Custom Built Systems

The systems supplied by the Instrument Group are extremely versatile and may be customised to suit nearly every application. Customised systems may include any combination of environmental instruments used on our standard monitoring stations, or they may incorporate sensors and technologies from outside of the environmental industry. A few examples of custom built systems are illustrated below.

Water Quality Monitoring Trailers

The Instrument Group has designed and constructed more than a dozen of these mobile monitoring stations for the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the QLD Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) and South East Queensland Water.

Each trailer can be easily deployed at a variety of sites for various purposes, including monitoring trade waste discharge, river and stream flows.

All trailers incorporate a solar powered battery back-up power supply, multi-parameter water quality sensors, water level and flow instruments and a refrigerated automatic sampler for retention of sample for later analyses and verification.

Autonomous Pathogen Sampling Stations

These stations were produced by the instrument Group for the University of NSW and the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment (CRCWQT), who required us to develop, design, fabricate and install a custom automated high volume and refrigerated sampling system to meet specific pathogen sampling requirements.

Designed to capture first flush catchment runoff to assess pathogen populations, the system could recognise an event and take water samples across the hydrograph. Up to 24, 10 litre samples and 24, one litre refrigerated samples were possible, providing valuable information for the comparison of catchments with differing land use practices.

Water Quality Buoys

Several of these buoys have been designed and built by the Instrument Group. Each system comprises a sealed enclosure (containing the datalogger and telemetry system) mounted inside a modified Waverider buoy. A variety of sensors have been fitted including temperature, EC, DO and turbidity. An adjustable anchoring system secures the buoy in place irrespective of the water level.