A Versatile Oceanographic Data-Logger

The continued interest by the scientific community in obtaining a basic understanding of the oceans and the industrial demands for new raw materials now found by ocean mining and drilling operations result in requirements for diverse and flexible instrumentation for long and short term data processing and logging. Until recently, these requirements have been met by a multitude of instruments whose hardware and logic were fixed; configured for specific applications (i.e. tide gauge, current meter, pressure and temperature meter, etc.,). Now, based upon microprocessor technology and past ocean instrumentation experience, EG&G Sea-Link Systems has developed a general purpose, modularized data logger that can be tailored to specific requirements, both in and out of the water, by means of modifying the necessary parameters of software through an RS232C or 20 ma serial communications link before deployment. For example, this flexibility allows for tailored sampling schemes, special record formating, input of a modifiable instrument identification number, input of Julian time of day, and the calling of special arithmetic processing of data. A number of digital inputs and analog inputs are provided with the flexibility for expansion. Other features include sensor signal conditioning, a real time clock, VACM or Memodyne Phillips transport for data storage, software modules for special processing and diagnostic routines, and real time data collection output.