ACIN FlowFinder mk2 User manual

Rijswijk
@awsrijswijk
®
FlowFinder
MK
made in holland
Look at www.acin.nl for more information
tel: [phone] Ifax: [phone] Iemail:www.acin.nl I web: www.acin.nl
MANUAL
The FlowFinder mk2® is the successor of the well known FlowFinder 153, which has
proven itself as the benchmark for air ow measurements to balance mechanical air
supply and exhaust systems. The new FlowFinder mk2® is fully zero pressure compensated
in the range 10 to 550 m m3/hr (6 to 323cfm) and has a calculated compensation for its
resistance up to 850 m3/hr (500cfm).
“VALIDATING AND ADJUSTING VENTILATION SYSTEMS”
●Large range (10 to 850 m3/hr or 6 to
500cfm, supply and exhaust)
●Light and easy to handle
●Short measuring cycle
●With full battery 8 hours of
measurement (at ows < 100m3/hr)
●High accuracy
●Ventilation systems, also with low terminal
resistance
●Small air volumes
●Heat exchange units
●Natural ventilation
●Line and large diusers (with optional hoods or
by adding measurements)
Standard equipment:
●Battery charger
●Transport case
●User manual
●Calibration certicate
(traceable to primary standards)
●MicroSD card with USB and
SD adapter.
Options:
●Foldable hood 600 x 600mm
●Non-foldable hood 400 x 400mm
●Extra battery pack
Characteristics Applications
The new standard for air-balancing

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Despite the fact that this manual has been carefully put together by ACIN instrumenten bv, no responsibility is accepted for
any errors in the manual and possible consequences. We are obviously very interested in your comments and addions.
No part of this publicaon may be reproduced and / or published by print, photocopy, microlm or any other method
without prior wrien permission of ACIN instrumenten bv.
CONTENTS
1. PARTS OF THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 4
2. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 4
3. REMOVING AND CHARGING OF THE BATTERY PACK 5
4. SWITCHING ON OF THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 5
5. THE DISPLAY IN MEASURING MODE 6
6. DEFAULT SETTINGS 6
7. USING THE HOODS 7
8. MEASURING WITH THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 8
9. ADDING OF MEASUREMENTS 9
10. STORING THE DATA 9
11. PROCESSING THE STORED DATA 10
12. PROCESSING THE DATA IN EXCEL 11
13. NAMING THE DATA STORAGE LABELS 12
14. EMERGENCY STOP 12
15. SWITCHING OFF OF THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 12
16. STORING THE FLOWFINDER MK2® 12
17. CALIBRATION 12
18. NOTES 13

6
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5
4
5
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7
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2. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE FLOWFINDER MK2®
SPECIFICATIONS FF MK2
Air ow range (supply and exhaust) 10..550 m³/uur with zero pressure compensaon
551..850 m³/uur with calculated compensaon
Air temperature range -20..+80oC
Uncertainty (@ 20°C) * 3% of the reading, with a minimum of 3 m³/hr
Repeatability beer than 1%, with a minimum of 3 m³/hr
Resoluon 1 m³/hr, 0.1cfm, 0.1l/s
RV range 0..100%
Full charge capacity 8 hours
Weight 2230 gram baery pack included
Dimensions FlowFindermk2 ø 260 x 350mm
Use the packing list to verify all
elements of the FlowFinder mk2® are
present. Avoid liing the FlowFinder mk2®
while holding onto a hood.
* Uncertainty is dened as the square root of the sum of the squares of non-lineairity, hysteresis and repeatability.
1. PARTS OF THE FLOWFINDERMK2
1. FlowFinder mk2® with display
2. Transport case (with key)
3. Baery pack (mounted onto the
FlowFinder mk2®, or stored in the case)
4. Baery charger
5. Hood 230x230x145mm
6. Hood 600x600mm (oponal)
7. MicroSD card, USB adapter, SD adapter

