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User`s Guide for the Moisture Meter AK30

1. The memory banks offer to the user a way to save measurements done on the field The series stay in the memory even when the meter power is turned off New samples are added always contiguously after the last sample when the autotimer is started key to start key to stop The data can be examined later either in the instrument or in a PC The banks can be browsed on the unit s display statistics can be calculated and the whole bank system can be cleared In a PC the AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL displayed curve can be printed on paper or an HTML type report can be produced Statistics can be calculated there too Samples can be added to a bank in different ways 1 By pressing the front panel Save key 64 points 2 By starting the autotimer the bank is augmented at regular intervals and the number of samples is limited by a preset value maximum 500 3 By starting the Autotimer from the PC program This is the so called remote sampling Otherwise it will work just like a button would have been pressed There may be a maximum of 500 samples in one bank If more samples are needed a new bank is taken into use after restarting the Autotimer The setup for sampling is done in Banks menu and one can get there by pressing 1 T INTRVL 2 BATCH 5 ERDATA The first line 1 offers the option to modify the Autotimer sampling interval The second line 2 is for setting up the number of samples for each batc
2. 24 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL higher or lower moistures The slope of the curve is usually the same Thus it would be sufficient in many cases to shift some calibration table instead of making a laborious full calibration This will offer good working accuracy in many cases If the moisture reading should be higher than the meter shows you should shift the table to higher moistures to reflect this Or if the opposite is true the table should be shifted to lower moistures The delta value corresponds to the table shift with the corresponding sign The Procedure for Adjusting 1 Select that material from the AK30 calibration library you wish to use as the basis If possible copy the material entry by using your PC and AK30 IRMA7Basic or Advanced software into some unused entry in the library You may modify its name to correspond to the material under measurement 2 Go to the web position or sample where the moisture value is known Place the meter and take a reading or acquire a batch of data with several samples 3 Note the difference between the reading or average you have got and the value you were informed Mreal MAK30 delta 4 Gotothe calibration menu press 2 and from there enter the adjusting menu press 9 and 4 The following menu appears 1 SET DELTA 1 0 43 TABLE 5 You should shift the table the corresponding amount by setting the proper value for the delta The display
3. be connected to a 230VAC or 110VAC wall inlet Let s suppose the meter is not in Low Power mode If not certain press the Low Power key to force some effect Do you hear any beep when a key is pressed If not the meter is either off or the batteries are dead If the batteries are empty charge the meter overnight and try again 54 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 2 Is the cable with the connector placed into the socket in the meter s back If there is still no power to the meter the power source may be faulty rare Let a technician check it or contact the manufacturer A voltage close to 9 24 Volts should be available in it at the connector pins shown in Appendix 2 All fuses in the system are self recovering and need no service 3 If there is light coming out from the optical head but the meter s display is dead the batteries may be dead or very weak Try to charge the battery for at least 5 hours with the meter turned off If that does not help there may be some internal malfunctioning or damage In some cases the internal fuse has overheated and prevents both battery charging and meter operation due to overload Turn off the meter and try to charge it for at least 5 hours If that does not help the battery is really dead and does not take charge anymore It must be replaced Usually a dead battery does not prevent using the meter but does not keep its charge C Symptom The moisture signal is incorrect 1
4. A LABEL is attached to each bank saved The label five of them is editable and quickly switchable The labels belong to the recipes A marker of 0 5 can be added to the moisture by pressing the BT key Five recipes are available In each both a label and an associated calibration table name is kept To switch to another recipe is made with keys 2 3 The associated calibration table is taken into use All data and settings are battery backed no loss of data when power is off All settings are saved by pressing the Save button in the corresponding menu An internal thermometer for sensing the optical head This signal can be collected to the PC Not required the bottom skid takes care of proper spacing Selectable FAST 0 2 s total step response time to full accuracy for rapid field use MEDIUM for field and on line operation with 0 6 s response time SLOW for accurate laboratory work with 2 8 s response time With thicker materials has no effect also thinner backings cause little effects if they contain no water The user is warned of reflective dark surfaces which may affect the moisture reading The light signal amplifier has a dynamic range of 24 bits Less than 12 s from turning on the power to reach normal measurement accuracy full accuracy within 3 minutes Operating temperature range 0 50 C can be used in very moist condi tions avoid condensation of the optical surfaces to minimize errors The meter has an internal temperatu
5. Are you using the proper calibration table for it 2 Have you made adjustments to the table used with Adjust Could that explain this Check the amount of adjustment in the menu system Calibration and Adjust 3 Is the meter s position different from normal assembly The sample could be seen differently if it is curved or in a quite different angle or distance compared to the original position Then do the Adjust to correct it 4 Have you accidentally changed the table s state from MULTI to SCALE This is likely the most frequent reason for an incorrect reading 5 Is the head temperature too high It should normally be below 45C Has the meter been subjected to very high ambient temperatures If the temperature has risen too much irreversible damage or at least changes to some important parameters have been caused to the meter In mild cases there is no serious damage but the meter has gained some extra offset to its moisture signals In severe cases the optical head is damaged and must be repaired and the meter needs readjustment If all attempts show no proper indication of a working meter contact your dealer Do not send back the meter without permission 55 USER S MANUAL AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER Appendix 9 Data Flow in the Meter 1 below for a block diagram of signals See the figure L9 sa160 0uu9s TEUBT deltsin Ol02 o gt 1U614md03 AU TdSIa TAVOEAIA AU IdSIC 198931NI ZHS 0 LINN AQ IdSIC ZHS
6. Backing material Surface quality Dynamic range Warm up time Environmental Operating cycle An independent surface moisture meter for portable use applying infrared technology uses filter wheel NIR technology with very advanced signal processing 0 70 or more as total moisture unit selectable 0 1 on display 0 01 in statistics results 0 001 in values transferred to PC Typically 0 1 or better in the range 0 10 0 4 the range 10 30 and 0 8 in the range 30 70 for a paper of 80g m2 Depends on calibration performed Number of calibration points per table is2to 10 A raw signal scaling by 100X SCALE affecting all tables not set as MULTI 100 tables available for multi point calibration with 10 points each MULTI FLASH calibration for field conditions Automatic zeroing of moisture reading is available Standard deviation of the signal wnen measuring continuously the same sample typically about 0 02 in the range 0 10 SLOW filter Better than 0 1 year in the range 0 10 The display is updated with one sample per two seconds to the PC is transferred five samples second when required the true moisture sampling rate is 75 Hz About 10 mm in diameter on the surface 0 7 mm causes a maximum error 0 5 into the moisture value at 5 moisture on a 80g paper Room for up to 820 memory banks each having maximum of 500 points sampling is either manual Save button or automatic batch mode
7. The repeatability see specifications of the instrument is within 0 2 below 10 moisture Typically it is better The absolute accuracy depends on the calibration for the material The calibration generates a group of points on a balance vs meter signal plot AK30 places segments of line onto this plot from one point to another thus linearizing the original meter response Curve The internal sampling rate for moisture values is 75 Hz and the meter display is updated about once pertwo seconds The light source applied in the instrument has a lamp with a radiating power of the order 200 mW Of this the material under test receives typically 2 to 5 mW approximately That does not cause any notable warming up or drying effects in any known material Refer to Appendix 5 which explains the definition and measurement of surface moisture more deeply Philosophy of the Meter AK30 has its own philosophy regarding its use Its settings can be saved to a nonvolatile memory and are restored each time the meter is powered on If some specific setting is important save it The latest feature is that you can also save the selection of big numbers as a default Just press Menu and then Save Operating Characteristics AK30 is designed for handheld operation by moving the meter over the surface of interest and reading the measured moisture No contact is required but the meter can be laying on it or it can touch a moving surface like a rotating roll The m
8. easier and more accurate as instructed in the previous section 3 Quickly move the sample to your balance for weighing preferably using an aluminum or plastic bag Note that static electricity may interfere distorting weighing results at the dry end The result is the dry weight of the sample Try to read also the moisture meter signal That is usually a difficult task as both the weight and the signal increase so rapidly within the first 0 2 range The dry weight is used later in calculating the actual moisture percentages 4 Continue reading the moisture signal weight pairs as the moisture level slowly increases Make notes of these readings At first you can take readings every minute but as the wetting of the sample will become slower it may be enough to take samples at longer intervals If long intervals are used it is advisable to place the meter into low power mode and fo tare the balance before each use 5 Control the chamber s RH to a higher value as a series of steps with time intervals long enough to allow for proper settling of the sample saturation to an even moisture over the sample area depth Suitable levels could be 20 30 40 etc RH up to 80 RH Higher levels may cause water condensation on the walls and the sample may be in danger 6 Feed the collected data into your spreadsheet program and draw a picture of it thus forming the actual calibration curve The RH values themselves have no meaning at this point but onl
9. end must be taken into account Static electricity may cause mechanical forces to highly sensitive balances interfering severely An air ionizer is recommended for such cases Using up to 10 calibration points will ensure good accuracy on a larger moisture range if the points are selected carefully and the curvature of the curve insists on it This is called MULTI calibration The number of calibration points is a flexible quantity There is also a fast two point calibration actually ascaling only the SCALE mode It is applied for transferring unlinearized moisture signal to PC Note that AK30 is not able to reverse the linearization process to gain the original unlinearized raw signal If the unlinearized raw signal is required it must be collected separately by scaling it only The user is not able to change the SCALE scaling but it is fixed to 100X the raw signal for simplicity AK30 can be connected to a PC by using the standard serial port It is available both as a regular RS232 and as a wireless Bluetooth serial port One is then able to modify some of the meter s settings and download to PC the data series which is collected earlier at the field The data can be further handled with the program following the instrument or can be saved into files Then the data can be more extensively manipulated with e g soreadsheet programs Also the libraries can be manipu lated through the serial port Currently we can offer AK30 AK30Mini IRMA7Basic I
10. hours with meter turned OFF Battery service life 5 to 7 years The dual battery option has two similar batteries A special mode offering portable use for 10 hours without immediate measurement capability applicable for e g data transfer and data manipulation Measurements can be done with a short settling time initiated in Low Power Mode and Normal mode is restored Regular sleep mode turns the meter to Lowpower after one hour of use DIM mode turns the display dimmed after one hour but continues other wise normal operation IP67 protected from splash water and dust dimensions 130x180x100 mm total weight about 0 5 kg Does not measure frozen water AK30 Recommended 12 000 h or ten years unless specified differently at delivery of the unit For AK40 the service interval is much longer due to a much more durable moter Its operating lifetime is estimated to be around 400 000 hours of continuous use 200 000 h in AK30 and AK40 Conforms to the requirements of Directive 89 336 EEC see the EMC certificate Refer to manufacturer for latest additions LEMO OK 5 pin connector 9V battery charger RS232 full duplex 115200 bauds to PC The RS232 is identically available via Bluetooth The Bluetooth conforms to V2 0 and is generally available The corresponding PC Bluetooth dongle belongs to the meter s delivery 45 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 5 About Surface Moisture and Behavior of Infrared Radiation D
11. light The reading settles quickly when you place the unit over the surface depends on the filter soeed setting If you try to measure a surface containing no moisture at all like metals or plastics the reading may be practically anything typically a small value The instrument can not be calibrated to zero moisture by holding it without a sample or by placing it on a metal After getting samples you can calculate statistics of each bank You can get more data if you start the autotimer by pressing the key in the measuring state The autotimer based sampling is stopped by pressing the key You should avoid moving or rocking the unit while collecting data to keep the standard deviation of the values low In this way you can observe also drying or wetting in an arbitrary time scale in various materials If you need to cover a sample area to gain a good representative average of it you will need to move the meter over it You can emphasize some areas of it which are more important by hovering longer over it Try not to tilt the meter too much while doing this 33 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Charge Figure 5 AK30 front panel keys BT Rec E 1000 7 8 9 Jesc ra s 6 fm goaz gasa DSS When measuring thin lt 150g m2 board or paper samples you actin the following way Best working conditions are offered on tables made of black metal or plastic composites not containing water but you can also meas
