Quick Guide to Logging data in Triton SB-Logger™ with an Edgetech FS-SB Sonar.

If you are connecting to an analog source and using the National Instruments analog interface see this link.

Once you have the sonar connected and running, much of the information about controlling the way that the data are displayed can be found in the Quick Guide to playing back data since the functions are exactly the same.

Connecting to the Sonar 

  1. Connect the Sonar to the PC using the Edgetech-supplied network (crossover) cable, or use a hub and two patch cables.

 It is sometimes easier to fault find Ethernet connection problems if a hub is used, but the normal crossover cable should be fine. 

  1. Launch SBL and Click the Record Mode (red) button.

 If you receive this message immediately after the splash screen disappears:

It means that you do not have a license to run the software please refer to License files and Dongles. for more information.

 If you are successful, SB- Logger immediately enters record mode and launches Serial Server minimized, you should see the serial server Icon in the Windows taskbar:

  

 NOTES:

The serial server application must be running to acquire navigation data and record it to your SEGY file, do not close it!

  1. On the menu bar Click on Configuration>Select>Edgetech FSSB

 SB-Logger launches the Edgetech FSSB server which attempts to connect to the sonar on the Edgetech default IP address of 192.10.0.100.  This process can take a few moments, (longer if no connection to the sonar is available), eventually the Edgetech FSSB Server window will open:

Notice that if the connection is OK both the Ethernet Command and Status indicators will be green, the Shooting status will be red until either Enable Shots is checked or the Sonar is turned ON from the main window - see below.   Once shooting starts the Shooting Status indicator on the server flashes green, and the Main Window indicator is also green.

Use the dropdown menu to select from the range of pulses that are available with your sonar, the available pulses are determined by the sonar and will vary depending on the sonar type.                                

The Status indicator for the sonar (in the main SB-Logger window) will be yellow if the sonar is connected but not shooting (pinging).  The Diagnostics Tab has some extra information received from the sonar:

If the connection was not successful go to the Trouble Shooting section and the end of this document.

  1. Click the Sonar On/Off button under the yellow Status indicator.

 Both the Status indicator and the Sonar Data indicator on the FSSB server should turn green and the shot number in the main window will start counting up.

Configuring the Sonar settings 

  1. Turn the Sonar off by clicking the Sonar On/Off button, the indicator turns yellow.
  2. Click the Configure Sonar button (see Record Mode>Sensor Configuration in the Main help menu.) to launch the FS-SB Acquisition Parameters dialog:

  

Under the Sampling tab, you can set the Recording delay, the Record Length and the Shooting Interval,  If you attempt to configure the server in an illegal fashion an error message will be displayed.

Under the Trigger tab you can set the trigger source and decimation (only applicable for combined systems) 

Under the Gain tab you can control both the Output Pulse power and the receiver gain.  NOTE: It is not advisable to run the sonar on deck for more than a few minutes at more than 10% power.

Under the Pressure tab you can apply an offset to zero the “on-deck” depth as seen in the SB-Logger main display Source depth.  (only applicable to system equipped with a tow fish pressure sensor.)

The Channels tab allows you to turn off the logging of the "real" (Ch1) and "quadrature" (Ch2) parts of the signal sent by the soanr andc to only log the resulting "envelope" (Ch3)

The Debugging tab should NOT be touched under normal circumstances, "Invert Weight" should ALWAYS be UNCHECKED

Hit the  Apply and button to make any changes and Done to exit.

Display Gain Settings

There are some settings in SB-Logger that allow you change the overall display gain.  None of these will affect in any way the actual values that are written to the SEGY file during logging, the data written to the SEGY file is always the raw data that was present during acquisition.  They are used only to allow the user to determine that valid data is being logged and also to make that data viewable during playback.

The gain knob at the top right side of the main window has two functions:

1. :Left-click with the mouse and drag to rotate and set the display gain.

2. Double-click to have SB-Logger set the gain automatically to accommodate the largest signal value in the current shot.  This can be very useful when dealing with analog data when it is difficult to get an idea of the actual voltage value.  With 24bit data we have a very large range of signal levels available and manually finding the value can be tricky.  Double-click the gain knob first then use left-click>drag for fine adjustments.

