User guide

Chelsea Technologies Group
FAST
tracka
User Guide HB179 Issue 7.0
Page
21
of
47
4. TECHNICAL REFERENCE
Due to the complexity of the instrument circuitry and optics, service of the FAST
tracka
, involving
removal or inspection of the internal components, should be attempted only by CI trained
technical support staff. There are no user serviceable components inside the instrument. Any
attempt to open the instrument or battery assembly and service any of the componentry will void
the warranty.
This notwithstanding, a short technical description of the FAST
tracka
and its subsystems has been
provided to inform the user of the internal operation of the instrument. This description is
designed to be functional in nature, and many details will be omitted in order to provide only the
information which is pertinent to the instrument operation.
A block diagram of the FAST
tracka
is pictured below:
Power Control Flashdisk
Board Board
Battery Interface Flasher LED
Pack Board Board Light
Source
TT7 Detector PMT
Board
Reference
Board
The operation of the FAST
tracka
is supervised by a controller system built around a MC68332
based datalogger, a TattleTale Model 7 (Onset Computer Corporation, Pocasset MA USA). The
datalogger resides on a controller board, which services tha datalogger and provides a
supervisory control circuit. Nonvolatile mass storage is provided by a PCMCIA flashdisk, and
nonvolatile system parameters are stored in a Dallas NVRAM. The Dallas NVRAM also provides
clock functions for system wakeup and long term deployment programming.
An interface board controls FRRF protocols while simultaneously monitoring a PMT detection
and amplification system. The interface board is also responsible for monitoring auxiliary
sensors such as the add-on temperature and pressure probes, as well as the standard CI
external PAR sensor. A power management board provides automatic power switching