Dylos DC1700 User manual

DC1700 Air Quality Monitor
DYLOS CORPORATION
Air Quality Monitoring Innovation
US Patent 8009290
Foreign Patent Pending
User Manual

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................... 1
Important Safety Instructions.................................................... 1
For Best Performance............................................................... 2
Health Disclaimer...................................................................... 2
Operation ...................................................................................... 3
Operating Modes...................................................................... 5
overview 5
continuous mode 5
monitor mode 7
minute history mode 7
hour history mode 9
day history mode 10
Date time mode 11
clear history mode 13
Internal Memory...................................................................... 14
PC Interface............................................................................ 15
Connecting the DC1700 15
Using terminal software 15
Battery Operation.................................................................... 19
Interpreting the data.................................................................... 20
Care and Maintenance................................................................ 21
Troubleshooting Guide................................................................ 22
Notices ........................................................................................ 23
FCC......................................................................................... 23
FDA......................................................................................... 23
Warranty...................................................................................... 24

1
Introduction
Important Safety Instructions
1. Read and keep these instructions.
2. Follow all warnings and instructions.
3. Do not attempt to open or disassemble the device. This
may result in risk of shock or exposure to laser radiation.
No serviceable parts are inside.
4. Do not use this device near water, such as a sink, wash
basin, or bathtub.
5. Do not spill any liquids onto or into the device.
6. Do not push any objects into the openings of this device.
7. Do not use any liquid or spray cleaners on the device.
Clean only with dry cloth.
8. Do not install or operate near any source of heat.
9. Operate the device only with the provided AC adaptor
connected to a power outlet of the specified rating.
10. Unplug the device and return it for service if any of the
following conditions occur.
A. The power cord and or AC adaptor has been damaged.
B. The device has had water or another liquid spilled on or
into it.
C. The device has been dropped or physically damaged.
D. The device ceases to function properly.

2
For Best Performance
1. In addition to following all the above safety precautions, it
is recommended that the DC1700 not be installed near
devices which might produce a strong electromagnetic
field, such as fluorescent lighting, as these may affect the
count accuracy. In most cases a separation of one to
several feet should be sufficient to prevent any
interference.
2. It is recommended that the DC1700 not be operated in
direct sunlight or other bright light source as this could
affect count accuracy.
3. Install the DC1700 at a location and height in the room
where you want to test the air quality. Be aware that
particulate concentrations can vary dramatically from one
location to another within the same house.
Health Disclaimer
While the DC1700 can detect levels of airborne particulates it
cannot determine the health impact for any given individual.
Respiratory ailments and allergic symptoms are caused by a
variety of factors. The DC1700 is not meant to be used in the
treatment or mitigation of any medical condition. Please consult
your physician

3
Operation
Getting started with the DC1700 is simple. Just plug it in and turn
it on. First, plug the AC adaptor provided with the unit into a
120V/60Hz wall outlet. Next, connect the AC adaptor to the
DC1700 as shown in the figure. Turn the DC1700 on by pressing
the ON/OFF switch and the unit will start sampling.
The DC1700 also has an internal 7.2V NiMH battery which can
provide up to 6 hours of operation. To charge the internal battery,
plug the DC1700 into AC, but don’t turn the unit on. (Note: It may
take 12 or more hours to charge a fully discharged battery)

4

5
Operating Modes
overview
The DC1700 has several operating modes. The user can cycle
through the various modes by pressing the MODE button.
Selections within a mode, such as viewing history data, are made
by pressing the SELECT button. In the various modes the
DC1700 will display both the small particle concentration and
large particle concentration. Small particle concentration is
always displayed to the left and large particle concentration to the
right. Small particles are all particles detected by the DC1700
down to its detection limit –0.5 microns. Large particles are all
particles detected above the large particle threshold which is
approximately 2.5 microns. (Note: to determine the particles
between 0.5 microns and 2.5 microns simply subtract the large
particle reading from the small particle reading) The values are
scaled so that these represent the concentration of particles in
approximately .01 cubic foot of sampled air. Thus, to determine
the number of particles per cubic foot of air simply multiply the
DC1700 readings by 100. Examples of particles that might be
present in the typical home in these ranges are:
small particles: fine dust, bacteria, mold, smoke, smog, etc.
large particles: coarse dust, pollens, larger bacteria, plant
spores, dust mite feces, etc.
continuous mode
The DC1700 is simple to operate. All that needs to be done is to
plug the unit in and turn it on. Once turned on the unit will
automatically configure itself to run in continuous mode and
display the current level of particulate pollution for both small and
large particles. The data sampled will also be recorded for future

