Nortek Vectrino

This device is under the care of Prof. Martin Wosnik. Please contact Martin for more information on device availability.

To acquire data from the Nortek Vectrino+ acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), follow these steps:

1. Place the probe in the desired location in the tank. The receiver probe with the red band should be facing in the positive x-direction.
2. Connect the Vectrino's serial cable to input 5 on the Ethernet serial server, and make sure the server is plugged into the "Ethernet 2" jack on the electronics cabinet.
3. Plug in the 24 V Vectrino power supply.
4. Open the "Vectrino Plus" application on the tow tank PC.
5. Click the "Check communication" icon in the upper toolbar. If you do not receive a message saying the Vectrino is connected, check that steps 2-4 have been performed properly.
6. From the "Data collection" menu, select "Load From Instrument". This will bring up a menu of all the device parameters. Confirm these are as they should be to meet the experiment's requirements. Most cases will only need adjustment of the Nominal velocity range and Input Sync parameters, though it may be necessary to measure sound speed or salinity. See the manual (Help -> Manual (PDF)) for more information.
7. A menu box will pop up asking if you want to start data collection. Note that data collection does not mean recording to the computer's hard drive. If you'd like to record to disk, click "No" and proceed to the next step.
8. From the upper toolbar, select "Disk File Data Recording". Select a filename and path for storing the data to disk. It is recommended you use the computer's "E:" drive as it is dedicated to data storage, i.e. the PC's operating system does not reside there.
9. Click "Start Disk Recording" then click "Start Data Collection" from the upper toolbar. If the device is set as a "Master," data will be seen on the graphs as it is acquired. If other synchronization settings have been chosen, the device will not start acquiring data until it sees the appropriate sync signal.
10. If the SNR is below 12 dB, seeding material must be added to the tank. 11 micron mean diameter hollow glass spheres mixed with water and poured into the tank near the probe usually produces favorable results.
11. When the desired data has been acquired, click "Stop Disk Recording" then "Stop Data Collection". The order is somewhat important, as the software will not close the file if you do not stop disk recording before stopping data collection.
12. After the experiment, binary data can be converted to text by clicking "Data Conversion..." from the "Data collection" menu.

Synchronization options

• Master: The instrument will use its own sample clock for timing.
• Slave: An external device (at least partially) controls sampling time. See triggering instrumentation for methods.
  • Start on sync: As soon as the first sync signal is detected, the device will sample based on its own clock.
  • Sample on sync: The device will sample on each sync pulse detected.

Avoiding noisy measurements

• Ensure y- and z-axis stepper motors are disabled while taking velocity measurements.
• Ensure the tank is seeded properly.