Sample Collection

The Sample Collection page is used to collect a sample in the field, capturing the GPS position, photos and the sampling details that EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 §7.3 requires. The new sample is created with status Collecting and waits to be received at the laboratory.

Found under: Daily Work → Sample Collection.

How it works

Pick the customer (required) and, optionally, the sampling plan.
Press the GPS icon to capture the position from the device's GPS receiver; the accuracy is shown in metres. It works offline too, but the position is only stored permanently on the sample if there is a connection at the moment of saving.
Tap the photo area to take photos of the sample or the location. Usually 1 to 3 photos suffice; the limit is 12 per sample.
Fill in the sampling details (see below) and the notes.
Press Save & New to continue with another sample, or Save & Exit to finish.

Sampling details (§7.3)

The field form asks for no less than the laboratory form: it is the same SAMPLING section you see on a sample's Receipt tab.

Field	Description
Sampling Plan	The plan being followed; see "The plan in your hand"
Sample Quantity	§7.3.3(c) — how much material was collected, free text (e.g. "~1 kg, 0-30 cm depth")
Field Conditions	§7.3.3(f) — the environmental conditions at the sampling moment
Sampling Equipment	The equipment used
Sampling Deviations	Any departure from the plan or the method
At the customer's request	Appears only once a deviation has been written (ΚΟ-ΔΕΙΓΜ §E3) — a deviation the customer asked for is not a deviation of the laboratory's own

The Collection Date & Time, the Collected By and the Collecting status are stamped automatically and are shown in the "auto-stamped" box before saving.

The plan in your hand (§7.3.1)

Below the picker there is a View plan (§7.3.1) link that opens the selected plan's body where you are standing: Method / Standard Reference (with its version), Selection Criteria, Plan Content, Preparation / Treatment Instructions and Statistical Procedure. Clause §7.3.1 wants the plan and the method available at the site where sampling is undertaken, and the content is read from the device's local store — so it works with no network too.

Beside the picker you can see how old the device's plan list is, with a Refresh button. If it says "Not yet synced", the device has never downloaded any plans.

Approved plans only. The server rejects a draft or superseded plan even when it arrives from a link, from the last plan that was kept, or from the sync queue — the plan reference prints on the report as the sampling method (ΚΟ-ΔΕΙΓΜ §E5).

Device limits and the clock

Device clock. If the clock has drifted, a warning appears with the number of minutes and saving is blocked until it is corrected. The collection timestamp is a §7.3.3 record, which is why an obviously wrong time is not accepted.
Storage. At 500MB of local data collection stops until a sync happens; before that a warning says you are approaching the limit.

Notes

Collection works offline: the sample and its photos are stored locally and synced later. The GPS position is captured by the device even with no network, but it is only stored permanently on the sample if there is a connection when you press Save — otherwise the sample saves normally, without a position.
With Save & New the customer and the sampling plan are kept, for collecting many samples quickly on the same visit. The new customer link clears them.
The Customer Label is not asked for here: in the field the sample does not have one yet. It is filled in when the sample is received at the laboratory.
See also: Samples, Sampling Plans.