MARINE GRAVITY METER S-99 Running ULTRASYS (DOS version 1.12) on WIN10 laptop				UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN Department of Earth Scioence Allé gt. 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway

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STATUS UPDATES

September 1, 2022

Ultrasys DOS version operates in DOS Emulator DOSBox-X only on one of two laptops we have tried:
- Dell Latitude mod. 7490 (2019) -- WIN10: OK
- Dell Latitude mod. 7420 (2022) -- WIN11: Impossible. However, running vintage PROCOMM terminal program within DOS emulator, connected to another WIN10 desktop machine, works fine - so the emulator itself is comfortable under WIN11.

SUMMARY

We wanted to operate Ultrasys -- the control software for the L&R / ZLS upgraded marine/air gravity meter S-99 -- on a modern WIN10 laptop. However, the Ultrasys XP version (3.14 and 3.15) would not operate under WIN10, despite different "Compatibility" settings on the executable file. We then tried running the Ultrays DOS-version in a DOS emulator --- and it worked.

DOS EMULATORS RUNNING UNDER WIN10

Since Ultrasys utillizes two serial ports, it is of course essential that the DOS emulator supports serial port emulation:

COM 1 is used to communicate with Platform Control Box (part of the sensor assembly).
COM 2 is used for data export, to be time- and position tagged on external computer (in our case, EIVA NaviPac)

We have tried two variants of the same DOS emulator:

DOSBox: https://www.dosbox.com/
DOSBox-X: https://dosbox-x.com/

We decided to stick to DOSBox-X as it seemed to offer more possibilities - in particular, the option of getting the graphics printer to work with a USB-parallel port adapter,

USB/SERIAL PORT ADAPTER

For WIN11 laptop

Adapters that work fine under Win11:

StarTech USB to Serial RS232 Adapter (Prolific PL-2303) - p/n: ICUSB232V2
Suppliers:
- Atea: Art no: ICUSB232V2
- RS: Stock No.: 179-7972

For WIN10 laptop

Hardware

Serial ports have been removed from laptops for a long time now. There are many brands and models of USB/Serial port adapters. We decided to use thsi model:

ATEN mod UC2324 "4-Port USB to RS-232 Hub"
Supplier: Dustin p/n: 5010330045
Driver: WIN10 will not automatically install drivers, so they must be downloaded from the "Support and Downloads" tab. We used:
- Ver V3.1X5.0 dated 2018-12-07:
- uc2322_2324_4852_4854_WHQL_v3.1x.5.0.zip

https://www.dustinhome.no/product/5010330045/adapter ATEN mod UC2324 4-Port USB to RS-232 Hub. Product link.

WIN Device Manager: Check COM-port assignments

In WIN10 Search filed, type "Device" (it will auto-complete to "Device Manager") and start this program. Click COM- and LTP-port section; there you will see the COM-port assignment done by WIN10. If you have many "reserved" COM-ports numbers from earlier, they can be removed by first activating View > Show hidden devices and then pressing Delete button. In example below, the four ATEM adapter COM ports were assigned to COM 1-4. (Removing unused COM devices is not essential, since the DOSBox-X configuration file allows you to map physical COM ports to emulator COM-ports in any manner.)

DOSBox-X CONFIGURATION

Open the DOSBox-X configuration file in C:\\DOSBox-x\dosbox-x.conf (assuming default installation of DOSBox-X). Change some parameters:

[sdl]
fullscreen        = true
[serial]
serial1       = directserial realport:COM1
serial2       = directserial realport:COM2
[autoexec]
MOUNT C: C:\DOS-BOX
PATH c:\;c:\nc
C:

Copy Ultrasys directory (extracted from old DOS PC using PuppyLinux / Ubuntu Bionic version) to C:\DOS-BOX on WIN10 laptop. The MOUNT C: C:\DOS-BOX configuration will make this WIN10 directory appear as C:\ inside DOS emulator.
Start DOSBox-X:

Starting DOSBox-X

START ULTRASYS (DOS VERSION 1.12) IN EMULATOR

Verify that data export on COM 2 works, by starting terminal program in a second computer, and using a null-modem serial cable.

SORT OUT THESE ISSUES

#1 -- TIME SYNCRONIZATION: DOSBox-X internal clock that Ultrasys uses for time stamping of data being logged on hard disk, exported through COM2, or shown on screen, might not be synchronized to WIN10 time -- unless the Ultrasys software used other methods for time keeping. MUST BE INVESTIGATED.
Time keeping is mentioned on p. 2 of the Ultrasys User Manual (Rev: 3.09 dated 2009/07/04):
The system clock is initialized from the CMOS clock in the embedded processor which may be incorrect if the system has been turned off for a long period of time. Therefore there is provision for setting the system clock by menu selection. To assure that the CMOS clock and the system clock remain synchronized while ULTRASYS is running the CMOS clock is updated by UltraSys once a day at midnight.
This issue is not critical since, normally, serial port export data is collected by external computer that provides location and time stamping. Even though this is labelled VERY POOR PRACTICE in the Ultrasys User Manual (p. 14), it might be acceptable for marine surveys with vessel moving at 5 knots.

