Guideline Geo WIDERANGE Utility Detection GPR User Manual Introduction som tex s4kmanualen
Mala GeoScience AB (publ) Utility Detection GPR Introduction som tex s4kmanualen
User Manual

Draft 
MALA EasyLocator 
WideRange    
Operating manual 
Version 1.0 
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Table of Contents 
_________________________________________________ 
1 Introduction  4 
1.1 Unpacking and Inspection  5 
1.2 Repacking and Shipping  5 
1.3 Limited Warranty and Liability  5 
1.4 Important information regarding the use of this MALA GPR unit  6 
2 Hardware and Start Up  7 
2.1 Hardware  7 
2.2 Start up  7 
3 Using the EasyLocator        
WideRange  10 
3.1 Surveying  13 
3.2 The settings menu  14 
4 EasyLocator WideRange
  specifications  16 

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1  Introduction   
__________________________________________________ 
Thank you for purchasing the EasyLocator WideRange. 
The  EasyLocator  series  of products  is  the  most  widely  used 
GPR-system for utility detection, world-wide. The WideRange 
is  the  latest  in  a  line  of  easy-to-use  tools  for  the  locating 
industry. It builds on its predecessors in terms of handling and 
user  interface  while  incorporating  the  latest  and  most  potent 
technology currently available.  
We  at  Malå  GeoScience  welcome  comments  from  you 
concerning the use and experience of this equipment, as well 
as the contents and usefulness of this manual. Please take the 
time to read through the assembling instructions carefully and 
address any questions or suggestions to the following: 
Main Office:  Subsidiary: 
Malå GeoScience  Malå GeoScience USA, Inc. 
Skolgatan 11  465 Deanna Lane      
S-930 70 Malå  Charleston, SC 29492                   
Sweden  USA   
Phone: +46 953 345 50  Phone:   +1-843 852 5021                 
Fax: +46 953 345 67  Fax:  +1-843 769 7397     
E-mail: sales@malags.se  E-mail: sales.usa@malags.se 
Technical support issues can be sent to: support@malags.se 
Information  about  MALÅ  GeoSciences  products  is  also 
available on Internet: http://www.malags.com 
Copyright© 2012 Malå Geoscience AB   
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1.1  Unpacking and Inspection 
Great  care  should  be  taken  when  unpacking  the  equipment. 
Be sure to  verify the contents shown on the  packing list and 
inspect the equipment for any loose parts or other damage. All 
packing  material  should  be  preserved  in  the  event  that  any 
damage  occurred  during  shipping.  Any  claims  for  shipping 
damage should be filed to the carrier. Any claims for missing 
equipment or parts should be filed with Mala GeoScience. 
1.2  Repacking and Shipping 
If  original  packing  materials  are  unavailable,  the  equipment 
should  be  packed  with  at  least  80  mm  of  shock-absorbing 
material. Do not use shredded fibres, paper wood, or wool, as 
these  materials  tend  to  get  compacted  during  shipment  and 
permit the instruments to move around inside the package. 
1.3  Limited Warranty and Liability 
Malå Geoscience warrants that, for a period of 12 months from the delivery 
date to the original purchaser, Malå Geoscience products will be free from 
defects in materials and workmanship. Except for the foregoing limited 
warranty,  Malå  Geoscience  disclaims  all  warranties,  express  or 
implied,  including  nay  warranty  of  merchantability  or  fitness  for  a 
particular  purpose.  Malå  Geoscience  will  repair  and  replace  parts  or 
equipment  which  are  returned  to  Malå  Geoscience,  transportation  and 
insurance pre-paid, without alteration or further damage, and which in Malå 
Geoscience´s  judgement,  were  defective  or  became  defective  during 
normal use.  
Malå Geoscience assumes no liability for any direct, indirect, special, 
incidental or consequential damages or injures caused by proper or 
improper  operation  of  its  equipment  or  software,  whether  or  not 
defective.  
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1.4   Important information regarding the use of 
this MALA GPR unit  
According to the regulations stated in ETSI EN 302 066-1 (European 
Telecommunication Standards Institute):  
- The CX unit should not be left ON when leaving the system unintended. It 
should always be turned OFF when not in use.  
- The antennas should point towards the ground, walls etc. during 
measurement and not towards the air.  
- The antennas should be kept in close proximity to the media under 
investigation.  
Canadian regulations states that whenever GPR-antennas are in use the 
following note apply:  
This Ground penetrating Radar device shall be operated only when in 
contact with or within 1 m of the ground. 
This Ground Penetrating Radar Device shall be used only by law 
enforcement agencies, scientific research institutes, commercial mining 
companies, construction companies and emergency rescue or firefighting 
organizations.  
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with part 15 of the 
FCC Rules. Malå GeoScience has not approved any changes or 
modifications to this device by the user. Any changes or modifications 
could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment. See 47 CFR Sec. 
15.21.  

