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Fathom QiQuac M5, Operating Manual

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Fathom QiQuac M5 Operating Manual Download Page 24

24

Figure 8. A & B 

Figure showing another example where the 3rd U/S Probe is recording a larger slower pulse than a 
second injection made afterwards. A) shows the raw data and B) the transposed data for Ch0. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Remember that the SDIQ measurement is only a layer on top of the raw data which is being record-
ed to the SD Card for post-processing, i.e. if things go wrong Don’t Panic.

Unloading the Data 

from the QiQuac and 

Post-Processing

Data is stored as csv files on an internal SD Card. We can access the data with 
the USB-Mini cables supplied with the kit. These cables have been modified to 
have a longer plug required by the USB-Mini waterproof port. Using a standard 
USB Mini cable will not work.
To download the data, the QiQuac must be turned off to begin. Plug in the USB 
cable to the QiQuac and the computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux will be the 
same). The QiQuac should wake up and display SD Card info if it recognized 
the USB Host. The computer should mount the QiQuac as an external storage 
device. Access it like you would any external storage device.
To Post-Process the data, log into the Salt Portal or use the Field Access Salt 
Portal. Instructions on Post-Processing can be found at 

https://www.fathomsci-

entific.com/enter-yon-salt-portal/

.

A)

B)

Summary of Contents for QiQuac M5

Page 1: ...athom Scientific Ltd 2021 All Rights Reserved Reproduction in whole or even in part is prohibited without the express written permission of Fathom Scientific Ltd QiQuac M5 Highlander Operating Manual Scientific Ltd ...

Page 2: ...ater and NaCl 11 Uncertainty 12 Uncertainty Example 14 SDIQ Grading 15 SDIQ Summary File 15 SDIQ Uncertainty Summary 15 Get Started Capturing a Q 17 Calibration 5 10 mins 17 Salt Dilution Measurement 10 60 mins 19 Determining the BG ECT for Low Dosing 22 Unloading the Data from the QiQuac and Post Processing 24 Main Menu 26 Power Management SD Card Access 30 ...

Page 3: ...3 CHAPTER 1 Prologue In which the reader is introduced to the QiQuac and its many extraordinary talents The QiQuac is a handsome fellow When he s near water he s calm and mellow ...

Page 4: ...r records continuous data at a regular interval onto an internal SD card1 The Q calculations are in the RAM and don t affect the logged data which can be reprocessed at a later time Along with photos and site notes the recorded data provides a Qualified Professional QP all the necessary information to allow a Data Grade A designation provided proper technique and protocol is followed The QiQuac Hi...

Page 5: ...Vent 6 Y Axis Max 7 Battery Icon cycles when charging 8 Most Recent Transmission MRT Indicates which Ch received MRT 9 Current Display Channel Ch0D or Ch1D or Ch0S Solo Mode or Ch1S 10 Y Axis Min 11 Pre Background EC T uS cm 12 Measurement Diagnostics 13 Last measured Temperature Compensated Electrical Conductivity EC T uS cm a k a Specific Conductance at 25oC using nlf compensation EU standard 27...

Page 6: ... opposite banks of the watercourse and measure a Q that is not significantly different then a Grade A measurement is possible Figure 2 shows the contents of the kit Figure 2 1 QiQuac 2 Radio T HRECS 3 Serial T HRECS 4 Salt Standard for CF T calibration 5 Pipettor for CF T calibration 6 Quickflask for CF T calibration 7 Scales 8 Duckbox 9 E C T Probes 10 Cables manuals and accessories 1 3 6 8 4 2 7...

Page 7: ...heory In which the Theory by which the QiQuac makes a Salt Dilution flow measurement is explained to the reader It s all Relative the QiQuac summarized but the T HRECS didn t understand as their brains are pea sized ...

Page 8: ...er ranges Richardson et al 2017 Using the Calibration Factor aka Concentration Factor or CF we can convert the measured conductivity to delta NaCl over time If we divide the measured mass of NaCl by the area under the NaCl time curve we can calculate the Q Using a dimensional analysis it is easy to see how this works 1 The uncertainty of the resulting SDIQ can be 5 if all sources of uncertain ty a...