GRAPHICS PRINTER SIMULATION

Introduction

Graphics print-out is useful as a QC tool, to see that the gravity meter operates normally. The DOSBox-X emulator should be able to emulate a parallel port (like serial ports), but we have not tested this feature yet. Instead, a different option now becomes available:

Configure Ultrasys to export serial data in Long Format (ref appendix).
In WIN10, split the serial port that exports data into two streams.
Read one of the streams with Python software, extract parameters that is otherwise plotted on the graphics printer, and generate plot either inside Python program itself, or within web server on the machine, so it can be seen on the network.
There are Javascript libraries that facilitates plotting of real-time data on web pages.

Serial port splitter

Hardware solution

Using the ATEN mod UC2324 "4-Port USB to RS-232 Hub", the easiest way to split the COM2 Ultrasys data stream would be to share COM2 output between two "consumers", by making a splitting cable: One stream to external computer (running EIVA NaviPac, for time/position tagging and merging with other data sets), and the other stream directed to COM3 on the ATEN adapter.

Software solution

Javascript libraries for real time data plots

Candidates for review:

Background on real-time HTML plots

Capturing parallel port output

This software is allegedly able to "capture the parallel port's output":

https://www.printfil.com/manualen/c7.htm

According to the manual, it should work "even if the COM or LPT port is not physically installed on the PC".

We need to know what Ultrasys transmits to the printer. There is a choice between three printer models:

Fujitsu DPL24C (the one we have been using)
Epson ESC_P
OkiData 395C (Epson ESC_P2)

DOSPrinter is an Epson matrix printer emulator that can convert Epson files (*.esc) til PDF. But we don't know how it would function with "continuous form paper".

APPENDIX: ULTRASYS SERIAL & PARALLEL OUTPUT FORMATS

Serial output -- marine mode, long format

Excerpt from Ultrasys User's Guide, rev 3.09, 2009/07/04:

 --------------------------------------------------------------
 FIELD                     SYMBOL UNITS         FILTER
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 LINE_ID                   I      N/A           N/A
 YEAR                      Y      N/A           N/A
 DAYS                      D      DAY NUMBER    N/A
 HOURS                     H      HOURS         N/A
 MINUTES                   M      MINUTES       N/A
 SECONDS                   S      SECONDS       N/A
 GRAVITY                   G      mGal OR CU**  60 POINT DIGITAL
 SPRING TENSION            S      CU            3x20 SEC
 CROSS COUPLING            C      CU            3x20 SEC
 AVG. BEAM                 B      mV            3x20 SEC
 VCC or CML***             V      mV            3x20 SEC
 AL                        L      mV            3x20 SEC
 AX                        X      mV            3x20 SEC
 VE                        #      mV            3x20 SEC
 AX2 or CMX***             #      mV            3x20 SEC
 XACC2                     #      mV2           3x20 SEC
 LACC2                     #      mV2           3x20 SEC
 XACC                      #      mV            3x20 SEC
 LACC                      #      mV            3x20 SEC
 PARALLEL PORT             H      HEX WORD      N/A
 PLATFORM PERIOD~          P      REAL NUMBER   N/A
 AUX ANALOG 1*             A      V             3x20 SEC
 AUX ANALOG 2*             A      V             3x20 SEC
 AUX ANALOG 3*             A      V             3x20 SEC
 AUX ANALOG 4*             A      V             3x20 SEC

 * WHEN SELECTED
 ** AS SELECTED BY OPERATOR
 *** CML and CMX are new monitors for the ZLS dynamic sensor.
 ~ CODED AS FOLLOWS FOR ZLS DYNAMIC METER:
 APPROXIMATELY 100 INDICATES  2 MIN PERIOD
 APPROXIMATELY  25 INDICATES  4 MIN PERIOD
 APPROXIMATELY   1 INDICATES 16 MIN PERIOD

 EXAMPLE:

 IIIIIIIIII_YYYY_DDD_HH:MM:SS_GGGGG.GG_SSSSS.SS_CCCCC.CC_BBBBB.B _VVVVVV._LLLLLL._XXXXXX._######._------- etc ------_######.HHHHHHHH_PPPP.AAA.AAA.---etc---AAA.AAA.

 (_ represents a space)

 A 3x20 filter comprises three cascaded stages of 20 sec RC. (See section on filtering for additional details.)

Sample:

 MY_LINE #  2022 087 10:55:30   315.51 12663.60   -21.96-13468.0   -494.      1.     -2.      0.      0.     18.     10.    158.   -119.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 10:55:40   431.18 12689.70   -20.05-13262.8   -451.      1.     -2.      0.      0.     15.      9.    145.   -110.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 10:55:50   573.57 12711.69   -17.86-13033.6   -402.      1.     -2.      0.      0.     13.      7.    130.    -99.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 10:56:00   746.01 12733.35   -15.59-12789.1   -351.      1.     -1.      0.      0.     11.      6.    114.    -88.00FFFFFF    8. 
 ...
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 11:01:10 13305.32 13335.62      .04 -8230.8      1.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      4.      0.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 11:01:20 13394.23 13334.52      .10 -8138.8      2.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      5.      1.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 11:01:30 13464.70 13333.60      .15 -8046.2      3.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      6.      1.00FFFFFF    8.   
 MY_LINE #  2022 087 11:01:40 13519.47 13332.95      .17 -7953.1      4.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      0.      7.      2.00FFFFFF    8.

Graphics printer format