10 Pre‑Rainy‑Season Checks in 5 Minutes

Rainy season approaches. We want extra lead time, fewer surprises, smoother shifts. This guide delivers a fast ten‑point pass in five minutes. It fits busy crews. It builds confidence before storms arrive. We keep it practical. We keep a friendly voice. We lean on KJ117(A) for trends and alerts. We pair screens and field steps. We finish strong on logging and backup.

You can copy the tables into a binder or a phone. You can turn the mini charts into small stickers near control panels. You can brief a new operator in one break. That saves hours later. Oops — we promised no "that." Let's keep going, no slipups.

Why now

• Rainfall lag. Skies clear. Inflow keeps rising for hours. Sometimes for days.

• Goaf water loves slow surprises. A gentle climb creeps in overnight. Then pumps play catch‑up.

• Duty load grows in wet months. A short pre‑check frees attention for real problems.

• Small fixes early. Big headaches avoided later.

The 5‑minute quick flow

1. Open KJ117(A). Scan three curves: water level, pressure, flow.

2. Spot‑check three hot spots underground: bends, pump‑room return, goaf boundary.

3. Send one mobile alert test. See every on‑duty phone confirm.

4. Run a 3‑minute pump test. Note flow and head. Listen for noise.

5. Log results. Push to cloud storage. Keep a local copy on a safe drive.

Mini flow map:

Trends → Blind-spot check → Alert test → Pump run → Log & archive

One‑page summary table

Use this sheet during the walk‑through. Keep it near the dispatch desk. Print large. Add check boxes.

Hydrograph cheat sheet

Tape this small card near the screen. It guides fast pattern reads.

Gentle climb → external inflow grows → check goaf and returns Random jitter → likely bubbles, cable noise, poor seating → run quick hardware check Step jump → valve or pump switch, or short inflow pulse → correlate timestamps Night window rise → external inflow, slow rebound → raise sensitivity at night

Detailed guidance for each check

1) Coverage and blind spots

Goal: confirm eyes on every hydraulic segment. Bends, T‑junctions, pump‑room return, goaf boundary. One sensor per segment at minimum. Two near high risk for cross‑check.

How to act:

• Overlay recent curves from neighboring points. Seek lockstep motion.

• Hunt for "decoupled" pairs. Same rain, same shift, yet curves drift apart. A gap points to a blind spot.

• Place sensors in stable straight runs near each corner. Keep a short standoff from turbulence.

Pass rule: critical points meet plan or exceed it. Curves agree across neighbors.

Pitfall: a single point at the bend center. Signals get noisy. Trends fade.

Evidence to store: screenshots before and after any tweak.

2) Power and UPS

Goal: a smooth bounce back after power cuts. A real test matters more than a sticker on a battery.

How to act:

• Cut power deliberately during a safe window. Record time to full recovery for logging and comms.

• Run a UPS load test. Note voltage trend and runtime.

• Inspect grounding and panel cleanliness. Dust and moisture cause silent trouble.

Pass rule: full recovery inside three minutes. UPS endurance ≥30 minutes. Battery health ≥80%.

Pitfall: no drills, only hope.

Evidence to store: photo of panel, UPS log, recovery time.

3) Communications

Goal: a clean link for live alerts and curves. Wired runs, radio hops, fiber splices. All in scope.

How to act:

• Sample latency and loss on a few key nodes.

• Inspect connectors in damp areas.

• For radio, read signal bars at sensor level, not only at the gateway.

Pass rule: offline ratio below one percent. Key nodes online for thirty days straight.

Pitfall: ignoring humidity near joints. Corrosion creeps fast.

Evidence to store: link test screenshots, splice photos.

4) Calibration and time sync

Goal: numbers which reflect reality, time tags which line up across the fleet.

How to act:

• Check last calibration date per sensor.

• Cross‑compare two nearby sensors under stable flow.

• Sync clocks from a common source. Write down skew before and after.

Pass rule: drift inside tolerance. Skew under two seconds.

Pitfall: hardware calibration only, time left adrift.

Evidence to store: calibration certificates, time sync log.

5) Thresholds and strategy

Goal: early warning for real risks, less noise for crews.

How to act:

• Use three tiers: tip, warn, alarm.

• Tune night sensitivity higher. Quiet lines reveal soft climbs.

• Build a contact tree per shift. Include two backups for every role.

Pass rule: fewer false alarms over ninety days. Earlier notice by at least fifteen minutes for known patterns.

Pitfall: one rigid value for all places and hours.

Evidence to store: threshold table, month‑over‑month false alarm count.

Sample threshold table:

Adjust numbers per mine policy and sensor class.

6) Mobile alert test

Goal: confirm last‑mile delivery to real humans in real time.

How to act:

• Send one test alert to the live on‑duty group.

• Ask every recipient to hit "acknowledge."

• Record any gap. Fix phone numbers, roles, device tokens.

Pass rule: one hundred percent receipt and confirm in three minutes.

Pitfall: stale contact list after staff rotation.

Evidence to store: delivery receipts, a refreshed list.

