An indoor tutorial

For learning purposes, it might be useful to measure respiration of a piece of fruit. An apple, banana, or orange (or whatever is available in your locale) will probably work well, so long as the fruit is somewhat fresh and at room temperature.

With your instrument on the lab bench and connected to a PC:

1. Place the chamber over a piece of fruit

The chamber should be able to open and close freely without touching the fruit.

2. Set up the measurement (part 1)

In the LI-8100A PC software, click the Chamber button or press Ctrl+M.

Under Port Setup > Chamber:

  • Select the chamber you have connected.
  • Soil Area: Enter 80.1 cm2 for 8100-102; 317.8 cm2 for 8100-103.
  • Chamber Offset: 0.0 cm since this is on the lab bench. Normally you will measure this in the field.

Under Port Setup > Observation:

  • Treatment Label: It will be included in your data record.
  • Observation Length: 40 to 60 seconds is fine for this tutorial.
  • Dead Band: 0 seconds is fine for the tutorial. This is the time that passes between the chamber closing and the measurement start.
  • Observation Count: 5 is fine for the tutorial.
  • Pre-purge: 0 seconds. Purge time before the chamber closes.
  • Post-purge: 0 seconds. Purge time after the chamber opens.

3. Set up the measurement (part 2)

Upon clicking the Start Measurement button, you can set:

  • Preset: Leave at Current Setting
  • Measurement File: Enter a name for the file and choose whether to create a new file or append an existing file.
  • Comments: Comments are recorded in the file header.
  • Set the Destination; either the instrument memory or the CompactFlash card.
  • Measurement Start: Set to Start Immediately.

4. Start the measurement

Click the Start Measurement button to initiate the measurement.

5. View the data as it is logged

Click the Charting button. You may need to click the Start button to initiate the data stream.

6. Transfer data from the LI-8100A to a computer

Click Utilities > File Manager... or the file manager button. You will see a list of files that are saved to the internal memory and the CompactFlash memory of the LI-8100A. Select the file you want to copy and then click Transfer to PC.

7. Chart data in SoilFluxPro™

After the file is transferred, you can open the data file in SoilFluxPro software. You will see individual observations. Double click an observation to view the data and to chart it. Select Fit #1 Cdry to view a plot of each observation. Click Help > View SoilFluxPro Guide to learn more about the software.