BV5000 User Handbook Part Number: 202882-01 Revision: A Updated: April 2010 ©BlueView Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. All product names are trademarks of their respective companies. www.blueview.
BlueView Technologies has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this document; however, because ongoing development efforts are made to continually improve the capabilities of our products, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the contents of this document. We disclaim liability for errors, omissions, or future changes herein. The accompanying Software and Documentation are proprietary products owned by BlueView Technologies, Inc., and protected under U.S.
Table of Content Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................ 5 System Contents ...................................................................................... 5 System Overview ..................................................................................... 6 Typical 3D Point Cloud Collection Overview................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Software Installation...............................................
Reviewing Data ...................................................................................... 35 Reprocessing Saved Data ........................................................................ 35 Chapter 6 System Troubleshooting ........................................ 37 Sonar + Pan & Tilt Connection Issues ........................................................ 37 Pan & Tilt Connection Issues ....................................................................
Chapter 1 Introduction The BV5000 is a 3D mechanical scanning system that combines the data quality of BlueView’s high-frequency microbathymetry sonar with the ease of use of traditional 2D scanning sonar. This manual covers setup, installation, operation, and technical specifications of BlueView’s 3D mechanical scanning sonar system. When ordered, the BV5000 ships with either a 1.35 or 2.25 MHz sonar head, which are both covered in this manual.
System Overview Through mechanical rotation of the sonar head, the BV5000 is capable of producing 3D point clouds from a stationary location. Some of the more common delivery methods (tripods and ROVs) are shown in the figures below. Notice the volumetric scan zones around the sonar. With each scan, a large amount of high resolution 3D data is collected. The system works by mechanically scanning a thin vertical sonar slice around the selected area as shown in the figure below.
Typical 3D Point Cloud Collection Overview This section provides a quick overview of a typical collection process. Deploy the System Position the BV5000 into the desired scan location. For tripod type systems, verify that sonar is upright by viewing proper movement of the bottom imagery as the sonar is tilted up and down using the pan and tilt controls. Set Sound Speed Open the File/Settings/Sonar Controls menu and enter the measured or estimated sound speed of water for the scan location.
Chapter 2 Software Installation Your mechanical scanning system includes a disk containing BlueView’s ProScan sonar software, as well as Meshlab, a point cloud viewing program. For proper system testing and operation, ProScan and Meshlab should both be installed on your collection PC. Cyclone by Leica Geosystems is sold separately. ProScan Installation To install ProScan, insert the ProScan CD into your computer’s CD-ROM drive and follow the instructions to complete the installation.
Leica Cyclone Note: The Cyclone software package is sold separately from the base BV5000 package. Contact BlueView sales for more information on obtaining trial and permanent licenses for the Cyclone software package. Cyclone by Leica Geosystems is a point cloud manipulation software package that provides advanced operations such as cleaning, registering scans from several locations, and modeling engineering objects for output to standard cad products.
Cyclone Installation Instructions 1. The Cyclone software installation files can either be downloaded directly from the Lieca Geosystems website or found on CDs that come you’re your purchased Cyclone software suite. 2. Install Cyclone and take note of the installation directory. 3. If you either requested a trial license, or purchased a permanent license, a license file should have been provided to you as a file named “license.dat.” 4. Copy this file into the installation directory. 5. Launch Cyclone.
Chapter 3 System Assembly and Testing Assembling the Hardware 1. Attach the sonar into the sonar clamp by loosening the four cap screws, sliding in the sonar and retightening the four cap screws. NOTE: The sonar is inserted into the clamp such that its connector is on the same side as the Pan & Tilt connector. 1. 4X CAP SCREWS FOR CLAMP 2. SONAR CONNECTOR NOTE ORIENTATION OF SONAR 3.
Connect Components The BV5000 Package comes complete with everything needed to bench-test and tank test your system. 1. Connect the sonar and Pan & Tilt unit to the control box using the SPT (Sonar / Pan & Tilt) test cable. Connect the Ethernet cable to the control box, then to an available network connection port on the PC. Verify that all connections in the diagram below have been made. 2.
Installing the Pan and Tilt Drivers The SPT junction box contains a USB to RS-485 converter. The converter will add a COM port to the PC for communicating with the pan and tilt. The drivers for the converter need to be installed onto the PC. These drivers are located on the “COMMFRONT USB Serial Adapter” CD included with the mechanical scanning system. There are two drivers to install: one is for a “USB Serial Converter” and the other is for a “USB Serial Port.
3. Select “Install from a list or specific location” to install the driver from CD and click “Next.” 4. Select “Search for the best driver in these locations” and check the box of “Search removable media (floppy, CD-ROM…)”. Then click on the “Next” button. 5. When the driver is successfully installed the following window will pop up. Click “Finish” to complete the installation of the first driver.