12. line in the list of names The new calibration table is immediately in use assuming that it has been set to MULTI mode The mode follows each material and is remembered If the table is empty but MULTI is taken as calibration mode the resulting moisture values will be anything irregular This happens also if the table s values are incorrect Pressing 2 in the upper menu will clear the current table leaving it in SCALE mode with no particular contents and name but TABLE The editing option will open up another menu looking like the following 1 NAME 2 LIBNAM Select the name to be edited and stop editing with ESC or Enter as usual Alarm Menu AK30 Can tell the user if a preset alarm level in moisture is crossed One can define either a low level or a high level or both The indicator for crossing are two background colours which are factory set but can be tailored When the moisture value exceeds the high level is the HIGH LEVEL active When the moisture falls below the high level is the HIGH LEVEL deactivated Correspondingly when moisture falls below the low level is the LOW LEVEL activated When the moisture increases and exceeds low level is the LOW LEVEL deactivated The two indications can not be active simulta neously The colour settings of these levels is done in the Displays menu 8 from the main menu which is about displays only The alarm levels are set in the Alarm menu You can getto it by pressing 4 in the main menu You will
13. manual is valid for the on line meter AK40 as well The internal optical and electronic engine is very similar to AK30 The exceptions are a bigger enclosure facilitating installations and giving a good protection the light source motor is of extremely long life type no servicing is required there is a web temperature sensor the baud rate can be set for 9600 bauds for the RS232 due to long cables in field conditions AK30 is taken out from its package carefully and it should be inspected for any damages during the shipping If any damage is visible contact the manufacturer or the representative of which the unit was bought The following items should be available 1 AK30 instrument 2 Program CD or a USB stick 3 User s manuals in a binder 4 acable for battery charging and serial communications having a D9 female connector at one end of the cable and a LEMO OK for charging the battery 5 An AC DC power source CE marked and approved 6 Optional accessories ordered separately If something is missing inform your dealer and he will ship any missing parts The instrument is ready foruse You can switch the power on using the switch located atthe back of the meter The instrument should now display some text on its display and soon it should be measuring If nothing is visible the batteries may be dead That is caused by along freight time or a stay in along intermediate depot The batteries are always loaded before shipping In
14. measuring error of the order 0 5 maximum for a corresponding distance variation of 0 7 mm Greater distances may be used but the optical head may loose some of the radiation and the noise level will increase Unitwise the reading may become distorted since it is out of soec anyway When investigating normal isotropic materials like paper and board there are no special problems in addition to the information above However strongly anisotropic materials like wood and turned veneer sheets require special advice In wood materials the light rays penetrating along the grain direction tend to travel further in wood When the rays are coming back to the optical head after multiple scattering events they have met more water along their route compared to other rays 35 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL traveling cross the grain direction That results in an increased moisture value When measuring wood samples they should be placed under measurement so that the grain direction is along the instrument axis Then the meter will receive mostly radiation which has scattered in the cross direction The cross direction measurement gives more repeatable and reliable results Also the local variations of the wood properties affect less Unfortunately the model AK30 meter is not the optimum meter for wood Ground wood wood chips and sawdust are relatively easy applications as the grain directions are completely mixed up andit looks lik
15. no connection is established with the meter turn the power off of the PC and try again The COM port may be jammed for some reason If this does not help either your PC does not support any available COM port or the connector you are trying is not the correct one Also the COM port may be damaged Refer also to the PC program User s Guide for correct installation and use Make also sure that the Bluetooth is paired and the correct COM port is activated accordingly The Buetooth system may offer another COM port in the future if the pairing is broken by purpose It is not necessary to break the pairing since the system will automatically connect when the instrument becomes into the range of the PC Bt dongle The it is most easy just to start the program with the preset COM port saved earlier B Symptom No moisture signal to the PC no contact with the AK30 program or AK30Mini IRMA7Mini etc but the meter is working itself Bluetooth operation 1 Are you sure that the COM port you are using in the Bluetooth driver program is the same as the one the PC program is using This is absolutely the most frequent reason for communication problems with the meter when using the Bluetooth option Change the port selection on the program s Configuration page 2 If done all right thus far and still no connection is established with the meter check the Bluetooth driver program Bluesoleil Start its application by double clicking its icon Locate the status
16. of 180 minutes or more In the dry end lt 20 RH watch out for static electricity coming from friction Typical dry papers carry easily large charges when they have been handled or rubbed together Charges cause relatively strong electric fields and thus also forces creating significant errors to the balance Use an ionic gun to fight against static electricity AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 8 Troubleshooting the Meter In cases where you meet troubles in getting the meter working correctly you may need assistance The manufac turer is able to help you but to alleviate our burden please check the following points before calling A Symptom No moisture signal to the PC no contact with the AK30 program or AK30Mini IRMA7Mini etc but the meter is working itself RS232 cable operation 1 Is the meter correctly connected Are you sure 2 Is the cable placed into the socket in the meter s panel The cable is required for proper communication link between the PC and the meter 3 Is the RS232 cable correctly plugged at PC end Has it been damaged If yes fix it 4 Are you sure that the COM port you are using in the PC program is actually the one you have connected the cable into This is absolutely the most frequent reason for communication problems with the meter when using the RS232 cable option Change the port selection in the program s Configuration page 5 If done all right thus far and still
17. see the following menu ALARM 1 LOW 2 HIGH 3 ENABLE 27 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL By pressing 1 you can edit the low level and by pressing 2 the high level The levels are taken into use when you return to the measuring state You can toggle the alarm enable on off with 3 Press Save to make the meter remember this setting in the future Service Menu In normal use you do not have to visit the Service menu often If you suspect that the meter does not behave correctly after turning the power on or during normal use you can checkithere The quickest remedy to irregular behavior is to turn off the meter and restart it again Irregular behavior may be indicated by strange characters on the display or by a very unstable moisture reading when measuring a stable target The Service menu may offer some means to solve this Go to the Service menu from the main menu by pressing 5 You will be displayed the following O SLEEP 5 SPEED 8 THEAD 9 MORE In the Service menu one can read the temperature of the optical head with an absolute accuracy of 3 C by pressing 8 If you suspect that you are working in a too hot environment over 50 C the optical head may be damaged The guarantee does not cover damages due to overheating The meter will also warn the user of this while in the measuring state There is a possibility of checking the light source frequency which should have a value between 50 and 95 H
18. signal 44 FLASH Calibration 24 front panel keys 34 G General Guidelines in Use 33 General Information about Calibration 17 gradient layer 49 Graphs of features 53 Graphs of features of different models 53 Guarantee 45 Ice detection 45 Important Notice 37 Interaction between light and matter 51 internal thermometer 44 Introduction and Taking into Use 8 IRMA7Basic 25 L Lamp operating life 45 Latest Added Features 13 Low Power Mode 45 M Map of the Menu System 57 MASTER 41 Measuring area 44 Measuring distance 44 Measuring Speed 44 measuring state 15 Memory Banks 15 Menus and Settings 15 Moisture range 44 MULTI 15 17 MULTI Calibration 21 N Noise level 44 Notices for Measuring 34 68 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL O Opening the Meter 37 Operating Characteristics 10 Operating cycle 44 optical head 44 Other Accessories 45 P packet format 41 PC interface 45 Performing MULTI Calibration when Working witha C 23 Performing MULTI Calibration with Samples of Diffe 22 Philosophy of the Meter 10 Power source 45 Q QUICK 15 R recipe 11 Repeatability 44 Replacing Batteries 37 Resolution 44 Result of Measurement 10 13 S SCALE Calibration 21 SCALE mode 13 scattering 51 Selection of Filtering 33 Service interval 45 Service Menu 28 Service Operations 37 Service Procedures 37 SLAVE 41 Sleep mode 12 sleeping feature 28 sleeping mode 44 Spacers 44
19. starting a discussion on this network Other devices can only respond to commands Each packet a command or a reply contains a CRC checksum which secures the communication It is made of two bytes which are located at the end of the packet Each packet is checked that the CRC is correct If not the packet is discarded The calculation of the CRC uses an international CRC standard with base CRCCCITT 0x1021 Refer to Fig L3 1 The packet consists of the packet length byte 0 to 122 in value the receiver s address one byte which unambiguously identifies each unitin the network The MASTER s address is always zero and the SLAVEs have nonzero addresses In an RS232 network the SLAVE always has an address one There is always a command or a status value in the packet It is used for sending plain commands to the SLAVE and the SLAVE returns its own status in it All packets are always according to the same format The packet length may vary but it can always be unambiguously determined by the length of the data section Fig L3 1 The protocol works in the following way The MASTER sends the SLAVE some commana for instance inquires some data value The SLAVE returns the required data in the packet andits status The MASTER may send a plain command but a reply is required with a status This ensures that each command is received properly There may occur higher level programming errors line faults interferences or other Communication errors cau
20. tells you the current delta value with which the table has been shifted already if any 6 The material name should be edited by as a reminder That tells you unambiguously that you have shifted this table You may shift the table any amount back and forth even back to Delta 0 signal sl Figure 4 Typical calibration curve for most porous materials a nonlinearized signal from an AK30 moisture meter a simpli fied view Referto text for adjust ing a table entry ae eee 5 30 moisture ay 25 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 7 For example if the real moisture value was 43 1 and your reading was 39 9 the delta is 43 1 39 9 3 2 Set the delta value until DELTA 0 0 reads DELTA 3 2 The table has been shifted and you can continue measuring immediately with the shifted table in the measuring state You can also Save the new table before leaving the upper calibration menu 8 The latest addition to this service allows the use of UP DOWN keys for quick adjustment Standardization Menu After pressing 6 in the calibration menu a menu like the following will pop up DRIFT 1 OFFSET 0 1 One can compensate against long term driff by manually adjusting the global moisture reading offset in 1 The offset affects all calibration tables and the SCALE calibration with the same basic offset In order to set the offset manually you have to know the amount of
21. that case you should connect the cable as instructed below to regain their full capacity Connecting the Cables and Starting the Meter We ask the user to handle the connectors and cables carefully and to avoid too much force while attaching or detaching Else the sealing rings threads or contact pins may be broken down or lost Refer to Fig 1 for cable connections The cables are connected as follows The metal coloured LEMO connectoris forthe instrument There is a D9 connector for the PC s serial port It is connected to your PC s serial port COM to COM127 whichever has the connector of proper size It is connected to a USB to RS232 converter if your PC does not have such a port The power adaptor is placed to the mains connection 230 V 50 Hz 115 VAC 60 Hz or any other local standard Turn on AK30 by using the big toggle switch under the keyboard handle The LEMO connector is meant to be pushed in and pulled out with a grip on the thick center part Never attempt to twist this connector it does not work that way There should soon be some text on the display indicating that the meter is starting The batteries are always under charging while the power supply is connected to the instrument through the cable independently of the power switch setting The battery itself determines if there is any need for actual charging andindicates this with its own LEDs visible through the keyboard panel The instrument can always be used normally when ch
22. thinner will settle in less than 30 minutes A board of 600 g m2 will require several hours to arrive at the same state Do not forget the hysteresis effect in many fiber products This is important to be kept in mind when moistening and drying the samples You will not arrive at the same moisture content when you have wetted the sample and then you vary the RH value of the chamber Large samples may bring another factor affecting calibration accuracy Some parts of the sample may be at different moisture levels i e the sample moisture is not even That happens easily with sheetlike products The moisture differences can be eliminated by careful climatization in a chamber There should be fans mixing the air around the sample to make the surroundings isotropic Thin samples are difficult to calibrate as such since the weight of the sheet is very small and balance based errors become significant This is solved by having several sheets in the same conditions weighed as a bunch and measured with the meter by taking samples from several sheets The weight of one sheet is obtained by division It is important that the sheets are of exactly same size with a good accuracy else division is not sensible If that is not possible do not use division but use the total weight itself The meter s response curve can be determined by taking several points both from the balance and AK30 The values can be copied to some spreadsheet program to visualize the
23. top of the menu system where the measurements are done An internal clock will keep the time correct until the meter is turned off This is a most useful feature to be carefully maintained since the memory banks can hold data for about 40 years or more It is impossible later to identify an old measurement if even no date is associated with it Areference to atext field called LABEL is also saved to the memory bank together with the calibration table name used They together form a recipe There are five recipes and the labels are editable by the user The field length is eight characters The recipe can be chosen with the keys 2 and 3 while measuring It is needed to select first the recipe before starting the Autotimer since selecting it afterwards is too late The reference to the recipe is then saved to the bank When the bank is transferred to the PC the actual label is added to the data and also the table information The label will determine the first part of the data file name and the rest of it is dictated by the time label Afterwards it is then easy to recognize the origin of the data and the original time of capture The label is wise to be selected according to the measuring Conditions like the point at the PM It is also good to stick to the label system once adopted to help recognition of data files in the future Examples of labels would be Reel 12 Coater 2 Felt 5 When ending the editing of the label a question is asked if you