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2  Hardware and Start Up 
__________________________________________________ 
2.1  Hardware 
The  EasyLocator  WideRange  is  a  bandwidth-extended  GPR 
system designed for use with the EasyLocator ProCart Wide. 
The main components are the UWB-transducer(antenna), the 
monitor the mechanical carrying system and the batteries. The 
system  is,  preferable  powered  with  one  battery  and  data 
communication between the GPR-transducer and the monitor 
is  managed  with  an  Ethernet  link  on  a  cable  which  carries 
power to the monitor as well.    
2.2  Start up  
Prior to surveying with the system the following easy steps 
should be followed. 
 Make sure that the battery is fully charged. The battery 
powers both the transducer and the monitor and is good 
for about 5 hour’s operation. 
 Connect the traducer to the battery by means with cable 
supplied, see picture below. 

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 Connect  the  Monitor  to  the  transducer  with  the  cable 
supplied, see picture below. 
 Press  and  release  the  button  the  GPR-transducer, 
shortly,  do  keep  it  pressed.  This  will  start  up the  unit; 
the LED’s on the panel will start to blink as well as the 
LED inside the button, see figure below. 
 Press  the  button  on  the  monitor;  it’ll  take  about  30 
seconds for the unit to start up. 

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After these simple steps the monitor will display the screen 
shown in figure below, and the system is ready for operation. 

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3 Using the EasyLocator 
WideRange 
The parts of the EasyLocator WideRange system are shipped 
separately. To get started unfold the ProCart, attach the EL 
Controller to the controller tray, attach the power/Ethernet 
cable, and mount the batteries in the battery bay (behind the 
red lid with the MALÅ logo)   
Once the unit is un-folded and started as described in previous 
paragraph,  operation  is  very  straight-forward  and  self-
explanatory,  some  details  will  be  described  in  the  following 
text. 
Referring to the start-up screen is shown in figure below, the 
area of the screen between the depth scales are reserved for 
data presentation, the lower portion for information about the 
ongoing survey and the right column are mainly for controlling 
the instrument trough the turn-push button.  
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Starting from the top-right: 
The yellow circle with a cross-hair is indicating the GPS-status; 
red  means  that  there’s  no  GPS  attached  or  no  satellites 
available,  yellow  means  normal  GPS  accuracy  (about  10m) 
and  green  means  that  the  unit  has  been  able  to  apply 
differential correction.  
The  scale  with  red,  yellow  and  green  indicates  the  battery 
status. It is divided into two black bars, since there’s an option 
of  using  a  separate  battery  for  the  transducer.  In  other 
respects, this scale is self-explanatory. 
The  Quit  button  is  also  self-explanatory,  press  on  this  and 
you’ll have the option for turning off the unit. Note that the unit 
should  always  be  turned  off  this  way,  since  just  pulling  the 
power cable may harm the internal memory of the unit. 
Pressing  the  “Start”  button  will  immediately  put  the  unit  into 
data collection mode and a radar image of the subsurface will 
start to display as soon as the unit is moved.   
The camera button enables the operator to save a jpeg image 
of the current screen for  later downloading to a  USB device. 
This is intended for documentation purposes.  
The  wrench  button  gives  possibility  to  change  some  of  the 
settings  controlling  the  data  collection  process  and  house-
keeping  functionality in  the  unit,  see  separate  section  of  this 
manual. 
The last 3 buttons controls filter to be applied on the data, prior 
to display, they are, top to down, background removal, contrast 
level  and  gain  function.  Pressing  the  push-turn  button  while 
turning it increases or decreases the strength of these filters, 
right-turn; increase and left-turn; decrease. 
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The bottom part of the screen shows some information about 
the ongoing survey. It’s self-explanatory except for the trigger-
type field. The trigger type field explains what controls the data 
acquisition,  there’s  three  different  types  of  control;  forward 
wheel,  backward  wheel  and  time  triggering.  Time  triggering 
means  that  the  unit  collects  data  with  certain  frequency, 
normally 10 to 20 Hz; it is to be used when surface conditions 
prohibit the use of a wheel. 

