Once the DM24 is connected to your equipment, it will start producing data immediately. You can now start configuring it for your own needs. There are two ways you can do this:
using the graphical interface provided by Scream!, or
over a terminal connection (see Chapter 5, page 51).
Both methods provide full access to the configuration options of the digitizer.
In most circumstances, you will use Scream! to operate the system. For complete information on how to use Scream! to configure and control your instrument, please refer to the Scream! user guide.
The DM24 converts analogue signals to digital data at a high sample rate, which is then reduced in steps. This process is known as decimation, and each output stage is called a tap.
The highest data rate you can choose is 1000 samples/s. This rate can only be produced by Tap 0, the first tap. Tap 0 can also produce data at 500, 400, 200 or 100 samples/s.
After Tap 0 there are three more taps. Each tap produces data at an integer sample rate, which must be 2, 4, 5, 8 or 10 times lower than the previous tap.
For example, the following is a possible sequence:
Tap 0 : 500 samples/s
Tap 1 : 50 samples/s (divide by 10)
Tap 2 : 10 samples/s (divide by 5)
Tap 3 : 5 samples/s (divide by 2)
The digitizer always generates all four sample rates, but it does not have to output them. You can configure any set of taps to output. You can also have different taps configured for different sensor components.
All of these configuration options are easily changed via Scream!, or you can use the terminal commands SET-TAPS and CONTINUOUS.
The DM24 has a flexible triggering system. When the digitizer triggers, it can optionally output (or store – see DUAL mode on page 16) additional data. Any combination of tap and component can be output as the result of a trigger.
In the example above, you might configure the sensor to output Tap 2 data (at 10 samples/s) continuously, but when a trigger is declared, to output Tap 0 data (at 500 samples/s) as well.
Using triggering helps you to use limited storage capacity or bandwidth more effectively.
The digitizer can look at the data from any tap to decide if a trigger has occurred, including taps which it does not output. Which tap you choose depends on the frequencies you want the trigger system to be most sensitive to.
There are three types of trigger.
A LEVEL trigger occurs when the absolute sample values exceed a configured value.
The commands GTRIGGERS, MICROG, and HIGHPASS control LEVEL triggering.
An STA/LTA trigger occurs when the ratio of a short-term average to a long-term average for recent data exceeds a configured value.
The commands TRIGGERS, TRIGGERED, STA, LTA, RATIOS, and BANDPASS control STA/LTA triggering.
A software trigger occurs when you issue the command S/WTRIGGER.
The DM24 can output data streams for a period of time before the trigger starts, and after the trigger ends. The commands PRE-TRIG and POST-TRIG set these time periods.
Triggering options can also be configured through Scream!.
The DM24 organizes the data it produces into streams. Each stream has a 6-character identifier. The first four characters are taken from the System ID of the digitizer. When you receive the instrument, the System ID is set to its serial number, but you can change it in Scream! or with a terminal command.
The next character denotes the component or output type:
Z, N, and E denote the vertical, north/south, and east/west components respectively.
X denotes the fourth full-rate data channel, which is provided for connection to your own monitoring equipment via the AUXILIARY connector (if present).
C denotes the calibration input channel, which replaces the X streams whilst calibration is in progress.
M denotes one of the 16 slow-rate Mux (multiplex) channels. Three of these (M8, M9 and MA) are used to report the sensor mass positions. Channels MC and MD are connected to the X and Y axes of the downhole inclinometer.
For Z, N, E, X, and C streams, the last character represents the output tap. Taps correspond to stages in the decimation process within the digitizer, allowing the DM24 to output several different data rates simultaneously. There are four taps, numbered 0 to 3; 0 has the highest data rate and 3 the lowest. Data streams end in 0, 2, 4 and 6 for taps 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
If you configure the DM24 to output triggered data, this will appear in separate streams ending with the letters G, I, K or M for taps 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
The DM24 also generates a stream ending 00. This is a status stream containing useful diagnostic information, in plain text form (see Section 6.1, page 89).
The standard DM24 has 4 full-rate channels: one per component of a triaxial instrument, plus the auxiliary and calibration channel.
Some DM24 modules, known as “6-channel digitizers”, are designed for use with two instruments simultaneously, connected to the ports SENSOR A and SENSOR B. These digitizers actually have 7 full rate data channels, including the auxiliary/calibration channel. When you enable calibration on these digitizers, the signal is passed to both instruments. All 7 channels share the same settings for the four output taps.