Page 9: ...ity of 0 01 This means that for an EC T of 100µS cm the standard deviation of the noise should be 0 01 µS cm This implies that much less salt can be used and still achieve a low uncertainty on the resulting SDIQ Figure 3 A B A typical low amplitude high SNR Breakthrough Curve showing some noise in the ECBG that is aver aged out with 30 samples Pre and Post BC This measurement used 5 042 kg to meas...

Page 10: ...tilled water water in the salt standard Since the EC T of distilled water is different from the ECBG of the stream water to be calibrated a distilled water correction is applied As secondary solution is added the effective ECBG of the calibration stream water ECBG eff can be calculated as follows 6 where VS is the volume of the stream water sample ECT d is the EC T of the diluent typically distill...

Page 11: ... liquid which provides an energy buffer for ecosystems keeping temperatures relatively steady and also promotes circulatory actions of weather 3 It is one of the few substances that becomes less dense as it cools It s weird behavior has made life possible on earth If the density of water didn t increase below 4 C then ice wouldn t float to the surface of water bodies and insulate the seething life...

Page 12: ...han 1000 µS cm and so we expect a CF T of less than 0 50 mg L µS cm Figure 5 In practice however other ions in the mix interfere with ionic transport and result in higher CF T values remember the higher the CF T value the smaller the step when performing CF T calibration Figure 6 is taken from Figure 4 in Richarson et al 2017 and is from whence our default value of 0 486 0 02 mg L µS cm is derived...

Page 13: ...ation The Numerator of the Area Uncertainty term is 9 Where SEBGEC T is the standard error in the BG EC T and R is the instrument res olution or the minimum EC T step in the record calculated during a measure ment DT is the elapsed time over which the Area has been calculated3 When Meta Settings Use Regression Line is set to 0 the uncertainty in the BGECT is calculated from the standard deviation ...

Page 14: ...e area With Assume Sloping BG ECT OFF this results in a Q of 1 47 m s 12 5 c moving the Pre BG EC T sample just before the pulse and extending it out to the start of the rise results in a Q of 1 22 m s 5 3 In c we ve zoomed in to show the natural BG EC T variation If we tabulate these results and compare them only interpretation a and c are significantly different at 95 confidence Note that the mi...

Page 15: ... The uncertainty associated with the Average Q is 11 This estimate assumes the maximum uncertainty from the 3 estimates should be assigned to the measurement SDIQ Uncertainty Summary Unlike the Infinite Improbability Drive on the Heart of Gold Adams D 1979 there is nothing to be gained from large uncertainty in an SDIQ You are trying to achieve a Grade A measurement There are various best practice...

Page 16: ...The QiQuac is on the track of a big flow even the little T HRECS know 16 CHAPTER 3 Operation In which the QiQuac embarks on a Salt Dilution Instream Flow SDIQ measurement CH A P TER 3 OPER ATION ...

Page 17: ...ass during a measurement 5 Next you will be asked to set the CF T or Hold to Calibrate The CF T should be 0 486 02 mg l μS cm for NaCl in freshwater However this will depend on the unit s current calibration and also to some de gree 3 on the stream chemistry If the csv db option was set in Site Settings then the last saved CF T will be displayed for each channel If the CF T is known to be otherwis...

Page 18: ... stream Now put the EC T probes into QuickFlask and note the EC T It may increase by a few μS cm In theory a slightly higher i e 1 ECT should not affect the CFT But residual salt in the flask for example can contaminate the results and if the ECT increases by more than 1 step 7 should be repeated Push the button to set the first EC T in the calibration As calibration points are collected they are ...

Page 19: ...n to bring up the context menu and select Hold to Restart Hold 1 sec and release to restart the SDIQ Salt Dilution Measurement 10 60 mins At this point you must decide whether to use the 3rd probe Ch2 as an Up stream or Downstream probe If Ch2 is set to NOT be used as a 3rd U S Probe it will be used as a 3rd D S Probe and the grade will be be based on the Coef ficient of Variation CoV between all ...

Page 20: ...he measurement and Pre BG N has reached zero push the button again select Use 3rd U S BG from the context menu This will change the setting for the Displayed either D or S channel If Ch2 is selected the wording changes to Use Ch2 AS 3U S 12 Note that if 2 3 EC T probes are being used turning the dial counter clockwise will toggle the values between the channels The currently displayed channel is i...

