Guideline Geo MALA MIRAsoft HDR User manual

MALÅ MIRAsoft HDR
User Guide

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Our Thanks...
Thank you for choosing Guideline Geo and MALÅ as your Ground Penetrating Radar
solution provider. The very core of our corporate philosophy is to provide our users with
the very best products, support and services. Our development team is committed to
providing you with the most technologically advanced and easy-to-use GPR products with
the capability to meet your needs for efficiency and productivity now, and into the future.
Whether this is your first MALÅ product, or addition to the MALÅ collection, we believe that
small investment of your time to familiarize yourself with the product by reading this
manual will be rewarded with a significant increase in productivity and satisfaction.
At Guideline Geo, we welcome comments concerning the use and experience with our
products, as well as the contents and usefulness of this manual.
Guideline Geo team

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Guideline Geo | MALÅ
Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the
written consent of Guideline Geo. Your rights to the software are governed by the
accompanying software license agreement. The MALÅ logo is a trademark of Guideline
Geo registered in Sweden and other countries.
The product described in this document is subject to continuous developments and
improvements. All particulars of the product and its use contained in this document are
given by Guideline Geo in good faith. However, all warranties implied or expressed,
including but not limited to implied warranties or merchantability, or fitness for purpose,
are excluded. This document is intended only to assist the reader in the use of the product
and every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate.
Guideline Geo shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of any
information in this document, or any error or omission in such information, or any incorrect
use of the product.
Guideline Geo, the MALÅ logo, are trademarks of Guideline Geo, registered in Sweden and
other countries. Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of
their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes
only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Guideline Geo
assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products.
Guideline Geo AB
Head-office
Löfströms Allé 6A
172 66 Sundbyberg
www.guidelinegeo.com
Release Date: 20 March 2020
Version: 1.0.2

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Table of Contents
Preface 5
About this Manual 5
Additional Resources 5
Feedback 5
About MIRAsoft HDR 6
Installation 7
Computer requirements 7
First run 7
Overview MIRAsoft HDR 8
MIRAsoft HDR Main Screen 9
File Directory 9
Measurement Settings with MIRAsoft HDR 11
Start 11
Settings Menu 12
Positioning Menu 14
Advanced Menu 16
Projects Menu 19
About Menu 22
Measurements 23
Tips and tricks during measurement 26

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Preface
About this Manual
This manual is written for the end user of the product and explains how to set up and
configure the product, as well as providing detailed instruction on its use.
Additional Resources
GPR Training www.guidelinegeo.com/support-service-advice-training/
GPR Case Studies www.guidelinegeo.com/solutions/case-stories/
GPR Downloads www.guidelinegeo.com/support-service-advice-training/resource-
center/
Feedback
Feedback regarding the contents of this manual or the product may be sent using any of
the following channels.
Phone (Sweden) [phone]
Phone (USA) [phone]
Phone (China) [phone]
Phone (Malaysia) [phone]
Phone (Australia) [phone]
Web www.guidelinegeo.com

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About MIRAsoft HDR
MALÅ MIRAsoft HDR is the data acquisition software dedicated to the MALÅ MIRA HDR
(MALÅ Imaging Radar Array, High Dynamic Range) system from Guideline Geo. MIRAsoft
HDR acquires data from the MALÅ MIRA HDR array system. As a Windows 10™ based
software MIRAsoft HDR gives you an easy-to-use user interface, file management, and
other key features. Each measurement and associated settings are stored in files. Filtering
can be performed during measurement, all radargrams viewed as top view and MIRAsoft
HDR supports GPS logging during measurement. Projects can be exported for post-
processing and interpretation to other software, such as rSlicer and GPR-Slice.

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Installation
The MIRAsoft HDR software is downloadable from the Guideline Geo´s homepage.
Computer requirements
The software runs on Windows 10 (64 bit). It is recommended to have an i7 processor and 8GB of
RAM and a minimum of 1GB RAM is required. The MIRA HDR system collects approximately
246kb data/m2.
Minimum required
Recommended
Operating system
Windows 10
Processor
i5
i7
RAM
1 GB
8 GB
First run
When you start MIRAsoft HDR for the first time you are asked to Create or Open a project.

