Kongsberg KMALL (UDP multicast) - 20

The #MRZ message contains both 'raw' data (beam angle and travel time) and geo-referenced footprints (X,Y,Z).
Of these two, only the raw data is decoded by the driver.

Multibeam quality

Since Qinsy 9.3.0 the driver decodes a quality indicator for each beam and supports filtering footprints on quality.

This quality indicator is based on the 'qualityFactor' field in the KMALL data.
The content of this field is described by Kongsberg as:

• Estimated standard deviation as % of the detected depth. Quality Factor (QF) is calculated from IFREMER Quality Factor (IFQ): QF=Est(dz)/z=100*10^-IQF

This value is multiplied by 128 and capped on 255 in order to translate it from a 'real number' to a byte value. 

Auxiliary data

Please note that the driver does not decode auxiliary sensors interfaced into the unit, such as position, motion, heading, etc. They are updated in a burst every second and the Qinsy software needs updates as a continuous stream. 
These external sensors will have to be interfaced directly to Qinsy as well.

The following items are licensed by Kongsberg. The data is not sent from the PU if the license is not there.
Note that Kongsberg supports soft licenses. 

• Water column logging;

• Water column display;

• Extra detections.

Extra detections

Extra detections are supported by Qinsy when using the KMALL format.
When using the ALL format (Kongsberg EM2040-EM710-EM712-EM302-EM122 - 20) the detections are stored as normal footprints.

Kongsberg also has an option to classify the extra detections. This is currently not supported by QInsy.

• Please vote on FQI-559.

An EM2040 Single Head systems is equipped with one Transmit transducer and one Receive transducer; an EM2040 Dual Head system is equipped with one Transmit transducer and two Receiver transducers.

The RX and TX transducers of the EM2040 can each be oriented normally or reversed. The Heading offset angle should either be around 0° or around 180° when the orientation is reversed.
The Receive (RX) transducer is mounted normally (0°) when the connector points to bow and reversed (180°) when it points to stern. For Transmit (TX) transducer this is port (0°) and starboard (180°) respectively.
It seems that most EM2040 systems in the field have the RX connector pointing to stern and TX connector pointing to port, so the Multibeamer heading offset should be for the TX 0° and RX 180°. However, all combinations are possible.

Note that for the sake of simplicity of usage in Qinsy it is by far the easiest to mount the transducers with normal, non-reversed, orientation.

Note that for a dual head system with reversed RX transducers (heading offset around 180°) the roll offset should be around -30° for port side and +30° for starboard side, this is exactly opposite to what is common with "normal oriented" systems.

The figure above shows the orientation of the EM2040 Transducers and the approximate Multibeam System Heading offset that needs to be entered in Database Setup.

Reversed Sign

If the RX transducer is reversed, the Roll value as determined in the patch test should have a reversed sign (meaning the transfer option can't be used).

Phase Center offsets (PCO) used by Qinsy are shown below.

For the EM 2040C, the TX and RX arrays are integrated into a common sonar head. The transducer arrays are not placed at the center of the sonar head.
The EM 2040C can have one or two sonar heads. For most EM echo sounders separate x,y,z installation parameters are given for the RX and the TX arrays.
For EM 2040C the installation parameters entered by the operator refers to the centre of the face of the sonar head(s).

Acknowledgement: Text by Kongsberg EM Series Multibeam echo sounder EM datagram formats, 850-160692/V July 2016 © Kongsberg Maritime AS

'EM2040C Reference point, the so-called face of the center of the transducer'.
Phase Center offsets (PCO) used by Qinsy are shown below.

For the EM 2040P, the TX and RX arrays are integrated into a common sonar head. The transducer arrays are not placed at the center of the sonar head.
For most EM echosounders separate x,y,z installation parameters are given for the RX and the TX arrays.
For EM 2040P the installation parameters entered by the operator refer to a reference point on the face of the sonar head. This point is not marked on the sonar head.
The reference point used is the intersection between two diagonal lines drawn between the bumpers on the sonar head face.

Phase Center offsets (PCO) used by Qinsy are shown below.

Phase Center offsets (PCO) used by Qinsy are shown below.

The multibeam system can be controlled from Kongsberg's K-Controller utility.

This utility is also used to configure IP addresses and ports used.

UDP Multicast IP

Please note that due to the communication technology used by Kongsberg (UDP multicast), you will need to select an IP address from the multicast range (224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255).

Network cable
Preferably a direct cross-over network cable should be used to transfer the data. This will minimize the chances of any dropped packets.

It is also recommended to have a direct network connection from the Kongsberg PU to a dedicated network card on the survey PC.
Especially when sending a lot of data (water column data for example).

Network switch
In case you don’t have a direct connection of the PU and you are using a switch in combination with the UDP Multicast protocol, we suggest to use a managed network switch.
This ensures that only the systems that request the data, get the information forwarded from the switch.

Network card on survey PC
Kongsberg suggests to enable the following setting to ensure that the network card is not automatically changed to a lower setting.

Connection problems or packet loss
In case you are experiencing connection problems, i.e. data not coming into Qinsy, please have a look at the following tips.

Connection loss between K-Controller and Qinsy 9.1.1

Currently Qinsy will only check the network adapter with the highest priority because the communication technology used is UDP multicast.
It is advised to change network priorities when there are multiple network adapters available to ensure that the network adapter connected to the PU has the highest priority.

To change priority of a network adapter use the following steps:

1. Go to the Network Connections view

2. Go to the Properties of the network adapter you want to prioritize

3. Open up the Properties of Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

4. Click the Advanced button

5. Uncheck the 'Automatic metric' and assign a priority value for the adapter
   

   

   
   A lower 'Interface metric' number means higher priority.

Packet loss

A 'Balanced' (default) power plan on the PC can cause package dropouts from the second head.
This can be solved by changing the power plan on the PC from 'Balanced' to 'High Performance' when using a Windows 10 or Windows 11 pc.

Difference SIS5 vs K-Controller

It is important that logging can only be started if SIS5 is running together with the K-Controller:

• In SIS-5 you can remotely Start/Stop both Pinging and Logging.

• In the K-Controller you can remotely Start/Stop Pinging only.

Add the XML files in the table below to this location:

• C:\Users\Public\Documents\QPS\Qinsy\Drivers\Definitions\Output

*Prior to SIS Release 5.10.0, the XML for EM2040P/M was the same as that of the EM2040.

Downloading the XML files
The xml-files above are only visible when logged in to the QPS website, not when viewing the Drivers Manual from the Qinsy Console.

Logging data with Qinsy and SIS on the same PC

QPS advises to run SIS and Qinsy on separate PC's to allow both systems to run on maximum performance.
When logging data with both packages on one PC, this can lead to storage issues due to the large amounts of data.