In View>Preferences under the Playback tab there is another control that may be useful that allows the user to set the Max display range.  If an analog signal is connected via a National Instruments PCI 4474 board this value will be volts.

Connecting the Navigation data

The other essential data that is needed in the SEGY file is navigation; this information comes to SB-Logger via a conventional 9pin or 25pin serial (COM) port.  The server that handles this interface was launched when SB-Logger first started, you should see the Icon in the Windows taskbar, (see Item 1 above).

  1. Connect your navigation source to a COM port.

 You will need to know the COM port number, and the Baud rate.  Note that NMEA0183 standard is 4800, but you should check. 

  1. Click on the Configure Navigation Button (see Record Mode>Sensor Configuration in the Main help menu.)

The serial port data acquisition settings dialog box will open.

                                          

 Many of the Tabs and buttons in this dialog box are not valid with the SB-Logger, 

 The only controls that are used are: 

Use the Com port tabs to select the correct port, make sure the Navigation button is pressed and that NMEA0183 is selected.

  1. Click the Show Server button.

 The serial server (previously minimized) will return from the taskbar.

 Click the Setup button to adjust the Baud rate, Data bits, Parity, Stop bits and Flow control.  In almost all cases the defaults will be correct, only the Baud rate may need adjusting to match your GPS receiver.

 Click on the red button to select the Com Port, then click the On checkbox, finally click the Spy button:

 

 If serial navigation data is present on the serial port you will see data scrolling through in the window, note that the Spy button will “unclick” after about 1 minute and the scrolling will stop, this is normal and does not mean that the data has stopped!  However, note that the data is not yet being passed to the SB-Logger application.

 You may now minimize the serial server if you wish using the “minimize” icon or keep it visible by using the “pin” icon.  Do NOT close the serial server! 

  1. Click the Navigation Status On/Off button:

 You should see the navigation indicator turn green and the navigation display in SB-Logger should start updating:

 

 Congratulations!  You now have both Sub Bottom data and navigation streaming to SB-Logger and being correctly decoded!

 Refer to the Trouble Shooting section if these steps fail for any reason.

 If your Edgetech tow fish is equipped with a pressure sensor you should see a value next to “Source “that approximates to zero if the tow fish is on deck.  You can go back to the Sonar Acquisition parameters dialog and enter an offset under the Pressure tab to correct this value to read zero if necessary.  

Non - NMEA0183 Navigation data

If your navigation data are not in NMEA0183 format, but a custom string generated by a navigation program then you should click the User Defined Input button, then the User Defined tab:

 

To set up a user defined string, click the Modify button.  Refer to the separate document Using the parser for detailed information on this feature.

Heading information

You can have SB-Logger read heading data either from an NMEA0183 string such as $HDT or $HDM (True or magnetic) and this will be logged to the SEGY file and displayed in the SB-Logger navigation display.  However, if no heading information is sent to SB-Logger then it can compute CMG from the incoming navigation data.  There is a checkbox under View>Settings>Misc to enable this option.

Logging the data

  1. Click on View>Preferences and select the folder for your logged data.

By default SBL logs your SEGY data to a sub folder of the main SBL folder called \SBLLogging and gives each file a prefix of SBL followed by a number representing the year, date and time. There are a number of other options in this dialog box, see the main help menu: Miscellaneous>Preferences for an explanation.  In general, sticking with the defaults will work…

  1. Click the red Log button.

 SB-Logger starts writing a file.

 Things to keep an eye on during acquisition:

Troubleshooting

Connecting to the Sonar

The connection to this sonar uses the TCP/IP protocol which must be installed on your system, it also requires that you have an IP address which is in the same range as the Sonar topside, the default Edgetech IP address is 192.10.0.100.  SBL is setup to try and connect on this address by default.  If the connection fails check the following (if you are not familiar with Network settings enter “IP settings” in Windows Help): 

Connecting to the Navigation 

Other problems

If this happens do this:

  1. Disconnect the navigation (pull out the serial connector); the mouse pointer should stop jumping around.
  1. In Windows, go to Start>Settings>Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager.
  1. Look under Mice and other pointing devices for “Microsoft Serial Ball Point”
  1. If this device is present, right click and select Disable.
  1. Reconnect the navigation serial data and you should be in control again!