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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Service, Repairs and Spares
Do you offer servicing, repairs and spares ?
Recycling
What should I do about recycling Geoscan Products in the UK ?
Payment Methods
Can I pay by credit card or Letter of Credit ?
Batteries
What is the advice on replacing NiCad or NiMH batteries in the FM9, FM18, FM36, RM4 and RM15 ?
Resistance Meters
How far apart must two RM15 systems be if they are operated in the same field ?
What is the detection depth of a Twin array ?
What is the difference between an RM15 and RM15-D ?
Geoplot
How does the upgrade of my Geoplot licence from 3.0 to 4.0 work ?
Will an upgraded dongle be able to run Geoplot 3.0 and 4.0 ?
Will Geoplot 3.0 run on Windows 7 32 and 64 bit systems ?
How do I save higher quality graphics image in Geoplot 3.0 than the Save Graphic Plot method offers ?
MSP25 and MSP40
How do you make a gradiometer take a reading at the same point as the centre of the MSP25 or MSP40 square array ?
RM85
How does the cost of the RM85 compare with an RM15-D ?
RM85 and Geoplot compatibility
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Service, Repairs and Spares
We do not offer service facilities but we offer repairs, depending on availability of parts. We can also supply spare parts such as cables and other parts for user repairs. Please enquire about repair costs together with a detailed description of any problem or parts that need replacing, along with serial number. Please see the Tech Support page for identification of particular problems. This may offer a solution without having to send instrumentation back for repair.
Recycling
What should I do about recycling Geoscan Products in the UK ?
Geoscan Research is registered as a producer of electrical and electronic products. Our Producer Registration Number is: WEE/GA0052TQ. All electrical parts should be recycled in accordance with WEEE regulations. If UK customers wish to return electrical goods for recycling then please contact us for further advice. This excludes batteries which are not covered under our WEEE responsibilities and should be recycled locally.
Payment Methods
Can I pay by credit card or Letter of Credit ?
We do not accept credit card payments or Letter of Credit. Payment can be made by cheque or bank transfer using the details that will be given on our invoice or pro-forma invoice.
Batteries
What is the advice on replacing NiCad or NiMH batteries in the FM9, FM18, FM36, RM4 and RM15 ?
You can replace NiCad batteries with NiMH batteries and continue to use the same battery charger for these instruments. However, the capacity (mAH) of more modern batteries will be larger than the cells being replaced. You should therefore increase the initial charge time by a proportional amount to the new mAH rating given on the battery so that they are charged to full capacity. Subsequent overnight charges can remain the same as in the instruction manuals.
Resistance Meters
How far apart must two RM15 systems be if they are operated in the same field ?
If you have two RM15 meter systems operating in the same field (and at the same frequency), then with a 0.5m Twin, the mobile frames need to be at least 40m apart and the remotes even further apart to avoid interference. If you use longer beam lengths then you should increase the separations accordingly.
What is the detection depth of a Twin array ?
A general rule of thumb is that a Twin array can detect targets to a depth of 1 to 1.5 times the probe separation, depending on the size of the target. So for a 0.5m Twin array this is equal to 0.5m to 0.75m and for a 1.5m Twin array this is equal to 1.5m to 2.25m. If the surface is stony then the noise generated in the background response will reduce detection depth. Whilst use of a wider array enables greater detection depths, resolution of features is correspondingly reduced.
What is the difference between an RM15 and RM15-D ?
The RM15-D has an internal detector that can distinguish between the special NiMH battery pack provided and the alternative alkaline battery holder, thus preventing accidental charging of alkaline cells. From a surveying point of view they are identical in performance.
Geoplot
How does the upgrade of my Geoplot licence from 3.0 to 4.0 work ?
Only Geoplot licences protected with a USB dongle can be upgraded. We will email you a small executable program that will reprogram the dongle to allow it to run Geoplot 4.0.
Will an upgraded dongle be able to run Geoplot 3.0 and 4.0 ?
A USB dongle upgraded to run Geoplot 4.0 will also be able to run Geoplot 3.0 (on the appropriate operating system).
Will Geoplot 3 run on Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit systems ?
You will require a 32 bit version of Windows 7 or Vista to install and run Geoplot 3 - it will not install or run on 64 bit versions. If you have a 64 bit version of Windows 7 then consider creating a dual boot system with a 32 bit version of Windows such as XP. The Virtual PC2007 and XP Mode offered as part of 64 bit versions of Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise Windows 7 do not allow Geoplot to run due to problems with it's handing of USB devices. An alternative to Virtual PC2007 and XP Mode that has been used successfully by a customer is to install a copy of VMWare Workstation and then use a copy of XP in the virtual environment. This does give access to USB devices but does mean purchase of the additional software. VMWare Player is a free version that would appear to offer similar operation to the Workstation version but has not been found to work in initial tests. A version of Geoplot that will run on 64 bit systems is under development. For more information click on running Geoplot 3 on 64 bit Platforms.
