Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Tonzi | Vaira
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Bouldin Corn: 2024-07-09 14:50:00 (DOY 191)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Mike

Summary: Added inline 24V lithium power pack to buffer against power interruptions, shadowband had fallen off--fixed, no camera photos again--fixed, need to remove wasps' nest next time

2024-07-09
Bouldin Corn

Mike and I arrived at 14:50 PST (15:50 PDT) after doing routine data collection at Tonzi and Vaira. It was warm and sunny with a slight breeze. It’s been two weeks since the Delta site have been serviced, but this is my only Delta stop this week There’s been a major heat wave/dome in the last 10 days, so the Delta schedule had to be shifted.

At the last visit, there were a lot of spikes in most datalogger and mux channels. I tightened some of the screws, especially the ones connecting the datalogger and the AM25T. Joe saw the data and hypothesized that Charlotte’s A/C unit turning on was browning out the whole system. He suggested adding a 24V lithium power pack in line with our system to help buffer it from power interruptions.

Today, I downloaded the met data and I did not see any spikes. Yay! But, I was having a lot of trouble staying connected to the CR1000 in the Connect software. I tried restarting LoggerNet and restarting my laptop. I power-cycled the CR1000. I tried disconnecting the 12V/G on the CR1000 from the AM16/32 and AM25T, thinking something was causing the CR1000 to short out. I powered the CR1000 directly with the 24V lithium power pack (with a DC-DC converter to change it from 24V to 12V), but I was still having the same issues. It would not connect, or if it did show as connected, it would hang forever when I tried, for example, to check Station Status or File Monitor.

I went ahead and added the 24V power pack in-line with the system. The 24V jack can both charge and discharge at the same time. There is 24V coming in from the AC-DC converter in the power box. 24Vout from the power pack powers the 7550 and the 7700. A DC-DC converter steps the 24Vout down to 12Vout to power the met equipment. The DC-DC converter in the box was rather hot to the touch, which might be ok, but I still swapped it out with a fresh DC-DC converter I brought from the lab.

After I added the 24V power pack (and checked all the voltages before plugging everything in), I had no trouble connecting and staying connected to the CR1000. I’m not sure what the issue was before. Maybe the pluggable terminal strip between the DC-DC converter and the green terminal strip was loose? Maybe the DC-DC converter was weird? It still doesn't explain why I was having trouble connecting to the CR1000 when it was powered directly from the power pack.

I unplugged the NDVI/PRI sensors from the green power terminal strip. They can be removed in the future b/c we don’t use that data anyways (broadband NDVI is more consistent and we have to constantly check if the narrowband sensors have failed yet). We can also remove the FD cable another time. Clear up a little space for the new lithium power pack.

Another issue today is that the dfPAR rotating shadow band had fallen off. It was on the ground below the sensor, so not too hard to find. I put it back on, which took some finagling to get it secure but not too close to the box. I noticed there were some wasps with a golf-ball sized wasp nest in the hollow end of the radiometer boom. I need to get rid of the nest next time and put in one of those square rubber stoppers. The angle is a little awkward; I'd have to hang onto the scaffolding to properly spray the wasps with water. Maybe I can move the upper boardwalk to the eastern side of the tower to stand on.

There were still no camera photos on the card. I checked the camera through Stardot tools and confirmed it was alive. I removed the Ethernet module from the CR1000 and reinstalled it to make sure there was no issue with the physical connection. The Ethernet cable going into the module was secure, but the lights were not on. I telnet’d into the camera and ran the phenocam_upload script. The error was “no route to host.” I checked that phenocam scripts to make sure the CR1000 IP address, CR1000 user/password, and destination address (CRD/) were all correct. I then checked the CR1000 through Device Config Utility to make sure FTP was enabled and that the IP address, user/password were correct. The settings all looked fine.

I was about to give up but then decided to ping some of the networked devices. I could ping the camera and 7700 but not the datalogger. I checked the laptop network adapter settings and noted that it had the expected IP address (192.168.2.2) and gateway (192.168.2.1). I checked Device Config Utiliy again and changed the CR1000’s default gateway from 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.2.1. I tried pinging the datalogger again (worked!) and running the phenocam_upload script manually again (also worked! Zomg). The ethernet module on the CR1000 had lights and I confirmed that there were photos on the camera card. I have no idea why the CR1000 lost its default gateway. Maybe the power issues scrambled its brains a bit.

I also downloaded the USB GHG, PA, and zcam data. I cleaned the 7700 using a manual spray and spin. I didn’t want to climb again so close to the wasps today. I did not clean the 7500. The wash reservoir was still full so I didn’t refill it.

The 7500 read: 404ppm CO2, 780mmol/m3 H2O, 32.0C, 100.9kPa, 101SS – did not clean
The 7700 read: 1.98ppm CH4, 45RSSI – 70 after cleaning

We left at 16:35 PST (17:35 PDT).

3 photos found

20240709BC_Radiometers.jpg ( 2024-07-09 15:56:32 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Corn under the radiometers is taller than the corn in the middle of the field

20240709BC_UnevenCorn.jpg ( 2024-07-09 15:56:20 ) Full size: 1920x1440
The corn in the middle of the field is sparser this year relative to the edges of the field. The middle of the field still has some bare soil visible.

20240709BC_LithiumPowerPack.jpg ( 2024-07-09 14:52:48 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Adding a 24V lithium power pack in-line with our power system to buffer the met/flux systems from power interruptions