24. total weight percent creates one special feature Typical behavior of most materials tested with AK30 as a function of total percent is linear in two sections However when this calibration curve is transformed to dry weight with the previous equation the same sections are not linear anymore That is due to the fact that the previous transformation is not linear itself The moisture meters are designed to have a linear behavior at high moistures gt 8 This does not hold at all if dry is used We have now added a feature simplifying this problem alot You can perform all calibrations as total moisture in normal order Then you change the unit to DRY The meter then automatically makes the mathematical transformation between these two readings without losing accuracy Note that selection of the unit will affect all calibrations in use If some calibration requires a different unit just enter this menu and switch the unit The DRY is indicated as a unit D on the center display If you need to measure dryness instead of total moisture select the unit YDRYNESS The meter will automatically do the conversion and the corresponding unit sign is Y The formula used is pdryness 100 pt You can also set the node address of communication link physically RS232 in this menu option 1 This setting is seldom required if at all The node address should in PC based systems always be one 29 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MAN
25. wish to use the current calibration table with this recipe This will take effect when you switch the recipe If a table is used with the recipe the calibration table is switched too else the earlier calibration table is kept and only the label is switched Still one can always switch the calibration table at will The calibration table in use is saved in all cases to the memory bank information That table name is shown while browsing memory banks and when statistics are calculated from a bank The calibration table name is also indicated in the file tag Downloading the memory banks one at a time to a PC is also possible and highly recommended if the data is valuable later The PC programs support also downloading of a group of consequent banks whose numbers are selected The whole memory bank system is erased with one operation in the Service menu when needed The need arises the latest when all of the 820 Banks are used The meter is able to remember the latest bank measured at some earlier occasion Its contents can be retrieved by calculating its statistics press the Stat s key Other Banks can be retrieved by scrolling with the UP DOWN arrows Another mode which is of importance at this time is the TABLES or BANKS mode The BANKS mode is the default In BANKS mode the arrows UP DOWN cause selection of a Bank with some contents If accessing an empty bankis attempted a message UNUSED will appear In TABLES mode the same keys select anothe
26. 2EILSI SIIVIHIJINI JASN YIWILOLNY ZHS YIU JANLSIOW NOILULA9AU NOILUZISNINIT MOTS YO WNTAIJW LSY XILI TYLI IC SASL WA JAISNAININON AJHLO INAS ZHS2 YLYC 3JANISIOW ONISS3I0JA WNOIS 3WI1 103a oR SUNEMWOD 1Nd1NO YLYT YLYT LSIOW SANOWWOD vlyt JANLYSIJWIL lt lt QN3991 MNYE C319313S Y WOA4 ao JANYA 1N348NI WON A YLYT OVO INMON 50000c sW00cZ uloa 3JINISIOW WAAALNI 193138 XOW SI IAWWS 00S HLIM HOYI SANYA 028 CF ILLDIONNOND ONDINVE AHOWIW ONT83LIII DOINNI JINIVSIAWIL MYAH L ONISSL 14 991140 YLYT 3JANISION gt n SW3JLSASENS JINOJLIJII ANY 199ILdO ONTIdWYS JOJ INISSIIOJA TI9NDIS JANILSIOW 0EATV Figure L9 1 Data flow in AK30 56 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 10 Mechanical Dimensions of the Meter The figures below show the most important dimensions not to scale Jogoo TE S 8 EAH amp N J 130 0 Mechanical dimensions of AK30 not to scale 57 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 11 Operating Principle of the Meter AK3O REV 1 OPTICAL HEAD WITH BEAM FORMING AND DETECTOR SYSTEM A N N Operating principle of AK30 AK40 distance 10 5 mm 58 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 12 Structure of the Internal Menu System This menu is valid in V1 30M of meter s internal softwar
27. 6 Check the reading again and repeat steps 4 and 5 until you get exactly the correct standard value reading 7 Make notes of the final readings with some date information as well The meter is restored back to its normal working condition immediately For available moisture standards contact your representative AK30 is working with a highly stable operating principle and standardization is likely not required at any stage Table Menu From the main menu you can go to the table menu by pressing 3 The following set of options becomes visible 26 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 1 SELECT 2 CLEAR 3 EDIT SCA2011 This menu is used mainly for changing the calibration table clearing it 2 or for editing the names of either the table or the library 3 The fourth line indicates the name of the library Pressing 1 will lead to 1 ENTRY 2 NAME 1 board 230g white One can now change to another table This offers the selection of the table by its name from a list press 2 or by its location entry in the library press 1 The entry numbers go from 1 to 100 If you press 1 AK30 will ask first from which entry is the browsing started or you can use it as a selection already After entering the number you can select the proper name from a list by pressing 2 and by moving the cursor with the arrow keys UP and DOWN By pressing Enter or ESC at some name makes a selection The cursor is on the second
28. ANK 167 IRT AR A TABLES 32 a 6 7 t BANK ao 6 7 43 PAPER O TIME 43 PAPER REEL 12 LOGOHOLD AUTO 4 4 TABLE O TIME REEL 12 Figure 2 Keyboard panel and typical display contents in TABLES and BANKS modes Read the separate quick guide explaining the use of each key 14 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 3 Use of the Instrument Menus and Settings Next we will go through all settings and options of the moisture meter accessible through menus You can refer to Appendix 12 for a graphic presentation of the menu system When starting your AK30 it shows momentarily the unit serial number Then it is always in the normal measuring state which is the default state The default modes are BANKS and multiple display The meter is ready for measuring with arelatively good accuracy Best accuracy isreached after about 6 minutes The error at cold start is usually much less than 0 3 in moisture In the measuring state there is visible the moisture reading and the graph display It shows a curve of the moisture trend in some scale which can be setin the menus Curve The graph canbe made Autoranging too Unfortunately the display is limited to four lines with eight characters at each line This limits the length of names and other fields The measuring state may look like the following to the left the default BANKS mode and to the right the optional TABLES
29. ISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Alarm 1 Low Turn alarm 2 High feature on off 3 Enable Alarm Alarm submenus HIGH 10 0 Edit Alarm Low level Edit Alarm High level Service submenus Check measuring speed in Hertz Check head temperature Turn sleep feature on off DIM Save configura tion Erase memory banks 64 Toggle between HIGH 115200 and LOW 9600 bauds AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Unit amp communications Unit and Communica submenus tions 1 Communications 2 Unit C 1 Address 3 Edit unit 4 BTPIN Set slave address and Bluetooth PIN Switch between unit options Editunit numeric phone keys arrows Edit PIN Edit address 0000 1 numeric phone keys arrows default 1 Curve range submenus Range of Curve 1 Low 2 High Turn autoranging 3 Automatic on off C Edit Low end Edit High end 16 0 65 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER Display colour submenus Display Colours 1 Normal 2 Alarm Low 3 Alarm High 4 LowPower 5 Table C lt gt Select 123 RGB Bright t Select Adjust RBG intensi ties and brightness for each display Normal display lt gt Select BANKS 123 RGB Bright t Select Adjust RBG intensi ties and brightness for each display Alarm Low display 66 USER S MANUAL lt gt Select 123 RGB Bright vt Select Adjust RBG intensi ties a
30. Infield conditions it often happens that one should measure some paper grade which does not have a suitable calibration table to apply in the meter Therefore we have added this new feature called Flash calibration All you need is the knowledge of the paper basis weight g m2 The utility will ask you for this reading and then quickly generate a new calibration table at that library entry you are using at the moment Please check the table not to be anything important before using this option else you will destroy the old calibration which might still be needed The operation is very quick the table is already saved and the new calibration is given a name PAPNNN where NNN represents the BW You can start measuring with it right away If the reading is a little offset you can do some fine tuning in the Adjust option next chapter The Flash calibration is started in the Calibration menu with 8 key The resulting table is usually sufficiently accurate for general purpose work It will give a fairly accurate slope for the curve and the offset can be fine tuned For thin lt 60 g m2 papers the calibration is valid between 1 70 for thicker papers 60 g m2 between 5 70 There exist many special papers to which this model does not apply The following submenu will appear next If you wish to continue with the Flash calibration press 1 1 FLASH 2 ZERO The second option is for automatically zeroing the moisture reading This feature is m
31. Power operation and in 5 the TABLES mode of operation The contents of the opening submenu isidenticalin each case When entering each menu the old display settings are put into use and the user can adjust each in detail After setting them up he can press the Save key to save these settings The menu looks like this Colour Adjust Menu This menu affects the colour of the display for each of the modes It looks like the following 123 RGB t BRIGHT lt gt SELECT Pressing the arrows UP DOWN will modify the brightness 0 7 setting of the selected display 1 2 3 The arrows LEFT RIGHT will switch to another display 1 2 3 The colours are modified by pressing the numbers 1 RED 2 GREEN 3 BLUE with settings 0 3 each rotating endlessly The combinations 30 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL of each colour component may at first produce strange results but that s how the colours work When happy with the colours return to the upper menu and select another state whose colour should be different When ready press Save Note that the less brightness you use the longer life the battery will have before recharge A number is visible on the right display momentarily after changing a setting according to the resulting set value Keys Available in Measuring State Inthe measuring state top of menu there are special keys available in addition to the Menu key and arrow keys In the following the effects of press
32. RMA7Mini and Advanced programs for handling data and meter configurations The AK30 and AK30Mini have now also French language versions For on line applications the meter can be temporarily assembled over the production line in a fixed position by using some sort of soft clamp This instrument is not originally intended for continuous operation The limiting factor is the unit s service interval which is 12000 h That is a relatively long period in normal field use If one uses the meter two hours daily that would give a theoretical service interval of about twelve years In continuous operation 24 hours a day the 12000 h is passed in less than two years In that case the recommended service interval would be once a year to ensure a trouble free operation For these applications consult the manufacturer for other models which are proper for continuous operation not portable The AK30 best serves as a handheld unit Please note Temporary fixing of the meter over a running web is best and simplest done in the following way Provide a relatively thin metal plate 0 5 to 1 5 mm with a hole of approximately 30 mm in diameter on it Mount the plate over the web so that it almost touches it Place the meter over the hole so that it can measure through it without the edges interfering Secure the meter somehow to prevent it sliding off or causing other danger to the production machine or personnel Make sure the edges of the hole are rounded to avoid scrapin
33. Special Features of Different Models 35 Stability 44 Standardization Menu 26 T TABLES 11 Technical Specifications of the Moisture Meter 44 text field 16 The Procedure for Adjusting 25 The Relation between Surface Moisture and Total Mo 47 69 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER Thin Materials 50 total percent 29 Troubleshooting 54 Typing in Data 16 u UNUSED 11 Use of the Instrument 15 W Warm up time 44 70 USER S MANUAL
34. UAL If your system consists of multiple AK30 units linked together in a local network RS232 based on the LAN232 unit each unit must have a different node address The node address should never be set to zero as it is reserved for the controlling master unit The menu looks like this 1 ADDRSS 4 BTPIN The option 1 is used for modifying the address Option 4 is used for changing the Bluetooth PIN from the default 0000 Usually there is no other reason for changing it unless your company s security regulations insist on it Curve Menu This menu affects the range for the curve display One can set the lower end of the moisture value andthe higher end too One can also turn on off autoranging of the display Itlooks like the following RANGE 1 LOW 2 HIGH 3 AUTOM The display will be limited to a fixed range as set here if autoranging is off Else the curve itself will determine the upper lower ends of the scale That is checked after every moisture sample received for each display including the old part at the right end to be overwritten Display Menu This menu affects the background colours of displays in various situations One can tailor each display s colour at will together with the brightness It looks like the following 1 NORMAL 2 AL LOW 3 AL HI 4 LOWPOW 5 TABLE In 1 is the normal state s colour set adjusted BANKS in 2 for Alarm Low level indication in 3 for Alarm High level indication in 4 for Low
35. VISILAB Portable Infrared Moisture meter AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER FOR INDUSTRY AND LABO RATORIES APPLIES ALSO FOR AK40 ON LINE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Unit information Model AK30 AK40 Serial number Firmware V 1 30D and later PCB K30 K31 K32 K33 Adjusted Service Interval hours Made in Finland Manual printed in Pukkila Finland 2014 30 PART 700170 Copyright c 2014 Visilab Signal Technologies Oy Visilab Signal Technologies Oy Address Tel e mail Keskustie 15 358 45 635 4885 info visilab fi FI 07560 PUKKILA Y 0631208 0 ALV Rek AAA rated FINLAND VAT FI06312080 M nts l Reg 365 258 www visilab fi AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL CONDITIONS OF GUARANTEE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND LIABILITIES OF THE MANU FACTURER The manufacturer Visilab Signal Technologies Oy grants a guarantee of two years for the buyer of AK30 moisture meter from the date of purchase The guarantee covers all faults and misalignments which are in the equipment at the moment of purchase including those which appear during the guarantee period The manufacturer is liable of repairing the instrument without cost to the buyer The manufacturer can ship a new instrument of equivalent value and statusif considered as a better solution than repairing The buyer is liable of paying the freight costs to the factory of the faulty unit The unit must not be sent to the manufacturer withou
