ACEP at Work: BlackBox Project Logbook – Weekly Update

Project Description: The Black Box Project consist of the design, construction and testing of a remote data acquisition system. The goal of the project is to develop a fully self-contained system that can be left in the field unmonitored for extended periods of time.  

Progress Update:
ACEP engineers are in the process of constructing and testing the BlackBox for deployment in the field. The web relay was successfully set up this week and was able to send “pings” to devices and received “pongs” back. The web relay is setup to send “pings” to the other devices and receive “pongs” every 20 seconds. If five consecutive “pings” are sent to a device without receiving a “pong” back the relay will open, wait 30 seconds then close, resetting power to the device.

All devices are communicating together but there is still additional configuration and troubleshooting to be done so that each device functions in the desired way. Configuration was started on the I/O server this week. The server will use Linux as the operating system and with its I/O module will function as the brains of the black box. Figure 8 below shows the finished installation of the Black Box and VDOS on the test stand.

Project Lead: Marc Mueller-Stoffels, mmuellerstoffels@alaska.edu

Project Engineer: Nicholas Konefal

Project Funding: ShellWind/Shell Foundation, Alaska Energy Authority

 

Photo Caption:  Black Box and VDOS installation

Photo courtesy of N. Konefal, ACEP/UAF