Support for Instantel Vibration Monitoring Seismographs

Call or Email us if you Need Support for your Instantel Seismograph.  Follow our Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest support questions and answers.

If you need remote vibration monitoring with email or text alerts for your Instantel seismograph, we have the expertise, equipment and support to get you started.  Whether you have one or hundreds of seismographs, our technology and experience can help you to manage your fleet.  If you already own equipment and you’re looking for someone to make it more reliable, our experts can help.

Submitting a Repair or Calibration Request RMA

Seismograph Calibration is important to ensure the instrument is performing as it was designed to, and accurately measures the true ground vibration and air overpressure. The recommended interval for calibration of most measuring equipment including seismographs is one year.  Read more about calibrating sensors with this pdf guide.  

Calibrations and Repair RMAs (return authorizations) can be requested through email by providing us with the unit serial number, shipping and billing addresses.  If you prefer to manage this yourself, you have the benefit of tracking the progress as well as downloading calibration certificates.  You can schedule service from this link.

General Troubleshooting and Support Information:Instantel Remote Monitoring Seismographs

All Dr Walter Powercase rentals include Instantel Micromates with modems.  They are preconfigured as a turn-key system.  They are pre-set to communicate with our Auto Call Home™ server which includes security, backups, verified email delivery.  If you’re looking for answers to general operating procedures, a good place to start is with the documentation listed below.

Documentation:

  1. User Guides:
    1. Software Userguides: Blastware  or Thor
    2. Minimate Plus Userguide
    3. Micromate Userguide

2. DRW Associates Youtube Pages

  1. Geophone Installation – Burial Method
  2. Powercase Setup

Battery Support:

The most common problem you’ll encounter after adding a modem to your vibration monitoring site is a weak battery.  If your monitoring site lacks AC power, you can use a large deep cycle battery and you’ll get approx. 30 days of 24/7 online monitoring, and an additional week of offline monitoring with the internal battery reserve.  Adding a solar panel will extend your monitoring year round.  Please contact us for recommendations.

If you already own a modem and seismograph, we can help you make sure that you’re utilizing all of the modem’s power saving features. You’ll want to make sure that your optimizing signal strength with an antenna that’s designed and properly positioned for the monitoring location and box type. One common power consuming mistake is installing an antenna on the inside of a steel enclosure.  Monopole magmount antennas should be installed on top, pointing vertically.  If security is an issue, a lower profile antenna may be a better option.

Monitoring locations often have limited power or communications options.  We suggest that you perform a site-survey to determine adequate signal and power.  This Verizon 4g coverage map shows the signal strength at your project site.

Rental Equipment Recommendations:

If you need long term remote monitoring and you don’t want to swap batteries regularly, we will customize a rental package for you.  The Powercase works best for most projects and is our standard rental option because may be moving the equipment or if you’re not certain of the exact installation locations.  It’s perfect for indoor or outdoor year round vibration and sound monitoring and it gives you the ability to easily move the equipment.  If your monitoring site is not secure, we recommend a DIY job box.  Its easy to add batteries, solar panels and secure the equipment .

We will guide you through the entire setup process and answer any questions you may have.  Since our rentals are completely turn-key, we determine the best equipment for your location and time of year.  You won’t have to worry about your notifications ending up in a spam folder, or waiting hours to receive a text message.  Our experts ensure that we have the most reliable remote monitoring system available.

Whether you’re using our rental equipment or you’ve purchased your own, Email and Text notifications and automatic backups are included with our remote monitoring package for Instantel Minimate Plus™, Blastmate III, and Powercase with Instantel Micromate™.

Troubleshooting the Micromate Schedule:

This post goes into detail on the Micromate schedule.  More information is available in the documentation as well.

Testing Auto Call Home:

This post goes into detail on how to get your Instantel Micromate to call home.

  1. If you have any other support questions, please give us a call or send us an email.