BigShot GUI

Operations Manual
Designed & manufactured by Real Time Systems, Inc.
© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 2
 Welcome
Our Thanks Our Guarantee Contact Information
I would like to personally thank you for We stand by our products 100% and en- Real Time Systems
choosing our Big Shot Seismic Source gineer our controller packages to address 1605 E. Main Street
Synchronizer for your gun controlling. We your exploration needs. The following Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
endeavored to make the Big Shot a highly pages give you the information needed to United States of America
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meets the demands of large airgun array. Big Shot Controller. Should you experience tel: 830-990-2340 US
any problems or have any questions feel fax: 830-990-2300 US
Thank You, free to contact us by phone or email. email: [email protected]
Allen Nance,
President of Real Time Systems

Quick Start Whale Mode

Installation 7 In-Water Gun Correction
Updating the System 9 Transducer Scanning
Getting Started 10 Multiple Source Selection
Configuring the System 11 Appendix - C
Operation 13 BSHYD 45
General Operation BSHYD GUI 46
Example Scenario 16 To open the hydrophone viewer
Configuring the Array and System 17 The main screen
Setting Quality Control Limits 18 Setup
Configuring Timing Parameters 19 Appendix - D
Port Mapping 20 Farfield Setup 49
Configuring Gun Parameters 21 Hydrophone Calibration 50
Hydrophone Settings 22 Observing the Farfield in the BSHYD GUI
Manifold Calibration 23  51
Transducer Calibration 24 The Farfield graph
Warming Up 25 Spectrum Analysis
SoftStart
Starting and Ending Lines 26
Appendix - E
Setup Dialog 53
The Main Screen 27
Mode Dialog 54
Reports QC Dialog 55
Statistics 31 Timing Dialog 56
Logs 32 Gun Dialog 57
Reports 33 Hydro Dialog 58
Begin of Line Report (BOL) Transducer Dialog 58
End of Line Report (EOL) Ports Dialog 59
Appendix - A Farfield QC Dialog 59
Remote GUI 36 Farfield Geometry Dialog 60
Statistics Dialog 60
Appendix - B Cont/Leak Dialog 60
Useful Features 39 Connect Dialog 60
Single Gun Dialog Radio Dialog 61
Keyboard Shortcuts
Firing Spare Guns in Warm Appendix - F
Mode DOS Interface Installation Notes 64
Configuration Snapshot How to Install the DOS BigShot Software66
Saving Gun Modes How to Install ROMDOS 67
Continuity and Leakage Testing How to Manually Update Firmware 68
Shortcut to Gun Dialog
 How to Use This Manual
This manual is divided into three main sections, the first
is a quick introduction to the system. Secondly, we walk
through the most important details of the system using a
real life example. Finally, the last section of the manual are
various references to all aspects of the system.

If you already know what you are doing and want to quickly
brush up on the main operating procedures, read:
1. Quick Start
2. Appendix B
3. Appendix E

If you want to thoroughly understand how the system

works, read:
1. Installation
2. General Operation,
3. Reports,
4. Appendix B

The Quick Start is a very general overview which explains

where the main features are located. However, it does not
go into detail about how to use the system. This is where
the General Operation section fills in the gaps. By walking
through a real scenario you will gain an understanding of
how to setup, configure, and run the BigShot with it’s most
common features.

Beyond the primary features explained in General Oper-

ation, there are a number of extended or useful features
to pay attention to. It is recommend that everyone read
Appendix-B.

If you will be running the Remote GUI, then it is also advis-

able to read Appendix-A. Appendix-C explains how to uti-
lize the farfield option, and Appendix-D is useful if you are
connecting to a BigShot Hydrophone Digitizer (BSHYD).

Sometimes you may need to access and update the DOS

system (on the controller itself). Appendix-F explains how
to work with the software on the BigShot controller.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 4

 Quick Start Installation
Updating the System
Getting Started
Configuring the System
Operation

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 5

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 6
 Installation
1. Insert the BigShot GUI install CD, open Windows Ex-
plorer™ and navigate to the install directory (Bigshot
GUI\BigShot #.###\Install\ ).
2. Double click Setup.exe.
3. After Install Shield ™ starts, a welcome screen appears
to recommend closing all other applications during the
installation process.
4. Click Next to proceed.

Next, the Real Time Systems software license agreement is

presented. If you agree with the terms and conditions of
using the BigShot GUI, then click Yes to continue.

