Trouble with Your Ultrasonic Sensor?

As a youth, like many others, I enjoyed the not-so-occasional video game. One of the greatest features of any video game is the reset button. It gives you so much freedom to try again with no harm done.

Our ultrasonic sensors have a similar feature: the factory reset. This allows you to start over, and get things working properly. It’s a great troubleshooting tool when sensor readings are a little off.

You might ask yourself if something is wrong with your sensor, or if there are any environmental factors that have caused your readings to fluctuate. If changing a few parameters has only made things more confusing, the best way to start over is to reset the sensor to factory defaults.

Resetting the sensor is a good choice for two reasons:

1. Since the sensor is now programmed exactly as it was when it was shipped, you now have a good starting point to make parameter re-adjustments for your application.
2. You can easily test the sensor in the distance mode (default) to see if it is working properly. This can help you determine if the issue at hand is sensor related or caused by something in the application.

Hitting the “reset button” is easy. For the IRU series and the LPU-2428:

1. Connect the sensor and computer to the proper RST programming module and open the sensor’s programming software.
2. Click on the reset tab.

Controllers and sensors with programming keypads have a mode number setting for factory default.

• DCR-1003/1004 Controller:  Mode 49 set to yes.
• DCR-1005/1006 Controller:  Mode 41 set to 1
• DCU-1100 series sensor:  Mode 25 set to yes
• LPU-2127 sensor:  Mode 17 set to yes

Resetting the sensor is a great way to quickly troubleshoot your ultrasonic sensor. You can determine sensor functionality, re-adjust critical parameters, and get your sensor back on line as soon as possible.

Let us know if you still have questions, or if you continue to experience trouble with your ultrasonic level sensor. You can reach us by phone at (888) 525-7300, or send us an email to sales@apgsensors.com.