Guralp Systems Limited
MAN-D24-0004 - Güralp DM24 MkⅢ Operator's Guide

Chapter 4. Using the DM24

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:

Both methods provide full access to the major configuration options of the digitiser.

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.

4.1 Taps

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. Taps are numbered from zero – the highest sample rate – upwards.

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 alternatively 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:

The digitiser 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.

4.1.1 Triggering

The DM24 has a flexible triggering system. When the digitiser triggers, it can optionally output (or store – see DUAL mode in section 4.3 on page 22) 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 digitiser 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 four types of trigger.

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!.

4.2 Streams

The DM24 organizes the data it produces into streams. Each stream has a 6-character identifier. The first four characters are taken from the Serial Number of the digitiser. (Although this setting is called Serial Number, you can change it to a different string if you wish, using Scream! or a terminal command.)

The next character denotes the component or output type:

The DM24 also generates a stream ending 00. This is a status stream containing useful diagnostic information in plain text form (see Section 7.1).

4.2.1 Digitisers for multiple instruments

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 digitisers”, are designed for use with two instruments simultaneously, connected to the ports SENSOR A and SENSOR B. These digitisers actually have 7 full rate data channels, including the auxiliary/calibration channel. When you enable calibration on these digitisers, the signal is passed to both instruments. All 7 channels share the same settings for the four output taps.

A 6-channel digitiser 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/C2

Auxiliary at tap 1

X/C4

Auxiliary at tap 2

X/C6

Auxiliary at tap 3

Standard 6-channel digitisers have the same eight 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 digitisers 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. There is no calibration facility or equivalent to the X channel for SENSOR B. In addition, SENSOR B cannot be locked, unlocked, or centred.

4.3 Transmission modes

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 them 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 6) or by using the Scream! configuration interface.

4.3.1 DIRECT

Command: DIRECT

Instructs the DM24 not to use Flash memory for storage. Instead, all data are 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

4.3.2 FILING

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).

4.3.2.1 Heartbeat messages

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.

4.3.3 DUPLICATE

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 digitiser does not attempt to retransmit it.

4.3.4 DUAL

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 in FILING mode.

If you choose DUAL mode but do not select any continuous streams for output, the instrument will send heartbeat messages as in FILING mode. Scream! can pick these up and download new data as necessary.

4.3.5 FIFO (First In First Out)

Command: FIFO

Instructs the DM24 to begin writing blocks to Flash memory as for FILING mode, but also to transmit data to clients. Data are 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 they have 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 they are overwritten (in the RECYCLE buffering mode, see below) or if you delete them manually.

4.3.5.1 ADAPTIVE

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 digitiser 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 8.3).

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.

4.3.6 Transmission mode summary

Transmission Mode:



Function

DIRECT

FILING

DUPLICATE

DUAL

FIFO

ADAPTIVE

Transmit continuous data:

Store continuous data:

?1

Transmit trigger data:

Store trigger data:

?1

Heartbeat messages:

?2

Strict time order:

3

n/a

3

3

4

Retransmit unacknowledged blocks:

5

n/a

6

6

Notes:

4.4 Buffering modes

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.

4.4.1 RE-USE / RECYCLE

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 EAM.

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.

4.4.2 WRITE-ONCE

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 them into 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.

4.5 Downloading stored data

If you choose a transmission mode where data are stored in Flash memory, you can recover these data at a later date, using either the DM24's FireWire interface or a serial link.

Note: The FireWire interface is very much faster than the serial link: the serial link is only really useful for small, ad-hoc transfers.

The Flash memory is used as a ring buffer. Two pointers into the memory keep track of where data were last read (the “Read Pointer”) and last written (the “Write pointer”). When either pointer reaches the end of physical memory, it wraps round back to the beginning. The behaviour when the write pointer reaches the read pointer (i.e. when the memory becomes full of data, none of which have been downloaded) is governed by the commands RE-USE/RECYCLE and WRITE-ONCE, described in section 4.4.

4.5.1 Downloading over FireWire

To download data over FireWire, plug the disk in and issue the command DISKMENU from the digitiser's console. The digitiser 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 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 then ENTER, or wait for 10 seconds. The DM24 will transfer any data it has recorded since the last download and then mark these 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 6.11 for more information.

The DM24 checks for a FireWire disk when it boots up. If there are enough new data waiting to be transferred (by default 128 Mb), the DM24 will automatically transfer them onto the disk. The digitiser then updates its internal pointers to mark these data as already downloaded.

This feature is particularly useful for autonomous installations: after the digitiser 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 current (from a 12 Volt supply). If you interrupt a transfer whilst it is in progress, the digitiser 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.

4.5.2 Reading DM24 disks

When the DM24 saves data onto a FireWire disk, it uses a special format called DFD.

You can read these 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 EAM data acquisition module, which uses a FAT32-compatible journaling 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:

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!:

4.5.3 Downloading over the serial link

Start by configuring Scream to record all incoming data by visiting the “Recording” tab of the File→Setup dialogue:

Ensure that the first four check-boxes are ticked. Next, switch to the “Files” tab and choose an appropriate base directory, file format and filename format.

Click to save your changes and close the dialogue.

Next, open a connection to the digitiser's console. To do this using Güralp Systems' Scream! software, right-click on the digitiser's icon () and select Terminal…. From a Güralp EAM, issue the command

data-terminal

and select the appropriate data source from the menu.

To simply download all data held in the Flash memory, issue the command

ALL-FLASH ALL-DATA DOWNLOAD

followed by

GO

This will initiate a complete download. The ALL-FLASH and ALL-DATA commands act as modifiers to tell the system what to download.

If you wish to download only a subset of data, you can replace the ALL-FLASH and ALL-DATA modifiers with other modifiers to select different streams and/or time periods:

The parameters are illustrated in the diagram below. If you miss out a parameter, DOWNLOAD will re-use the value you last specified.

The DOWNLOAD command returns immediately, so that you can issue more commands if required. To close the connection and begin downloading with the specified selectors, issue the GO command.

Note: You can pause a download by entering terminal mode, and either restart with another GO or abort with END-DOWNLOAD.

When you complete a DOWNLOAD without specifying a time period, the DM24 adjusts the internal read pointer to mark the latest position. This is then used as the start point for the next DOWNLOAD with the command ALL-TIMES.

The various modifiers are described in detail in section 6.12.

Once the GO command has been issued, the window may close, depending on which emulator you are using. On an EAM, the data-terminal (minicom) session is closed by keying +, then .

4.6 DM24 USB Host Operations

DM24s can be supplied with an optional USB interface. This section describes the use of this interface.

4.6.1 DM24 Mk3 USB host option

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 are 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 4.3. 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.

4.6.2 Formatting 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.

4.6.3 Directory structure

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:

Data for each stream are 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:

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 6 on page 56 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 1-kilobyte 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.

4.6.4 System operation

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 sample-per-second 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 optional 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 5 MB of data storage – typically an hour or two 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 5 MB).

Recording to a USB device stops automatically when there is less than 100 kB free space. To record more data, the device must be replaced with a freshly formatted one.

It is recommended that the USB device is only removed when the display shows USB free, which is followed by a bar graph indicating a 5 second countdown. The system does not automatically buffer data so, if the device is removed while the display shows USB BUSY ­ WAIT or while it is scrolling the earlier status information, a small amount of data 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.