Absent: D. Holsom, D. Mountain
We began the meeting, at 10:30am.
Ken and Bob discussed a vessel naming convention for the Athena data. Future files will include the abbreviated vessel name constructed from the first two letters of each name (e.g. GLJA for the Glenna & Jacob), or the first four letters for vessels with only a single word name.
Bob was asked to add Bob Kohl to the fleetlink_i (PI) e-mail distribution list. [Done, June 20, 2000]
We discussed having the data logging system send a daily message back to the boat saying how much information was collected during the day in order to provide feedback to the boats. Bob will look into this.
It was also noted that the reported wind speed and direction are the apparent values; they have not been corrected for the ship's velocity. We could use the recent ship's position information (one minute values) to compute the current ship's velocity and correct the apparent wind speed and direction or we could output the ship's speed and direction values from the satellite navigation system and use those instead. We wondered if this could be done in real-time or would post cruise processing be needed. Peter thought that the Athena system on-board the WHOI vessels did display true wind speeds and directions. Ken will contact Barrie Walden at WHOI to find out how it is done. Bob will call Dick Payne and see what he recommends. [Dick Payne said that the ship's heading as well as its velocity are necessary in order to correct for true wind velocity. He asked whether there was a ship's compass aboard that could provide this information or if we could add this to the system.] In any case, the concensus was that the true values should also be displayed.
The wind speed is reported in meters per second and some felt that it should be displayed in knots also (i.e. multiply by 1.852). Bob will look into this.
Ken said that the charting program used on-board can grab the PC port data so that the tow start and end positions are not available when they are needed. He asked whether he could remove them from the data output. We agreed that it could as long as one could get at the position from another source (in this case the Athena data).
Ken will check on whether the warranty is still available on the Trimble unit to get it repaired. He is still using the ship-based unit and not the one we bought. Ken and Cliff would first like to test the newly ordered units against the original one to see if all share the same problem.
There was confusion on what is the correlation between tow number and catch number. Ken said they are the same even though it is possible for the user to manually change the catch number. Ken planned on having the catch number continue to increase by one and not reset to 1 at the start of a trip. We discussed changing this so that the catch number would reset to 1 at the start of a new trip. This may happen, but not soon since there are higher priority programming tasks in the queue. However, Ken will remove the report button on the "Tow" GUI so that the information only gets sent when the user clicks on the "report" button on the "Catch" GUI.
We discussed the species categories and decided to create a more consistent naming
convention for certain species to include the species name without size designation,
and three with size designation. For example, there would be
Cliff showed off his PC solid mount sample which can be bolted/screwed in from below. It supports the PC and integral touch screen at the correct viewing angle.
People still have trouble with remembering their usernames and passwords for the private web site. They requested that Bob create a username of "fleetlink" and a password of "nopp". [Done, as of June 21, 2000]
Craig plans to install a new generator with a 15kw rating to address the significant electrical problems on the Susan&Caitlyn.
He is is very interested in being able to e-mail Wendy at the Portland Fish Exchange, in particular to pass along the hail information via e-mail. Ken said that he has implemented an e-mail button and that it works sending e-mail back to Ken. Ken will add a pull down list of "Mail to" choices to include
Craig reported that the WinPlot software is easier to use and has more functionality than other similar software. In particular, it has one tenth microseconds for Loran versus Captain's 1 microsecond. He expects to switch to WinPlot on his boat. Ken said he would buy one too to be able to test its compatibility with Wheelhouse.
Craig asked about getting "credit" for days at sea for the research work. Everyone agreed that he should apply the testing as appropriate to show that the funding is being spent as intended. There is one test day for Gary's system, and then one (or two) days of testing for the CTD and a second Gary system test. Ann said that, if necessary, the time can be charged to the FleetLink project.
Craig said that he would be in for one week so his boat would be available then for Ken and/or Gary as necessary.
Craig wondered if the net sensor casing was tough enough. Gary said that the casing he is using now is just for testing the prototype unit and that the final version will have a specially designed case that will be tough enough.
Gary said he is ready to install the second instrument mast in the second boat. The sea surface temperature (SST) sensor won't be ready for several months according to e-mail that Dave H. sent to Bob. We discussed alternative approaches. Gary offered to build three SST sensors. Bob will check with Dave to be sure this is okay with him. [Bob did; and it is okay with Dave.] We expect to have the second vessel ready for testing by the end of June and the third vessel ready for testing by the end of July or early August.
The next step will be to have a working model with the netsensor and deck unit.
The next meeting will be Thursday, July 27, 2000, at the Howard Johnsons, in New Hampshire.