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This housing was designed for a marine archaeologist
who will use it to test the acid-base balance of the
remaining materials in an 80-year old aircraft wreck in
the tropics. It uses a special underwater pH probe that
must be kept wet at all times, even during
transportation. |
|
This housing will allow the same marine archaeologist
to test the conductivity and strength of the remaining
aluminum on the same wreck. It uses a special
silver-silver chloride probe on the active side and a
pointed platinum probe for the return. Both housings
were shipped in fitted Pelican cases. |
|
This tilt meter housing, with interchangeable
back-boards that have lower points that are precisely 12
inches and 25 cm apart, is used to measure the angle of
each of many segments along the ribs of a sunken ship.
The instrument inside is a precision digital gauge that
can measure angles to 0.1 degree. With the recorded
angles over known distances, the shape of each rib can
be reconstructed on a drafting table or in CAD. This
process is repeated for all ribs that are available, and
an accurate model of the hull can be created. |
|
In an effort to extend the Environmental Acoustic
Recording System (EAR) to greater depths, this version
was created using aluminum tube, a double o-ring bore
seal, and a thicker acrylic door. These housings are
designed to be deployed at a depth of 500 Meters. They
use a floatation collar and are attached to a disposable
weight by an acoustic release. When the year-long
recording session is complete, an acoustic signal is
transmitted into the water at the surface, and the
release device drops the weight, allowing retrieval of
the EAR at the surface. |
| |
| Photo of a 2007 test deployment of Deep EAR in the
Canary Islands off Spain by the Foundation for
Conservation of Marine Animals (CRAM). Photo by Alex
Lorente - CRAM Foundation -
www.cram.org. |
| |
| 2007 photo of divers installing a Deep EAR in a
weather buoy anchor line in the Canary Islands. Photo by
Alex Lorente - CRAM Foundation -
www.cram.org. |
|
This is the third generation of the Shallow EAR (100-ft
depth), now with double o-ring bore seal and room for 6
battery packs. |
| |
| This photo shows details of the housing,
electronics, hydrophone mount, and battery packs. |
| |
| EAR deployed in American Samoa (2006) at a depth of
about 90 feet. Note the concrete weight and protective
bars. |
| |
| Close up of EAR retrieved from reef in American
Samoa after 4 months in a test deployment. Note the
growth of marine organisms all over, except where
stainless straps were used to hold it to the concrete
weight. |
|
This housing was designed for a depth of 500 feet. It
is mounted on a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the
Great Lakes. The box is milled from a block of aluminum
4 inches thick. The door is 3/4" thick and has sealed
holes for five underwater connectors to be supplied by
the customer. The o-ring seal is in a groove in the top
edges of the box sides. |
| |
| Inside view of housing and door. |
|
This ruggedized housing, designed for 330 feet, is
about 10 inches square, is machined out of a solid block
of aluminum. It has a 1-inch thick polycarbonate door.
It has two power connectors, two control connectors, a
printed circuit board, an LCD display, a high current
relay, and a keypad to allow a deep diver to read and
control certain of its functions. |
| |
| This photo shows an inside view of the housing
above, before installation of real components and
wiring. The aluminum housing is powder coated to
withstand corrosion. The door is o-ring sealed and held
in place by twenty screws. The LCD display is mounted to
the inside of the door. At the top of the printed
circuit board, a temperature-sensitive semiconductor is
heat-sinked to the wall of the housing. |
|
This is part of an initial group of seven instruments
developed by the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology to
study the long-term acoustic environment of tropical
reefs in the Pacific to depths of 100 feet. Each device
has a computer-controlled audio recording system
consisting of a hydrophone, digital signal processing
circuitry, hard disk, and control and timing circuits.
The unit is powered by custom battery packs, and can be
deployed for up to a year of unattended operation. The
complete unit is shown on the left. The right view shows
the white battery packs in the back half and a tray for
the system components in front. Outside the door are the
gray hydrophone and a connector for additional battery
modules. |
|
This device facilitates synchronization of two
low-light video cameras by providing a unique pattern of
lit LEDs for each frame. This system, developed by NOAA
Tropical Reef Ecosystems Group in Honolulu, can measure
the length of tropical bottom fish in the wild as they
are attracted to bait released by this apparatus. By
digitizing nose and tail on simultaneous frames of the
images produced by the video cameras as a stereo pair,
calculations can be made to measure the true length of
these fish, even when they are oriented at an angle to
the cameras. The system is deployed for 24-36 hours at
depths to 500 Meters, then releases a weight and floats
to the surface for retrieval.See more about this and
the BWR (below) as used on the BotCam at
www.pifsc.noaa.gov/cred/botcam.php |
|
This device, in a housing similar to the SVS device
above, powers a mechanism designed to release the bait
from a container to attract fish to the device described
above. The battery pack inside provides the power to
electrolyze a thin wire on the spring-loaded bait
container, releasing the bait on control from another
module in the system. |
| |
| This photo shows the three major components of this
module, the capped acrylic cylinder, the custom battery
pack, and the door with a printed circuit board for
input and output connectors, relay, and battery
contacts. |
|
Second generation housing for the
Dakota Ultrasonics thickness gauge simplified
construction, lowering cost, and improved reliability of
self-contacting connectors. See
Dakota Ultrasonics
for details. |
|
See More Examples of
Underwater Instrument Housings
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Other types of Housings
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