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- The spare boards S/N 5921 and S/N 5920 were installed on AUG 28th by Randy without notifying anyone. Upon installation when the software was turned on it would immediately show 'Sensor State Unknown'.
- The original boards we had been using all expedition were re-installed SEP 1st and the software began working as normal again. This caused some confusion as it was unknown to anyone that the spare boards had been installed in the first place. When trying to trouble shoot the new 'Sensor State Unknown' issue I thought I was installing the spare boards when I was really putting the originals working boards back in.
- It is unclear whether the 5920/5921 boards are not functional or if they simply need a firmware upgrade/downgrade in order to work with our system. The process for updating firmware on the boards is described in the Underway section of the EXP. 350 tech report found here. This email from Russel at SyQwest was also helpful in determining how the boards were originally set up. The files needed can be found on the WF2 computer and have been copied to _IODP OFFICIAL\UW\UW User Guides and Info\2 Bathy\SyQwest\Bathy2010\Util\Netburner to be backed up.
- September 2nd: The not working 5920/5921 set of boards was reinstalled with the same NetBurner card that has been in use with the working 6209/6210 boards. We followed the instructions on how to update the firmware using the NetBurner with autoupdate.exe and the IP address of 192.168.199.111 which is used to connect to the NetBurner board. A 'Process Complete' message was recieved but when the bathy software was opened we were still stuck with 'Sensor Status Unknown'. The The same process was completed with the spare NetBurner board with the same result.
- An email and support ticket have been sent to SyQwest to see if we can get any help making the 5920/5921 set of boards work with our software. The working 6209/6210 set of boards has been replaced back in the unit with the original NetBurner boards and has been tested and both communicates with the software and pings.
Next Steps for Bathy2010
We have not been able to determine if the high power problem is in the cabling/connector below the Obrien hatch or in the deck unit. There was some conversations with Jurie Kotze Sr. about the problems he'd seen in the past with the high voltage output on the acquisition boards, see EXP 349 tech report. He thinks the problem could be there but troubleshooting will need to be done while the sonar is pinging at high power and the boards measured. With approval from the captain and vessel manager, the hatch to the dome will need to be opened and the cables checked further down. This process was started with the Captain and Chief Engineer but was not completed before crew change.
Magnetometer
- Cable was taken from underway and spooled back onto the winch.
- The depth is still not being recorded properly but it was decided that we did not have the expertise on board to fix the internal electronics even if we opened it up and identified the problem.
- One short deployment was conducted during the transit back to Kristiansand. No issues running the instrument and collecting data besides the depth displaying as 0.
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