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3. REMOVING AND CHARGING
OF THE BATTERY PACK
4. SWITCHING ON OF THE
FLOWFINDER MK2®
There are two measuring modes:
‘Validate’ and ‘Adjust’. In validate mode
the FF decides when it is ready with a
measurement. The measured value will
be displayed only when the FF is ready.
In adjust mode, aer pushing the red
buon, a measured value is displayed
connuously. One can then adjust the
venlaon system while measuring.
Important:
When the FlowFinder mk2® is stored away for a longer period of me one should store the baery pack
separately, aer having it charged rst. Extra baery packs can be ordered from ACIN.
The baery pack has to be removed from
the FlowFinder mk2® before the charger
can be connected. While charging, the
colour of the LED indicates the status.
The baery pack has to be removed from the FlowFinder mk2® before the charger can be connected. While
charging, the colour of the LED indicates the status.
yellow : no baery pack connected
orange : fast charging
green-yellow : top of charging
green : trickle charging
orange-green : ERROR

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5. THE DISPLAY IN MEASURING
MODE
The display in measuring mode shows a
number of parameters
Below the unit of ow is a bar that during a measurement will ll up in green, the length of the green bar
is proporonal to the airow.
1. me
2. date
3. USB connected: yes/no
4. status baery pack
5. pressure dierence ΔP in Pascal to
be compensated
6. temperature in °C of °F
7. relave humidity RH in %
8. measured ow in l/s, m³/u of CFM
When the FlowFinder mk2® is in rest and in measuring mode, you will nd below this bar a:
On the sides of the display there are a slot for a micro SD card, a mini USB port and a programming cable.
At this moment the SD card and the USB port cannot be used yet.
1. blinking ‘0’ : this means that the FF has been set to adjust
2. ‘- - -‘ : this means that the FF has been set to validate
6. DEFAULT SETTINGS
Press the white arrow in the right upper corner of the starng screen to go to Start Menu.
Choose Opons
This screen allows for the sengs to be changed. Once you are ready these sengs will be stored as the
default sengs.
1. Choose language Nederlands or English
2. Choose Units
3. Choose the unit of temperature: Celcius or Fahrenheit
4. Choose the unit for ow: l/s, m³/u or CFM

6. Set the Date:
6.1 Press date
6.2 Enter the year (yyyy)
6.3 OK
6.4 Enter the month (mm)
6.5 OK
6.6 Enter the day (dd)
6.7 OK
7. Set the Time:
7.1 Press me
7.2 Enter the hour (0 tot 23)
7.3 OK
7.4 Enter the minutes
7.5 OK
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Leave this menu by pressing the white arrow again. The Opons menu appears again.
5. Choose Validate or Adjust as default start up measurement of the FlowFinder mk2®
Leave the Opons menu by pressing the white ‘return’ arrow. The
Start Menu appears. From the Start Menu the FlowFinder mk2® will
go into measuring mode by touching ‘validate’ or ‘adjust’.
Preferably, the FlowFinder mk2® is used with at least the
straight hood, certainly for most supply grilles. If space
is limited certainly exhaust can be measured without a
hood.
The straight hood is placed on top of the housing and is
hold in place by pulling the O-rings over the lile black
knobs.
The same procedure can be used to mount the
600x600mm foldable hood.
For ows above 103CFM it is assumed that the
600x600mm hood is used.
Avoid liing the FlowFinder mk2® just using the hoods.
7. USING THE STRAIGHT HOOD 230X230X145mm AND
THE HOOD 600X600mm

