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TideM8 - Modular Bluetooth Tide Gauge System

The TideM8 is supplied with a 1 bar unvented pressure sensor transducer with integrated water temperature measurement. The stainless steel sensor which is dynamically adjusted for variations in air pressure using the integrated TideM8 barometric sensor. By not having a vent tube within the sensor cable makes the transducer connection a simple electrical cable which can be extended up to 50m and easily routed for site installation. Sophisticated internal power switching enable the TideM8 to be configured as a remote tide gauge using solar cells for power supply, the switched power can also be routed through the radio modem as an additional power saving feature.
 

Flexible Power Sources

The TideM8 power supply will accept 10-30 vDC or 90 to 300 vAC using the mains adaptor provided.The regulator unit is protected against short circuit in cables by a resettable thermal fuse.

TideM8 Technical Specification

Transducer Range                          0 to 1.0Bar
Depth Range                                   0.0m to 10.00m
Accuracy                                          +/-0.01m RMS
Measurement Frequency               5 Hz
Power Consumption                      1ma to 20ma (Duty cycle dependent)
Power Source                                 External 9 to 30 vDC
Internal Memory                              16 MByte Flash (10 years at 10 mins)
Data Format                                   ASCII 9600 baud, 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity
Radio Format                                 ASCII Bluetooth
Box Dimensions                            150w x 105h x 35d (mm)
Weight                                            1.0Kg
Transducer Dimensions               140 length x 31 dia (mm)
Weight                                            1.0Kg
The TideM8 is a black box instrument designed around the same 'winstrument' specification as used in the popular SonarMite portable echo sounder, this design criteria specifies that all display and interactive communications with the instrument use Bluetooth radio technology to communicate with a PC or PDA device. Through extensive experience of tide gauge installation and manufacture the TideM8 design is modular with separate radios, gauge, display and power supply units. This modular design enables the user to configure every combination from a simple gauge and PDA to a gauge and remote display using radio telemetry communications.
TideM8 is the current replacement for the popular TidaLite portable tide gauge. Using the latest low power processor and flash memory technology, the new design offers precise calendar and time keeping functions together with solid state data retention. The TideM8 is designed to interface directly to external displays or computers using serial communications with Bluetooth, the Ohmex Short and Long range radio telemetry modems and a range of dedicated LCDs for simple remote display of numeric data.

Included Software

The TM8 software supplied with the instrument can be run on a PC or PDA device to provide a display of current values together with a recent tide curve history over the previous 48 hours. The software includes a timeout function to prevent the display of tide data more than 1 minute old.

The TideM8 is designed primarily as a simple to install tide level monitoring system, for use by port and harbour authorities both large and small. The device can be used in systems ranging from a simple recording gauge with a PDA or PC display through to a sophisticated multiple gauge and environmental data system using the network based EDAS software.

Vyner Format

The most popular tide gauge supplied in the past fifteen years has been the instrument manufactured by David J.Vyner and Co. This robust design has outlasted many similar devices and given its users many years reliable service. Since the death of David there has been no further development of the gauge and many users have found it difficult to replace it with similar equipment. As the TidaLite was based on work originally done in conjunction with Vyner the output formats have now been modified to emulate the format used by the old gauge, this enables equipment designed to work with the older format to have a smooth migration path to a modern gauge without the need for software modifications.

modular design philosophy

The internal data logging will retain up to ten years of readings with each record containing Time/Date, average tide, water temperature, barometric pressure and wave range. The internal 16MByte flash memory can be erased using the password protected software commands, all of the internal settings are retained in the flash area of the microprocessor. The transducer is pre-calibrated at 1 bar and is easily exchanged without any need for further calibration other than a simple reset and the setting of offset to local tide values. Local settings include current barometric and temperature offsets together with water density and display settings.