For research purposes, we need as much instrumentation on the MX-2 as we can pack in there, so once we had the suit all working, we began the process of installing a Mac Mini into the suit. This was a tough job as we need to send power to the suit from the surface, connect it to our network (wireless signals can't go through water, so we needed to add an ethernet cable to our umbilical), make sure everything is waterproof (those pass-throughs are difficult), and most importantly, safe for the human test subject. Safety is always our number one priority. We designed a completely isolated electronics box to house all our electronics, including the Mac Mini, an A/D card, a mini pre-amp for our comms system, a USB-hub, all our pressure sensors, LCG temperature sensors and more. We continue to add things daily to the electronics box to give the MX-2 greater capabilities.
Power for the Mac Mini comes from a power supply on deck, travels along our 100 foot long umbilical, (which also includes the ethernet cable, the air-in and air-out hoses, and the cooling water hose for the LCG) and then is divided to all our sensors and the computer.
Signals from the sensors are sent to the NI A/D card, which connects via USB to the Mac. We have onboard software which talks to the A/D card, samples each of the channels, and sends the information via ethernet onto our network. We can then run Control Station software on any of our deck computers to monitor the suit and the suit subject. The system is very flexible making it simple to add more sensors and display the information in simple, easy to read ways.
1 comment:
I am very interested about the ongoings of your space suits. Later in my life I would like to become a mechanical engineer, and your suit fasinates me!
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