[Acoustics] StreamPro data lost (?)

[Nick Everard]

Russ

I have a Streampro with all latest software/firmware but have never
seen the problem you describe.

One thing that can happen with Streampro however is that the iPAQ stops
writing to the SD card when the card has more files/directories than the
CE operating system can address. This has caught a few users out in the
past, but comes with no warning and doesn't cause the loss of files that
were already there. In other words, it doesn't sound like precisely what
has happened to you but it is well worth being aware of.

It has nothing to do with card capacity as our 128MB card had only 16MB
of data on it when it stopped recording. We just went to the site folder
at end of day and found that we only had data for the first 3 transects
and rest were gone. You still see the transects in the History tab, but
data is not stored.

To get around this problem just make sure you clear each day's data
after you transfer it to WinRiver for processing - and check that files
are recorded after each gauging exercise.

If only we could operate the Streampro using WinRiver and a laptop....!
That'd be neat....!

Nick.

Nick Everard
FMD Officer 1 (Hydrometry)
Environment Agency - W Area
Thames Region 
Windrush House
Howbery Park
Wallingford
Oxon, OX10 8BD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1491 828400
Mobile: +44 (0)7831 559379
E-mail nick.everard at environment-agency.gov.uk
Internet www.environment-agency.gov.uk


>>> Russ Lotspeich <rlotspei at usgs.gov> 09/11/06 13:44:35 >>>
Background: We have had a StreamPro in our district for about a year
and a 
half now and have used it extensively with no issues.  We purchased the

long-range mode and section-by-section firmware upgrade in September. 
Since the upgrade was installed, both the firmware in the ADCP (v.
31.04) 
and the software in the PDA (v. 3.20), I have used the StreamPro for
about 
10 QM's without incident, until......


The incident:  Yesterday, Nov. 8, we were experiencing some minor
flooding 
in our state and I was sent to one of our smaller, flashier sites to
make 
a QM with the StreamPro.  The measurement went great, it was the
highest 
measurement ever at the site.  From this site, I went to another site
in 
the area to make yet another rather high priority measurement.  That is

when things started going downhill.  As I was ending my sixth pass at
this 
site, an error message popped up that said something to the effect of 
"Failed to initialize....file RDInstruments/Project 
Files/..../aquia005r.000 does not exist".  Basically, it said that the
raw 
data file for the transect that I had just made did not exist (?). 
Having 
never seen that message before, I closed the window and was going to 
attempt to either end it again or just start over with another
transect, 
but another window popped up.  It said something to the effect of
"Cannot 
initialize instrument, configuration file RDInstruments/Project 
Files/..../aquia000w.000 does not exist."

It was at this point that I had the proverbial sinking feeling in my 
stomach.  I went and opened File Explorer and my entire RDInstruments 
directory was gone!  Now, this directory as well as other directories
have 
been stored on the SD card, the same SD card, for the past year and a 
half.  Every directory except the RDInstruments directory (where I
store 
all of my StreamPro files) was in tact, but I lost everything under 
RDInstruments.  This included the rather critical data that I had 
collected earlier in the day.

Questions:  My first question is whether anyone else out there has 
experienced this same thing before?  If so, what was the cause and how
did 
you deal with it?  Second, if this was just a fluke of which I was the
big 
winner, any suggestions as to how to prevent against this same thing in

the future?  I have followed the book and always stored the data files
to 
the SD card, but if anyone is doing something different, I'm all ears.

Third, does anyone think that this could possibly be an issue with the
new 
firmware/software package, especially since only the directory where I
was 
storing data was affected?  I am planning on contacting RDI this
morning 
to see what they have to say.

Any comments, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.  I want
to 
feel like an idiot for losing data in the field, but I just can't think
of 
what I could have done differently!

Thanks,
Russ
___________________________________________
R. Russell Lotspeich
Hydrologist 
U.S. Geological Survey
Virginia Water Science Center
office- (804)261-2637
fax- (804)261-2657


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