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3.1  Surveying  
When  a  survey  has  been  initiated  the  main  menu  changes, 
see figure below. Now the user may stop the survey, save a 
jpeg-image  of  the  current  screen  check  the  velocity  trough 
hyperbola fitting or save a GPS-marker on the current location. 
The radargram screen is  split in  two  – the  upper part shows 
the  high  frequency  part  of  the  data,  the  lower  the  low 
frequency part. 
An  important  feature  in  the  instrument  is  the  track-cursor 
pointed to by the red-arrow in the figure. This cursor will move 
with the system,  so that if  the unit  is moved  backwards, this 
cursor along with a vertical line will start to move back on the 
screen. This is the primary function used when locating buried 
targets. When the unit is pushed forward again, data collection 
will start when you reach the point where you started to move 
backward, not before. 

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3.2  The settings menu 
The settings menu is entered through the wrench button on the 
main menu; it is shown in figure below.  
Activating  the  green  text-fields,  but  turning  the  push-turn 
button,  and  then  depressing  it  gives  the  user  means  for 
changing  the  settings.  Below  the  different  options  are 
described. 
 -  Color, the user can switch between gray-scale and color 
scale for the displayed radar data. The vast majority of 
users  prefer  the  grey-scale,  since  there’s  no  natural 
interpretation of color for this type of data. It can actually 
be quite confusing. 
-  The  sun-symbol  is  for  setting  of  the  backlight  of  the 
screen,  default  is  100%.  By  lowering  this  parameter, 
battery-life can be extended by up to 1 hour. 

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-  Soil Type, is  defining which  ground velocity should  be 
used when converting reflections from a specific time to 
a depth to be shown on the scales. Note that this type 
of  instrument  actually  measures  time  of  flight  for 
electromagnetic waves, in ground. The depth displayed 
on the scales is estimations only. Variations in normal 
ground are between 80 to 120 meters/microseconds. A 
user must be aware of this fact. 
The  System  Parameters  sub-menu  is  not  accessible  for 
operators;  it  is  used  for  factory  calibrations,  service  centers 
during manufacturing and service/repair 
The other sub-menus are self-explanatory. Contact your local 
dealer if further information is needed.  
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4  EasyLocator WideRange specifications 
__________________________________________________ 
Useful Bandwidth    80-960 MHz 
Time window    > 250 ns 
Total weight incl. batteries  27 kg  
Power supply  12 V Li-ion rechargeable batteries 
Operating time  4 hours with standard batteries 
Operating temperature  -20 to + 50 0C   
Data acquisition  Wheel or time based 
Environmental   IP67 
Certifications:   ETSI, FCC (pending), ICC (pending) 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. 
Operation is subject to the following two conditions: 
1. This device may not cause harmful interference, and  
2. This device must accept any interference received, 
including interference that may cause undesired  
operation. 
Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the 
party responsible for compliance could void the user’s  
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authority to operate the equipment. 
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with 
the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part  
15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide 
reasonable protection against harmful interference in a  
residential installation. This equipment generates uses and 
can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed  
and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause 
harmful interference to radio communications. Howev 
- 
er, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a 
particular installation. If this equipment does cause  
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which 
can be determined by turning the equipment off and on,  
the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by 
one of the following measures: 
•  
Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna. 
•  
Increase the separation between the equipment and 
receiver. 
•  
Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different 
from that to which the receiver is connected. 
•  
Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for 
help. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
This Device complies with Industry Canada License-exempt 
RSS standard(s). Operation is subject to the following two 
conditions: 1) this device may not cause interference, and 2) 
this device must accept any interference, including 
interference that may cause undesired operation of the 
device.  
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Under Industry Canada regulations, this radio transmitter 
may only operate using an antenna of a type and maximum 
(or lesser) gain approved for the transmitter by Industry 
Canada. To reduce potential radio interference to  
other users, the antenna type and its gain should be so 
chosen that the equivalent isotropically radiated power  
(e.i.r.p.) is not more than that necessary for successful 
communication.