User`s manual

Section 9: Processing Data
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Section 9: Processing Data
Sea-Bird provides software, SBE Data Processing, for converting the raw .hex
or .dat data file into engineering units, editing (aligning, filtering, removing
bad data, etc.) the data, calculating derived variables, and plotting the
processed data.
However, sometimes users want to edit the raw .hex or .dat data file before
beginning processing, to remove data at the beginning of the file
corresponding to instrument soak time, to remove blocks of bad data, to edit
the header, or to add explanatory notes about the cast. Editing the raw .hex or
.dat file can corrupt the data, making it impossible to perform further
processing using Sea-Bird software. Sea-Bird strongly recommends that you
first convert the data to a .cnv file (using the Data Conversion module in
SBE Data Processing), and then use other SBE Data Processing modules to
edit the .cnv file as desired.
.hex Files
The procedure for editing a .hex data file described below has been found to
work correctly on computers running Windows 98, 2000, and NT. If the
editing is not performed using this technique, SBE Data Processing may
reject the edited data file and give you an error message.
1. Make a back-up copy of your .hex data file before you begin.
2. Run WordPad.
3. In the File menu, select Open. The Open dialog box appears. For Files of
type, select All Documents (*.*). Browse to the desired .hex data file and
click Open.
4. Edit the file as desired, inserting any new header lines after the System
Upload Time line. Note that all header lines must begin with an asterisk
(*), and *END* indicates the end of the header. An example is shown
below, with the added lines in bold:
* Sea-Bird SBE 21 Data File:
* FileName = C:\Odis\SAT2-ODIS\oct14-19\oc15_99.hex
* Software Version Seasave Win32 v1.10
* Temperature SN = 2366
* Conductivity SN = 2366
* System UpLoad Time = Oct 15 1999 10:57:19
* Testing adding header lines
* Must start with an asterisk
* Place anywhere between System Upload Time & END of header
* NMEA Latitude = 30 59.70 N
* NMEA Longitude = 081 37.93 W
* NMEA UTC (Time) = Oct 15 1999 10:57:19
* Store Lat/Lon Data = Append to Every Scan and Append
to .NAV File When <Ctrl F7> is Pressed
** Ship: Sea-Bird
** Cruise: Sea-Bird Header Test
** Station:
** Latitude:
** Longitude:
*END*
Note:
Although we provide this
technique for editing a raw .hex
file, Sea-Bird’s strong
recommendation, as described
above, is to always convert the
raw data file and then edit the
converted file.