6. The 2nd “Found New Hardware” window will pop up prompting the driver installation for “USB Serial Port”. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW! When prompted to use Windows Update to search for the driver select “No, not this time” and click “Next.” 7. Repeat steps 3-5 from above. 8. To confirm the drivers are installed successfully, check the Windows Device Manager (in Windows XP, go to the Control Panel Æ Performance and Maintenance Æ System, click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button).
Setup PC IP Address The IP address on the interface PC will need to be set to a static IP: 192.168.1.3. Windows XP To access a PC’s IP address in Windows, click Start Æ Control Panel Æ Network Connections and double click on the computer’s Ethernet port (usually Local Area Connection 1). Right click and select ‘Properties’ then double click on ‘Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)’ in the list of components.
Connect to the BV5000 After ProScan is installed and the PC configured, it’s time to connect to the system. Open the ProScan Software and click on the connect button, as shown below. Note: that if the sonar has just received power, it will take ~30 sec to boot and be ready for a connection. Connect When the connect button is pressed, ProScan should connect automatically to the sonar and the pan & tilt. If ProScan does not find the sonar or pan & tilt, look at the troubleshooting section of this manual.
Installation of the Pan & Tilt Unit When mounting the Pan & Tilt Unit to either a tripod, ROV or other structure the orientation of the base plate must be noted. The base plate contains a 4 bolt hole pattern of 3.5” diameter which accepts ¼”-20 sized screws. The unit also has an external mechanical stop which must be installed after the unit is mounted.
3. With the unit still in the “Home” position, loosely attach the stop collar. Align the sliding nut and bolt such that it is centered in the slot. Next, align that bolt with the Button Head Cap Screw which is directly under the connector. Adjust the height of the stop collar so the head of the “sliding” bolt is just above the Button Head Cap Screw. Tighten the stop collar onto the Pan & Tilt unit. CENTERED IN SLOT WITH NUT ON TOP HEADS ALIGNED 4.
Chapter 4 ProScan Software Basics BlueView’s ProScan software is the main user interface for setting up and running a 3D scan operation. While ProScan can output 3D point cloud files in several formats, it does not work directly with 3D data sets. For viewing and manipulation of 3D data, see the following chapters regarding working with point clouds.
Image Display The imagery shown in the sonar window has reflects two types of data. First, the full intensity map for each ping is displayed in a copper color map. Overlaid on top of the intensity map is the range value chosen for each angle for use in the creation of 3D point clouds. This range data shows up in blue. The range data is chosen using a threshold routine and the threshold value set in the File/Settings/Sonar Controls window.
The sonar collects line data in a vertical orientation and that line data is displayed in ProScan. The following diagrams illustrate how to interpret the image display as well as how the line data translates to the point cloud. Clockwise from upper left: Illustration of the multibeam collection, display of the line data in the copper color map, display of the blue threshold data points, display of the point cloud.
Toolbar The toolbar provides quick access to several commonly used sonar functions. Connecting to a Sonar To connect to a sonar, simply click the connect icon on the toolbar. This will connect to the sonar at the network address specified in the Sonar Connection dialog. Opening a File This allows the user to select a sonar file (.son) to open. Both playback and network output begin automatically.
Length Measurement After clicking the length measurement icon in the toolbar, click the location where you want to start the measurement. ProScan then draws a dotted line between that point and the mouse cursor. Click a second time to freeze the current measurement. A third click sets the starting point for a new measurement. The length of the dotted line is displayed just to the left of the cursor location in the lower right of the ProScan window.
Playback Controls When a file is loaded, the playback controls appear at the bottom of the window. The table below describes the different controls available. Also available between the previous ping and next ping buttons is the time slider. It shows the current location inside the file. You may click on it to jump to a new location or simply drag the marker back and forth to quickly scan through a file.
Settings/Sonar Control The only tabs of the Settings window you need to adjust when using the BV5000 are the Sonar Controls tab and the Scan Settings tab. The Settings window is accessible by clicking File Æ Settings. The Scan Settings tab is discussed later in this manual. Range Threshold Level controls The Range Threshold controls the value at which a target will be recognized. The allowed values range from 100 to 20,000. The default value is 250, and values typically range from 100 to 500.
Manual Image Calibration Select the File/Image Calibration menu item to bring up the Image Calibration dialog box. An automated calibration can be performed using the Auto-Calibration icon on the desktop discussed earlier in this chapter. The sonar contains two arrays that must be calibrated to synchronize the imagery between them.
Pan and Tilt Controls If the Pan/Tilt is connected and properly configured, the Pan/Tilt controls appear on the right side of the screen. Use the directional buttons to move the pan and tilt. Home Position The Pan/Tilt Home position is defined as the center rotation angle for each axis. To move to the ‘Home’ position, click the corresponding button. Start Scan Start Scan Rotational scans are performed by clicking the Start Scan button on the Pan/Tilt control panel or by clicking File Æ Start Scan.
