The TDR200 will replace the TDR100 as the reflectometer for our time-domain reflectometry (TDR) system. TDR systems accurately monitor soil volumetric water content, soil bulk electrical conductivity, rock mass deformation, slope stability, or user-specific time-domain measurements.
Improvements over the TDR100 will include more robust electrostatic discharge (ESD) and surge protection, lower power usage (about half the TDR100’s power usage), and smaller size. The TDR200 will also have an LED that indicates when it is communicating and a USB port for connecting to a PC.
Several new settings for the TDR200 will enable better measurements in noisy environments. These settings include:
- 50 Hz or 60 Hz rejection
- TDR filter level that reduces noise by applying a weighted moving average to the data points
- Choice of algorithm for calculating the TDR probe apparent length. The second-order bounded mean oscillation (BMO) algorithm is best for noisy environments and short probes.
PC-TDR version 3 will be released with the TDR200. This software supports system configuration, troubleshooting, waveform display, and program generation. The new version will also contain a calibration wizard that helps you:
- Calibrate TDR probes to eliminate any probe to probe variability
- Create probe-specific lengths and offsets for user-made probes
- Quickly determine the appropriate cable and window lengths of any probe
- Calibrate the electrical conductivity parameters (probe cell constant)
PC-TDR version 3 will be available, at no charge, from our website and included on the Resource DVD.
The TDR200 will be a drop-in replacement for the TDR100, allowing you to exchange the reflectometer without changing the datalogger, coaxial multiplexers, TDR probes, and programming. The many new features of the TDR200 and PC-TDR version 3 promise to benefit the many applications that use the TDR technology.