36. al Features of the Models 35 Model AK30 35 Appendix 1 Service Operations 37 Replacing the Batteries 37 Service Procedures 37 Important Notice 37 Opening the Meter 37 Appendix 2 Pin Ordering of the Cable 39 Appendix 3 Definition of the Data Transmission Protocol 41 Appendix 4 Technical Specifications of the Moisture Meter AK30 AK40 44 Appendix 5 About Surface Moisture and Behavior of Infrared Radiation 46 The Relation between Surface Moisture and Total Moisture 47 Example of Behavior of Wood Surface Moisture 48 23 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 6 About Measuring Surface Moisture of Thin Materials 50 Appendix 7 Graphs of features 53 Appendix 8 Troubleshooting the Meter 54 Appendix 9 Data Flow in the Meter 56 Appendix 10 Mechanical Dimensions of the Meter 57 Appendix 11 Operating Principle of the Meter 58 Appendix 12 Structure of the Internal Menu System 59 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 1 Introduction and Taking into Use We congratulate you for your decision of becoming a user of AK30 portable surface moisture meter It has been designed to withstand harsh environments and to offer you as much surface moisture information as possible having also a great variety of useful features Our intent has been to offer you a unique instrument serving you reliably for several years To utilize all features in this product we recommend that you read the whole of this manual This
37. al and electronic design electronic and software interfaces and computer programs and also the rightto change the retail prices of the instrument orits parts without any notice to present or potential customers All copyrights and design rights belong to Visilab Signal Technolo gies Oy The PC programs which have been sold to the buyer can be used and copied freely for his own use but can not be sold to any third party The manufacturer is not responsible for any casualties damages or accidents which the user has caused directly or indirectly with this AK30 instrument either to himself or to any third party There are some warning messages in this manual printed in red Instruction and important details are highlighted in blue and brown AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL EC Declaration of Conformity Visilab Signal Technologies Oy Keskustie 15 FI 07560 Pukkila FINLAND declare that the AK30 Portable Surface Moisture Meter meetstheintentofthe EMC directive 89 336 EEC Compliance is based on the following harmonized standards Emissions EN 50 081 part 2 industrial environment 1993 referring to EN 55 011 radiated Class A Group 1 EN 55 011 conducted Class A Group 1 Immunity EN 50 082 part 2 industrial environment 1992 referring to both radiated and conducted fields EN 61000 4 IEC 1000 4 ENV 50140 ENV 50141 ENV 50204 certify that the apparatus identified above conforms to the requiremen
38. arging the batteries except the mobile range is limited to the length of the cable The charging time for empty batteriesis approximately 5h 10h fora dual battery There is no limit for the charging time the batteries are not damaged from continuous charging If the 8 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL instrument refuses to operate contact your local representative or the factory For the PC program installation refer to the PC program user s manual After a preliminary testing you can be assured that your AK30 will serve you for several years with very little service LEMO OK CONNECTOR Wi Suires shielded 1 meter RS232 AND POWER Copyright 2010 Visilab Signal Technologies RS232 D9 female BLUETOOTH RS232 115200 bauds only Power Source Unit PSAK 9U 1500mA 230 110U line Figure 1 Cable connections for AK30 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 2 Basic Features of the Instrument Result of Measurement The moisture value the meter indicates has a unit which is either a percent relative to the total weight or dry weight of the material or it is the water density in the material The practical moisture range total percentage is 0 70 but numerically can go higher The instrument has been designed to give reliable values through all this range The internal noise is very low at moistures below 10 and increases somewhat at higher levels
39. arrows AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL The instrument has a sample memory which may contain up to 500 x 820 410 000 samples The memory is thus divided into 820 memory Banks which can each hold up to 500samples The autotimer may fill a new Bank at user s control and may operate at any sampling interval between 0 2 s and 32000 s The autotimer operates in batches to collect only a predetermined number of samples 1 to 500 Single moisture samples can thus be saved Batch 1 each into its own bank by pressing the key on the panel That will soend a lot of banks if several points are to be taken into memory In that case some more efficient way of using the meter may be possible The recent history visible on the left graph can be saved with the Save key and it will store 64 points at once to a new Bank Typical number of reuse for each bank is 100 000 times so you don t need to be worried of wearing out the memory chip Please note that every bank has an associated date time field whose contents are shown both on the center display when retrieved and in PC programs To take it into use please check the date amp time after starting the meter Itis done by pressing 0 and from that menu branching to date and time sections You can edit the date and time fields by typing in the correct data moving with the LEFT RIGHT keys accepting with Enter or ESC keys By pressing the ESC key a few times will bring you back to the
40. aterial itself If the backing is air the light beam will contain a component with one direction only and it is denoted with a solid line refer to Fig L6 2 In this case we may say that the moisture information is gathered exclusively from the matter itself We reach the same conclusion in the case that the backing is a fully absorptive material like black rubber No light is reflected back and no effect can be detected in moisture values If the backing is a mirror or some other strongly reflective surface a significant part of radiation is reflected back into material That causes an increase in light intensity and also causes that part of radiation travels a significantly longer path collecting more moisture information The ray is denoted with a solid line Crudely estimated the mirror changes moisture readings fig L6 3 somewhat When moisture is unevenly distributed between the sides the mirror may increase the accuracy of the measurement by weighing more the back side of the paper This can be used for advantage in some applications especially when measuring very powerfully processed thin papers like newspapers and supercalandered papers If the backing is of same material as the one to be measured there will be back scattering in it and also absorption in water Fig L6 4 The incoming beam brings more moisture information and is denoted with a broken line The moisture will be weighed in a varying way depending on several propertie
41. auses typically a requirement for separate calibration Another example would be the coating of paper with substances increasing either its reflectivity or diminishing its transparency The radiation penetration if affected and thus also the moisture response Increasing scattering increases the effective thickness the radiation passes The scattering depends on the reflection coefficient and microstructure like the fibers which act as scattering centers The actual penetra tion depth is decreased if scattering increases It cannot be accurately predicted and it isnot astep like function of distance The radiation transmitted to the material may reach the infrared sensors from relatively large depths but after suffering a significant absorption There are materials having strongly anisotropic properties like wood In them the radiation will progress along the grain to larger depths than in the perpendicular direction The radiation will thus 46 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL see more water This means that these kinds of materials have to be calibrated separately in different observation directions regarding to the grain direction The difference may be of the order 5 to 10 in moisture Other materials may have some kind of directed fiber structure and generate similar behavior There are other factors affecting the measurement in wood One of them is the wood resin and the other is knots Their presence typically dimin
42. aving Low Power Mode enabling a still longer period of operation without continuous measurement possibility However the meter recovers from it quickly and one is able to measure again This mode is intended to be used while setting up measurements or while transferring data in field conditions The meter has an optional Sleep mode available When turned on the meter will function normally for one hour and then it will put itself into Low Power mode automatically The Service menu contains the setting up of this feature Ifthe battery isrun down after along period of use turn the meter off and plug itin to the power source for charging Do not let the meter to stay uncharged for along time That may damage the battery The instrument is portable and made to withstand harsh environments Reliability in that sense means both mechanical and electrical endurance and repeatability of the obtained moisture information The whole instrument is protected according to IP67 withstanding dust and water splashes There is a glass window under the meter It is important to keep it clean to get correct readings Dust dirt or water on it will interfere Calibration and Material Libraries The calibration library in the instrument offers calibration information for some materials in paper and board industry Each material holds a unique position among the 100 different materials One can further develop and complete the library with AK30 and save them to a PC C
43. ayer 0 to 3 typically on surfaces The free surfaces are first filled with this layer before the other parts of the material volume gain water At higher moistures water begins to permeate the fibers if possible There water molecules may be bonded tighter with other molecules The next phase starts when all bonds are saturated Water starts to fill the voids between the fibers forming a nonuniform group of droplets Next the droplets start to merge and form stilllarger areas of homogenous water Finally all free space has been used up and the amount of water can not be increased anymore The swelling up of the fibers is linked with this process These ranges and their boundaries differ from one material to another Some of them may be clearly observed in infrared measurements some are blurred or the ranges are overlapping The infrared radiation penetrates to a depth of approximately 0 1 0 2 mm in most materials in the O to 25 moisture range At higher moistures the penetration varies and some materials become suddenly almost transparent Thus their optical properties change radically This effect has been compensated by optical design The most important optical variables affecting the measurement are scattering absorption and reflection of infrared radiation They vary from one material to another In addition many manufac turing processes change these variables Forinstance the calendering of paper increases its surface reflexivity and c
44. curve This will help a lot in getting successful calibrations Figure 3 Calibration of a material in SCALE and MULTI modes Calibration of material X with AK30 AK30 raw signal 0 9 1 t t t t t t t t t t t t 1 90 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 ri 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 balance 18 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Calibration of material X with AK30 AK30 raw signal 2 1 b 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Fig 3A Calibration in MULTI mode N 2 a hypotethic very nonlinear case Calibration of m aterial X with AK30 AK30 raw signal 3 2 1 b 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Fig 3B Calibration in MULTI mode N 3 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Calibration of material X with AK30 AK30 raw signal 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Fig 3C Calibration in MULTI mode N 4 Calibration of material X with AK30 AK30 raw signal 5 4 3 2 1 b 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Fig 3D Calibration in MULTI mode N 5 20 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL SCALE Calibration This feature has now been taken out of use and this information is for reference only Avoid using the SCALE calibration as a calibration It is best to keep it as a raw signal scaling for future calibration work Use a true MULTI calibration in
45. den there just like in your mobile phone One can also use the arrow keys UP DOWN to rotate the full set of available characters To set up the sampling interval press 1 The interval is edited with a resolution of 0 1 s The shortest time is 0 2 s and the longest is 32000 s Note that the autotimer is able to operate even when in Low Power mode but the values obtained are invalid By pressing 2 you are asked of the batch size Youcan enter a value between 0 and 500 AK30 takes only the preset number of samples and then stops the autotimer Also a sound signal is associated with the ending Note that if the SAMPLE line is activated in batch mode the autotimer is started just as the Sample was pressed If necessary the sampling can be stopped before the Autotimer does it by pressing the key AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Calibration menu One can go to the calibration operations from the main menu by pressing 2 There will be shown the following menu 7 MULTI 3 gt MULTI 8 FLASH 9 MORE From here one with 7 to a multipoint calibration MULTI When a material is MULTI calibrated and one wishes to use the corresponding table one presses 3 in this menu to change its calibration mode from SCALE to MULTI The calibration mode can be toggled back and forth at will As long as the mode is SCALE the resulting moisture value is only scaled default 100 X to offer more significant numbers When the MULTI is
46. drift that has to be corrected E g if the moisture readings show systematically an extra 1 25 you can type in the reading in 1 The idea is to make an offset of the same amount but with a different sign in the example 1 25 Note that there might already be some reading even in factory fresh units which differs from zero You have to add the new offset to the old one The offset actually needed to manually correct the drift may differ from the detected drift Try various values if uncertain In order to standardize with a highly stable glass standard you need a moisture standard sample which is placed in front of the meter at the proper distance and angle as informed in the data sheet of the standard The standard s reading when measuring with a certain table like 70 fact standard forms the basis for future drift compensation and is the actual standard value Selectthe proper table you wish to use always after this for standardization Read the moisture value shown and make notes of everything including the basic reading in the menu above When checking for any drift in the future repeat this procedure 1 Place the standard under the meter at the correct distance and angle always in the same way 2 Select the table for standardization 3 Read the moisture value 4 If the reading differs from the standard value calculate the difference 5 Go into the standardization menu and subtract the new difference from the old offset value
