Agratronix HST-1 Manuale utente

Operators Manual

Advanced Hay Tester

Moisture and temperature tester for baled

hay, haylage, straw, and silage

ENGLISH

DOCU-M0180

Thank you for choosing our new Advanced Hay Tester. It ensures quick and easy

measurement of moisture and temperature of baled hay, haylage, straw and silage.

Patent pending automatic bale density compensation allows it to determine how

dense the bale is and to adjust moisture results accordingly for improved accuracy.

Other user friendly features include offset calibration, temperature compensation,

automatic moisture result update each time the probe is pushed forward (patent

pending), memory holding up to 1000 readings for transfer to a PC via USB, and a

backlit display. High quality materials and robust stainless steel probe ensure

durability.

Read this manual carefully to learn how to operate this device correctly.

1 Package Contents

• Advanced Hay Tester

• Battery

• Operator’s manual

• USB cable

2 Part Locator

1 Battery plug

2 Handle

3 USB port

4 Keypad

5 Display

6 Probe shaft

7 Probe tip

3 Keypad and Display Symbols

Key functions change with the situation:

Power ON

Power OFF (long keypress)

Go to main menu or go back in a menu

eSelect

Alternate between temperature and moisture measurement

Navigate down or up in a menu

Select a different bale

pStart a measurement

Force a moisture measurement

Symbols at the bottom of the display indicate functions of the adjacent keys:

or Switch between temperature or moisture

measurement mode

Enter the menu

Select

Store to memory

Go back / up / down

Other display symbols:

Battery should be replaced

Malfunction. Remove the battery, wait a

short while and replace the battery. Power

on. If fault repeats, take a note of the error

code number displayed next to this symbol

and contact the manufacturer, Agratronix

Measurement memory is almost full.

See chapters 7 and 8 for instructions on

memory clearing

4 Before use

1. Check that the probe is dry and clean and that the device appears undamaged.

2. Install or change the battery as illustrated.

3. Power on by pressing the l key.

4. Congure device settings to suit your preferences, see chapter 5.

5. Run the quick calibration procedure (see chapter 9.2).

Pull battery plug out. Release battery by pressing

in and tilting up.

Insert a fresh battery (ob-

serve polarity)

Lock battery in its place by

pressing in and down

Replace the battery

plug

5 Settings

1. Power on by pressing the l key.

2. There is a menu symbol at the bottom left corner of the display. Enter the main

menu by pressing the l key located below it.

3. Use the arrow keys uor d, until “+SETTINGS” text is chosen (light text on back-

ground) and press the e key.

The setting menu contains the following settings:

• Display language selection

• Temperature unit selection (degrees of Fahrenheit or Celsius)

• Automatic power-off delay adjustment

• Averaging length for moisture measurement (= the number of most recent

moisture results to be calculated in the displayed average and high moisture

estimate)

• Display backlight brightness (NOTE: affects battery life)

• Display contrast (adjust this if it is difcult to read the display)

• Remaining battery capacity display

• Calibration. Quick calibration of moisture measurement (may improve

measurement accuracy). See chapter 9.2.

• Device information (this could be important upon communication with customer

service)

6 Usage

A large number of measurement results may be stored in the internal memory of

the device. You may store results for 64 different bales. Results are saved for the

calculation of average moisture and high moisture estimate and for saving on a

personal computer using the USB port. The type of each bale (e.g.hay or straw1) is

selected before measurement can start. You may choose not to store results in the

memory, but it is important to select the correct bale type to ensure proper

operation and accuracy.

Accurate measurement of moisture requires bale temperature to be known.

However, temperature measurement is much slower than moisture measurement,

as hay is a thermal insulator that very slowly warms up or cools down a strong

metal probe. Pushing into dense bales also warms up the probe due to friction.

Therefore, temperature should be measured separately, before moisture

measurement.

Power on by pressing the lkey. The tester will start with either moisture or

temperature measurement mode depending on which state it was previously. The

display will show the following information:

Temperature measurement display:

1The selection of bale types may change with geographical location and the

selection may grow with updates.

