Deep Water Sensor System

The Deep Water Sensor System is a complete subsea package for remotely sensing water conditions over long distances. It consists of an interacting base station and tethered remote sensing unit capable of communicating data. The remote station uses temperature, pressure, and pH sensors to take measurements and characterize the quality of the water. The remote sensing unit is enclosed in a water-resistant case for deep-sea capability. The tether, which connects the base station and sensing unit, is a low-resistance twisted pair enabling a 4-20 milliamp current loop, which is ideal for the transmission of high-integrity electrical signals and an effective data-communication method in long-range applications. The base station interprets signals from the remote sensing unit using a highway addressable remote transducer compatible communication protocol. The base station compiles and illustrates the data using the LabVIEW graphical user interface. A Texas Instruments MSP-430 microcontroller unit is used in both the remote sensing unit and the base stations.