|
|
 |
Time flies!
Dear colleagues, As we come to the close of 2011 and look back, it has been a year of many changes! Thank you for your support and feedback during these past 12 months - we have enjoyed meeting many of you at tradeshows and individual visits. The introduction of our RBRduo family has been well received, along with the single channel high capacity RBRvirtuoso. The RBRduo T.wave is now shipping, with continuous 6Hz temperature and pressure measurements - ideal for coastal erosion studies and boat wake monitoring. We recently integrated the Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor, and now offer resolution of 1.5ppm with the extremely low drift that quartz gauges include. This resolution figure will be improved dramatically in early 2012 to <10ppb - the sort of measurements needed for seafloor geodesy, gas field subsidence, and so on.
This last month of the year contains not only our customary Christmas holiday, but also the relocation of RBR to our new offices! Our phone and electronic contact details will not change, but the mailing address will, and is shown below. We will be having a grand opening party in January and any of you in the region would be most welcome to attend! With best wishes for a peaceful Christmas and happy New Year, greg Greg Johnson, PhD President
|
 |
|
Product development
  The RBR duo is our new two channel logger, created from the ground up and building on the years of experience RBR has creating reliable and easy-to-use instruments that measure data of the highest quality. The main features you will notice: - 10x larger data storage. We can now store over 25 million readings internally.
- True USB speed and convenience. Easy configuration and blazing download speeds using a USB cable (the same as used on the Apple iPhone) supplied with the logger. Of course, RS-232 and RS-485 are still supported for telemetry and long cable usage.
- Longer deployments. RBR never sells instruments with memory that cannot be used, so we have increased the battery capacity of the RBRduo to match the amount of data that can be stored.
We have improved all aspects of this instrument while maintaing the accuracy you expect. In the electronics department, a new microprocessor, realtime operating system, sophisticated power management, and USB and serial connectivity. Mechanically, we have reduced the complexity of the internal parts, and created a battery holder that is reliable and easy-to-use while making more efficient use of the space available. There is a curtain that prevents debris from falling into the instrument when the end cap is open, and desiccant is now stored easily in the battery end cap, making it easier to use.
We demonstrated the RBRduo at Ocean Business in Southampton at the beginning of April. Validation and verification is complete and we are accepting orders. Deliveries start in late September.
New 1060 single channel instruments
The TR-1060 temperature channel logger in a 1" (25mm) has been very popular. We are now filling out the model offerings with a new DR-1060 (pressure) and DO-1060 (dissolved oxygen). Both of them offer the same convenient size, and are available starting in April. Grab the new 1060 datasheet!
Usage tips
Desiccant usage The greatest enemy of underwater measurements is water itself. O-ring maintenance is critical to avoid catastrophic flooding (never use a metallic tool to remove an o-ring!) but equally important is the use of desiccant to prevent measurement inaccuracy and electronic damage caused by condensing water vapour.
Whether present from the atmospheric conditions present when the logger was sealed, or the slower but pervasive diffusion of water through delrin itself, desiccant is essential for every deployment.
We've updated our application note for desiccant usage recently (see the link below) and it now includes instructions and part numbers. In particular, 1060 instruments need special care to place the pack, and we are sending complimentary desiccant and instructions to all known 1060 customers to ensure successful measurements.
Lost and Found
RBR loggers found after 5 years
 Three RBR instruments were retrieved from a beach on Hudson Bay east of
the mouth of the Nelson River. They were buried in the sand, with attached floats
from moorings deployed in 2005 and 2006, but never retrieved.
All of the
loggers were found by Natural Resources officers flying along the shore. Two
of the loggers had been deployed in the mouth of the Nelson River in fall of 2006
and the other logger had been deployed a year earlier (way up) near Cape Churchill.
Surprisingly all three ended up not far from each
other on the beach.
With two of the loggers we were able to recover the data from them. One logger had two years worth of data while the other one had a full year's worth. One logger we so damaged that we could not recover any data.
RBR is on the move
|
|
About you
Fiamma
Straneo is an Associate Scientist in the Physical Oceanography department at
WHOI. She is a long time user of RBR products, with research interests in water mass transformation and the overturning circulation; the export of fresh water from the Arctic region to the North
Atlantic; and ice-sheet ocean interactions around Greenland.
Even though Fiamma grew up in Milano Italy,
she spent her summers sailing in the Mediterranean Sea
where we suspect she found the calling to be an oceanographer. Combining
her physics background with an interest in earth sciences and the ocean, she
earned a Ph.D. degree at the University
of Washington in Seattle. She pursued postdoctoral studies at
Woods Hole, where she has used models and observations to understand convection
regions, where some of the densest ocean waters are formed, and found herself
back in icy waters. When on land, she is an organic gardener, interested
in growing food, the biodiversity of our vegetables and sustainable living. Click here to read a great article about Fiamma's work in the New York Times.
About our agentsThis month we are highlighting Stefan Stimson (MSI, Australia). A long time user as well as an agent, he knows the RBR product line better than we do! MSI not only represent instrument manufacturers, they perform complete metocean deployments, surveys, and analysis all over the globe.
Enthusiastic and professional with a biting sense of humour, Molly's proven leadership abilities are a vital asset to the RBR team. Many of you will have spoken to or emailed with Molly as she spends most of her day working with customers. Molly is never without her faithful companion, Ginko (a Bernese Mountain dog) who has been crowned the RBR office mascot. An avid fitness freak, Molly is the resident authority on health and wellness.
|
|
customer update