47. e Older versions may have a slightly different set of items Refer to main text for explanations of each functional ity 1 Banks 2 Calibration 3 Table 4 Alarm 5 Service 7 Unit amp C 8 Curve 9 Display T C Alarm C Series i l Interval aLoWw Unit and Communica 2 Batch 2 High tions 3 Enable Alarm 1 Communications 5 ERDATA 2 Unit N C 3 Edit unit Tables 1 Select l T a Clear 2 High Calibration 3 Edit 3 Automatic 7 MULTI Imcal007 C 3 gt MULTI 8 FLASH 9 More Range of Curve 1 Low Switch between MULTI and SCALE C More 1 Save Configura tion E D i 5 oo erence Daka Ja Display Colours FLASH calibra panga 1 Normal i 7aBAUDS 2 Alarm Low 3 Alarm High 4 LowPower 5 Table MULTI 1 Calibrate 2 Edit 3 Points More 4 Adjust Always return with ESC key to 6 Stdze upper level in menus At some occasions a security question is involved SURE 1 If you respond by pressing key 1 the action is continued else not In several submenus pressing the Save key will either save the current configuration or the calibration table whichever is most logical at that point T pressing Save key will save the current calibration table C pressing Save key will save the current configurations 59 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Further submenus Series 1 Interval 2 Batch 5 ErData Series submenus Erase data in Banks 32 Edit batch size 0 2s Edit sampling inter
48. e a homogeneous stuff to the meter with only local moisture variations 36 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 1 Service Operations The service needs of the AK30 moisture meter are minor The only service situations are replacing the battery and keeping the optical window clean Replacing the Batteries AK30 contains one Lithium battery It should be replaced at 5 to 7 years intervals depending on the heaviness of their loading and discharging history If the battery is every day fully discharged and then reloaded their operating life will be shorter Service Procedures You should follow these instructions when replacing the batteries to avoid damage to the instrument Deflecting from these directions may endanger the accuracy of the instrument or even cause damage to if The guarantee is not valid if the instructions are not obeyed You can open the instrument only in clean and dry conditions where there is no danger that dirt or moisture will enter the instrument casing or its components The meter must be handled with care and no parts should be dropped inside during service Short circuits may result and that may cause damage Note that part of the meter s circuit board is always powered although the power switch is turned off and the cable is disconnected Either the battery or the external power source always keeps live parts of the circuit Look out for static electricity You should not operate in relati
49. e an aluminum bag for keeping and handling of the sample in the oven and balance Taring the balance afterwards is easy Else you have a risk of exposing the sample to humid external air while attempting to determine its dry weight getting excessive weight readings An error of 0 5 to 2 at this point is not uncommon Keep the bag open at one end to let air flow through it when in oven For thick materials it is best to keep it outside the bag for a good while and then quickly move it inside After some time you can close the bag and weigh it This will ensure the sample is thoroughly dried AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL To minimize differences between total and surface moistures the samples should be saturated at constant conditions for an extended time to make sure that these two moistures are equivalent Some materials require longer times than average to settle in this respect and the suitable times are learned by experience The simplest way to know when a sample has reached the equilibrium moisture is to measure the moisture with AK30 at regular intervals when the chamber temperature and moisture are held constant When the sample moisture signal has not changed for a few intervals it possibly is close to equilibrium However note that there are materials which saturate very slowly It may take hours days or weeks for them to settle into a new level Patience is the best friend in calibration A paper of 80 grams m2 or
50. efinition of the Surface Moisture AK30 has been designed for measuring the surface moisture of difficult materials as a portable instrument in manual and handheld on line use Difficult material means one whose bulk moisture can be determined in one way or another but variations in its surface moisture cause significant quality control or production problems The surface moisture is physically a difficult variable to measure as many external factors affect on it and sometimes the results require interpretation instead of direct reading The manufacturer has solved the measuring problem by using reflected infrared radiation on suitable wavelengths and optical arrangements The result is a unique response throughout the whole moisture range from bone dry to very wet Even this solution is not without problems For linearizing the remaining nonlinearity AK30 uses a set of calibration tables for up to 100 materials The users can themselves extend the library and create new libraries when calibrating the instrument for own applications Also the manufacturer will extend the library and is ready to calibrate Customer samples for a fee One can measure with the moisture meter reliably through a wide range 0 to 70 total percent in many materials Moistures above that are seldom and are found in paper machine wire sections or laboratory test systems only Water behaves differently in various ranges In the dry end porous materials contain water as a monol
51. essing 5 It will take a moment to complete If erroneous behavior is suspected it can usually be resolved by powering up the meter again 28 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL The option 7 offers a possibility of changing the RS232 baud rate between 115200 HIGH and 9600 LOW This may be needed if long cables are used for AK40 Unit and Communications Menu To change the unit of measurement one should enter the Unit menu from the main menu by pressing 7 It looks like the following 1 COMM S 2 UNIT 3 EDIT By pressing repeatedly 2 one can list all the options which are DRY g m3 and YDRYNESS The unit in display is taken into use Changing the unit does not change the handling of the moisture signal in AK30 AK40 except the DRY and DRYNESS options If one wishes to use moisture percent defined by the dry weight one should also do the calibrations according to it There is a simple mathematical relation between the total percent pt and dry weight percent pd pd pt 100 100 pf or vice versa pt pd 100 100 pd One can then convert earlier calibration table entries moisture percent scales only not the signal to change between these two percentages They are both in general use but the total moisture is the most usual You can also edit a new unit In this menu you can further change it to any options available Note that the use of the dry weight percent instead of
52. eter has a durable stainless steel skid under it allowing reliable and safe working The nominal measuring distance is 2 mm from the skid but can vary between 0 and 7 mm with minimal effect on the moisture value The sensitive measuring area is about 10 mm in diameter AK30is equipped with a keyboard and a display with background lighting for portable field use With them the user can e g modify instrument settings The latest moisture value is updated to the display when in measuring state without extra operations There are two display modes A big numeric display ora multiple display The numeric display shows the moisture with two digits and one decimal The reading can be stopped by pressing the logo key and an H letter appears at the right corner of one of the digits Pressing again the logo key will release the HOLD The other display mode default uses the three display modules differently The leftmost display holds a graph of the recent moisture values progressing at a time interval preset in the menus The default time interval is 0 2 seconds The center display shows the moisture with digits and also indicates other pertinent data about the calibration table in use etc The right display is mainly used for the menu system The center and right displays both serve as media for sending out messages and reports by the meter Many dialogs open up in the right display when using the menus To switch between the two modes press the keys LEFT RIGHT
53. fficient across the grain direction of the order of 1014 m s and the drying time taken is 3600 s or one hour The resulting thickness of the gradient layer is of the order of 12 um After one minute the layer is only 1 5 um and after ten hours it is 0 4 mm thick refer to Fig L5 2 In thin samples the total diminished correspondingly by this is necessarily not the case with thick samples In them the moisture transferred is originated in the surface layer mainly Naturally wood has other more significant mechanisms for transferring water than mere diffusion In this resoect paper products are simpler This chapter may have convinced you of the fact that the measurement of the surface moisture may also in difficult situations correlate with total moisture especially if the measuring Conditions and the drying wetting history are known You should however be careful in interpreting surface moisture as total moisture with bulk materials if their history is unknown Especially if heavy processing is subjected to the material like drying or wetting 49 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 6 About Measuring Surface Moisture of Thin Materials When measuring thin materials with AK30 you should observe the following thoughts The radiation penetration depth varies between materials but is typically of the order of 150 200 um There might occur situations where there is some backing material and one is not able to predict
54. first character position after the packet header define CRCHIPOS 3 define CRCLOPOS 4 define PAKOVHD 5 number of characters in addition to data define MASTOUT 40000L MASTER timeout define SLAVOUT 3000L SLAVE timeout define MASERDLY 50 MASTER ERROR timeout Status values returned from the SLAVE define RECOVERABLE 7 errors at the sending end define UNRECOVERABLE 9 define TIMEOUTERR 19 define ADDRERR 20 slave uses an illegal master address define TXCRCERROR 29 if the packet from master is not OK as replied by slave define RKOK 78 no etrors at the receiving end define RXCRCERROR 66 if the response packet from slave is not OK as calculated by master Also the slave may come to the conclusion that the CRC of the master s packet is incorrect define RXPAKERROR 88 define RXFRAMEERROR 101 general error in packet frame or timeout define RXNOMSG 102 no messages received define RXUNKNOWN_ 103 unknown command 43 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 4 Technical Specifications of the Moisture Meter AK30 AK40 Device Moisture range Resolution Repeatability Accuracy Calibration Noise level Stability Measuring Speed Measuring area Measuring distance Data series Marker Recipes Data retention Temperature sensors Spacers Filtering of signal
55. g or cutting of the web Moisture data acquisition can be done with a PC through the serial port RS232 The Bluetooth offers a long distance operation up to 100 meters without a cable The packet protocol used in data transfer is a private very reliable and fast fault tolerant protocol Some details of it are listed in Appendix 3 Latest Added Features The recent additions to the meter are the following automatic zeroing of the moisture reading affecting the calibration at a push of a button This is highly useful in some measurements where the difference is important between two points The change is temporary and will disappear at next starting recipe system for quick switching of both calibration and the label for routine measurements This is supported by the PC programs too to assign a proper name convention for downloaded data files AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER in the fly conversion of dry and dryness No need to calibrate separately but all calibrations are made as total percent which is the most natural for this meter dual battery option for heavy users the SLOW filtering option has now a variable response time 1 10000 sec the BI key has been modified It is now producing a marker action while acquiring data The marker height is 0 5 Flash calibration to generate new workable calibrations in field conditions if the paper basis weight USER S MANUAL is known A B
56. h to be saved into a bank with the Autotimer Here the option 5 allows erasing of all memory bank data Be careful Erased data can not be retrieved anymore Typing in Data Itis time we shortly go through the steps of how to edit numeric and textual data fields The text cursor is an underline usually pointing at the least significant figure A number key pressed leaves the corresponding number on that place and moves the cursor one place to the right To reach the other numbers one uses the arrow keys to the left or right for stepping one number at a time When the number is finally correct you press the Enter key When the value to be edited consists of whole and fractional parts you can get to the fractional part by pressing either the key the arrow to the right key or the Enter key The whole and fractional parts are thus edited separately and the field lengths are fixed The ESC key can be used to accept the number field If there is a fractional part it is then accepted as such If acharacter needs to be removed press the Menu key Youcan return to editing the decimal number s whole part by using the arrow key LEFT There are a few dialogs where one can modify a text field which behaves differently from a numeric field One can move again with the arrow keys LEFT RIGHT and type in numbers and text characters The textual characters letters A Z and special signs can be found by pressing the numbers more than once in a row They are hid
57. he current recipe accept the current table 6 Switch between low pass filter selections FAST MEDIUM SLOW SLOW option includes also editing of the response time 31 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 7 Turn Autoranging on off for the graph 8 Turn on off averaging of one or a number of banks 9 Flash calibration fine tuning automatic zeroing Stat s Calculate statistics of the selected bank BT Add a marker of 0 5 to the moisture signal Logo Turn on off HOLD freezing the measurement and holding the latest reading Menu Enter the configurations menu In TABLES mode arrow up Change the current calibration table with a higher entry number The numbers go from 1 to 100 and then to 1 again 4 Change the current calibration table with an entry number 10 The numbers go from 1 to 100 and then to 1 again arrow down Change the calibration table with an entry number one lower 1 Change the current calibration table with an entry number 10 arrow to the left Switch between multiple display and big numeric display arrow to the right Switch between multiple display and big numeric display In BANKS mode arrow up Change the selected bank with a higher entry number The numbers go from O to 819 4 Change the selected bank with a 10 higher entry number arrow down Change the selected bank with a lower entry number 1 Change the selected bank with a 10 lower entry number arrow to the left Switch between mu
58. he list of terminal ordering see Fig L2 1 If you wish to use some other external power supply than the one shipped with your instrument disconnect the old power unit The new power supply can be connected by purchasing a LEMO OK plug similar to the old one The terminals of the serial communications are following AK30 side External side Pin number operating voltage battery charger 0 15A 0 5A max 9 24V charger is 9V ground external logic ground TX data TX data RS232 RX data RX data RS232 OV ground OV ground Fig L2 1 The LEMO connecior pin ordering 39 lt AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL LEMO OK panel receptacle rear view Rear iew 4 LEMO OK cable plug connector rear view p 3 4 Rear iew Fig L2 2 The LEMO connector pin ordering 40 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 3 Definition of the Data Transmission Protocol AK30 is communicating with the PC by using a packet protocol requiring a reply to each inquiry or command It is always a SLAVE and the MASTER sends the commands The protocolis very simple but has a number of features which makes it very reliable and fast Also it recovers quickly from errors or line problems You can use itin a point to point communication or in a network having several SLAVEs and one MASTER There are presently available baud rates 9600 to 115200 bauds The MASTERisthe only device capable of