How do I save higher quality graphics image in Geoplot 3 than the Save Graphic Plot method offers ?
With Geoplot version 3.00p onwards you can print to file. Using third party printer drivers allows you to save much higher quality graphics plots (eg bitmaps, jpgs, tiffs) than you would obtain using the normal Save Graphic Plot.
The printer driver we recommend is the open source program PDFCreator. This is normally used to create PDF files but it also allows you to create the following file formats: PDF, PNG, JPEG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, PS and EPS. PDFCreator is available at :
http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm
Download the file and install it as a new printer. Before launching Geoplot, set PDFCreator as the default printer and then go to Start, Programs, PDFCreator to display the Print Monitor form. Click on the File menu, Printer Options, to display the PDF Options screen. Click on TIFF under Formats and set the Resolotion to 300 or 600 dpi. This resolution will then be saved and applied to all grpahics formats in future. Click on Save, the options screen will disappear, then close the print monitor form. (Please note: do not check the 'Use Auto-Save' box under Program, Auto Save since the image will not then save. Also do not try to save and image to a network directory, or set up a default save path pointing to a network directory since the image will not be saved).
Now start Geoplot and display your graphic at a size that ensures it all displays on screen. For example a 400m x 400m composite will display at a size of 1/4. Select Page Setup from the File menu and ensure that Top and Left Margins are set to the minimum possible which is 1cm. Select Print from the File menu. This will display the Print Graphics form. Select Scaled Print Size and set the size according to what image size you require. For example setting size to 2000:1 would generate a 20cm square image from a 400m x 400m composite. However, Geoplot has minimum margins of 1cm so that size would be just too big for A4 paper and a size of say 2100:1 would be better which would generate a 19cm square plot. Alternatively you can choose larger paper size A3 at the next stage in the Advanced .... In the Paper/Quality tab. Deselect Print Plotting Parameters then click on OK.
This will display the printer as PDFCreator. Click on the Properties botton to set Layout and Paper Quality etc (You do NOT need to select Advanced... from the Paper/Quality tab since this just sets the PDF resolution, not the graphic resolution, unless you wish to change the paper size from A4 to A3 for example).
Click OK to print. If the chosen print size is too large an error message will tell you the plot is larger than the page width and you should select a smaller print size (larger ratio). If all is well, you will see the Printing in Progress message and a progress bar in the bottom left hand corner. Once the printing is finished the PDFCreator form will appear. Here you can change the Options again. Once you are happy with the settings click Save. A Save As form will appear and you will now have an opportunity of where to save the file and also the type of file that will be saved. By default a pdf file will be saved so change the lowest entry field to a tiff file and give the file a suitable name. Click OK and PDFCreator will then start to create that file - this may take a some time. If you have the View After Save option ticked on the PDFCreator form you may find Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or Microsoft Office Document Imaging will then display a copy of the image if installed on your system - close that view since you do not need it. The graphics file has now been created and you can now open it up in the graphics program of your choice - for example you can use Paint Shop Pro. Here you can select just the graphics image for your publishing requirements.
MSP25 and MSP40
How do you make a gradiometer take a reading at the same point as the centre of the MSP25 and MSP40 square array ?
The gradiometer does not in fact take a reading at the same point as the centre of the square array since the gradiometer is mounted about 0.875m in front of the centre of the MSP25 or MSP40 and will collect data displaced by this amount. Instead you use a Shift function provided with Geoplot to synchronise the positions of the composite data sets. The amount of shift required depends on the sample interval, for example if the gradiometer sample interval is 0.25m then the nearest shift to 0.875m will be given by a shift of +3, giving a positional error of 0.175m which is usually not large enough for concern. If you sample at 0.125m then the error is halved again. The Shift facility is only available on Geoplot version 3.00t onwards for USB dongles.
RM85
How does the cost of the RM85 compare with an RM15-D ?
Costs for the new RM85 resistance system are comparable to RM15-D systems, but with additional chargeable options such as GPS data logging. There are Basic and Advanced versions. An integral multiplexer option is available for either version, as well as a GPS data logging option for the Advanced version. It is possible to upgrade from Basic to Advanced or add a different option at a later date.
RM85 and Geoplot Compatibility
You can dump data from the RM85 in RM15(-D) format using either a USB or RS232 cable into Geoplot 3.0. However, to take full advantage of the higher USB and RS232 baud rates of the RM85, you will require Geoplot 4.0 which does support the RM85. Geoplot 4.0 does not currently download GPS referenced data but such data can be imported. Interim solutions are already available to download GPS data using HyperTerminal and Excel as intermediate steps for preparing the data for import.
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