Add Survey Devices

Add a Custom Survey Device

Survey data is most often coming through a serial string from the ROV into the IC-Inspection machine. This is basically text including positional data, which may be submitted through a survey device. Sometimes a survey company is on board who smooths the data and sends us a clean serial string with exact positional information.

If there’s a serial string coming from the ROV into IC-Inspection, you must set up the survey device as described below.

1. On the Devices pane, choose Add from the toolbar.

2. In the Add New Device wizard, choose Survey Device, and click Next.

3. Select Custom Survey and click Next.

4. On the Properties tab, select the relevant COM port and specify the properties of the survey device as required.

   Note the following:

   • If you’re adding several survey devices, you should give each one a different Display Name so that you can tell them apart.

   • Most commonly, you use the following industry-standard attributes:

     • Baud Rate: 9600

     • Data Bits: 8

     • Parity: None

     • Stop Bits: 1

   Double-check the values with the company supplying the survey string to you.

5. On the Survey tab, you specify the parameters required for interpreting the survey values.

   • Under the Survey area, you can make entries as follows:

     • End of Line Signal: Set the value of this field to be compatible with whatever is coming down the survey string. To enter ASCII control characters, type a number prefixed with a #. For example, carriage return is #13, line feed is #10, and carriage return followed by line feed (the most common case) is #13#10.

     • String Format: The following string formats are supported by IC-Inspection:

       • Character Delimited: Each unique survey field in the incoming survey string is separated by a character delimiter (usually a comma), and each survey field is defined by its index in the survey string.

       • Position and Length: Each survey field has a fixed length. If the survey field is less than this defined length, it may be padded with either zeros or spaces as appropriate.

       • Identifier and Length: The start of each survey field is defined by an identifier, and the end of the survey field is defined by its length. Again, the field may be padded with zeros or spaces as appropriate.

       • Identifier and Delimited: The start of each survey field is defined by an identifier, and a character delimiter (usually a comma) separates each data field.

       • Pre/Post Identifier and Delimited: The start and end of each survey field is defined by an identifier, and a character delimiter (usually a comma) separates each survey field. Identifier and Delimited is the most common format for an incoming survey string. If this format is used, then in a noisy signal environment, IC- Inspection will still be able to correctly identify data even if only a partial string was received.

     • Delimiter: Set the value of this field to match whatever is coming down the survey string. Comma (,) is the most common delimiter.

   • Under the Survey Fields area, you can add survey fields to reflect the parts of the incoming survey string you’re interested in. Exactly what you can configure for each field depends on the String Format selected, but they all have Name, Type and Unit. If Type is Numeric, you can select a Unit for this field.

     For example, if the survey string is sending you Depth in feet, select the unit to be Feet. In NEXUS IC, under Configuration ‣ Events ‣ Configure Event Types, find your “Survey - Standard” form, edit the Depth field, and ensure that its unit is set to metres. Now IC-Inspection will convert the incoming depth from feet to metres before logging it in the database. Similarly if the survey string is sending you Heading in hundredths of a degree or whatever, you can use Units to convert.

6. Click Finish to complete the setup.

   Result

   The custom survey device is added to the list of devices on the Devices pane and the value in the Connection Status column should show Connected in case of a successful connection. The Enabled toolbar button is on by default. If the value in the Connection Status column is not Connected, then click Enabled twice, to disable then re-enable the device. This forces a fresh attempt at connection.

Add a Survey Output Device

The survey output device lets you send survey data out a serial port, for downstream consumption by another system.

To add a survey output device, follow the steps below:

1. On the Devices pane, choose Add from the toolbar.

2. In the Add New Device wizard, choose Survey Device, and click Next.

3. Select Survey Output and click Next.

4. On the Properties tab, select the relevant COM port for output and specify the properties of the survey device as required.

   Note the following:

   • If you’re adding several survey output devices, you should give each one a different Display Name so that you can tell them apart.

   • Most commonly, you use the following industry-standard attributes:

     • Baud Rate: 9600

     • Data Bits: 8

     • Parity: None

     • Stop Bits: 1

5. On the Survey tab, you make selections appropriate to what your downstream device is expecting.

   • Under the Survey area, you can make entries as follows:

     • Delimiter: Set the value of this field to match whatever is expected from the downstream device. Comma (,) is the most common delimiter.

     • End of Line Signal: Set the value of this field to be compatible with the requirements of the downstream device.

     • Include Identifiers: Tick this checkbox if you want data to be sent with identifiers prepended, for example, “DateTime=01/01/2001 12:34:56, Depth=100”.

     • Include null values: Controls what happens if some fields are null: do you want several separators in a row in this case, for example, “1,,3”?

     • Null value replacement: This field is for downstream devices that cannot cope with this case, so you can have the null field replaced with the value of your choice (“0”, “nbsp”, etc).

   • Under the Survey Fields area, you can select fields that you want to be sent or deselect fields that you don’t want to send. Use Move Up and Move Down to rearrange fields to suit the downstream device.

6. Click Finish to complete the setup.

   Result

   The survey output device is added to the list of devices on the Devices pane and the value in the Connection Status column should show Connected in case of a successful connection. The Enabled toolbar button is on by default. If the value in the Connection Status column is not Connected, then click Enabled twice, to disable then re-enable the device. This forces a fresh attempt at connection.

Note

Date and Time format come from Windows settings. To change them, go to the Windows’ Region and Language control panel.

Add a Survey Simulator

IC-Inspection comes with a survey simulator for testing purposes, which you can set up in case you want to get survey data simulated by the system.

To add a survey simulator, follow the steps below:

1. On the Devices pane, choose Add from the toolbar.

2. In the Add New Device wizard, choose Survey Device, and click Next.

3. Select Survey Simulator and click Next.

4. On the Properties tab, specify basic parameters for the simulator, such as name or date and time settings.

5. On the Survey tab, you can set up how the actual survey values are to be generated by the simulator. There are some default settings delivered for a number of fields, which you can adjust, but you can also add additional fields or delete them.

   You can directly edit the values in each cell (including name, type, unit, value and increment) by double-clicking within the specific cell.

6. Click Finish to complete the setup.

   Result

   The survey simulator is added to the list of devices on the Devices pane and the value in the Connection Status column should show Connected in case of a successful connection. The Enabled toolbar button is on by default. If the value in the Connection Status column is not Connected, then click Enabled twice, to disable then re-enable the device. This forces a fresh attempt at connection.