Power and access

Powering the system

The detector is powered with a voltage in the range of 5-36V. The internal electronics of the spectrometer have been fitted with additional electronics to protect the detector from reverse- and over/under-voltage up to 60V. During normal operation, the detector will consume about 3W with a peak power consumption of 6W. Only power sources that can provide this power are suitable for powering the detector.

For example, detectors that use an MDC-50x cable can be powered by a generic power bank. Cable specifications can be found on the Cable and connectors page.

Note that some power banks lower their output voltage after a few seconds when a cable is inserted in the power bank, but not connected to a device. This will cause cables with a voltage booster (such as the MDC-506 cable) to then not provide voltage after waiting too long to attach a device (the voltage booster needs a certain threshold voltage to boost). The result is that the detector will not start.
Advised is to re-insert the cable in the power-bank while connected to the detector.

Connecting through WIFI

Connecting your computer, tablet or phone to the detectors access point makes accessing the web server through its standard IP address possible, as described in the section below.

Accessing the mDOS interface through the built-in website

The detector can be accessed by using an internet browser and navigating to the IP address of the detector. The sensor can function without a physical connection to a network, and you can connect to it through the detectors' wifi access point. The detector can be connected directly to a computer through ethernet or connected to a router and become part of a bigger network. The wifi access point will assign IP addresses to the connected devices. If the detector is directly connected to a computer, it will use a default IP address (192.168.2.150), and the computer has to be set to an IP address in the same subnet. And when a router is used, this device will hand out IP addresses to the connected devices. 

The IP address of the detectors can also be found by using the Medusa detector finder, or by using the mDOS app for android devices found in the google play store.
To access the built-in website, navigate to the IP address of the detector:

Example

When the detector is connected directly to the computer using the ethernet cable, the computer has to be set to a fixed IP address in the 192.168.2.x range, the detector can be accessed by navigating in a browser to the address: 192.168.2.150. In the case of using the wifi connection, the IP address will be 192.168.3.1.

Screenshot of the mDOS app

Privacy policy mDOS app

Your privacy is very important to us. Therefore, we do not store any information. The app does not connect to the internet or send any information to us or anyone else.

When you encounter difficulties accessing the spectrometer by using a phone or a tablet, it might be necessary to turn off your data connection.