59. icient to switch the recipe with keys 2 3 and both the table and the label are changed This information is saved with data to the memory bank Notices for Measuring While measuring with AK30 you should keep in mind the following short instructions for the meter to serve you as long as possible and to furnish you the most accurate information of moisture 1 Protect the optical head from shocks The optical head should not be exposed to high tempera tures over 50 C No mechanical shocks are allowed If the web or roll is vibrating keep the meter off of if 34 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL 2 Nevertry to open the optical head The result will always be damaged components The guarantee is not valid in such cases Similarly the light source must not be removed You can atthe mostreplace the battery Refer to Appendix 1 for service operations The manufacturer or service are not liable for fixing a unit which has been damaged by purpose 3 Although AK30 is solash water proof it is not allowed to immerse it into water or any other liquid Any dirt can be removed by wiping it with damp cloth The optical surfaces can be cleaned with a dry clean cloth or cotton sticks NEVER USE ANY SOLVENTS OR DETERGENTS They may cause unexpected damage to the plastic case 4 Ifthe unit is opened for service operations do it only in a dry clean room The instrument may loose accuracy or be damaged if water dirt or sand is al
60. ing each key are listed shortly See also the Figure 5 below showing the front panel keys The display colour may change if set accordingly when changing some of the modes and or if the alarm is active Pressing the remaining keys has no effect in the measuring state Refer to Fig 5 for the keyboard and the separate Quick operating Guide key action Save Copy the contents of the present graph 64 points to a new bank When operating in the menus the same key allows other saving of current configuration or the current calibration table depending on the menu LowPower Set the meter into energy saving state immediate measuring is not available Normal measuring state is restored by pressing this key again This key can be pressed in any state or menu with the same result Auto ON Turn the autotimer on samples are added to a new bank with the preset interval Samples are added until explicitly stopped the preset number of samples batch is collected or the Autotimer is stopped with the key Auto OFF Turn off the autotimer Stat s Calculate statistics of the selected orlatest bank The date amp time is indicated for the bank with a graph Bank select decimal point Select BANKS or TABLES mode 0 Set the date amp time to be maintained by the internal clock and for generating a time stamp for each memory bank 2 3 Switch the recipe LABEL table to the next one rotate round the five options 5 Edit the label in t
61. ion has been executed in a climatic chamber by reading simultaneously the balance and AK30 after the sample has reached moisture equilibrium The chamber has been run into different relative moistures at a constant temperature To reach equilibrium in sample moisture and between parts of the sample takes anything from minutes to weeks usually hours depending on the material We can observe the typical behavior of the calibration curve At low moistures 0 to 2 the curve is a straight line and at high moistures 4 upwards the curve is a line again At the intermediate moistures 2 to 4 there is a bend This applies to most porous materials While calibrating with a climatic chamber one usually notes measuring points which clearly do not belong to the curve That is an indication of the sample not being in equilibrium yet One should extend the climatization at that relative moisture level Some boards and liners behave unexpect edly at high RH gt 85 RH levels and tend to repel water from the surface This will cause a decrease in meter readings but no errors in the balance readings of course The reason is likely some chemical additive This should be avoided by watching the development of the curve while the RH increases If the curve starts to bend downwards you need to check the readings when going downwards again In situations like this it helps to climatize the samples a shorter time than usually like 90 minutes to 120 minutes instead
62. ish moisture readings as the structure is more dense and can not contain as much water as other parts In papers the penetration depth is typically smaller than in wood caused by the larger reflection coefficient scattering The light will enter the paper but due to strong scattering it will loose its intensity rapidly Thus the radiation coming out to the sensors is strongly attenuated as a function of depth The Relation between Surface Moisture and Total Moisture With thin materials the surface moisture is usually the same as the total moisture bulk moisture The moisture is even in all parts of the material sheet The infrared radiation is able to penetrate the sheet totally and we receive moisture information from the whole thickness It is possible that there are momentary situations where the other side has a different moisture and it can be observed with the moisture meter With office papers and boards the moisture difference between sides can be observed With very thick materials one important thing in determining the total moisture is the moisture history Measuring surface moisture does not necessarily correlate with the total moisture The sample Fig L5 1 Moisture of a thick material when it is subjected to sudden changes in surrounding relative humidity Copyright c 2014 manufac turer depth of penetra tion of the radiation oisture internal moisture level relative weighing of the distance from the meter s
63. its effect on the results Below we try to give guidelines for handling these cases by simplifying the physical situation The infrared radiation sent by AK30 behaves as expressed in Fig L6 1 in principle The radiation enters the surface perpendicularly and penetrates the material The light contains several wavelengths of which part is used for indication of water and part is used for compensating unwanted effects like drifting of the light intensity Also many factors associated with the optical properties of the material can be taken care of The interaction of light and material affects the light beam mainly in two ways There is absorption both into the material itself and to water The scattering causes the beam to rapidly become a completely diffused radiation field having light rays progressing into all directions The matter becomes an isotropic source which radiates by its whole volume where the light has entered For simplicity we might denote the incoming beam with a solid line as it does practically not contain light reflected back refer to Fig L6 1 Correspondingly the light beam inside the matter is diffuse and contains radiation components progressing both inwards and backwards This is denoted with a broken line The light component entering the sensor system contains only light with one direction only It is denoted with a solid line again How is the light marked behind the material The answer is that it depends on the backing m
64. lowed to enter it When closing the front panel check to see that no cables dirt or water is left between the gaskets 5 Handle the electrical connectors with extra care Avoid excessive force These are top quality Swiss precision connectors and require only careful use no force 6 The instrument is not dropping proof Keep it safe and carry it with some protective bag Use the strap if available The best option is to purchase the CAR carrying case specifically made for this meter 7 Obey the temperature limits The optical head and the battery will be damaged in high temperatures over 60 C When you require the most accurate results with AK30 follow the next few instructions 1 Best results with smallest standard deviations for calibrations are obtained in a climatic chamber where the external relative moisture and temperature are controlled 2 Best accuracy and lowest noise is achieved with the SLOW filtering but MEDIUM is fine too 3 Avoid keeping the optical head in angles to the surface differing from the parallel Special Features of the Models Presently we are offering the portable AK30 and the older model A only The model AK40 behaves is most respects like AK30 but is less portable since it is built to larger box for fixed mounting Model AK30 The model AK30 s special features are its short measuring distance and it being a small portable compact unit Deviations in the nominal measuring distance 2 mm cause a
65. ltiple display and big numeric display arrow to the right Switch between multiple display and big numeric display AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Selection of Filtering The meter s signal processing includes a number of electronic and digital filters whose purpose is to remove any unwanted noise components and to increase signal reliability One of the filters affects considerably on the response time and frequency response Its type can be selected in the measuring state directly There is the filter toggled by pressing key 6 The three possible states are FAST MEDIUM and SLOW and the setting is only momentarily indicated when toggling it The FAST filtering gives fastest response times and an increased noise The SLOW one gives slowest response times and smallest noise The MEDIUM setting is a compromise between the both being suitable for rapid field use with increased accuracy requirements The FAST setting is suitable for on line measurements where rapid fluctuations in sample moisture and other environmental factors exist The SLOW setting is best in requiring laboratory work but may prove useful in many on line measurements also A typical application isin calibrations When switching the filter a transient peak may appear SLOW filtering has a variable response time which can be adjusted in a wide range Thus it is most suitable for AK40 in continuous measurements where the momentary moisture variations are not interes
66. mode By using a PC we can always ask for a moisture value even if the meter is not in the measuring state The moisture is always measured in the background independent of the visible state and displayed at the center display if possible This may be violated when doing some calibration work or other special situations The graph is updated whenever possible When one uses the menu system the special keys are not active until you return back to it Inthe measuring state are displayed the name of the calibration table in use the calibration mode MULTI SCALE the moisture value in user selectable units If one takes a batch of samples to a Bank with the Save or keys there will also be indicated the number of samples on the second line We can get to the menus by pressing the Menu key The following display is then shown main menu with the full eight lines of text slowly scrolling in the display to show all available options All other menus branch from this Refer to Figure 5 for a display of the keys the table just before it 1 BANKS 2 CALIBR 3 TABLE 4 ALARM 5 SERVIC 7 UNIT amp C 8 CURVE 9 DISPLY Before we start investigating the use and meaning of each submenu we must tell you the way out of the menus back to the measuring state Anytime you wish you can press the ESC key to return to higher menu levels Press the ESC key as many times as is necessary it will have no other effect but endeavor towards the fop Memory Banks
67. nd brightness for each display TABLE display lt gt Select 123 RGB Bright vt Select Adjust RBG intensi ties and brightness for each display LowPower display lt gt Select 123 RGB Bright vt Select Adjust RBG intensi ties and brightness for each display Alarm High display AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Index A About Measuring Surface Moisture of Thin Materials 50 About Surface Moisture and Behavior of Infrared Ra 46 absorption 51 Accuracy 44 Adjusting a Table 24 Advanced 25 Appendix 1 37 Appendix 11 57 58 59 Appendix 2 39 Appendix 3 41 Appendix 4 44 Appendix 5 46 Appendix 6 50 Appendix 7 53 Appendix 8 54 Appendix 9 56 automatically zeroing 24 available characters 16 backing 51 Backing materia 44 BANKS 11 Basic Features of the Instrument 10 Battery 45 C Calibration 44 Calibration and Material Libraries 12 Calibration menu 17 Connecting the Cables and Starting the Meter 8 CRCCCITT 41 D Data Flow in the Meter 56 Data retention 44 Data series 44 Definition of the Data Transmission Protocol 41 Definition of the Surface Moisture 46 DIM setting 28 Dimensions 57 dry weight 29 DRYNESS 29 Dynamic range 44 67 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL E EC Declaration of Conformity 3 4 EM compatibility 45 Enclosure 45 Environmental 44 Example of Behavior of Wood Surface Moisture 48 F Filtering of
68. ne second or will receive only a part of the packet expected it will retry with the same command With these precautions are ensured that collisions do not occur too easily and if they do occur the system will recover with retransmission Your company may wish to develop some data acquisition system with a local network Therefore we list the definitions and declarations necessary to understand and implement the system The implementation language is ANSI or K amp R level C Experienced programmers should find this material useful The manufacturer may offer more information as requested The floating point data values are transferred into both directions coded as a four byte integer so that the whole part can have any value between 32768 and 32767 and the decimal part can have any value between 9999 and 9999 Information of other data formats are available from the manufac turer AK30 packet protocol definitions and command status values Protocol commands define I7TEST 10 define I7MOIST 11 define I7SUNIT 12 define I7GUNIT 13 define I7GETMAT 14 define I7SETMAT 15 define ITGMODE 16 define I7ZSMODE 17 define I7SETHI 18 define I7SETLO 19 define I7TXSER 20 define I7CLSER 21 define I7TXMAT 26 define I79RXMAT 27 define I7GETUSG 28 define I7GLIBNM 29 define I7SLIBNM 30 define I7GMATNM 31 define I7GETHI 32 define I7GETLO 33 define I7BEEP 34 define I7GETDM 35 define I7SAMPLE 36 test returns
69. needed by setting first the corresponding step number Also later patches are allowed The number of points can be increased by adding more points to higher moistures You can leave the set of points sparse However each point requires that there is some sensible value for the table to work in actual measurements The missing values can be calculated by interpolation and added manually 22 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Performing MULTI Calibration when Working with a Climatic Chamber and a Balance In this more accurate way the calibration is done as follows 1 Place the sample into an oven for two hours at about 102 C or whatever your standards require Do not overheat the sample 2 While drying place the balance and the moisture meter into the climatic chamber If your balance can not withstand the humid conditions do the weighing outside the chamber with e g a plastic bag or with a balance bottom hook through the roof Start the chamber control system and adjust the relative humidity to the lowest possible value Arrange the moisture meter if possible so that you can simultaneously read both the balance and the meter The sample should also be later placed so that the surrounding air can circulate around it and the wetting will be even at every point on the sample AK30 should be in SCALE calibration mode You can use scaling up of the raw moisture signal with a factor of 100 default or 1000 to make its reading
