Hello,
is anybody having problems configuring the OBS3A using the hydrosci software?
Is there a way to communicate with the sensors using the terminal window?
When I try to connect to the OBS3a using hydrosci and the instruments is doing a measurement it is not possible to stop them.
Is there any other software than can be used to communicate with the OBS3A?
THANK YOU
HydroSci provides quite a few option when for stopping the OBS3A, when it is making measurements. On the initial connection attempt HydroSci attempts to discover if the OBS3A is responsive, if not it provides the user one of two dialogs. One presents itself and asks 3 questions: "Stop sampling data." "Let the sample continue to run." and "Attempt to find the baud rate to communicate." If the "Stop sampling data" option is chosen, then HydroSci with attempt to stop the OBS-3A from making measurements. This is depending on if the baud rate has been set correctly by the user. If the wrong baud rate (baud rate selection is on the Connection screen at the bottom left) is chosen, HydroSci will fail to connect. Do note that if the measurements are have been set up to only measure at a slow rate, then HydroSci will have a difficult time communicating with the finicky OBS-3A other than stopping the measurements, given the baud rate is selected correctly. There also may be a message box presented to the user the displays and asks if a sample (measurements) is running. If yes is selected HydroSci asks if the sample should be stopped. If none of these options are attempted successfully, then the terminal window can be used to stop measurements. Without attempting to connect via the connect button, chose the "Show Terminal" option in HydroSci. Select the appropriate COM port and Baud Rate. Click the "Connect" button in the Terminal window and the click the "Stop" button. If this does not work chose each different Baud Rate and retry the attempt to stop. If all of these options have been exercised, the OBS-3A has more than likely "locked up" and become unresponsive and there will not be a piece of software that can recover the OBS-3A from this state as the hardware is in a problem state. The only way to recover is to remove power from the OBS-3A either by disconnecting the field cable from its power supply or removing the batteries from the OBS-3A. This will reset the OBS-3A and stop the measurements and the OBS-3A should then communicate.
Dear aparkinson,
thank you very much for your response. I have two Obs-3A sensors with issues. One of them seems to be 'locked up' as you say or on continuous sampling mode. The only way I can connect to it using the Hydrosci is by selecting the option 'let the sampling run' when it first connects. Then I try to stop the sampling and it will disconnect from the computer. If I click any of the other two options (stop sampling or find the baud rate) it will not connect. I tried removing the batteries, stopping it from the terminal window as you said and connecting with every baud rate Nothing works. I really think there is a bug with this software.
On the other case, with the other OBS, I am able to configure the instrument in scheduled mode, and i believe it works, however no files appear on the view data window after the end of the sampling run, but there is data on the flash memory, when i erase it. Do you know if there is any other software that can be used to access the flash memory?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Stéfani.
I have exactly the same problem with an OBS-3A as described above: "One of them seems to be 'locked up' as you say or on continuous sampling mode. The only way I can connect to it using the Hydrosci is by selecting the option 'let the sampling run' when it first connects. Then I try to stop the sampling and it will disconnect from the computer. If I click any of the other two options (stop sampling or find the baud rate) it will not connect. I tried removing the batteries, stopping it from the terminal window as you said and connecting with every baud rate Nothing works. I really think there is a bug with this software."
Is there any solution to this problem? We now wanted to do an experiment in the field and this is really frustrating for a practically new OBS.
Thanks
FlorinZ,
snovoa77's problem was solved by installing the latest version of HydroSci, version 1.1 under downloads here:
https://www.campbellsci.com/obs-3a
If you are not running 1.1 try that and let me know if it resolves the issue.
Boyd