A 6-channel digitizer will output full-rate streams with the following final characters:
Z/N/E0 | SENSOR A at tap 0 | Z/N/E1 | SENSOR B at tap 0 | |
Z/N/E2 | SENSOR A at tap 1 | Z/N/E3 | SENSOR B at tap 1 | |
Z/N/E4 | SENSOR A at tap 2 | Z/N/E5 | SENSOR B at tap 2 | |
Z/N/E6 | SENSOR A at tap 3 | Z/N/E7 | SENSOR B at tap 3 | |
Z/N/EG | SENSOR A at tap 0, triggered | Z/N/EH | SENSOR B at tap 0, triggered | |
Z/N/EI | SENSOR A at tap 1, triggered | Z/N/EJ | SENSOR B at tap 1, triggered | |
Z/N/EK | SENSOR A at tap 2, triggered | Z/N/EL | SENSOR B at tap 2, triggered | |
Z/N/EM | SENSOR A at tap 3, triggered | Z/N/EN | SENSOR B at tap 3, triggered | |
X/C0 | Auxiliary at tap 0 | X/C1 | Auxiliary at tap 1 | |
X/C2 | Auxiliary at tap 2 | X/C3 | Auxiliary at tap 3 |
Standard 6-channel digitizers have the same 8 Mux channels as their 3-channel counterparts: M8, M9 and MA for the mass positions of SENSOR A, and MB to MF for your own equipment. These digitizers are designed for use with a strong-motion instrument or geophone attached to SENSOR B, and so do not expose the mass positions for this sensor. In addition, SENSOR B cannot be locked, unlocked, or centred.
Optionally, a digitizer can be supplied which provides 5 additional Mux channels M3 to M7 for external equipment (again exposed on the AUXILIARY connector). 6-channel DM24 modules with this option also measure the mass positions of SENSOR B, if available, and output these on streams ending M0, 1 and 2.
Transmission modes are an important concept on the DM24. The current transmission mode determines whether the unit stores data in its on-board Flash memory, sends it over the serial link in GCF format or does some combination of these.
You can switch between transmission modes with a console command (see chapter 5, page 51) or by using the Scream! configuration interface.
Command: DIRECT
Instructs the DM24 not to use Flash memory for storage. Instead, all data is transmitted directly to clients. An instrument in DIRECT mode still honours the GCF Block Recovery Protocol: a temporary RAM buffer always holds the last 256 blocks generated and, if a client fails to receive a block, it can request its retransmission.
If you expect breaks in communication between the instrument and its client to last more than 256 blocks, or if you want the instrument to handle breaks in transmission (rather than relying on the client to request missed blocks), you should use
ADAPTIVE mode, if you want data to stay as near to real time as possible (but do not mind if blocks are received out of order) or
FIFO mode, if you need blocks to be received in strict order (but do not mind if the instrument takes a while to catch up to real time).
Command: FILING
Instructs the DM24 not to transmit blocks to clients automatically, but to store all digitized data in the Flash memory. If you have chosen the RECYCLE buffering mode (see below), the memory is used in circular fashion, i.e. if it becomes full, incoming blocks begin overwriting the oldest in memory. If, instead, the WRITE-ONCE buffering mode is active, the instrument will switch to DIRECT mode (see above) when the memory becomes full.
You can retrieve blocks from an instrument in FILING mode by connecting to its terminal interface and issuing commands such as FLUSH, or through Scream! (see below).
When in FILING mode, an instrument transmits “heartbeat” messages over its data port. These short messages take the place of data blocks, and ensure that programs such as Scream! know that an instrument is present.
You can change the frequency of heartbeat messages from Scream!'s Control window, or with the command HEARTBEAT.
Command: DUPLICATE
Instructs the DM24 to transmit streams directly to clients as for DIRECT mode, but also to store all data into Flash storage as for FILING mode.
If a client fails to acknowledge a block, the digitizer does not attempt to retransmit it.
Command: DUAL
Instructs the DM24 to transmit any continuous streams directly to clients as for DIRECT mode, but to store triggered data into Flash storage as for FILING mode.
If you choose DUAL mode but do not select any continuous streams for output, the instrument will send heartbeat messages as for FILING mode. Scream! can pick these up and download new data as necessary.
Command: FIFO
Instructs the DM24 to begin writing blocks to Flash memory as for FILING mode, but also to transmit data to clients. Data is transmitted in strict order, oldest first; the DM24 will only transmit the next block when it receives an explicit acknowledgement of the previous block.
If the communications link is only marginally faster than the data rate, it will take some time to catch up with the real-time data after an outage. If you want data to be transmitted in real-time where possible, but are worried about possible breaks in communication, you should use ADAPTIVE mode instead.
