Argonaut Pentium 3, 750 laptop and Rio ADCP's.; AND SonTek ViewArgonaut

[Keith Ging]

I just read Lars email so here's my two cents:  I only have the Sontek Argonaut SL's and use a Dell Latitude Pentium III laptop.  I've had no problems talking to the Argonauts and downloading log files from them.  I did have problems uploading new firmware into the SL.  I tried many different things (including adjusting the baud rate) w/ help from Sontek but had no luck.  I ended up borrowing an IBM laptop from Sontek to do the upload.  I did finally take care of the problem by switching from Windows NT to Windows 98 on my Dell laptop.  Now it works fine.  Hope this helps.  If nothing else, maybe this can be used to prove to Argonaut Computers that they have a problem with their product.

Keith Ging
Lower Colorado River Authority - River Services
Austin, TX
512-356-6009

>>> "Lars Soderqvist" <lsoderq at usgs.gov> 01/28/02 08:53AM >>>

Scott,
     I have an Argonaut Ranger M7000 with 1.0 Gigabyte Pentium III
Processor.  I recently used this laptop for the first time to make ADCP
measurements and also had communication problems.  The measurements were
going great for the first few passes.  Then, for no apparent reason,
communications were lost.  First of all, the screen would cease to update.
Then soon after, on the "Aquire Tabular" view, "ADCP Status" would read "No
Data" in red.  When this happened, the laptop would begin to beep every
10.0 seconds.  I could restart the ADCP by pressing F4 to stop pinging, and
F4  to restart, but lose that transect in the process.  We were measuring
in  approx. 2m of water, mode 5, 10cm cell, and at 115200 baud, with Delta
Time around 0.20 s.  Marc Stewart was involved with this ADCP measuring
efffort, and with his help we were able to isolate this problem to the
laptop (Evidence: the Argonaut laptop crapped out with both the Miami and
Ft Myers Rios; the same Rios worked perfectly fine with my old reliable
yellow Rocky laptop.)
     I am currently running the ADCP with the Argonaut laptop in my office
and am able to duplicate the problem.  With the ADCP pinging, but not
recording, the laptop will lose eventually lose communications ("No Data").
     I believe the problem is linked to the faster baud rates.  My first
clue is that with the Argonaut laptop and ADCP running at 19200 Baud and
38400 Baud, I was unable to duplicate the problem.  Yet, when I bumped it
up to 57600 Baud (and 115200 Baud) the laptop would eventually crash.
     I also believe that the problem gets worse the longer the ADCP is run.
When I first started trying to duplicate the problem earlier this morning,
the laptop would lose communications after 2,000 - 3,000 ensembles.  But
now, after having the laptop and ADCP working all morning, the laptop is
losing communications after fewer than 1,000 ensembles.  This agrees with
field evidence obtained by Marc Stewart, who unsuccesfully experimented
with stopping pinging between measurements in order to keep the total
number of ensembles lower as a possible solution to the problem.
     An additional clue (and complaint) is that this Argonaut Laptop is
also having problems downloading SonTek Argonaut-SLs at the higher baud
rates.  Each time I have tried to download the SLs (i.e.
"Internally-logged" files made during ADCP measurements) at the higher baud
rates, the laptop will freeze up in the middle of the download.  At this
point, I have to "end task" the View Argonaut program, wait a while for the
laptop to make the Com Port available again, and re-download the file at a
slower baud rate.
     I assume that other Rio users are able to measure at the 115200 baud
with their laptops, and that Argonaut-SL users are able to download at the
higher baud rates as well.  If this is true, then the problem has to be in
the Argonaut laptop.  If this is the case, I hope you have sucess dealing
with the manufacturer.  The ONLY reason we purchaseed the Argonaut laptop
was to make ADCP measurements at the highest baud rate possible in order to
collect the maximum number of ensembles.  If I have to limit the Baud to
19200 or 38400,  I would have been better of tracking down another yellow
Rocky.

Please keep us up to date with this issue,

Lars Soderqvist
Ft. Myers USGS
(941) 275-8448
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