idea here is that it is interrupt driven. You don’t have to do anything for the test to run correctly. You can set up test 3 while tests 1 and 2 are running. You can plot data to look at Pressure (Suction) vs Volume for 1, 2, or all three tests. Main Page The main page has six options, depending on the key you press, note that the keys are highlighted to remind you what you can do. ®9Quy Qs —s Spur pening uN Figure 1. Initial test menu showing highlighted keys, © [Pllot data that you are gathering in your test, very useful fo check on progress of atest —v [Fllework lets you save test data (one test at a time) as an ASCII file. Later you have to transfer it oa laptop or other computer using HPTERM program and serial cable (RS232) ~~ the test. You are prompted again, asking if you are sure you want to do this. At this level, you will exit everything and be back to the system prompt. (Quit is used in other places as well to get out of different "levels" of the program, so be careful) ——___ eres Test{ 1}, Tesi[2), Test[3] When» youspress..one. of these =keys-the-eolumn below gets | ah -highii /ou want to work with test 1; press 1 and then the [L]ength, @»t-<— [Djia etc., get highlighted and you enter the data. When you are entering numbers for length, dia e+ et, you type them and they appear athe Bottom ofthe screen Pres ent and they apear inthe right place. eae ea Let's use the photo for more explanation. Look at Test D[Ljength of specimen = 38 mm. ® [Diameter =53 mm ‘®NSamp = number of data sampled = 0 (because we have not started yet) 1 we are moving toward the first turning point (or reversal point) © Tum Val. = Turning Value = Pressure of 2 1120 head (impossible to reach, the test will finish before this pressure is reached) It is there for now just to occupy space. © [DJel Vol. = Delta Volume (mm*3) when another reading will be taken. This will give you Sa thousand data points so you don't need (usually) to make this any smaller. 10 wd egseyhe Vol mm*3 = Present volume reading of GDS device c Ms2cahal )motor one notch. (the controller moves 44 mmn*3 per notch, but you will only see | mm*3 on the aps controller panel, soit takes two notches tO Turi over the volume from 1000 to 1001 mm*3.. 2) [P]lot Flag = When you go to plot the data on the screen, do you want to plot data from this. test? If Plot Flag = 0 no plotting, =1 plotting Qa (12) [RJe-Start = Set all data to zero and begin test. ‘L) [C]ontinue = Continue test where you lefi of (sort of like after a pause) Logging = Status of test, O=not doing anything, 1= extracting water -1= letting water back jn,So | is the direction we would start by drawing out water, if we wanted to reverse direction, it would show here as -1. If we went Off-line, it would be 0 again. ‘The fortunate thing with the testi that itis slow and you can think a litle about what yoo: want to do. Test Entry (press 1, 2, or 3) press [1], then the next options will be highlighted, such as: length <[Diia ~[Tlum point.. Some of them act like a switch, on or off. Others require data entry, like diameter. You will be prompted at the bottom of the screen "Enter diameter (mm)"==> . Just type in the numbers © and press ENTER key. Sometimes the prompt is longer, telling you that you must enter an even —#2 number of surnaround points or something like that, aan Some of the fines are noT highlighted, you cant enter something in. tha line is being reported to you. «tc. [can't remember the specific leters, but they will be highlighted. 's just data that Start a Test Suppose you have a sample in test 1 ready to go and the screen is like in figure 1. Then you would proceed to enter the length and diameter and maybe the number of turnaround points, although T is enough (yeah, I know I said an even number, but you will never get to 2000 em pressure, remember?). Guppose | wanted to reverse the extraction when the pressure reached 500.) em of suction. 1 would press the tight key to get tum point, and the program would prompt 2 "Number of turnaround (must be even)==>""and you would'enter Then it woul ak forthe 9 first tumaround-poi ou would P590 (Pressure 300 cm H20) Gnd the next point you (could enter PIDU,ishich would qum it back To rection dfn at FOOD wih] Sicsmmies jum suction (remember you have T Bar stones = 1000 cit 1120)- There are also TiSTer, better stones that are 0.5 Bar. we you set the Gds_pmax to $00'then. You can also set the tumaround to volume (usually a better idea) to say. VS000. And the second tumaround to, say V1000. You might not know where you want to turn things around at