1. Bale number (= memory slot number)

2. Bale type

3. Result of the latest temperature measurement (”---F” or ”

---C”, if there is no result yet).

4. MIN: Lowest temperature stored in memory

5. MAX: Highest temperature stored in memory

6. MEM: Latest temperature stored in memory (NOTE: when

starting moisture measurement, this value may be chosen to

be used as bale temperature for temperature compensation

of moisture.

Moisture measurement display:

Switch between temperature or moisture measurement modes by pressing the ekey

under the (or ) symbol on display.

If you wish to change the bale to be measured, press one of the arrow keys uor dto

browse the bale list and the ekey to select a bale. Whenever you start to measure a

new bale, select a memory slot (bale) whose type has not yet been chosen, i.e. whose

type is listed as ”----”. Alternatively, you may choose to clear the bale memory in the

main menu (see chapter 7).

Press the yellow measurement key pto start the measurement.

6.1 Temperature Measurement

If you selected temperature measurement, current probe

temperature will now be continuously updated on the display.

You may store a temperature result to memory by pressing

the ekey located under the displayed symbol. The

stored result will then appear on display next to the word

”MEM” and the minimum (MIN) and maximum (MAX) stored

temperature readings will update accordingly and the

symbol will disappear from the screen.

To end temperature measurement, press the l key located

under the displayed symbol.

1. Bale number (= memory slot number)

2. Bale type

3. Result of latest moisture measurement (”---%”, if there is no

result yet, or e.g. <8% if bale was too dry to be measured or

e.g. >80% if bale was too wet to be measured.

5. HI: Estimate of the highest moisture inside the bale, based

on the stored values within the chosen averaging length.

6. n: Number of measurements used for calculation of aver-

age and high moisture estimate.

7. Moisture offset correction you have chosen for this bale

type as applied to the displayed result (this area is empty if

no offset correction has been set). See chapter 7.

8. Bale temperature as used for temperature compensation of

the displayed moisture result.

NOTE: This is NOT the current probe temperature.

Note: Temperature measurement settling time varies greatly with bale type. Wet and

dense gives faster settling than dry and light. Time after which 90% of temperature

change has been achieved ranges typically from 8 minutes with 60% haylage, to 30

minutes with 16% straw.

6.2 Moisture Measurement

Unless you have recently measured moisture of this bale, the meter will ask for bale

tem-perature before moisture measurement can start. There are up to 4 ways to give

the tem-perature, chosen by pressing the key drawn next to each option:

Measure bale temperature now. Remember

that it will take a long time for the probe

temperature to reach bale temperature.

Use the latest temperature value stored

in memory for this bale (only shown if

available).

Set temperature manually. The core tem-

perature of a large bale follows the average

ambient temperature with a delay of several

days to a couple of weeks unless a decom-

position process is heating up the bale.

Use temperature value previously used for

temperature compensation for this bale

(only shown if available).

6.3 Power Off

The tester is powered off by a long press of the red lkey.

Automatic shutdown feature will power off after a pre-set delay starting from

the latest keypress. The power-off delay may be adjusted in the settings menu.

7 Functions of the Main Menu

Enter the main menu by pressing the l key located under the displayed menu symbol

. Browse the menu using the arrow keys u or d and select a function by pressing

the ekey.

Some functions allow removal of large amounts of data from the memory. The tester will

ask to conrm these operations. In this case, press the ekey to continue or the l key

to cancel.

The tester asks you to push the probe into the bale. Hold the

tester by the handle only.

The tester estimates bale density during the push by measuring

push force and probe motion. It uses the density estimate to

improve accuracy of the moisture measurement.

Push at least 6 inches deep into the bale. Make sure that there

is at least 6 inches or hay around and in front of the probe tip.

After the push has stopped, moisture measurement will start

automatically.

NOTE: If the required push force is very low, the push may not

be detected. In this case, you may force measurement to start

by pressing the pkey. Density compensation will then assume

that the bale is very light.