FIFO mode will consider a data block successfully transmitted once it has received an acknowledgement from the next device in the chain. If there are several devices between you and the instrument, you will need to set up the mode for each device (if applicable) to ensure that data flow works the way you expect.
Like all the transmission modes, FIFO mode does not delete data once it has been transmitted. You can still request anything in the Flash memory using Scream! or over the command line. The only way data can be deleted is if it is overwritten (in the RECYCLE buffering mode, see below) or if you delete it manually.
Command: ADAPTIVE
Instructs the DM24 to transmit current blocks to clients if possible, but to store all unacknowledged blocks in the Flash memory and re-send them, oldest first, when time allows. ADAPTIVE mode is best suited for “real-time” installations where the link between digitizer and client is intermittent or difficult of access.
If the communications link is only marginally faster than the data rate, it will usually be busy transmitting real-time data. Thus, it may take a while for the instrument to work through the missed blocks. In this case, and if your client supports it, you may prefer to use the Block Recovery Protocol to request missed blocks where possible (see section 7.3, page 110).
Some software packages (most commonly Earthworm) cannot handle blocks being received out of time order. If you are using such a package, ADAPTIVE mode will not work and may crash the software.
There are two different buffering modes which affect how the internal flash memory is utilized. Either may be used with any of the available transmission modes.
Command: RE-USE
Instructs the DM24 to carry on using the current transmission mode when the Flash memory becomes full, overwriting the oldest data held. This buffering mode is called RECYCLE in Scream! and on the DCM.
For example, in DUAL mode with RECYCLE buffering, the latest continuous data will be transmitted to you as normal, and the latest triggered data may be retrieved from the Flash memory using Scream! or the command line. However, if you do not download data regularly from the Flash memory, you may lose older blocks. This mode thus lets you define the end point of the data held by the instrument.
Command: WRITE-ONCE
Instructs the DM24 to stop writing data to the Flash memory when it is full, and to switch to DIRECT mode automatically.
For example, in FIFO mode with WRITE-ONCE buffering, the station will transmit data to you continuously, but also save it in the Flash memory until it is full. Once full, the instrument will switch to DIRECT mode and continue transmitting, though no further data will be saved. This mode thus lets you define the start point of the data held by the instrument.
If you choose a transmission mode where data is stored in Flash memory, you will need to recover this data at a later date. You can do this either over the serial link or using the DM24's FireWire interface.
To download data over FireWire, plug the disk in and issue the command DISKMENU from the digitizer's console. The digitizer will reply with a list of download options.
If you have not used the disk before, you will need to reset it. Resetting the disk prepares it for the DM24 to use and sets up the DFD filing system (see below). Press R then ENTER to reset the disk. When the DM24 is ready, it will return to the menu.
You can also use gcfxtract or Scream! to prepare a FireWire disk.
To download all the new data held by the DM24, press N then ENTER, or wait for 10 seconds. The DM24 will transfer any data it has recorded since the last download and then mark this data as transferred.
You can also download selections of data (including the entire contents of the data store, if desired) with the DISKMENU command. See Section 5.9, page 77, for more information.
The DM24 checks for a FireWire disk when it boots up. If there is enough new data waiting to be transferred (by default 128 Mb), the DM24 will automatically transfer it onto the disk. The digitizer then updates its internal pointers to mark this data as already downloaded.
This feature is particularly useful for autonomous installations: after the digitizer has been retrieved from a field experiment, simply powering it up with a prepared disk attached will make it transfer all the data it has recorded during the experiment.
While the FireWire interface is active, it will consume about 200 mA of power (from a 12 Volt supply). If you interrupt a transfer whilst it is in progress, the digitizer will re-boot and will not mark data as downloaded. Because of this, the next time you transfer data, some will be duplicated. You will not, however, lose any data.
To download data over the serial link:
Open the digitizer's console. To do this using Güralp Systems' Scream! software, right-click on the digitizer's icon (once it appears) and select Terminal.... From a Güralp DCM, issue the command minicom -n port-number.
If you want to download all data held in the Flash memory, issue the command
ALL-FLASH ALL-DATA DOWNLOAD
Alternatively, select a particular set of streams, sample rates and times to download using the STREAM, S/S, FROM-TIME and TO-TIME commands, and finish with DOWNLOAD. See Section 5.9, page 77, for more details.
Issue the GO command to start transferring data. If you are using Scream! or a DCM, closing the terminal session will have the same effect.
When the DM24 saves data onto a FireWire disk, it uses a special format called DFD.
You can read this data into a PC using Scream! or the gcfxtract utility, which is freely available from the Güralp Systems Web site. Linux and Solaris command line utilities are also available for reading data from a DFD disk.