To register a primary user, type in the name of the ship and

the company that owns the ship in the Name and Company
fields, respectively. Ignore the Serial Number. It is not ap-
plicable for this application.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 7

 Finally, select a location on your hard drive for the BigShot
GUI software to reside. To accept the default location c:\
Program Files\Real Time Systems\BigShot, simply click Next
without making any changes. If you would like to designate
an alternate location, click Browse and select a different di-
rectory.

After selecting Next, the installer will unpack the neces-

sary files and configure the system. You will be prompted
to acknowledge the completion of the installation by click-
ing Finish. The BigShot GUI is now installed and ready for
operation.

Directory Structure
Program Files
During installation, a hierarchy of directories is created in
the Program Files folder.
Real Time Systems
Under Real Time Systems --> BigShot you’ll find a directory
Stats corresponding to the version number of the software you
BigShot Counts just installed. When product updates are shipped, a new
Parameter files version directory is created, which automatically preserves
###### your data from the old version (See Updating the System
pg. 8)
Version Number
Survey#
The version folder contains statistcs, counts, and parameter
Line files. Also, when you start a line, the survey folder you spec-
logs ify will be created inside the version folder.
...
Reports
The survey folder contains your line, log, and report files.
...
Relationship of the installation directories

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 8

 Updating the System
Installing new versions
More than likely, new versions will be emailed or FTP’d as
a ZIP archive. Windows updates should just be unzipped
on the main GUI PC and can be installed from the archived
directory.

DOS
See Appendix-F pg. 58

Windows
1. Unzip the archive.
2. Run Setup.exe from the newly unzipped directory.

How to revert to old versions

Should the need arise to switch back to an older version of
the software. Simply follow these procedures.

DOS
See Appendix-F pg. 58

Windows
This is really easy. When you install the BigShot GUI, the
program is placed in its own version directory. All you have
to do to run an old version is execute the program in the
version directory of the version you want.

Preserving statistical counts

When you switch to a new (or revert to an old) version,
you may want to retain your statistics information. In the
BigShot directory (c:\Program Files\Real Time Systems\Big-
Shot\) you’ll see several *.CFG files. Just copy statistics.cfg
to the version of the GUI you plan on using.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 9

 Getting Started
Computer running
the BigShot GUI
Hub/Switch
To use the Bigshot GUI you will need:
Ethernet Cable
• A PC running Windows ™
• CAT-5 Ethernet cable or
CMJ Crossover cable

GUNS RADIO RVC XM IT TRIG

The BigShot GUI interfaces with the BigShot via a network
BigShot CONTROLLER M ODULE PW R ENABLE

UNIT
STATUS
CTB

D/A
FTB

CLOS
FIRE

connection. Simply plug one end of an Ethernet cable into

the ENET port on the back of the BigShot and the other end
RESET 0

M ADE INUSA

ALARM
into your network hub/switch or directly into the ethernet
port on your computer with a crossover cable. First power
XDUCER
AUX up the controller and then each of the power supplies.

To connect:
Ethernet Port on the back of the BigShot 1. Open the Connect dialog. In the top left of the dia-
log, you will see an IP address field for the BigShot control-
ler.
2. Enter the IP address in the BigShot Controller box
to correspond to the settings on the BigShot (the default IP
of the BigShot is 192.168.100.200, which can be changed in
the Alt F7 menu in the DOS GUI).
3. Click Connect to establish a connection.
Connection dialog box
A message will appear indicating that the BigShot GUI is
trying to connect. If successful, the Connect button will
become grayed out. Also, if connected, the status bar at the
bottom of the screen will periodically display time informa-
tion from the BigShot. If the time is not updating once a
second, the lower right status box will display DISCON-
Status bar (lower right of screen) Left: disconnected, Right: connected NECTED.
Quick Test
To test operation of the BigShot, set the system mode to
Shoot Test and adjust any parameters of interest.

For example,
1. Select Mode on the menu bar.
2. Click on the Shoot radio button.
3. Check the Test box in the System Mode category.
4. Under Trig Mode, select CYC with a cycle time of 10
seconds.
Mode dialog
5. While in test mode, the gun delay should be 0 and the
gain should be 8. Both of these settings are in the Gun
dialog.
6. For the array configuration, select Setup on the menu
bar. Choose 1 string with 8 guns on the string.
7. Set the number of sources to 1 and the number of
manifolds to zero.

Every 10 seconds the GUI will obtain test readings from the
BigShot power supply.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 10

 Configuring the System
Survey Configuration
All log files and everything associated with the survey is
stored in the specified survey directory. This is an impor-
tant parameter to set at the beginning of a job, since this is
how the BigShot GUI organizes files.