6
analysis. In addition, a dynamic bar graph will be displayed which
will give the user an immediate visual indicator of the number and
size of particles being detected.
When continuous mode is first entered it will briefly display the
approximate battery charge state provided that the unit is running
on battery and not on AC as shown below.
After 2 seconds the display will change to give the particle
concentrations as shown.
continuous mode
BATTERY [ ]+
State of charge
753 38

small particles
large particles
dynamic bar graph
smaller larger 

7
monitor mode
In monitor mode the DC1700 will sample for one minute every
hour. The LCD will display “monitor mode” and wait until the next
hour break to begin sampling. When the unit starts sampling the
fan will come on and the word “sampling” will flash on the second
line of the LCD. At the end of the minute, the concentration of
small and large particles just sampled will be displayed as shown
in the figure
minute history mode
Minute history mode allows the user to view the data recorded
over the past hour on a minute by minute basis. When minute
history mode is entered by pressing the MODE button while in
monitor mode, the following message is displayed briefly.
minute history
monitor mode
178 15
small particles
large particles

8
Then the user is instructed to press the SELECT button to start
viewing the history data.
Pressing SELECT will show a display similar to the following. The
first line displays the time at which the data was recorded and the
second line shows the average concentration of small and large
particle over that minute. Pressing SELECT additional times will
allow the user to go back through the recorded data one minute at
a time.
It may happen that instead of the particle concentration the
messages “NO DATA” or “TIME BREAK” are displayed. The
message “NO DATA” means that no sampling data was recorded
at that period in time. The message “TIME BREAK” alerts the
user that the displayed times past the time break are no longer
accurate. This happens if the DC1700 is unplugged which
causes the unit to lose track of time. Note: the stored data is not
lost but only the time reference from the present. Turning the unit
on and off does not effect the time as the internal clock keeps
running.
1 MIN AGO
328 24
small particles
large particles
PRESS SELECT TO
VIEW HISTORY

9
hour history mode
Hour history mode allows the user to view the data recorded over
the past day on an hour by hour basis. When hour history mode
is entered by pressing the MODE button while in minute history
mode, the following message is displayed briefly.
Then the user is instructed to press the SELECT button to start
viewing the history data.
As in minute history mode, pressing SELECT will allow the user to
go back through the recorded data. The data represents the
average of the concentration over the entire hour. The following
is a typical display.
PRESS SELECT TO
VIEW HISTORY
hour history

10
day history mode
Day history mode allows the user to view the data recorded over
the past month on a day by day basis. When day history mode is
entered by pressing the MODE button while in hour history mode,
the following message is displayed briefly.
Followed by.
PRESS SELECT TO
VIEW HISTORY
day history
3 HOURS AGO
328 24
small particles
large particles

11
As in the other history mode, pressing SELECT will allow the user
to go back through the recorded data. The data represents the
average of the concentration over the entire day. The following is
a typical display.
Date time mode
Date time mode displays the current date and time (in 24hr time)
and allows the user to set the internal clock. The internal clock is
used to time stamp the data which is stored in the DC1700’s
internal memory. This is to facilitate graphing the data (e.g. using
Excel) once it has been downloaded into a PC. See the PC
Interface and Internal memory sections for more details. When
date time mode is entered the date and time will be displayed as
follows for approximately 2 seconds.
date time mode
05/04/10 15:14
1 DAY AGO
388 27
small particles
large particles

12
Followed by.
If SELECT is pressed then the following instructions will be briefly
displayed.
Followed by.
Use the SELECT button to advance the month to the proper
month. Then press MODE to set the month to this value and
advance the arrows to the day. Repeat this procedure until the
day, year, hour, and minute have been set properly. The final
press of the MODE button will store these values into the DC1700
internal clock. The mode will then be automatically advanced to
the clear history mode.
05/04/10 15:14
^^
SELECT = CHANGE
MODE = SET
PRESS SELECT TO
CHANGE TIME

13
clear history mode
Clear history mode allows the user to clear all minute, hour, and
day histories from internal memory. When clear history mode is
entered by pressing the MODE button while in day history mode,
the following message is displayed briefly.
Followed by.
If SELECT is pressed while this is displayed then the histories will
be cleared and the following message briefly displayed.
After the histories are cleared the DC1700 automatically switches
into continuous mode. If the user opts to not clear history then he
must press MODE instead of SELECT and the unit returns to
continuous mode.
history cleared
PRESS SELECT TO
CLEAR HISTORY
clear history?

14
Internal Memory
In addition to the history memory described previously, the
DC1700 large internal memory for the storage of particle data.
This internal memory can store up to approximately a week of
data when sampling continuously. The DC1700 stores these
readings every minute when sampling. The data stored in
memory is the same as the data displayed on the DC1700 and
represents the average of the particle concentration over the
previous minute. This amounts to about 10,000 individual
readings. When the memory becomes full the DC1700 simply
overwrites the oldest samples so that the most current data
samples are always retained. The internal memory is cleared at
the same time as the minute, hour, and day histories by using the
clear history mode. The internal memory can only be accessed
by using the PC interface. When the user downloads the internal
memory to the PC the data will be time stamped to allow graphs
to be created showing the particle concentration versus time.
See the PC Interface section for more details.