The DFD format is not the same as that used by the Güralp Systems DCM data module, which uses a FAT32-compatible journalling file system.
Güralp Systems can provide fully-tested, formatted disks with FireWire and USB connectors. Alternatively, a third-party FireWire disk may be used (although compatibility is not guaranteed).
To read a disk using gcfxtract:
Attach the disk to your computer. You can use FireWire, USB, or any other interface supported by your computer and the disk.
Run gcfxtract and select the required disk from the drop-down list, then click Scan.
gcfxtract will scan the disk and display all the streams it finds in the selection area below. For each stream, the Stream ID and the number of blocks found are shown.
This operation requires roughly 12 Mb of available memory for every Gb of space on the disk. If you have a very large disk, your computer may have to use its hard disk to make enough space. This will slow down scanning considerably.
By default, all streams containing more than 100 blocks are selected for extraction. You can change which streams to extract by checking or un-checking the check box beside each stream.
You can check or un-check all of the boxes using the Select all and Unselect all buttons. Clicking Invert checks all unchecked boxes, and un-checks all checked boxes.
Enter a path name into the Target Directory field, or use the Browse... button to find a directory. This will be used as the root directory for extracted data. If it does not exist, gcfxtract will create it.
Enter a format string into the Filename Format field. The syntax is the same as the format string in Scream! and full documentation is available by pressing the '?' button beside the format entry field in interactive mode.
Normally, gcfxtract outputs GCF files, to ensure all the information in the original data is retained. If you want to convert to a different format, select it from the Output Data Format drop-down box. gcfxtract can output in most of the formats supported by Scream!.
Data is automatically placed in time order and saved in multiple files, each file containing a contiguous segment of data. By default, data streams are recorded in files 60 minutes long. To change this to some other number of minutes, alter the value in the Data File Duration (mins) box.
For data streams, if there is a gap in the data, gcfxtract will start a new file anyway.
Status streams are also saved in in multiple files, but have a default length of 24 hours. To change this, alter the value under Status File Duration (hours).
When you are happy with the settings, click Extract to begin extracting the data.
Clicking Reset sets a flag on the disk which marks it as empty. Next time a digitizer wants to transfer data, it will begin at the beginning of the disk, overwriting the old data. When this happens, none of the old data can be extracted with gcfxtract or Scream!. Until then, however, you will still be able to retrieve all the data.
When you are finished, you should exit gcfxtract and then use your operating system's standard facility for un-mounting hardware (e.g. “Safely Remove Hardware” under Windows) before disconnecting the drive.
You can also read disks with Scream!. This allows you to view data in the process of being transferred, but is slightly slower, because Scream! does not read data in strict order. To read a disk with Scream!:
Attach the disk to your computer. You can use FireWire, USB, or any other interface supported by both your PC and the disk.
Run Scream!, and select File → Setup... from the main menu. Select the Files tab.
Set the Base Directory, Filename Format and Data Format as described above. Also, if required, set the Post-processor and Granularity options to suit your requirements. Consult the Scream! documentation for details.
Select the Recording tab, and check Auto Record—Enable for Data Streams and Auto Record—Enable for Status Streams. Click OK. Scream! will remember the recording options you set in steps 3 and 4 for later occasions.
Select File → Read SCSI disk... from the main menu. Scream! will search for attached disks, and open a window with a list of all the streams it has found.
Select the streams you want to replay, and click Open. The disk will appear in the left-hand pane of Scream!'s main window, and the streams you have selected will start playing into the stream buffer, as well as being recorded.
When you have finished transferring the data, if you want to reset the disk, select File → Reset SCSI disk... from Scream!'s main menu. Select the disk you want to reset, and click OK.
This interface enables the DM24 to record GCF data to a standard USB disk drive or Flash memory stick using the ISO 9293 FAT filing format – readable by Linux, DOS, Windows and Mac OS.
Equipment fitted with the USB Host Port connector (labelled USB BOMS – Bulk Only Mass Storage) will automatically record the current real time data to the USB device when it is plugged in.
To do this, the DM24 should be in DIRECT or DUPLICATE transmission mode so that real time data is being fed to the standard transmit buffer used for normal serial data transmission. The USB process runs in parallel with the serial transmit thread using the data in the transmit buffer. It does not matter whether the serial port is connected or not.
Other transmission modes do not pass useful data via the serial port and so cannot be used with USB devices. In particular FILING mode saves all data to the internal flash memory (for later download via the serial port or FireWire interface) and only outputs “heartbeat” status to the serial port to inform systems monitoring the port that the unit is present and operating. FIFO and ADAPTIVE modes use the internal flash as an extension to the serial transmit buffer as explained in section 3.3, on page 15. As no contiguous streams are sent via the serial port in these modes, nothing will be written to the USB device.
