TN268001 B, 11JAN26

DEC+ User Guide/FAQ

01. WHY IS IT UPSIDE DOWN
It's not, but your phone might be: Nearly all smart telephones have the microphone at the bottom of the device, just like Bell's original handset did. Most things we do with a cell phone, we do with the mic pointing down. In this case, we get vastly better performance by pointing the mic toward the engine, and away from the user. When the app detects it's likely running on a telephone, it displays such that the text is right-side up while you point the microphone at the engine. This behavior is un-necessary with a desktop PC and most tablets, so on these devices, the interface displays in a "normal" orientation. 

02. HOW DO I USE IT
Load the app on your device, point the microphone at the engine while it runs at low idle (or as close as possible with permanently loaded engines like gensets), and press the button above
the word "start recording". Press "stop" if you need to abort early for some reason. Under normal circumstances, just let it time out automatically, which it will do after 6 seconds.
After a brief delay*, the analysis results will appear on-screen.

Internet access is required to use DEC+. In cases where the engine is hard to get a recording of, for example if it's hard to start and often stops running shortly after starting, we
recommend trying a blank "test" recording before starting the engine, so you'll know that your device is able to talk to our computer when it needs to.

*This delay may be up to 30 seconds the first time you use DEC+ in any given hour, or any time the Internet connection is spotty.

03. WHAT DEVICES WILL IT WORK ON
It's designed for mobile smartphones, and works great with them. iOs and Android are both fine. It will work on *any* computer that has a user-viewable Web browser and a microphone- including Windows PCs, Macs, and tablets. Believe it or not, there are some valid use cases we have encountered where DEC+ can be of use on a PC. One of them is if people email you clips of engines, you can configure the PC to use the speaker output as a microphone input, and use DEC+ to analyze those clips.

04. WHY IS THE RECORD BUTTON NOT WORKING
Either microphone permission wasn't granted, or the device has no microphones. Or you made the error we frequently do on PC, and forgot to plug in any microphones.

05. WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL OUTPUTS
Summary:
"Tap the record button..." (displayed at first load)
"Recording..."
"Analyzing..."
"Too quiet" (get closer to the engine)
"Too loud" or "too hot" (get farther from the engine)
"Signal too short" (try again without hitting the stop button. Just let it time out automatically.)
"Engine not detected"
"Engine detected"

Operating Condition:
"Not available" (displayed when no engine detected yet)
"Normal" (no evidence of engine damage)
"Valvetrain problem" (engine has a detectable issue with valves, cam, tappets, &c.)
"Short block problem" (engine has a detectable problem with rods, pistons, crank, or mains)
"Injector" (injector imbalance detected, no mechanical issues detected)

Estimated Severity:
0-2 scale of how bad the problem is. We look for evidence of kinetic energy leaking through paths not intended by the engine designer, and compare it to engines with known degrees of damage. "0" is no damage. "2" is "imminent failure". In general, scores between 0 and 0.5 are stable, reliable conditions. Scores between 0.6 and 1.3 are unstable conditions, but which are likely repairable. 1.4 and above are conditions that warrant removing the engine from service immediately.

Estimated pounds:
0-100 scale of the estimated pounds of any mechanical component that is associated with a mechanical failure. This output only displays when "Operating Condition" is "Valvetrain Problem" or "Short Block Problem".

06. HOW DO I INTERPRET THIS
That's up to your professional judgement. This tool isn't meant to replace your expertise, but rather to augment it.
	So, for example, let's say you have a diesel engine that's had an  'awful tick' for years, 
that's never changed, but that worries you. The tool predicts "Valvetrain issue", and estimates the severity at "0.2".You could reasonably conclude that this is one of the ~30% of diesel engines that just... *makes a noise* despite there being nothing wrong with it.
	In another example, suppose you had another engine that made an awful noise from the oil pan. The tool predicted "Short Block Problem", and a severity of "1.8". You could conclude that this engine should be removed from service and either replaced or remanned at a shop.
	In another example, suppose you had an engine that was making a strange noise near the head. The tool predicted an operating state of "Injector Problem", with a severity of "1.6". You conclude that you will replace the injectors in the field, and that no full teardown is likely to be needed.

07. HOW FAST SHOULD THE ENGINE BE RUNNING
Low idle. So 400-800 RPM for most engines. Disconnect it from load if possible, if not, minimize the load as much as you can.

08. WHAT KINDS OF DIESEL ENGINES WILL THIS WORK WITH
Nearly all of those you may encounter, but there are some exceptions: It will not work with inline 2-cyliner engines, or any others with an uneven firing order by design. It does not work with most multi-cylinder, low-speed diesel engines, the parts of these engines are too far apart for one microphone to make sense of them all.
	Note that 1-cylinder engines *are* even-firing, and DEC+ works with them, whether low- or high-speed. DEC+ also works well with medium-speed engines.

09. DOES THIS WORK WITH GAS ENGINES
No. It does not work with *any* Otto-cycle or spark-ignited engine. It does not work with hot bulb engines. No jet engines. Only *diesel* engines. That's why we named it "DIESEL engine classifier".

10. CAN THIS DETECT [transmission problem/hydraulic problem/etc]
No. It detects ONLY problems with the diesel engine long block.

11. IS THIS AI
DEC+ uses machine learning techniques that were developed ~2006. A computer science student may note that's technically AI. But it's not the type of AI that most people mean when they ask this- that is, it's not "AI" of the type that Grok and ChatGPT are.

12. WHY ISN'T THIS ON THE APP STORE
The distribution model we use, called a "Progressive Web App", enables us to provide a consistent experience across all platforms; mobile, PC, and otherwise.

13. IS THERE AN ANDROID VERSION
DEC+ works on Android.

14. WHY DO I NEED TO INSTALL AN APP FOR THIS
You don't, it's just that you can if you want to. Visit solanum-service.com/dec anytime you want to use DEC+ as a normal web page.

15. THIS IS DUMB, THE ENGINE HAS ON BOARD DIAG
Actually, many, many diesel engines in use today do not have on-board diag. This tool was originally conceived to provide better fault discovery on these engines. Also note that OBD is designed primarily for emissions compliance, and can't detect a great many faults that may exist: in these cases, DEC+ can usually give pretty good insight into the faults.

16. THE ENGINE IS LOUD AND I AM VERY CLOSE, WHY AM I GETTING 'TOO QUIET' ERRORS
In most cases, due to some physical problem with the device or its microphone. We frequently find that wads of grease get stuck in the mic hole and cause this. So check for dirt in there. Otherwise, send yourself a video taken from your phone, and see how well the audio plays back- if it's muffled, then so is the audio DEC+ is hearing.

17. WHAT DOES 'DEC+' STAND FOR
"Diesel Engine Classifier, *plus* additional features". We added the "+" to the name when we decided to add severity and weight predictions to the original version, which only predicted op state. The original idea for the product name was "Diesel Engine Analyzer"- but we decided not to go with that due to the acronym "DEA" already being used for something completely unrelated to what we do.

18. WHAT'S A SOLANUM
Literally: The genus of plants that contains potatoes and tomatoes. Figuratively: We formed the business to provide services to vegetable growers, the name was only natural there, and everyone knew what it meant. We still are primarily a farm service business, so we're keeping the name! We're happy to help non-farm fleets, and anyone, really, who can benefit from what we do best- but are definitely proud of the relationships we have with the vegetable industry! The amorphous blob in the business logo was originally a silhouette of a moldboard, but has been contorted over the years to make the text overlay more readable.