7) Pump test and redundancy

Goal: capacity margin before storms. Standby readiness proven, not assumed.

How to act:

• Run main pump no‑load for one minute, then load for two.

• Swap to standby for one minute. Confirm smooth handover.

• Log flow, head, amperage, noise, leaks.

Quick math example:

• Design flow: 120 m³/h. Safety factor: 1.2. Target ≥144 m³/h.

• Measured: 150 m³/h. Pass.

• Head drop vs design ≤10%. If higher, plan an inspection for suction or impeller wear.

Pass rule: active train ≥ design × safety factor. Standby cut‑in under sixty seconds.

Pitfall: only main pump tested. Standby never starts under load.

Evidence to store: gauge photos, short video of swap.

8) Pump‑room "go‑bag"

Goal: rapid action in the first five minutes.

Five low‑cost items:

• Spare couplings

• Quick‑plug power cable

• Check valve

• Portable lamp

• Bold signage for lines and valves

How to act:

• Label each item. Fix shelf location codes.

• Run a monthly inventory tick‑off.

• Train a two‑person team to grab items in a call.

Pass rule: items present, labeled, reachable in five minutes.

Pitfall: a pretty shelf, no labels, no cycle checks.

Evidence to store: shelf photo, inventory sheet.

9) Goaf risk reinforcement

Goal: higher resolution near old workings. More samples, more clues. Optional geophysics for a quick scan.

How to act:

• Double sampling frequency near suspected goaf zones.

• Compare night windows across several weeks after first heavy rain.

• Consider a fast YCS2000A TEM sweep to paint a conductive "bright line" near edges.

Pass rule: improved curve resolution on risky segments. A drafted response plan in place.

Pitfall: flat line taken as safety during dry weather, then surprise after storms.

Evidence to store: high‑freq plots, a short plan for actions.

10) Data export, backup, drill

Goal: history on hand, backups which restore, a crew which has muscle memory for incidents.

How to act:

• Export ninety days of trends and alert logs.

• Restore from backup once on a spare machine. Prove it works.

• Schedule a half‑day drill: alert → confirm → dispatch → pump swap → review.

Pass rule: verified restore success, a drill report, action items for the next month.

Pitfall: backups never tested, drills always postponed.

Evidence to store: restore log, drill checklist and photos.

A tiny case story

A crew in a western panel ran this five‑minute pass on a dry morning. Curves looked calm. Night windows showed a slow climb near one old stope. Two sensors sat on a bend center only. The team moved one sensor five meters upstream into a steady section. A second sensor went downstream for cross‑check. After a rain two days later, the pair revealed a clear step plus a gentle rise. Thresholds kicked a "warn" tier fifteen minutes earlier than last season. Pumps started sooner. Sump stayed below the comfort line. Crews liked the calm.

A compact visual plan

Paste this on a clipboard. It guides the whole pass.

[Screen check 60–90 s]

• Water level   → trend ok? spikes?

• Pressure      → high points stable?

• Flow (night)  → baseline drift?

[Field check 90–120 s]

• Bend A  → upstream straight run sensor

• Return  → pre/post mix points present

• Goaf edge → denser grid

[Alert test 30–60 s]

• Push test → 100% ack in ≤3 min

[Pump run 90 s]

• Main → Standby swap video

• Log flow/head

[Log & archive 30–45 s]

• Export mini report

• Cloud + local copy

Extra table: roles and timing

Assign names. Keep accountability clear. Rotate weekly.

Safety reminders and etiquette

• Keep lockout/tagout for power tests.

• Talk to the face crew before any radio or cable move.

• Note every anomaly, even a small squeak. Minor noise turns into heat, heat turns into failure.

• Share a one‑page digest at the end of the shift. People remember pictures more than long paragraphs.

What success looks like in numbers

• False alarms drop by 20–40% over ninety days.

• Average warning lead time grows by ten to twenty minutes.

• Offline minutes per key node stays under 1% of calendar time.

• Pump swap time falls under sixty seconds in drills and real calls.

• Restore test passes every single month.

Final checklist you can print

□ KJ117(A) curves reviewed → level / pressure / flow

□ Neighbor pairs compared → no decoupling spotted

□ Bends / returns / goaf edge → sensors placed in steady runs

□ Power cut drill done → recovery ≤ 3 min

□ UPS endurance ≥ 30 min documented

□ Comms test → loss < 1% on sample nodes

□ Calibration date reviewed → time skew < 2 s

□ Thresholds tuned → night tier tightened

□ Contact tree refreshed → alert test 100% ack

□ Pump main + standby tested → flow ≥ design × 1.2

□ Go‑bag items labeled → shelf photo taken

□ Sampling near goaf doubled → plan drafted

□ Export 90‑day data → cloud + local copy saved

□ Backup restore verified → log archived

□ Half‑day drill scheduled → calendar invite sent

Conclusion

Five minutes feel tiny. The payoff grows huge once storms roll in. We push a small routine. We buy precious minutes. We harden the signal chain end to end. We make pumps ready. We keep data safe. The mine runs calmer. The team sleeps better.