How the T-Link Suite reports overrange measurements OR what does ‘OR***’ mean?

What is overrange?

All instruments have a ‘maximum range’, a level at which the measurement ‘saturates’ and cannot go any higher.
Any signal that exceeds the maximum range, will be measured by the instrument at the maximum range, i.e. the ‘measured’ level will remain stuck at the maximum. In that case the instrument is no longer measuring the signal in any meaningful way.

All you can say is the signal is bigger than the maximum range. Hence the term ‘Overrange’.

Terminology

The terms maximum range and saturation level mean the same thing in this context.
As do the terms over ranged and saturated.

Reporting an overrange measurement

Because you cannot know what the real signal level is, you cannot report it as a valid level!

■ The reported value must stand out as ‘something wrong’

Texcel reports the value as OR for Over Range followed by some characters and a number.

■ For example OR***177.76

What do the characters * + – mean?

A signal can saturate at either end of the range, positive or negative, or both.

Here is an extract from an event that saturated

This indicates the transverse signal over ranged positive and negative, while the vertical over range positive only. The radial did not over range.

■ The Vector Sum inherits the over range indication from all three components

For clarity, this is an extract of the Blast Report for the event used as the example above:

What do the OR Numbers Mean?

■ The number is the maximum range at which the signal over ranged.

This is close to the range selected in the settings of the ETM or GTM.

Why are the numbers different for the different channels?

The individual channels of a Triax can have slightly different sensitivities. Hence the 104.17 maximum
range for the Transverse, and 104.12 for the Vertical in the above example.
The Vector Sum saturation level is the vector sum of the saturation levels of saturated components and
actual levels of a component that has not saturated.

Further Assistance

If you need any further assistance, please contact Texcel:
Phone: +61-7-3237 8111
Email: team@texcel.com.au