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Overview MIRAsoft HDR
MIRAsoft HDR is the data acquisition software for the MIRA HDR system. MIRAsoft HDR is used
for collecting new multichannel GPR data and to view already collected data. Post-processing and
interpretation of MIRA HDR are done in other 3D GPR software such as rSlicer and GPR-Slice.
This manual (together with the User Guide for MIRA HDR) explains how to set up the
measurements with the MIRA HDR antenna array, collect data and save it to a suitable format.
During data collection it is also possible to view one radargram and traces from all channels.
The user interface of MIRAsoft HDR is developed to be easy to handle during field work and work
as well on a touch screen, as on a field computer. The workflow is straight forward and consists of
the following steps:
1. Make sure that the MIRA HDR antenna box is on and connected to the data acquisition
platform
2. Create a new project (with name and type) or open an existing project
3. Measurement settings (different acquisition options, channel selection and trigger type)
4. Positioning (GPS and Total Station parameters)
5. Advanced settings (trace position, geometry settings, power settings, GPS settings)
6. Ready to Measure
The following definitions are used in this User Guide:
Sample Instant, digital value of recorded radar signal at one specific time.
Trace The recorded radar signal from one channel at one point, built up over a short
time by a certain number of samples.
Point distance Distance between each trace collected for all individual channels.
Stacks Number of averages for each trace.
Swath One complete profile line including all channels in the array. The coverage
for every swath depends on the individual channel spacing multiplied by the
number of channels.
Tx Abbreviation for a transmitter antenna.
Rx Abbreviation for a receiver antenna.

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MIRAsoft HDR Main Screen
The main menu is found in the left upper corner:
At the bottom of the main screen, in the status bar, system information and basic viewing choices
can be made.
Left side of status bar:
From left-to-right:
•Connection to the antenna box, active or not
•Log information tab
•GPS time
•GPS status
•Battery level
•Status of the connection to the MIRA HDR system
Centre and right side of status bar:
From left-to-right:
•Name of the current project
•4 buttons to toggle between Site view (SV), Top View (TP), Profile View (PV), Expert View
(EV) when in the Measurement mode
File Directory
MIRAsoft HDR creates a file directory in Documents called MIRAsoft HDR. This file directory
contains a folder called Measurements where all the previous projects created can be found.
The location of this folder cannot be changed. You can import paths to other locations, and this
will be shown as an available project in MIRAsoft HDR.
In detail, the following file folders and files are created by MIRAsoft HDR:
1. Measurement folder in users’ documents
2. For each project, the user creates a project folder. This folder can be named freely. In that folder a
<project_name>.yml file and a <project_name_backup>.yml file are created that contain all information
related to the project (channel selection, channel settings and everything else). These files can be opened in
a simple text editor such as Notepad.

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3. For each measurement, 5 files per channel are created:
•<projectname>_<swath>_<channel>.rd7 (32 bit GPR raw data)
•<projectname>_<swath>_<channel>.rad (information on channel settings)
•<projectname>_<swath>.YML (snapshot of system settings when measurement was done)
•<projectname>_<swath>.pos (if positioning is available, it will contain raw GPS positions for the
measurement as NMEA strings).
•<projectname>_<swath>.cor (if positioning is available it will contain the interpolated GPS positions
in the format <trace_id>:<NMEA> ).
4. If data are exported (e.g. to rSlicer format) a folder is created to store all files in that export. If export is
made to rSlicer format, the folder is called rSlicer as well.
Note! All configuration data are saved to disk (in the settings files). The configurations that are written to the
MIRA HDR firmware are: measurement settings (e.g. stacks, samples, trigger), power settings,
trace alignment and line adjustment settings if a calibration is made in the advanced settings page.