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8. MEASURING WITH THE FLOWFINDER MK2®
The FlowFinder mk2® has two measuring modes. The so-called
‘validaon mode’ and the ‘adjustment mode’. In the opons
menu one of these modes can be set as default. At start up the FF-
mk2 will be ready to measure in the default mode.
The measuring mode can be recognized by the red blinking ‘0’
(adjustment mode) or the ‘- - -‘ (validaon mode).
In validaon mode the FF-mk2 a measurement starts by pushing the red buon (behind the le knob).
The FF-mk2 decides when the measurement is ready, normally within 10 to 15 seconds. It will display the
measurement result which then can be stored by touching ‘store’.
In adjustment mode the FF-mk2 a measurement starts by pushing the red buon. The blinking number
turns green and will change depending on the air ow volume. The measurement will only stop aer the
red buon is pushed again. This way you can adjust the diuser or valve to the desired air ow. You may
take down the FF-mk2 to adjust the valve. Wait long enough unl a more or less stable reading is reached,
also aer placing the FF-mk2 back again. Always stop and start again when going from one measuring
locaon to another. The measuring result can’t be stored.
Switching between modes: push the ‘return’ buon in the right upper corner. Then you can select either
‘validate’ or ‘adjust’. To change the default mode you have to go to the opons menu.
To do a measurement, hold the FlowFinder mk2® by the le and right round handles and place the
instrument over the outlet or inlet you want to measure. Make sure to make a ght connecon by
pushing enough to avoid measuring secondary air.
Press the red buon behind the le knob shortly in order to start the measurement.
In validaon mode the text “compensang pressure” will appear, aer a few seconds followed by ”mea-
suring”. Also an arrow will appear on the boom of the display, indicang the direcon of the ow.
Aer approximately 10 seconds the result of the measurement will appear, expressed in l/s, m³/u of CFM.
In adjustment mode the colour of the blinking number will turn green and change unl it reaches the air
ow amount.
As a consequence of variaons in the venlaon system itself and to lower the total uncertainty,
we advise to repeat the measurement 2 or 3 mes shortly aer each other.
A new measurement can be started by pressing the red buon.
Best is to wait unl the venlator in the FF has come to a rest (at low ows) or runs at its non-zero
pressure compensated speed as dictated by the ow.

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9. ADDING OF MEASUREMENTS
10. STORING THE DATA
Thanks to the zero pressure compensaon of the FlowFinder mk2®, it is possible to measure the air ow
at part of the diuser. Because the FlowFinder mk2® acvely compensates its own resistance, the ow
through the other (free) part of the diuser will not or hardly be inuenced.
As an example, the ow through a line diuser can be measured by moving the FF across the diuser
evenly aer every measurement, and adding each measured value.
1. Execute a measurement in ‘Validate’
mode as described in chapter 8
2. Aer the measurement is ready the re-
sult will appear together with a buon
‘Store’
3. Touch ‘Store’
4. Now a screen with 8 buons will show.
The text in the buons can be dened
by the user.
5. Select one of the opons and a
numerical keypad will show
6. Here you can add a 4-digit numerical
idener to the record of this measure-
ment. This number
can be a house number or some num-
ber from a plan or some clever combi-
naon. You are free to
design your own data-id system.
7. Aer touching ‘ok’ the display will re-
turn to the measuring mode

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6. Now you should see a list of text les with the name format yyyymmdd (year month day).
The le names.txt will be discussed further down
7. An example of the data format is given below.
11. PROCESSING THE STORED DATA
1. Turn o the FF-mk2®
2. Remove the micro-SD card by pushing on it and then releasing it
3. Either the SD adapter or the USB adapter can be used to connect to your computer
4. Aer inserng the card, a screen ‘Automac…’ will pop up.
5. Select ‘Show maps and les’

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12. PROCESSING THE DATA IN EXCEL
1. Turn o the FF-mk2®
2. Remove the micro-SD card by pushing on it and then releasing it
3. Either the SD adapter or the USB adapter can be used to connect to your computer
4. When inserted a screen ‘Automac…’ will pop up. Ignore this screen or click cancel.
5. Open Excel
6. Select ‘Data’, ‘From text’
7. The Wizard ‘Import text’ will be acvated
8. Select the data le and ‘next’
9. Select ‘; ‘ as separator and ‘Connue’
10. The data are now ready for further processing and reporng