Studies on the Intelligent Neutron Moisture Gauge
Gao Guozh · Jiangsu nongye xuebao · 1994
The hardware and software designs for the Neutron Soil Moisture Gauge are described.The instrument can be used to measure the moisture content in soils,aggregates, and other similar materials. It contains a microprocessor with which the moisture content can be measured and displayed directly. The display type can be in volume percent, weight or count ratio. In the hardware design, the integrated circuits of 80c31, 82c55,27c64, 6264 and others were used as a simple and practical computer system.The instrument uses the liquid crystal display.It shows accumulated counts and computed results. Six callberation equations are programmed into the gauge with the offset correction. The users may alter the values of intercepts or slopes of the offset lines, depending on the materials used. If desired, the instrument can record soil moisture at 20 depths within a tube throughout the root zone or deeper,a measurement at each depth lasting 8 seconds. The range of data storage is 90 tubes multiplied by 20 depths, equal to 1800 records. All the measured data can easily be called from the memory and then be printed through a standard RS 232 interface in a regular form.