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Measurement Settings with MIRAsoft HDR
Start
When starting MIRAsoft HDR for the first time, the Projects Menu is opened (see Projects Menu
section, below) otherwise the following options are available:
Continue working on. This option
opens the last opened/measured
project, summary information on
this current project is also shown.
Create a new project
. This option
creates a new MIRA project, with
your own defined project name and
possibility to choose between
different ‘standard’ channel
settings or the last used setting. If
you have saved a
Template
, it can
be found in the dropdown list (see
Projects Menu section below).
Note: If the project name already exists, the Create option is greyed out.
Note: The project name is also used for the separate, single swaths in a project, but with an
extension: _01, _02 and so on.
When opening an existing project or creating a new project, MIRAsoft HDR immediately brings you
to the settings menu for checking and changing measurement settings. At any time, you can go
back to the Projectsmenu (found in the main menu) to change, create or delete projects. See also
Projects Menu section, below.
Note:If you want to open an already measured project, but not the last one, choose Continue
working on and then go directly to the Projects menu and click on the project you want to view.
See Project Menu section for further details.

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Settings Menu
In the Settings menus, you find measurement settings for the traces, trigger and channel selection.
Note: You can have different settings for different swaths measured within the same project.
However, in rSlicer, the swaths will need to be processed in groups of profiles which share the
same settings.
The warning triangle (upper right corner) is shown if the settings have changed
since the last made measurements in the open active project. This means that
the signal position needs to be calibrated (see Advanced section).
Measurement Options
•Selected antenna: choose the correct antenna (or demo antenna, to run the software in
demo mode).
•Sampling Frequency: It is a fixed value, optimized for the antenna frequency used.
•Stacks: How many times each trace is to be stacked; higher numbers give better data
quality but will lower the maximum acquisition speed.
•Samples: How many samples are collected for each trace.
Note: The maximum measurement speed is shown for the current settings when using distance
triggering.
Depending on the number of Tx units used in the array the number of available samples will
change, as below:
-1-4 Tx: 1984 samples
-5-8 Tx: 1728 samples
-9-16 Tx: 672 samples

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Trigger Options
The MIRA HDR can be trigged with Distance or Time.
For Distance,choose the Distance between traces and the Available calibrated wheel. If a new
wheel is needed, or a re-calibration has to be carried out, use the option Wheel Wizard which will
guide you through some easy steps to calibrate and save a new measurement wheel.
For the Time triggering option set the Time between traces.
Channel Selection
In the channel selection matrix, the operator selects how the radar antenna array should be set up
to collect data. The user defines a firing sequence by clicking in the squares of the matrix; this will
turn them grey and display the channel number assigned to that combination of TX (columns) and
Rx (rows). This sequence of Tx-Rx combinations is repeated every time a measurement is triggered.
Note: If the selection turns red, it indicates that an antenna used in that combination is not working.
It is possible to add up to 132 channels, in any combination. But it should be noted that only the
channels that have the same Rx to Tx distance can be shown together in the top view (see
Measurements section). This means that the largest group of channels with equal Tx-Rx distance
are shown in the top view.
The ‘standard’ channel configuration for a 22-channel antenna array is shown in the picture below.
This is also provided within the software at purchase.
Standard 22 channel set up, with 11
Transmitters and 12 Receivers
Example of a user-defined channel set-up.
This
layout is automatically saved and
connected to the project.
Click to either choose or remove an antenna
combination.

