TSS 340/440/350 Depth of Cover / Signal Strength - 23
Description
Driver to decode pipe tracker or cable tracker data, depth of, ROV altitude (or depth) and Signal Strength data from a TSS 340, 350 or 440 output string.
The driver automatically recognizes the "T", "I" and "S" records.
To compute a cable position, the Qinsy Multibeam support must be enabled.
Driver Information
| Driver | TSS 340/440/350 | Interface Type | - | Driver Class Type | Terminated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UTC Driver  | No | Input / Output | Input | Executable | DrvTSS350.exe |
| Related Systems |
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| Related Pages | |||||
Coding Notes
Decoding Notes
The TSS tracker distances are output in either centimeters or millimeters, but these are converted to meters by the TSS driver.
The driver decodes the TSS tracker offsets as (two) multibeam echosounder beams.
- Beam 1 represents the actual pipe target. It contains the vertical distance between the tracker reference point (reference line of the coil array) and the target.
Beam 2 represents the seafloor above or below the detected pipe or cable.It contains the vertical distance between the tracker reference point and the sea bottom.
The Z value of beam 2 is obtained by subtracting the Depth of Cover value from the Z value of beam 1 (+ value means buried), The X (across) value is taken from beam 1.
Source: TSS manual
If lateral or vertical offset field(s) contains '???' then the multibeam data will not be decoded.Drivers.io options
If NOQUAL option is used then the multibeam data will be decoded anyway even though offset fields contain question marks (???) instead of figures.
The X and Z value of beam 1 will be set to 0.
If Cover Thickness field contains '???' then the last valid decoded cover thickness is used to calculate the beam to Z value and the Quality indicator of this beam is forced to 99 to indicate it is not valid.
The Quality field 'Q' is ignored, instead the Check code field is used as the beam's quality indicator. A value of 0 is best quality, 99 worst quality.
Source: TSS manual
Qinsy Config
Database Setup
To decode the (horizontal and vertical) cable tracker offsets as multibeam observations, from which the cable position can be computed, add a system of type "Multibeam echosounder" to the (ROV) object, select the "TSS 340"or "TSS 350" driver and add the appropriate interfacing and system parameters.
It is strongly recommended to correct the TSS data (lateral and vertical offset) by the roll angle. Otherwise, the pipe or cable will be in an absolutely wrong position in a roll affected behavior. A pitch correction is not necessary as long as the TSS system is always measuring the shortest distance between the coil center and the target. Therefore you need to set 'Unit is pitch stabilized' :
In order to decode the ROV attitude (or depth) from the same input string, connect a new "Underwater Sensor" to the ROV object and select the "TSS 340 (ROV Altitude)" or "TSS 350 (ROV Altitude)" driver with the same I/O parameters as before. Select the ROV object and add a new observation of type "ROV altitude" (or "ROV depth"). Do not forget to set the "Observation Properties", i.e. the unit to meters.
The "Depth of Cover" and "Signal Strength" fields can be decoded (and displayed) as a "generic observation". Add an auxiliary system of type "Miscellaneous system" to the database, select the "TSS 340/350 Depth of Cover / Signal Strength" driver; use the same I/O parameters as with the MBE driver (if it was defined).
Add one or more "Generic Observation(s)" to the new system and assign the appropriate slot number.
The slot number will define which value is decoded from the various strings:
Value | Slot Number |
|---|---|
"Depth of Cover" | 0 |
"Signal Strength 1" | 1 |
"Signal Strength 2" | 2 |
"Signal Strength 3" | 3 |
"Signal Strength 4" | 4 |
"Signal Strength 5" | 5 (TSS350 Only) |
"Signal Strength 6" | 6 (TSS350 Only) |
In case more than one system is defined for the TSS tracker, Qinsy will start up only one driver module.
Qinsy Online
Online
Controller setup
To exclude invalid beam data from the result dtm's you can flag the data based on the beam quality indicator value. Note that for beam 2 the Quality indicator is set to 99 if the decoded "Depth of Cover" is invalid.
Displays
It is possible to set an alert on the check code (quality figure) in the Alert Display. To do so select a Raw data alert of the type "Quality indicator outside limit".