70. orrespondingly one can also transfer from PC any library to AK30 It is also possible to move particular material calibration tables into any direction to tailor a special library AK30 moisture meters are manufactured according to close tolerances The units are similar to each other and they are finally adjusted to be as close to each other as possible The libraries are compatible within the model and can be transferred to other units of same modelin your company The library error tolerance is typically better than 2 0 in the 0 10 range Some fine tuning may be required for best results This is now very easy to do with the Automatic Fine tuning feature of the Advanced software optional licensed AK30 can be calibrated in the same conditions and with the same equipment as you have used earlier for the same purpose The minimal requirements for calibration are a balance and some method for drying the material and determining the dry weight a balance Climatic chamber with controllable relative humidity and perhaps controllable temperature is recommended for more exacting work That will also increase accuracy and diminish deviations The surface moisture varies 12 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL in many substances due to factors like air flow temperature differences and external relative humidity In extremely accurate calibrations also effects of static electricity at dry end and water condensation at wet
71. ost useful when measuring rather high moistures and you wish to know the difference in moisture between various points Before entering it place the sample going to act as a zero reference under the meter The change is not saved and you need to expressly save this modification to the calibration by pressing the Save button in this menu Else it is forgotten when you turn off the meter or change to another calibration More In the calibration menu with 9 one enters another menu with additional features 4 ADJUST 6 STDZE With 4 you can go to adjusting an existing calibration table fine tuning when a known difference exists between the reading and the sample itself see below In 6 you can perform a standardization operation for maintaining the best possible long term stability Adjusting a Table While measuring with AK30 moisture meter at high moisture levels 30 to 90 total moisture percent problems are met when new materials have to be measured Usually there are no calibration equipment available In some cases knowledge of only a single moisture value is available That can be used for calibration in many cases if the material you are measuring resembles some previously calibrated In the following we explain how to do it Atypical calibration curve for most porous materialsis like in Fig 4 the thick curve When other similar materials are measured the calibration curve may be either the same or it may have shifted to either
72. pite of the fact that the products are not required to fulfill the directives we make every effort to comply with the directives in practice When the Category 9 is moved to be covered the same requirements as other categories do we are ready to certify that these products comply with the directives The new model AK30 is manufactured with RoHS compatible parts but is not presently required to comply with this directive AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL The AK30 portable moisture meter AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Contents 1 Introduction and Taking into Use 8 Connecting the Cables and Starting the Meter 8 2 Basic Features of the Instrument 10 Result of Measurement 10 Philosophy of the Meter 10 Operating Characteristics 10 Calibration and Material Libraries 12 3 Use of the Instrument 15 Menus and Settings 15 Memory Banks 15 Typing in Data 16 Calibration menu 17 General Information about Calibration 17 SCALE Calibration 21 Performing MULTI Calibration with Samples of Different Moisture Levels 22 Performing MULTI Calibration when Working with a Climatic Chamber and a Balance Adjusting a Table 24 The Procedure for Adjusting 25 Standardization Menu 26 Alarm Menu 27 Service Menu 28 Unit and Communications Menu29 Curve Menu 30 Display Menu 30 Colour Adjust Menu 30 Keys Available in Measuring State 31 Selection of Filtering 33 General Guidelines in Use33 Notices for Measuring 34 Speci
73. r calibration table into use The mode itself is indicated on the right display to avoid mistakes The library of calibration tables is 100 wide and not all of them are populated It depends on the manufacturer how wide alibrary is sent with the meter usually at least a few generally useful calibrations are added The calibration table can be quickly switched by the UP DOWN keys The 11 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL table is immediately in use but a peak may appear in the moisture signal because of the rapid switching A nonvolatile memory is used for saving all settings and the data Banks independently of power status The configuration data saving requires the user s action If saving is not done on the next session after powering up the earlier saved settings are used The background colour of the displays can be tailored to indicate the user of exceeding preset moisture levels high and low Alarm feature The meter can be moved over the material surface and when the moisture either falls below the low level or goes beyond the high level the corresponding background colour appear A PC may inquire the meter for a new moisture value with similar time intervals The series can be uploaded to a PC or it can be browsed in the meter Also statistics can be calculated easily AK30 has a rechargeable Lithium battery offering at least 3 5 to four hours of continuous use before recharging is required There is an energy s
74. re sensor with which the user is warned of too hot environments The instrument is temperature compensated At least 3 5 hours with fully charged batteries of normal measurement The meter has an optional sleeping mode available allowing one hour of 44 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Guarantee PC interface Power source Battery Low Power Mode Sleep modes Enclosure Ice detection Service interval Lamp operating life EM compatibility Other Accessories Electrical interfaces continuous use before turning the meter into Low Power mode automati cally It has LED indicators showing battery charge state when turned on or when charging The double battery option offers about seven hours of working time without recharging Two years from delivery does not cover wearing parts like motor or the batteries Serial communications with both Bluetooth and RS232 at speeds 115200 bauds or 9600 bauds using a private packet protocol user interface is a graphical program in Windows 8 7 Vista XP and future versions for mois ture real time trend downloading of data series instrument settings management of libraries and material entries It has also statistics and freguency analysis Approved power source 9 V 1500 MA charges the batteries when cable is connected irrespective of the meter s power status One rechargeable replaceable Lithium battery 5 V 1500 mAh charging time 5 to 7
75. response within outer surface the depth of penetration 47 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL contains water which tries to decrease if the surrounding relative humidity is low or it tries to increase in the opposite case Higher temperatures affect this accelerating movement of water molecules in the substance and causes a significant steam pressure which will drive the water out Example of Behavior of Wood Surface Moisture Interpretation problems may arise in determining the total moisture from the surface moisture information Ifthe sample has been along time in one climate and itis moved into a different climate suddenly may cause a moisture wave into the sample Refer to Fig 5 1 In wood the water moves very well in the grain direction along the small capillary tubes but very poorly against that direction In addition the water bonded to the fibers moves still poorer In oven dry wood 0 to 5 water moves quickly as vapor and it is forming the monolayer Water has various transport coefficients expressing the ability to move by using some mechanism One of them is the diffusion coefficient There are several diffusion coefficients depending on the direction of move ment The coefficient perpendicular to the grain direction is small and along the grain it is large On the other hand water diffuses fast in air but slowly in wood In paper water diffuses rather quickly across the thickness since it is small and
76. s of the material like thickness and surface reflectivity The resulting moisture value may typically become higher or sometimes even lower If becomes lower when the moisture level is already low lt 3 This is caused by the greatly differing calibration curves of a thin paper and a thick backing roll They usually cross at some point and the thick paper has a clear knee inthe curve but the thin paper may be straight down to the lowest moisture detectable 50 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL light source sensor system light scattered scattering and absorption of ig transmitted light Fig L6 1 Interaction between light and matter Vin matter lt gt Fig L6 2 No backing or a fully absorptive backing 51 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER Fig L6 3 Mirror as backing USER S MANUAL e matter mirror AI ODOTTI IDO YY VV e matter 1 matter 2 Fig L6 4 Backing made of same or similar material matter 2 52 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 7 Graphs of features IRMA 7 calibration signal 0 98 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Copyright c 2014 manufac turer balance Fig L7 1 Calibration curve of a certain cotton paper Refer to an example calibration curve in Figure L7 1 The calibrat
77. screws Remove them and also 37 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL the clamps Push a flat screwdriver end under the battery and twist slowly and carefully out swinging the battery in plane with another screwdriver The battery is fixed with two sided thick tape and may be a bit tough to remove Do not use too much force else the battery or the keyboard panel is damaged 8 Check the new battery to have similar thick two sided tape and remove the protective tape from it Fit the battery with the connectors and place it properly on the same place asthe old battery was The LED indicators must be visible through the window on the keyboard This is a one time go operation the battery will be hard to remove if you mistakenly mount it at an incorrect place 9 Attach the clamps in the same way it was originally 10 Carefully orient the panel s cables not to touch any parts of the optical engine There is a rotating wheelinit and no cable should touch it while operating else damage will occur Lock the front panel with the same screws 11 Drop the old battery to recycling 12 Test meter operation in varying positions also upside down No funny noises should come out and the meter should show correct readings If the battery is dead recharge it first 38 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Appendix 2 Pin Ordering of the Cable The moisture meter has a connector for external connections Below see t
78. selected as the mode for the current table the 2 to 10 point calibration takes effect When satisfied with the calibration press the Save key to save the new calibration data to a nonvolatile memory in the library General Information about Calibration To achieve the most accurate results in calibration the sample should be saturated and measured in acontrolled climate where one can rely on the fact that the surface moisture is the same as the total moisture and evenly all over the surface This is one of the important things you as the expert of yourtrade and special materials must solve You should also be aware of the inaccuracies caused by different measuring conditions The inaccuracies in calibration come mainly from two sources the moisture nonlinearity with the signal and the difference between the assumed total moisture and measured surface moisture You can gain information from both effects with this instrument and eliminate them The nonlinearity can be observed after taking several measurements in a climatic chamber and by reading the balance at the same time AK30 s nonlinearity is very small above 8 with most materials The evenness of moisture in the sample is left for the user s responsibility The dry weight should be determined with an oven The drying should be executed at a proper temperature determined by standards or experience avoiding browning or melting of the material and evaporation of solvents or other components Us
79. settings of the connec tion which was assigned to this meter The link should be paired PIN security code 0000 and then con nected This order is important 3 If this fails check the history list of the driver program to see if it is overloaded with too many links Clear the list of unused links This feature is in some of its menus 4 If the connection fails there is likely some other PC already paired with this Bluetooth device That pairing must be released before attempting to pair and link with another PC 5 Refer also to the PC program User s Guide for correct installation and use of the PC program itself and refer to the Bluetooth driver program s manuals too Make also sure that the Bluetooth is paired and the correct COM port is activated accordingly The Buetooth system may offer another COM port in the future if the pairing is broken by purpose It is not necessary to break the pairing since the system will automatically connect when the instrument becomes into the range of the PC Bt dongle Then it is most easy just to start the program with the preset COM port saved earlier C Symptom The meter is dead 1 Is the meter correctly powered Are you sure Are the displays showing something Is there some light coming out of the bottom of the optical head the meter If yes the meter is receiving power and or its batteries are all right but may have a weak charge If not check the power cable from the battery charger unit It should
80. sing the SLAVE to respond with an incorrect packet to the MASTER The protocol error handling is able to isolate these cases Line disturbances cause damage to either data or CRC bytes and can easily be detected If the SLAVE does not respond to the MASTER s inquiry that will also be detected The MASTER will retry for a preset number of times until it desists the operation and informs the higher level of this fault If the SLAVE will receive more bytes in a packet than it has itself calculated there to be the reception Fig L3 1 the packet format in the protocol Byte number 0 1 2 len 3 len 4 len len data bytes S 5 g Vo len 0 122 68 2 8 555 9g og 2 a9 0ET Oa Of Copyright c 2014 manufac turer 41 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL is interrupted and the SLAVE is waiting until the busis quiet and a new transmission starts Correspond ingly if the MASTER receives more bytes than it was due it will receive them and will continue with normal operation when the bus is quiet If the SLAVE receives too few bytes in a packet it will discard it and wait until a next valid packet is received If the SLAVE detects that the packet is not directed for it but another node in the bus it will listen on the bus and wait for the next packet to arrive If the MASTER detects that the packet address is not zero it willlisten and retry If the MASTER does not get aresponse within a certain time window about o
81. stead MULTI Calibration When either several materials are measured or better linearization is required one should use the MULTI calibration One can correct even a significant nonlinearity with it Refer to the Fig 3 Now we place 9 segments of line point to point to cover the required moisture range The purpose is that the selected points represent well the material s curve AK30 uses these points to calculate the actual moisture value by linear interpolation Outside the range covered by these segments of line are used the outermost segments by extrapolation Refer to the Figures 3A 3D in the following how the number of points affects the linearization accuracy Before executing MULTI calibration one must select the material name with which this calibration is associated There are up to 100 options available into which the new table can be placed After selecting the proper material either from the main menu see Tables Menu or from the measuring state with the arrow keys up or down youpress 7 in calibration menu The resulting display will be similar to the following 1 CALIBR 2 EDIT 3 POINTS You can now either go calibrating with samples 1 or you can go editing an existing table 2 Option 3 leads to setting the number of points in the multipoint calibration to a value 2 10 The calibration option opens up another menu 2 STEP 1 3 EXECUT 1 0901 The menu looks as below There can be used samples 2 to 10 One mus