To record data to a USB device, the system should be configured in DIRECT or DUPLICATE mode – in DUPLICATE+REUSE mode the DM24 will always have the last 64Mb or more of data in its internal flash – the firmware does not currently support transferring data from the DM24 internal flash to a USB device.
If you wish to use a USB device it must be formatted with 16 Kilobyte clusters. In Windows 2000, XP and Vista open a command prompt and type:
format e: /fs:fat32 /a:16k
replacing e with the letter of the drive which you wish to format.
The system creates the following directory (folder) structure:
The main directory is \GURALP
Beneath this is a sub-directory named after the DM24's system ID (e.g. GSLA) within which will be a further sub-directory for each stream the system is configured to produce. For example:
C838Z2 tap2, vertical component at selected sample rate
C838M8 vertical component mass position
C83800 the digitizer's status stream
Data for each stream is recorded as files within the corresponding sub-directory. The file name is simply the date and time of the first sample in the file, given in the format YYMMDDHH.xxxx
For example:
08102314.gcf 2008 Oct 23 14:00 – data file
08102312.txt 2008 Oct 23 12:00 – status/text file
The amount of data in each file (granularity) depends on both the stream sample-rate and type. It can be configured using the HOURFILES command, which takes four parameters (which precede the command – see chapter 5, page 51 for details of the DM24's internal FORTH interpreter):
FAST SPS SLOW STATUS HOURFILES
FAST specifies the file size, in hours, for sample rates ≥ SPS
SLOW is the size, in hours, for lower sample rates < SPS
STATUS is the size, in hours, for status stream files.
The default settings are:
1 40 4 12 HOURFILES
With these settings, the system will start a new file every hour for streams with a sample rate ≥ 40 samples per second.
Lower sample rate streams will have files which last 4 hours – so the file names will have the sequence “YYMMDD00, YYMMDD04, YYMMDD08” etc.
Status files will have 12 hour granularity i.e. “YYMMDD00 and YYMMDD12”.
Note that status streams are recorded as plain text files with the extension '.txt'.
All other streams are recorded with the extension '.gcf' which is the same format used by 'Scream!' (i.e. a series of 1k 'gcf' data blocks), consequently the files can be viewed and processed by Scream!, simply by “drag and dropping” or right-clicking to select the option.
Due to bandwidth and processing limitations, it may not always be possible to record continuous streams with particularly high sample rates. Note that when triggers are in use, the sample rates of streams transmitted over the serial port will typically increase considerably. If your application involves sample rates higher than 250 samples per second, you should verify to your own satisfaction correct operation (under triggered conditions, if necessary) with your own USB devices before permanent installation.
USB memory sticks and disk drives normally have an LED indicating activity. This will flash as each block is written, so a few flashes every 10 seconds would be expected from a DM24 producing 100 sps data.
Since data blocks are recorded to their corresponding files in real time, only the current/latest block can be lost when a USB stick is detached; all other stream files will have been closed/saved.
When a USB stick is plugged in, the system interrogates it to determine the free space. This operation can take a minute or more depending on the capacity of the USB device. When the operation has been completed, the system reports the available space using the LCD and, also, in the status stream, as in the example below:
2008 10 3 13:18:49 USB Flash stick Recording started NO NAME
D:/>
USB File granularity :
For sample rates >= 40 sps : 1 hour files otherwise 4 hour files
except status ; 12 hour files
2008 10 3 13:19:52 USB Stick space remaining 3.9GB
The system will regularly (after each 5MB of data storage – typically an hour or 2 of running) report the space available in GB/MB and as a predicted duration in days/hours (based on the utilization rate for the previous 5MB).
Recording to a USB device stops automatically when there is less than 100k free space. To record more data, the device must be replaced with a freshly formatted one.
USB devices can be removed/replaced at any time, but the system does not additionally buffer the data so a small amount will be lost during the changeover. In DUPLICATE mode all data would also still be in the internal flash.
An example of a status display is shown below. This is taken from the status stream (*00) of a DM24 fitted with a USB host controller after several minutes of operation.
This build displays additional status information on the LCD panel to show when the USB stick is being written to and when it is not being accessed.
It is recommended that the memory stick is only removed when the display shows USB free, which is followed by a bar graph indicating a 5 second countdown.
The USB device should not be removed while the display shows USB BUSY WAIT or while it is scrolling the earlier status information.
When the stick is initially inserted the LCD panel will report, after a short delay, access to the stick. This is while the system is calculating the free space available, which may take many tens of seconds.