| 1998 | |
| 1998-01-12 |
Site installed by Bob Twilley. Z-XIII, 2 x 24 Ah sonnenshein
batteries, Sharp laptop, 4 x 53 W solar panels. |
| 1998-03-26 |
GPS receiver switched off due to insufficient battery voltage |
| 1999 | |
| 1999-01-22 |
Site visited by Matt King and Rachael Manson. Two 3 x 53 W solar
panel frames erected. 3 x 73 Ah geltech batteries installed. Laptop
failed. Receiver set to 60 s sampling interval. |
| 1999-02-27 |
Receiver memory filled. |
| 2000 | |
| 2000-02-07 |
Site visited by Kevin Fleming. Simple system replaced with the
more sophisticated system including: PCON, DSCC, Satcom-B satellite
phone, fuel cell. Satellite phone connection didn't work - modem
connection problems. We couldn't resolve it so brought the phone
back. |
| 2000-02-20 |
GPS receiver memory filled. Don't know why the DSCC wasn't
deleting the files from the receiver. |
| 2000-04-23 |
Last day that DSCC downloaded data from the PCON. It subsequently lost
its BIOS settings and no longer booted up. |
| 2000-11-19 |
Site visited by John Hyslop. Fuel cell not working. Nine of the
18 cylinders were found to be empty. GPS receiver on/off switch found
in the off position. Receiver taken back to the hut for repair - it
later booted up once it had been in the hut for a while. DSCC BIOS
reconfigured via instructions over the VHF radio from VLZ-Davis. |
| 2000-11-29 |
Last day that John powered up the DSCC manually |
| | ***NOTE: I later found out from John that the DSCC
at BVLK was NOT powering up automatically each day - he was visiting
the site and powering it up using the over-ride switch. Another case
of the pcon time-set bug? |
| 2001 | |
| 2001-01-02 |
Site visited by Gary Johnson. PCON reset button pushed. This
reinitialised the real-time alarm of the PCON and it recommenced
powering up the DSCC automatically. **NOTE: we didn't know at this
stage about the time-set bug! |
| 2001-01-28 |
Last day of GPS data |
| 2001-05-05 |
Last day of PCON data. DSCC must have then lost its BIOS settings. |
| 2002 | |
| 2002-01-02 |
Site visited by Richard Stanaway and Anya Reading. DSCC BIOS reset.
GPS receiver found switched on but not working. An internal reset brought
it back to life. System recommenced normal operation. |
| 2002-04-13 |
Last day of GPS data |
| 2002-07-03 |
Last day that the DSCC powered up before winter. PCON decided that
the battery voltages were too low after this date. |
| 2002-08-18 |
First day that the DSCC was powered up after winter'02 |
| 2003 | |
| 2003-01-06 |
Site visited by Ian Harman. PCON EEPROM changed to a version
that includes controlling the temperatures at which the heaters will
be turned on. ***NOTE: Unfortunately, firmware change also contained
a variation to the format of the PCON diagnostic data. This was then
incompatible with the program hex2asc on the DSCC, resulting in the
DSCC getting the wrong information about battery voltages. Therefore,
all phone call ceased because the DSCC concluded that there was
insufficient power to start up the phone. |
| 2003-01-25 |
Revisited by Ian. Installed new version of hex2asc on the DSCC
to make it compatible with the PCON firmware. Phone calls recommenced. |
| 2003-04-17 |
Last day of GPS data |
| 2003-06-15 |
Last day the PCON powered up the DSCC before winter'03 |
| 2003-08-23 |
First phone connection after winter'03 |
| 2003-09-16 |
Survived first day without hibernating |
| 2003-10-30 |
Phone connection dropped out - solar storm problems? No further
phone communications for 11 days |
| 2003-11-11 |
Comms reestablished. |
| 2003 | |
| 2003-02-28 |
Reset the date on the PCON. This invoked a long-standing bug
that disabled the real-time alarm; therefore, the PCON no
longer woke up the DSCC from this day onwards. Bummer! |
| 2003-09-05 |
First call in after winter'03. Not sure why the PCON is once
again powering up the DSCC but it is! DSCC has lost its BIOS
settings, thinks it is Oct'02. PCON time and date are correct.
Alarm time is apparently 0400UT |
| 2003-09-16 |
Survived first day without hibernating. |
| 2003-09-17 |
Phone call not until 0647. |
| 2003-09-18 |
Phone call at 0400. Yesterday the call was late because the
DSCC spent a couple of hours downloading the GPS receiver
memory. Data every day from 060 to 105! The memory should now
be empty and we can expect the receiver to recommence observations.
|
| |
Reset the DSCC date to the correct date. |
| 2003-09-19 |
GPS data file dalt2610.03d.Z received automatically. All
systems working normally! |
| 2003-10-29 |
No phone call - solar storm effects? No comms as at 11/11/03 |
| 2000 | |
| 2000-02-03 |
Site installed by Kevin Fleming. Simple solar-powered system (GPS receiver
only). No radome on the antenna. |
| 2000-02-14 |
Equipment (including antenna but no the ground mark) removed. |
| 2000-12-11 |
Site visited by John Hyslop. Full installation (including satellite
phone) successfully performed. Site commenced recording and successful data
transmissions back to RSES began. |
| 2001 | |
| 2001-03-08 |
Site revisited by people on V7. A bug in the PCON EEPROM
firmware had been discovered during the summer season that meant the PCON
could enter a flip-flop hibernate/don't hibernate state that would result
in a fatal hanging of the system. To overcome this, we sent down a completely
new PCON circuit board, with updated EEPROM firmware, and instructions on
how to remove and replace the circuit board in the card frame.
This was done successfully - not sure now exactly when but the message
confirming that it was done is dated 8th March. |
| 2001-12-08 |
Site visited by Richard Stanaway. GPS receiver found switched
OFF, PCON ticking normally. GPS data found on flashdisk up to day 114, diagnostic
data until day 168. DSCC BIOS settings lost and reset. |
| 2001-12-10 |
Normal operations recommenced - including data transmission to RSES |
| 2002 | |
| 2002-11-15 |
Site visited by Anya Reading. DSCC BIOS reset by following
keystroke instructions (no monitor!) and computer started working properly
again. GPS receiver found switched OFF, recommenced observations when turned
back on. |
| 2002-11-16 |
Data transfers recommenced |
| 2002-11-19 |
Date reset on the DSCC. |
| 2002-11-20 |
GPS data transfers recommenced |
| 2003 | |
| 2003-01-06 |
Site visit by Ian Harman. PCON EEPROM replaced with V3.2. Link
added LK7. System left operating normally. |
| NOTE: Because of this upgrade, there was an incompatibility between
the word order of the PCON diagnostic data and the DSCC program, hex2asc, that reads
it to integrate the solar power and to determine the battery voltages. As a result,
the DSCC was concluding that there was insufficient power to start the phone and
so we lost all comms with LDBF! The reason for this silence was not determined until
after the subsequent visit. |
| 2003-01-12 |
Revisited by Ian Harman. After several attempts, Ian decided to
remove the new EEPROM and reinstall the old one. The site recommenced normal
operations, including comms! |
| 2003-09-05? |
First call after winter'03. Site transmitted only
file ldbf1301.03p. I don't know why. |
| 2003-09-06? |
Retransmitted file ldbf1301.03p. No explanation yet! |
| 2003-09-06 |
Directory listing shows pcon data files to day 177,
GPS data files to 107. |
| 2003-09-10 |
Modem showed "Ring 1" but no connection. Have not
heard from LDBF since ....... |