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Positioning Menu
Positioning of the MIRA HDR antenna array is done with an external GNSS system such as an RTK-
GPS.
It is highly recommended to use an accurate GNSS solution to position the MIRA HDR
measurements as this will increase the quality of the resulting time slice images. The GPS is
connected to the computer used for data collection.
MIRAsoft HDR reads standard NMEA data, specifically G*GGA messages, from the connected
GPS; it will discover the COM port settings automatically to enable communication between the
GPS and MIRAsoft HDR.
The positioning data are written to a so called *.cor file, which is structed as follows:
1,$GPGGA,011950.50,6350.598052,N,02014.0642769,E,4,7,1.19,13.397,M,23.629,M,1.2,*4C
2,$GPGGA,011951.51,6350.5980513,N,02014.0642746,E,4,7,1.19,13.401,M,23.629,M,1.4,*7F
3,$GPGGA,011951.51,6350.5980224,N,02014.0642491,E,4,7,1.19,13.398,M,23.629,M,1.0,*76
4,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5979978,N,02014.0642189,E,4,7,1.19,13.409,M,23.629,M,1.2,*73
5,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5979737,N,02014.0641824,E,4,7,1.19,13.416,M,23.629,M,1.4,*73
6,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5979513,N,02014.0641493,E,4,7,1.19,13.410,M,23.629,M,0.6,*72
7,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5979281,N,02014.0641211,E,4,7,1.19,13.390,M,23.629,M,0.8,*73
8,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5979017,N,02014.0641084,E,4,7,1.19,13.390,M,23.629,M,0.8,*70
9,$GPGGA,011952.52,6350.5978756,N,02014.0640843,E,4,7,1.19,13.412,M,23.629,M,1.0,*75
10,$GPGGA,011953.53,6350.597850,N,02014.0640554,E,4,7,1.19,13.414,M,23.629,M,1.2,*4B
The first column refers to the trace number and then the information on position follows as Northing
and Easting coordinates in WGS84.
In GPS Settings the acceptable GPS fix quality and the
position of the GPS antenna, relative to the MIRA HDR
box, are defined. The fix levels are:
•
RTK GPS.
Best quality, should be used
during measurement
•
GPS
. Positioning is of poor quality
•
Float RTK
. Ok quality
The GPS offset measurements are defined as the
distance from the GPS antenna’s reference position
(usually marked on the GPS antenna itself but check the
supporting documentation for your system) and the
positioning reference point on the MIRA HDR; this
positioning zero point is located at the GPS connector on
top of the hand-pushed carrier.

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The Save and Delete options are used to create a copy of an online map for offline use. At a certain
zoom level, the background map can be saved locally so it can be used if you need to work in off-
line mode; the extent of a saved map is shown as a blue area. The name of the map is shown to
the right and can be deleted.

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Advanced Menu
In the Advancedmenu, you find three different tabs to configure the Signal Position Settings, the
Geometry Settings of the antennas and the Power Settings.
Signal Position Settings
The most important difference with MIRA HDR measurements compared to single channel
operations, is the time zero setting. Since there’s no way to guarantee that all channels have the
same lead time in the electronics and cables, as well as the geometry of the signal path, the time
zero must be set so that it safely registers the first arrival of all the used channels.
To help the operator in aligning the trace position a set of commands/buttons are provided to
accomplish this task:
•Calibrate signal positions. MIRAsoft HDR automatically calibrates the channels activated
in the Channel selection (see Settings section), to locate the zero level on the same position.
•Reset signal positions. The signal positions are Reset back to the last stored/saved values.
Geometry Settings
In the geometry settings you define the location of each antenna element (Tx and Rx), related to
the 0,0-position of the enclosing array box (this is different from the navigation zero position – see
Positioning Menu section). These distances are needed to be able to assign and sort the location
of all individual channels in the chosen post-processing software.
If choosing the ‘standard’ 22 channel template when creating a project, these numbers are added
automatically and are correct. The measurements are made from the 0-point of the individual Tx/Rx
antennas to the 0,0-point of the array box.
Note: The measurement direction is set here as well, forward or backward (i.e. push or tow)
The geometry settings for a ‘standard’ 22-channel system are shown below.

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The 0,0-point of the system is located in the back left corner of the array box:
Power Settings
In this tab adjustments can be made to power levels:
•Power Mode: choose between PowerOff, PowerOffAtLevel or AlwaysOn.

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•Battery off level: decide at which battery level the system should be turned off.
•Battery power level: this will be the maximum battery voltage registered by MIRA HDR;
this setting affects the battery level displayed in the status bar.
When changes are made, press Write to MIRA HDR, to send the new information to the firmware
of the antenna box.
Note: Writing PowerOff to MIRA HDR powers off the system.

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Projects Menu
The Projects menu can be accessed from the MIRAsoft HDR main drop-down menu. It shows all
existing projects as well as giving the option to create new projects, delete old ones or select projects
to view after a measurement is finished.
Open Existing Projects
The project is opened with a single click on the chosen project folder.
When an existing project is opened, it can be:
•Supplemented with new swaths -> check measurement settings first in the Settings menu
•Viewed, by choosing Measurement from the main drop-down menu

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If several swaths have been measured it is easy to change the radargram view by clicking on the
swath in the map view, or you can choose which swath to display in the swath-selector in the status
bar.