DL25 in the Field in Far North Queensland

The DL25 ADCP Extended Memory And Control (EMAC) has been deployed to support a Teledyne RDI Channel Master installed in a location on the Rankin Creek near Cairns in Far North Queensland.

BlueZone (UVS) Engineer, Josh Berry, travelled to Cairns to assist Mark Randall, Senior Project Officer Water Monitoring at Department of Environment and Resource Management with the installation in a dedicated hut complete with batteries bank and solar power. The creek was in a dry season condition with less than a metre of water and the Channel Master was deployed to provide for measurement when the wet season increased the water level to approximately six metres. The fully sealed “subsea” enclosure was selected for the DL25 to provide for protection from insects and vermin which are a constant problem for field installation of electronic equipment. BlueZone also assisted with provision and installation of the 3G modem used for the communication link.

The DL25 was selected to provide a long term data logging for the deployment throughout the wet season combined with the ability to enable web-based supervision of the ADCP throughout the deployment. Communication was implemented using a 3G modem so that the ADCP could be easily checked from the office to confirm that it was functioning correctly and thus avoiding a 4-hour return trip from Cairns to check at the site. The DL25 also provides the capability to monitor the complete installation including the state of the battery bank, power usage of the ADCP and of the data logger so that a complete understanding of the installation can be gained in the event of any problems or failures during the deployment.

BlueZone continues to work closely with DERM to develop new features for the DL25 including the capability to data log more than one Channel Master at the same site to support installation of ADCPs in a vertical alignment for validation of flow models.