Screen Information Several Text Boxes are located around the sonar image to provide additional information both in live operation and file playback modes. Ping Rate While the screen update rate is only on the order of 2 images a second, many more imagers are being process in the background to create high-resolution 3D point clouds. The ping rate display represents the rate that ProScan is collecting data in the background.
Scan Setup Rotational scans are performed by clicking File Æ Start Scan or the Start Scan button on the Pan/Tilt control panel. Both Single Scans and Spherical Scans can be performed. All settings for a single scan can be set in the Scan Setup window. Additional settings for Spherical Scans are located in the Settings window (File Æ SettingsÆ Scan Settings.) Running Single Scans The term “single scan” refers to a scan collected at a single tilt angle.
Spherical scan settings are located in the File\Settings File\Scan Settings window. Spherical Scan can be setup for either 4 or 5 overlapping scans. Selecting 4 scans provides a 15 degree overlap between the scans, while selecting 5 scans provides 22.5 degrees overlap between scans. The final scan at -45 degrees is optional. Click the Include final 45 degree scan box to include it. When performing a scan from a tripod, this final 45 degree scan is pointed sharply at the seafloor and may not be of interest.
pan angle is -180, and a 360 degree total scan angle is also selected, the scan will not be centered at -180, but will scan 360 degrees from -180 to 180 degrees. File Controls When conducting Spherical Scans the combined Merged File Name can be assigned in the Scan Setup dialog box. This file name overrides the default name. Position and Orientation Input If the orientation and position of the BV5000 unit are known, that data can be entered in the Scan Setup dialog box.
Chapter 5 Recording and Reprocessing Data By default, ProScan produces four types of files for each scan, a .son intensity file, .xyz and .off point cloud files as well as a .txt file. The intensity files allow you to reprocess the raw data at a later time, while the point cloud files allow viewing the scan results in standard point cloud viewers. The .txt file contains information pertaining to the sonar settings for that scan. The following section describes these items in detail.
Scan Intensity Files (.son) A .SON file is output for each of the individual scans in a Spherical Scan. When the Spherical Scan is completed, the individual files will be combined into a single .SON file. The combined file will have the name entered in the "Merge File Name" field with a suffix of "_complete" automatically appended. If no filename was entered in the field, then the name of the first scan will be used. The individual .
XYZ files contain only three values, separated by spaces. OFF files have a twoline header, followed by a line for each 3D point. Each of these lines has the X,Y, and Z values, followed by the color assigned to that point, expressed as RGBA. Each of the X,Y,Z, and RGBA values are separated by spaces. The color map used assigns blue to the deepest points and red to the shallowest points. Meshlab and other 3D viewers use this color map to display the points. Sonar Settings File (.txt) The .
Data Reprocessing Procedure Once you have opened a previously saved .son file and made the desired settings adjustments, press the “Scan” button in the lower right hand section of the playback control bar. This will bring up a “Playback Scan Setup” window. This window allows adjusting the position and orientation inputs used during reprocessing. Once you have made any desired changes to this section, press the “Start Playback” button to start the reprocessing procedure.
Chapter 6 System Troubleshooting This section is designed to help you quickly identify and solve issues dealing with the inability to connect the BlueView 3D scanning system from a PC. While the basic connections between the system and computer are straight forward, things can get very confusing once integrated into a delivery system. The following approach attempts to test different potential causes in a way that optimizes the debugging process.
Change USB ports Change the USB port used for this connection on the PC. If you were not able to connect to the pan and tilt, go on to the next section “Verify USB Com Port” Check Auto-Pan/Tilt Verify that the ProScan “File/Settings/Pan/Tilt/Auto Connect to Pan/Tilt” option is selected. Once selected, try to reconnect to the pan and tilt using the “File/Connect to Pan/Tilt” menu item.
Reinstall Drivers Try reinstalling the drivers. Refer to the “ Installing the Pan and Tilt Drivers” section in this manual. If you were not able to connect to the pan and tilt, go on to the next section “Reinstall Drivers.” Verify Com Port Settings Verify the Com Port Settings. They should be set as follows: 9600 baud, 8 data bit, parity none, 1 stop bit, no flow control. If you were not able to connect to the pan and tilt, go on to the next section “Check Connectors.
Sonar Head Connection Issues • • • • • • • • Rerun ProScan Software Check ProScan Setup Reboot PC and Sonar Check Network Settings Check Connectors Check Power Test Sonar Common Communication Link Issues Rerun ProScan Software If a sonar did not complete its boot process before ProScan was opened, it may have missed that sonar. Rerunning the software can fix this.