15
PC Interface
Connecting the DC1700
The DC1700 is equipped with a 9 pin which allows
communication with a PC. This interface provides two basic
capabilities –to download the DC1700's internal memory or to log
data live as it is being taken by the DC1700. If you have an older
PC which is equipped with a COM port then you can connect the
DC1700 directly to the PC using a 9 pin serial extension cable.
Customers must supply their own cable. If your PC does not
have a COM port then you must connect using a USB to COM
port adapter cable. Customers must supply their own cable.
You must install the drivers that came with your adapter
cable. This driver will either be on the CD which came with the
cable or must be downloaded off the cable manufacturer’s web
site. If the downloaded driver is in a zip file then extract those files
to a working folder before installing. This driver will create a
virtual COM port on your PC which is the COM Port you must
select when communicating with the DC1700. After the driver
for the cable has been installed on your PC then plug the cable
into any available USB port and connect the other end to the
DC1700.
Using terminal software
To transfer data over the COM port connection you must use
terminal software. On XP or earlier computers HyperTerminal
comes with the operating system. On Vista or later computers
another terminal program such as Putty must be used. The setup
parameters for any terminal program are as follows:
9600 baud
8 bits
no parity
1 stop bit
no flow control

16
You must connect the cable between the DC1700 and the PC.
Then start the terminal program.
On Windows XP, first open HyperTerminal by going to START->All
Programs-> Accessories->Communications-> HyperTerminal.
When you open HyperTerminal you will be prompted to name a
new connection. Name the new connection, for example
“DC1700 terminal” and click OK. Next a menu screen “Connect
To” will appear. Select your COM port using the “connect using”
menu and click OK. Next you will have the Port Settings menu.
Setup the COM port for 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, one stop, and
no flow control. Click Ok. At this point you should be connected
to the DC1700. If the DC1700 is on and sampling then the counts
should be output every minute and appear in the HyperTerminal
window. If you desire to save this information to a file then you
set up HyperTerminal to capture the incoming text. To do this
select Transfer->Capture Text from within HyperTerminal and you
will be prompted to name a file. Name your file and click START.
All incoming data from the DC1700 will be captured and logged to
this file. To stop logging data select Transfer->Capture Text->
Stop.
Once HyperTerminal has been setup and you have named your
new connection you do not have to repeat the setup again. Just
open your named connection. Also, when using HyperTerminal
be aware that the connection to the DC1700 can be disconnected
and reconnected. You can check to make sure you are
connected by clicking the Call menu –if Disconnect appears as
an option then you are connected. If Call appears as an option
then you need to click Call to reconnect.
If you are using Windows Vista then you must do a little extra
work as Microsoft decided to no longer ship HyperTerminal as
part of Windows. You can still download HyperTerminal from
www.hilgraeve.com but there may be a charge for doing this.
Another alternative is to use Putty. This can be downloaded for
free from a number of sites including here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.htm
l

17
With Putty the setup parameters are the same as HyperTerminal.
First, open and run Putty. On the left hand side of the Putty
Configuration screen the setup categories are displayed. Click on
“Serial” and set the parameters to the values given above. Be
sure you have selected the correct COM Port at this point. Then
click the “Session” category on the left hand of the screen and
then select the ‘Serial’ radio button on the right hand side of the
screen. The correct COM Port and baud rate should appear. To
select a file to capture data to click on the “Logging” category on
the left hand side of the screen. Then select the “All session
output” and “Always append to the end of it“ buttons. Then click
“Browse“ button and select the file name and location of the file
you want data logged to. Then, if you want to save these settings
to so that they can be reloaded later, click the “Session“ category
on the left hand side of the screen and enter a name for the
session, such as, Dylos DC1700, and then click “Save“. You can
now recall this setup for future sessions. Click Open and the
Putty terminal will open - it works similar to HyperTerminal.
The serial output format is small counts, comma, large counts,
carriage return, line feed:
Example:
675,19<CR><LF>
This data is output every minute and the counts represent the
average concentration over the past minute. The units are –
counts/100 per cubic foot. In the above example, the output of
675 would mean the average concentration over the past minute
was 67,500 particles per cubic foot.
Now, from either HyperTerminal, Putty, or any other terminal
program you can download the internal memory by typing a
capital “D” followed by ENTER. Note, the letter D will not be
echoed back to the terminal screen, but it will be transmitted to
the DC1700. Once the user has done this, the DC1700 will
output the stored data memory to the terminal screen with the

18
oldest samples shown first and the newest samples last. The
following is a sample output.
04/30/10 10:44,1783,137
04/30/10 10:45,1857,122
04/30/10 10:46,1917,140
04/30/10 10:47,1919,136
…
…
04/30/10 18:22,7677,4127
04/30/10 18:23,7696,4131
04/30/10 18:24,7722,4124
The data is time stamped with the date followed by the hour (24hr
time) and minute. The following is a graph of the data created
after loading the saved file from Putty into Excel (specify comma
delimited). Select all the data cells and then create an XY scatter
plot.
The above graph took 1 minute to create, but once the data is in
Excel there are many ways to analyze and display the data.