Page 21: ...slowly will change the bars by BG_N 10 records and turning quickly will change by BG_N Push the button to accept the new Pre BG_ECT period This function adjusts the Pre BG_ECT for the Displayed channel After finishing with one channel turn the dial counter clockwise to change the displayed channel and repeat The difference between the pre and post wave BG EC T will be taken into account in the der...

Page 22: ...the next measurement g Adj Y Axis Turn the dial to adjust the Y Axis Max push the button to accept then adjust the Y Axis Min and push to accept Use this feature to zoom in on the BG_ECT near the end of an SDIQ h Return to SDIQ Select to return to the SDIQ with no changes i Hold to Cancel Push and hold to stop logging without writing the summary SDIQ stats to the Summary file or displaying a Summa...

Page 23: ...hannel by x determined by Transit Time and y deter mined by the difference between the time shifted 3rd U S probe and the channel Pre BG ECT This means the 3rd U S Probe BGECT will always start at the end of the Pre BGECT sample period as shown in Figure B The raw data for this plot is shown in Figure A The 3rd U S Probe has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of salt required to achieve Gr...

Page 24: ...ni cables supplied with the kit These cables have been modified to have a longer plug required by the USB Mini waterproof port Using a standard USB Mini cable will not work To download the data the QiQuac must be turned off to begin Plug in the USB cable to the QiQuac and the computer Windows Mac or Linux will be the same The QiQuac should wake up and display SD Card info if it recognized the USB ...

Page 25: ... QiQuac Menu System In which the QiQuac is exposed to show several layers of sophistication much like an onion The QiQuac hides his true feelings behind his tools even though properly polished they could be jewels ...

Page 26: ...r Push the dial and Hold to cancel the Start Logging operation Two types of files are recorded on the internal SD Card csv is a formatted file with format Date Time EC Temp EC T and raw is the unpro cessed serial data Step by step instructions to Start Logging are detailed on pg 13 Get Started Capturing a Q Setup Select this to access secondary settings menus For further detail see Setup below Rep...

Page 27: ...ch SDIQ and also read the station and project ID and Ch0 Ch1 and Ch2 CFT values from the SD Card 3 Set Time Rotate the dial to set the time 4 Set Date Rotate the dial to set the date 5 SDIQ Settings Select to access secondary menu related to the SDIQ The SDIQ Settings Menu consists of 13 options a Mass kg b CFT0 mg l uS cm c CFT1 mg l uS cm d CFT2 mg l uS cm e Inj Conc mg l f Inj Volume l g Stream...

Page 28: ...the T HRECS interval without accessing the T HRECS menu from the Serial Terminal 5 m Restore Defaults Select to restore factory defaults 6 Meta Settings Select to access secondary menu related to metadata The Meta Settings Menu consists of 6 options a Uncert in CF T b Uncert in Mass c Use 3rd U S Probe d Apply SINE Unc e Anomaly Detect f Sound Volume g LCD Contract h B Light Bright i Extrapolate S...

Page 29: ...ression line is used to calculate Uncertainty for a given channel Factory default is 1 6 j Show BGECT Line Set to display the BGECT Regression Line Factory default is 1 6 k BGECT Reg Snap Tol The uncertainty obtained from the chosen Un certainty method before the regression line will snap to both Pre and Post BGECT Samples Before this occurs only the Pre BGECT is used in the regression line equati...

Page 30: ... Card Access To charge the QQ plug the provided mini USB cable into the QQ and a power source such as a laptop The QQ will power up If the QQ detects a USB data port it will remain on the SD Card information screen and attempt to mount as an external storage device on the laptop If this is not desired push the button to skip this function to get to the main menu The charge status can be moni tored...

Page 31: ...31 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...

Page 32: ...sked Questions FAQs In which several humorous questions are posed and answered The Q is released back into the wild but has a few Qs of his own to repine like what were the motives and who was that duck and why do I now taste like brine ...

Page 33: ...eave it be and hope he gives the money back Q Why are there no real Questions in this FAQ A We ve often found in this manual as well as in life that taking time to laugh is more valuable than getting actual work done We think that QiQuac custom ers will feel the same way If not maybe they should buy a Sommer Q I just fell in the river with the QiQuac and my lunch I m soaking wet and waiting for th...

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