STRATABOX
™
Operations and Maintenance Manual
OPERATION 3-3
©
2006 SyQwest Incorporated
The ping count is included to provide the user with a means of estimating how fast the StrataBox Sensor
is pinging, and also for how long. The ping count is reset to zero when any of the following events occur:
-
The StrataBox PC Software is restarted.
-
A Recording or Playback file has begun.
-
The StrataBox Sensor has temporarily lost power and reset.
In addition, the StrataBox software features an animated compass which displays the current heading.
The compass is located underneath the GPS position information.
3. Gain and Auto Controls
The Gain controls consist of 2 pull-down menus which control the StrataBox Sensor’s gain settings. The
StrataBox
Hardware
gain is controlled by the
DC Gain
control and can be set either from 0-75 dB, or to
Auto Mode. The
BT Gain
controls the
Bottom Triggered
gain which allows the user to amplify acoustic
returns in the sub-bottom sediments. The
BT Gain
is first applied at the bottom depth value and
increases over time at the selected dB/unit increment. It can be set from 0.1 - 2.0 dB/unit (Either Feet or
Meters, depending on which is currently enabled) in 0.1 increments. For example, consider the
following:
Bottom Depth is 40.0 meters
Range is set to 0 - 80 meters
BT Gain
is set to 0.5 dB/m
DC Gain
is set to 30 dB
From 0 – 40 meters, the total gain will remain 30 dB as set by the
DC Gain
control. After 40 meters,
however, the total gain will increase by 0.5 dB every meter, giving you 35 dB of total gain at 50 meters,
40 dB at 60 meters, etc. The
BT Gain
can only apply up to 30 dB of additional gain.
Depressing the
Auto All
button sets the StrataBox Sensor to automatically choose the best Range (Refer
to next section for more information on Range) and hardware Gain settings, making bottom tracking
easier for the user. Clicking the
Auto All
button again will toggle the StrataBox back to manual mode.
The
BT Gain
is not auto-controlled in Auto All mode. This allows the user to select the BT Gain best
suited to the bottom features present for their application.
NOTE: When in Auto All mode, the DC Gain control is not available and will be controlled
by the StrataBox automatically. While the control is disabled, it will indicate which
hardware gain setting that the Sensor has chosen.
4. Range, Zoom Range, and Shift Controls
The
Range
control allows you to choose a manual range for the StrataBox Sensor. It includes 6 range
settings presented in either Feet or Meters.
The
Zoom Range
control has 5 settings which are used to set the range of the Zoom window. These
values will be in either Feet or Meters depending on which units are currently selected.