Maintenance; Preventing Water From Entering The Enclosures; Battery Life; Replacing Batteries - Geokon GeoNet 8800 Series Instruction Manual

16 | MAINTENANCE | GEOKON
5.

MAINTENANCE

All GeoNet devices are designed to operate in field environments with minimal
upkeep; nevertheless, there are some basic maintenance procedures that should
be followed to ensure maximum reliability and functionality.

5.1 PREVENTING WATER FROM ENTERING THE ENCLOSURES

GeoNet devices are designed to be splash proof and rain proof, but are not
submersible.
GeoNet devices MUST be mounted vertically.
These units are sealed by a gasket preventing water entry, so long as the screws
that hold the lid in place are properly tightened and the gasket inside the lid is
properly aligned. It is also very important to ensure that all the cable fittings are
securely tightened. Models that feature a 10-pin connector are equipped with a
watertight cap, which must be installed when the connector is not in use.
Despite these precautions, the nodes may encounter leakage along the cable if
the cable is cut, or if the unit is installed in an especially humid environment. In
this type of environment,
GEOKON
be replaced at intervals to prevent condensation from corroding or shorting out
the internal electronics.

5.2 BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is affected by the quantity and physical configuration of the nodes,
along with weather conditions and the radio environment (as related to retries).
Nodes that are the only communication link between other nodes and the
supervisor will have a shorter battery life than those that have no routing
responsibility.
Table 7 below shows an estimate of battery life in a network of fewer than 20
nodes based on the number of readings collected and forwarded to the
supervisor. More than 1,000 days of battery life are possible when using a scan
rate of one hour or higher, with only one hop. A more frequent scan rate will
reduce this estimate. If greater battery life is needed, a 12-volt nominal input is
available from .
GEOKON
Readings Transmitted
Radio Cycles
Scan Rates (minutes)
12
20
30
60

TABLE 7: Battery Life Estimates

5.3 REPLACING BATTERIES

The network must be put into deployment mode prior to replacing the batteries
in the supervisor. This is also best practice when replacing batteries in nodes.
Replace D cell batteries when their measured voltage drops below 2.0 VDC.
Replace external 12-volt batteries when the measured voltage drops below 11
VDC.
recommends that the internal desiccant packs
7: Alkaline
25,000
500,000
Days
208
347
521
1042
Lithium
70,000
1,400,000
Days
583
972
1458
2915