Result will be shown on display after measurement. You may

choose to store the result by pressing the ekey located under

the displayed symbol. Average (AVG) and high moisture

estimate (HI) values will then update on display and the

symbol will disappear from the screen.

If you now push the probe deeper into the bale, moisture will be

measured again. You may also pull the probe out of the bale

and push it to another location.

When done probing the bale, exit moisture measurement by

pressing the lkey located under the displayed symbol.

Once bale type and bale temperature have been set, moisture measurement may start:

8 USB Data Transfer

Measurement results stored in memory may be transferred to a personal computer using

the USB port. Pull out the USB plug and use the supplied cable. Software required for

data transfer will be available on our web page at http://agratronix.com.

9 Cleaning and Maintenance

Store the tester in a dry place, protected from direct sunlight. Remove the battery

before long term storage. There are no user serviceable parts inside the device.

Do not remove the screws and open the unit.

MOIST.OFFSET The moisture display may be adjusted to match an oven

test or another reference method using the moisture offset

setting.

Once set, the offset correction will be applied to all moisture

measurements of the same type (e.g. all hay bales). The ad-

justment will not affect results previously stored to memory.

Use the arrow keys u or dto adjust the offset. You may

clear the offset by pressing the arrow keys u and dsimul-

taneously. Conrm your adjustment by pressing the e key

under the displayed symbol.

As a reminder, the offset will be displayed above the mois-

ture result on the moisture measurement screen in small

letters (e.g. OFFSET +0.6%). The offset will also be shown

upon bale selection.

NOTE: Offset correction will only work well fairly close to the

moisture where it was originally set. Therefore, if you apply

offset correction for wet haylage, please clear the offset

before measuring dry hay.

T-COMP. Set bale temperature for use in temperature compensation

of moisture measurement. See chapter 6.2.

+SETTINGS Enter the settings menu. See chapter 5

CLEAR AVG/HI Clears average and high moisture estimate for the currently

selected bale. All measurement results remain in memory.

Therefore, if you later increase averaging length in the set-

tings menu (see chapter 5), previous results will be included

in calculation again. If innite (∞) averaging length has been

selected, this function will not have an effect.

CLEAR BALE Clears the bale type of the currently selected bale and

erases all measurement results stored for this bale.

CLEAR ALL Clears the entire measurement memory. All moisture and

temperature results and bale type selections will be erased.

Indice

Altri manuali agratronix Apparecchiature di prova

agratronix

agratronix FARMEX DHT-1 Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix MT-PRO Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix Farmex GMT2 Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix Hay Core Sampler Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix BHT-2 Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix HT-PRO Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix WCT-2 Manuale utente

agratronix

agratronix MT-PRO+ Manuale utente

Manuali Apparecchiature di prova popolari di altre marche

SMART

SMART KANAAD SBT XTREME 3G Series Manuale utente

Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies BERT Serial Manuale utente

Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies N3280A Manuale utente

Vernier

Vernier Go Direct Voltage Manuale utente

Lifeloc

Lifeloc R.A.D.A.R. Manuale utente

Fluke

Fluke T5-600 Istruzioni per l'uso e l'installazione

Mercury

Mercury TSL01 Manuale utente

MAHA

MAHA MBT Series Manuale utente

Fuji Electric

Fuji Electric P-61 Manuale utente

ETC

ETC SealerAtor Manuale utente

Skyfine

Skyfine ETHYWAY V2 Manuale utente

Appion

Appion G5 Twin Manuale utente

PCB Piezotronics

PCB Piezotronics 8159-0112A Manuale utente

BW Technologies

BW Technologies MicroDock II Manuale utente

Sun Nuclear

Sun Nuclear 1027 Manuale utente

Biomark

Biomark HPR LITE READER Manuale utente

Hioki

Hioki 3169-20 Manuale utente

Ashcroft

Ashcroft ATE-100 Manuale utente

agratronix HST-1 Manuale utente

Manuali Apparecchiature di prova popolari di altre marche