Check Network Settings While changes to the network settings can be done without restarting the PC, a quick power down can solve many network problems that can arise during network setup. With that in mind, power down both the sonar and computer, wait 10 seconds, then power everything up. This can solve network configuration problems that may have come about. Once everything is back up and running, open the ProScan software and try to connect to the sonar.
Bench Check Sonar In most cases, the cause of the problem is not a faulty sonar, but before you start tearing apart your system integration looking for a problem, it is worth taking a quick second to verify that the sonar is working properly. This is accomplished by setting up a bench-top test using the test cables and AC power supply that came with the sonar. This test will quickly tell us whether the problem is with the sonar/PC or with the rest of the system.
Image and Scan Problems If the image looks distorted or incorrect, it could be one of a few issues. The tripod is tipped over Make sure the tripod is in place and hasn’t fallen over. Uncalibrated Sonar Repeat the calibration procedure outlined in the “Calibration” section of this manual. Spherical Scan process stopped before final point cloud creation During a spherical scan process, the data for each horizontal sweep is stored in a separate temporary file.
Sonar mounted upside down. Figure 1 shows a normal scan, and Figure 2 shows the same scan with the sonar upside down. When mounted upside down, the overlapping scans do not overlay properly and a spherical smearing affect appears. To adjust the settings on a deployed system, or re-process a rotational scan acquired with the sonar in an upside down configuration: 1. Open the File Æ Settings Æ Pan/TiltÆ Orientation dialog. 2. Check the “Invert Beam Angles” checkbox and click the “Save” button.
Not enough scan overlap. If a spherical scan isn’t dense enough, ProScan can be set to perform more scans with more overlapping area for better viewing. These can be found in ProScan’s settings, in the “Scan Settings” tab. See the ProScan manual for more information. Rotational speed set too high. If increasing the scan overlap doesn’t improve image quality, it may be that the scan speed is too high. This can be changed in the “Scan Setup” window. See the ProScan manual for more information.
Chapter 7 System Specifications BV5000-1350 BV5000-2250 Sonar Head Field-of-View 1⁰x45⁰ 1⁰x45⁰ Pan Scan Angle Coverage 45⁰ - 360⁰ 45⁰ - 360⁰ Tilt Scan Angle Coverage -65⁰ - 65⁰ -65⁰ - 65⁰ Up to 40 Hz Up to 40 Hz 1.35 MHz 2.25 MHz Maximum Range 27m (90 ft.) 9m (30 ft.) Number of Beams 256 256 Beam Width 1⁰ x 1⁰ 1⁰ x 1⁰ Beam Spacing 0.18⁰ 0.18⁰ 1.23 in 0.74 in 10.5(L) x 9.2(W) x 15.4(H) 8.9(L) x 8.6(W) x 15.4(H) Weight in Air 21.7 lbs 19.1 lbs Weight in Water 8.2 lbs 6.
Appendix A Typical Installation Configurations Typical Tripod and Fixed Configurations © BlueView Technologies Corp 47 BlueView BV5000 User Handbook
Typical ROV Configuration Fiber to Ethernet Converter RS485 USB Converter User Computer RS485 Mux Customer Potted Connection BlueView Supplied Whip (Sonar to Customer Whip) Function BV5000 Head Sonar Pin 4 Blue and Blue/White Ground 7 Brown and Brown/White Ethernet Rx+ 1 Orange/White Ethernet Rx- 2 Ethernet Tx+ Ethernet Tx- Customer Supplied Whip RO 1248 VDC RS485 Ground Whip Cable Color 12-48 VDC ROV Console Fiber Ethernet to Fiber Converter Fiber Function RJ45 Pins Ethernet Rx
Appendix B System and Cable Diagrams 10 Pin Connector to Sonar (Impulse MKS310-CCP-RA) Sonar / Pan and Tilt Cable Pin Function 1 Ethernet RX+ (to sonar) 2 Ethernet RX- (to sonar) 3 Ethernet TX+ (to sonar) 4 +24V DC 5 +24V DC 6 Ethernet TX- (to sonar) 7 Ground 8 Ground 9 N/C 10 N/C 4 Pin Connector to Pan & Tilt Unit (Impulse LPMIL-4FS) Pin Function 1 DC Common 2 +24V DC 3 Data B 4 Data A 8 Pin Connector to Sonar and Pan & Tilt Unit (Souriau UTG612-8PN) Pin Function A Ethe
Pan and Tilt Outline Drawing Units: Inches © BlueView Technologies Corp 50 BlueView BV5000 User Handbook
MB2250-45 Outline Drawing Units: Inches © BlueView Technologies Corp 51 BlueView BV5000 User Handbook
MB1350-45 Outline Drawing Units: Inches © BlueView Technologies Corp 52 BlueView BV5000 User Handbook