82. t a permission from the manufacturer Units sent without a permission will be repaired at the cost of the buyer The guarantee does not cover wearing parts like batteries lamps or motors The guarantee does not cover faults caused by errors or neglects of the user nor those faults which are caused by deliberate breaking The guarantee does not cover faults caused by incorrectly installed cables or conductors The guarantee does not cover any damages to the user or to any third party independenily of the way how the instrument has been used The guarantee does not cover faults caused by natural phenomena like lightnings or floods nor user errors like dropping the unit The guarantee is void if the unit is sold to any third party All faults which are not covered will be repaired at the cost of the buyer If opening of the instrument has been attempted at those parts which are not intended for the user the manufacturer can refuse to repair or service the instrument Then the instrument will be shipped back to the buyer at the cost of the buyer Such parts are the light source the optical head and parts on the electronics board The instrument can be opened only strictly according to the instructions in this manual and should not be disassembled unnecessarily Copyright c 1994 2014 Visilab Signal Technologies Oy All Rights Reserved Visilab Signal Technologies Oy reserves all rights to changes and modifications in the looks specifications optic
83. t know beforehand the number of samples to place them in correct order The order of performing calibration of the different points isnotimportant but it is not practical to shift a point to another location if itis executed at an incorrect step If new values are to be added between existing ones the other points should be shifted as well A new calibration is called then for simplicity The edit option above opens up yet another menu 2 STEP 1 4 SIGNAL 5 MOIST Here youcan edit each step s raw signal and moisture values after any calibration phase Please note that the raw signal is around 0 9 to 1 5 21 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Performing MULTI Calibration with Samples of Different Moisture Levels The calibration is normally done as follows in the case where you have samples whose moistures have been determined earlier 1 Determine the number of samples points to be used in this calibration and set it in option 3 in the MULTI calibration menu 2 Place the first sample any under measurement 3 Set the corresponding step number in 2 likely step number 1 4 Press 3 Execute and respond with the corresponding moisture level of this sample 5 Repeat the steps 2 3 and 4 until all sample points have been measured 6 When returning to the upper level menu set the calibration mode to MULTI before using this table press 3 Any failed points can be recalibrated anytime and as often as
84. ting but the running average is The SLOW setting has an approximate response time selector to be ewdited while switching Type in the response time and then you are able to continue measurements Times less than one are not useful since you have better filters available for those times Typical values would be 3 10 sec On line measurements may cause varying requirements in selecting the proper filter If the material to be measured is very glossy then it is advisable to use FAST filtering to diminish signal fluctuations Matt materials cause much less problems in this respect General Guidelines in Use AK30is intended to be used as a portable meter and with handheld on line applications also Normal field operation is carried out in the following manner assuming that the instrument is already calibrated for the material of interest The meter is placed over the surface with a measuring distance of 0 to 7 mm A moisture value appears on the meter display You can observe its development and settling Do not make hasty conclusions of the reading before you are sure it has settled When you have a stable reading you can move to the next point to be measured You can also save this moisture value 64 points of it by pressing the Save key The values are added to a new bank Note the following When the meter is ready for use and you carry it to the measuring point the display shows the warning DARK It means that the meter has not received enough
85. ts of Council Directive 89 336 EEC Lil CE Henrik Stenlund managing director Ist January 2010 Note for users When the apparatus identified above is connected by someone to become a part of an industrial control system he is also responsible for the EMC compatibility of the resulting system He is also liable of providing the necessary optical or galvanic isolations for signals and transient absorbers for other lines to conform to the EMC directives Addendum to the EMC certification The new AK30 model is manufactured to even tighter specifications compared to the earlier model A Therefore it does not pose any danger not to comply with the EMC directive AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL EC Declaration of Conformity Visilab Signal Technologies Oy Keskustie 15 FI 07560 Pukkila FINLAND declare that the products which are put on the EU market AK30 Portable Surface Moisture Meter IRMA 7 On line Moisture Logger model D and its derivatives meet the intent of the ROHS directive 2002 95 EC and the WEEE directive 2002 96 EC Compliance isbased on the following The instruments belong to Category 9 Monitoring and Control Instruments of the WEEE directive and thus are not required to fulfill the said directives certify that the apparatus identified above conforms to the requirements of Council Directives 2002 95 EC and 2002 96 EC Henrik Stenlund managing director Ist January 2010 Note In s
86. ure on rolls and stacks With thin paper grades thickness below 150 200 micrometers the penetration depth may be larger than the sample thickness and the background may affect the moisture result by showing through the moisture if the papers under the sample Refer to Appendix 5 for more details Wood and board samples do not have this problem except with exceptionally thin samples The paper surface should not have bends or folds if you require greatest accuracy The light may have a mirrorlike reflection path to the optical head without scattering In that case the signal has an added low moisture component diminishing the resulting value Take full advantage of the recipe system It will save a lot of configuration work while measuring and it will prevent many mistakes too The resulting file names will track the labels you have used All recipes should be taken into use to serve you in the best possible way You can do it by first selecting a suitable recipe with keys 2 or 3 and then by selecting the proper calibration table and then starting to edit the label with key 5 You end editing with Enter and then you will be asked if the current table should be associated with this recipe Reply with key 1 if this is true Else no specific table is associated with this recipe In this way you fill in every recipe and they are ready to serve in the future Do not forget to save this change of configuration in the Menu with the Save key In practice it is suff
87. val 1 FLASH Flash calibration 2 ZERO submenu Automatic zeroing of moisture read ing Flash calibra tion 60 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER MULTI T 1 Calibrate 2 Edit 3 Points 2 2 Step 1 T 3 Execute 1 0406RAW 1 STEP Edit Number of Calibration Step 2 STEP 1 4 Signal 5 Moisture Fill in edit a calibration table manually 1 0406RAW 10 0 Measure raw signal and inquire for the corresponding moisture USER S MANUAL Calibration submenus AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL More Standardize C 4 Adjust 6 Stdze Drift 1 0ffset 0 0 Edit drift offset 0 0 Adjust Affects all tables 1 Set delta 0 0 19 AC YE Calibration submenus Arrow keys UP DOWN are active too Edit deltavalue 0 0 Affects one table only 62 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL Tables SURE 1 1 Select 2 Clear 3 Edit Imcal007 Clear a table Tables submenus By 1 Entry 2 Name 19 AC YE Edit 1 Name Select the table 2 Libname by number or by i Edit the calibra name from a list tion table name or the library name 18 TAMBU 19 AC YE 19 20 CELLU 21 BASE60 Select table in use Select from a list use arrow keys up down and press Enter 19 AC YE TEST1001 Edit calibration table name Edit library name numeric phone numeric phone keys arrows keys arrows 63 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MO
88. ve humidities below 30 RH Static discharges to the circuits will cause damage although all circuits are in principle protected against it Do not touch the components on the board Important Notice Never touch the adjustments on the board The meter must be readjusted in that case at the manufacturer The manufacturer or the service is not responsible for any misadjustment caused by the user s own service attempts Also the responsibility for any injuries or damages caused to any third parties belongs to the user You act on our own risk If you feel hesitant of performing the service operations yourself leave them to professional people and contact the manufacturer When you replace the battery follow the instructions 1 to 12 Opening the Meter 1 The meter is placed on a table Turn off the power 2 Disconnect the power cable 3 The meter front cover is opened with a suitable screw driver 4 Lift the cover carefully to the side of the meter minding the cables Do not disconnect the cables from the cover 5 Identify the flat battery and its three wires connectors located right under the keyboard panel 6 Disconnect the battery cables connector by pulling away Now the instrument is completely without power except the battery itself and the clock battery No datais lost If the connectors are a bit hard to detach leave them for now and go to next step 7 The battery is fixed to its position with a clamp fixed with one or two
89. very very slowly along the paper plane Fig L5 2 The gradient layer of moisture on a wood surface calculated by using diffusion theory refer to text In real life the drying depth is about ten times deeper Copyright c ture 1 0 8 cp x 1000 cp x 100000 cp x 10000000 0 4 0 2 i 10000000 2778 I 1 10 0 001 0 01 outer surface 48 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL As a conclusion of the thoughts above we can say without going into mathematics that there may be asignificant moisture gradient on wood surface and thick paper board surface too Let s assume that the surrounding air relative moisture is low and the wood total moisture is high and that the drying has been active for a longer time Then there will be a thin layer on the wood surface on whose outer side the moisture is low almost of the level of saturation moisture of the ambient air On the other side of this layer there is alevel corresponding approximately to the wood total moisture Diffusion theory helps us by the following equation expressing the thickness of the gradient layer x0 2 Dp t Inside the root the factors are the water diffusion coefficient in wood and t is the time starting from the moment when the internal moisture was allowed to start becoming level with the external air moisture The units are m s ands Asan example we could estimate wood with a diffusion coe
90. with a string moisture value etc get the moisture value set a new unit get the current unit get the current material number set a new current material number get the current calibration mode set the current calibration mode set the LEVEL HIGH set the LEVEL LOW get the data series clear the data series upload a new material to the instrument download a material from the instrument get the usage hours reading get the library name set a new name for the library get the name of the current material get the LEVEL HIGH get the LEVEL LOW make a sound at the meter get the number of values in the data series augment the data series with a new sample 42 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL define I7GETLPM 37 get the Low Power Mode setting define I7SETLPM 38 set the Low Power Mode on off define I7SETTIM 39 set the autotimer interval define I7GETTIM 40 get the autotimer interval define I AUTOON 41 set the autotimer on define I7 AUTOOFF 42 set the autotimer off define I7GETAUTO 43 set the autotimer on off define I7GETTMP 46 get the head temperature define NOP 91 no operation command define TIMEOUT 30 timeout in milliseconds delay time maximum of the SLAVE in recep tion of packet if the time interval between any two bytes exceeds it the packet is discarded positions of the control bytes in the packet define TAGTPOS O define LENPOS 1 define COMPOS 2 define MAXPOS 3
91. y the weight signal values 7 Decide whether the results are reasonable If not you have to start from step 1 again 8 Having obtained a reliable calibration curve decide which points on it actually are adequate for representing it with the accuracy you have specified You can use only 2 to 10 of them for the linearization table Straight parts of the curve can be handled with single line segments 9 Take a printout of the calibration points and mark the selected points with step numbers 10 In the measuring state select another empty material whose table has not been used or in the Material menu 11 Go to the MULTI calibration menu and then the EDIT menu 12 Set the step number in 2 13 Press 4 and type in the corresponding signal now scaled down if you earlier scaled it up as a decimal number The value is normally between 0 90 and 1 400 Use always as many decimals as there are available and try to round them correcily 14 Press 5 and set the corresponding moisture value 15 Repeat the steps 12 13 and 14 until all calibration points are fed in 16 In the upper menu set the calibration mode to MULTI instead of SCALE 23 AK30 PORTABLE SURFACE MOISTURE METER USER S MANUAL The most accurate calibration is now done After calibration the set of points table is immediately in use in MULTI mode and will stay in the nonvolatile memory for at least 40 years after you press the Save key FLASH Calibration
92. z by pressing 5 If the value is outside of these limits meter notin Low Power mode contact the service The frequency should be slightly adjusted Small deviations from this range does not cause problems and will be adjusted in the next regular service When the unit isin Low Power mode the motor is not running and the frequency is constant and may have almost any value That is normal Also very cold meters may have a low frequency and hot meters may have a high frequency This is a feature of the meter itself and not a fault The Selection O is for turning on off the sleeping feature of the meter You can see a message YES DIM or NO on the display If on the meter will turn itself into Low Power mode after running for one hour YES setting This saves the battery in case the meter is left unattended Also when the meter is used in temporary on line measurements with continuous power feed itis not wise to leave it there unnecessarily running overnight as the meter s service interval is 12 000 hours Unless you are always measuring manually in short intervals turn the setting on The default is off The DIM setting will not turn the meter to LowPower but will only switch to LowPower colour settings saving some energy By pressing 9 you can enter another menu for setting up the meter You will see 1 SAVECF 5 ERDATA 7 BAUD Option 1 will save the current meter configuration for future use Clearing of memory banks is done by pr

User`s Guide for the Moisture Meter AK30

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