Manually advancing the sample belt could burn components on the stepper electronics. More ... (Oct 2008)

Use a fresh desiccant packet for every deployment to keep the electronics dry. More ... (Oct 2008)

The WTS-LV is available with an all-plastic filter holder option. With this option, components that are typically titanium or steel are replaced with non-metallic components. This includes pre-filters, flow straighteners, and hardware. Handle plastic parts carefully to prevent breakage. More ... (Aug 2008)

The WTS-LV uses calibrated mechanical flow meters in metric or English units. The metric unit flow meter measures exhaust flow in m3 (cubic meters) which is easily converted to liters. The English unit flow meter uses gallons. More ... (Aug 2008)

An uninitialized time variable in the Watchdog Handler may result in incorrect watchdog resets. More ... (Dec 2007)

An optional WTS-LV bulkhead connector requires less force to connect which reduces the risk of damaging connector pins. More ... (Oct 2007)

Incorrect handling of the WTS-LV 2-pin trigger plug can damage internal connections and may cause intermittent trigger operation. More ... (July 2007)

Data from downward profiles may be lost if "paired profiles" programming is used on an MMP with CTD ONLY. More ... (June 2007)

The inductive modem (IM) core is free to rotate for alignment purposes and is therefore slightly lose in the body. More ... (August 2006)

Tightening and loosening the WTS-LV cable clamp without lubricating the T-nut can cause galling. If the T-nut galls, the clamp is unusable. More ... (August 2006)

In the MMP firmware, the option Deployment in Offload Deployment Data, cannot be used to offload a full deployment. Only a single profile, a range of profiles not more than 2 full profiles, or 9 ENG, ACM, or CTD files (i.e. a total of 9 files) can be offloaded. More ... (April 2006)

The A14-1000 battery pack fits snugly between the plates. Instructions are provided for installing a new pack. (September 2005)

HgCl2 is a popular preservative for oceanic water samples. More details... . (September 2005)

Formalin is a popular preservative for oceanic sediment samples. More details... . (September 2005)

The motor cable installation must have sufficient slack to allow the motor and cradle to move without restriction. More details... . (March 2005)

Pump head sizing and filter porosity for the WTS-LV is listed in a compatibility table. (December 2004)

The electrical input voltage circuitry of the Aux/Stepper board can be improved by replacing D13 Zener diode with a TVS (Transient Voltage Suppress) diode. More details... . (December 2004)

A modification to the MMP crate has been designed to minimize motor vibration during shipping. More details... . (September 2004)

A feature of the Seabird SBE 41CP CTD allows the pressure and/or the sample number to be output to the serial I/O while profiling. This may be useful for a bench test, but it is undesirable during a deployment. The MMP software is not expecting the extra characters from the CTD serial I/O and will flag an unexpected response error. Suppressing the pressure and sample number output from the serial I/O while the CTD is profiling will not affect the data being collected by the CTD. More details... . (August 2004)

A new drive motor extension spring made of Elgiloy is available for the MMP. This spring material is more corrosion resistant than the 316SS or 302SS springs and will minimize the likelihood of spring failures due to corrosion at the Titanium tabs. More details... . (March 2004)

For customers who wish to make additional COM cables for the 3-pin connector on McLane controllers, we have published a wiring diagram. (November 2003)

For proper MMP operation, the ballast of the MMP must be calculated with all sensors and batteries installed. If the ballast is not properly calculated, the MMP may not reach the upper or lower limits of the planned deployment. Due to changes in the shipping requirements for hazardous goods, like the MMP battery pack, McLane must estimate the air weight of the battery pack during the initial ballast calculation at our facility. More details... (July 2003)

For proper MMP operation, the independent system watchdog circuit must be properly initialized. If the watchdog circuit is not properly initialized, the MMP will periodically receive a MASTER CLEAR signal that will re-boot the TT8 and restart the deployment in progress. More details... (May 2003)

For proper Sediment Trap operation, the battery endurance of the drop-in battery cells must be properly calculated. If the battery endurance is not properly calculated, the Sediment Trap may stop rotating before the end of the planned deployment. More details... and a sample calculation for battery endurance. (May 2003)

Corrosion of the drive motor springs of two profilers was discovered following two recent deployments. In one case the corrosion was evident for some length along the spring and may have weakened the spring, reducing the lift capacity of the profiler. In the other case, the loop at the end of the spring had corroded approximately halfway through at the contact point with the titanium tab. No other instances of spring corrosion have been reported. However, as a precaution, we strongly encourage all MMP operators to examine drive motor springs carefully and immediately for signs of corrosion and other damage.

McLane personnel are examining the two damaged springs and will provide a field upgrade kit to all current operators when a reliable new design has been completed. In the interim we suggest that a new spring, available at no charge from McLane, be used for each deployment. Contact us at your conveneince for additional information and for replacement drive motor springs. (Oct 2002)

Engineers at McLane Research Labs report that the latest version of Crosscut for Windows may resolve communication problems found when using Crosscut for DOS in recent versions of Windows. Both are downloadable from this website. Contact us if you have difficulty communicating with your McLane instrument using either version of Crosscut. (Nov 2002)

McLANE Research Labs has completed the design of new electronics boards for ALL of our systems. All systems are now shipping with the new boards. We undertook the change to upgrade the capabilities of our systems, to correct known problems (see below), and to take advantage of the new, more reliable bus connector of the Tattletale 8 Version 2 (TT8-V2), a product of Onset Computer, Pocassett, MA, USA. Contact us for more information about the changes. (June 2001)

We have important information concerning intermittent valve or belt alignment problems. This retrofit applies to RAS and WTS systems with proximity switches in the valve and electronics built around Version 1 Tattletale 8s (those shipped before ~June 2001). The retrofit also applies to ZPS systems built around Version 1 TT8s. TT8 V2 systems use optical sensors in RAS and WTS valves and are free of alignment problems. For TT8 V2 ZPS systems the circuit change is incorporated in the new V2 McLane electronics boards. (July 2001)

We have upgraded TT8 based sediment trap software to include features that have been standard on our other systems for the past several years. The most important feature is non-volatile data storage. A free, field installable software upgrade is all that is required to add this capability to existing systems. Contact us for more information and to receive upgrades suitable for your existing, TT8 based, McLane sediment traps. (July 2001)

There have been some reports of communication problems using new versions of the Windows operating system, particularly with laptops. The problem can often be fixed by making a simple change to the Registry of your PC. We have written instructions to modify your Registry.

An alternative to editing the registry is to download TattleTerm, a windows based terminal emulator (Crosscut is DOS based) that is compatible with the TattleTale 8. TattleTerm knows about power management and will turn on the serial port when it is needed. TattleTerm is easy to use and may also address other problems with Crosscut operation under current operating systems. To install TattleTerm simply extract the three files from the WinZip download and place them in the folder of your choice. Click on tattleterm.exe to start the program. The distrubution contains on-line help. The TT8, Crosscut, and TattleTerm are all products of Onset Computer, Pocassett, MA, USA. WinZip can be downloaded from WinZip. (July 2001)