1. Select Setup in the top menu bar.

2. Name the survey in the lower right of the dialog box.
3. Select OK to create the directory.
Array configuration
1. Select Setup in the top menu bar.
2. Under Array Configuration set:
2.1 Number of strings
2.2 Number of guns per string
2.3 Number of Sources
3. Select OK to update the system

NOTE: Only select HV under Power Sup-

ply if you specially ordered the high voltage
boards. The system default is Norm

Timing configuration
1. Select Timing in the top menu bar
2. Under Power Supply Voltage
2.1 Set the operating voltage level
2.2 Set how long of a pulse will be output on the so-
lenoid line
3. Under Sensor Detect
3.1 Set the Aim Point
3.2 Set the look window. This is the number of mil-
liseconds before and after the aim point that the
tuning algorithm looks for the sensor signal.
3.3 Set which method the BigShot will use to detect
the sensor signal.
3.4 Set voltage threshold the sensor signal must surpass
in order to be considered a peak in the signal.
4. Under Sensor Power
4.1 Select ON, since Bolt guns require the sensors to
be powered. (OFF for all other types of guns)
5. Under Autofire
5.1 Set the voltage threshold the sensor signal must
cross in order to trigger an autofire. The key is to
set it high enough that electrical noise on the line
will not flag an autofire, but low enough that an
actual fire will be detected.
5.2 Set how many times the voltage level must cross
the threshold before an autofire is flagged.
5.3 Set how long after the aim point the BigShot will
wait before detecting an autofire.
6. Under CTB (Clock Time Break)
6.1 Set width of the CTB signal (10 msecs)
6.2 Choose a signal which is either low by default and
goes high when active, or one that is high by default
and is pulled low when active.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 11

 Port configuration
1. Select Port in the top menu bar.
2. Assign a string number/name in the top box.
3. Assign each gun to a port number on the BigShot
4. Assign the Depth Transducer and Pressure Transducer
ports
5. Click the next string arrow.
6. Repeat the process.

Gun configuration
Select Gun in the top menu bar.

Here you can set all the parameters associated with each
gun on a per string basis. To set the same parameter for
every gun simply select the parameter and then press:
ALT + ‘=’ (the ALT and equals key simultaneously) on the
keyboard.

These same parameters found in the gun dialog are also

available on a single gun basis. In the main window, double
click on a gun to bring up the single gun dialog. It’s the same
as one row in the gun dialog. You can use the single gun
dialog to tweak the gain and delay of individual guns during
operation.

Q/C configuration
Select QC in the top menu bar.

Most of these parameters are dictated by the specification

for the job. Fill in the proper ranges, tolerances, counts
and error conditions. Whenever any gun data falls outside
of any of these values an error window will pop up and an
alarm will sound.

At the bottom of the dialog box is where you set the vol-
ume parameters. Minimum volume is the the lowest volume
that is allowed per shot. Source volume is the target (or
maximum) volume of a single source.

Lastly, make sure the baud rate for the serial header is set
for the navigation system. Also, numbering should be PHYS-
ICAL, if you want the actual port numbers to be used in the
header.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 12

 Operation
System modes
Off
In Off mode, the BigShot will not fire guns. Also, depth and
pressure transducers will not be powered, so you will not
see transducer readings on the screen.

Shoot
This is the normal operating mode. When in production
this is the mode to use. Guns set to spare and off will not
fire.

Warm
In Warm mode, a fast tuning algorithm is used and shot sta-
tistics are not recorded. Soft Start only operates in warm
mode.

What does the Test check box do?

Checking the Test box will put either Shoot or Warm into
test mode. While in test mode, statistics are not recorded
and an internally generated sensor signal is looped through
the solenoid line.

IMPORTANT: Guns will still fire in Test mode!

The purpose of test mode, then, is to verify that the power

supply is working. Test mode demonstrates that both the
high voltage output and the solenoid ports are working. It
doesn’t really test the gun wiring, since regardless of how a
gun is connected, you will see a generated sensor signal.

Safety
In order of most safe to least safe, here are the various ways
to prevent someone from accidentally firing the guns:
1. Disable channels
2. Disable power supply
3. Turn system mode to Off
4. Turn guns off (A gun set to off in the GUI will not fire)
5. Turn system mode to Shoot and trigger mode to Man-
ual (Guns will only fire by pushing the Fire button on
the power supply or manually firing the gun within the
GUI)

IMPORTANT: Spare guns can fire in Warm

QC Dialog mode if enabled (see QC dialog)!

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 13

 General Operation Example Scenario
Configuring the Array and System
Setting Quality Control Limits
Configuring Timing Parameters
Configuring Gun Parameters
Port Mapping
Hydrophone Settings
Manifold Calibration
Transducer Calibration
Hydrophone Calibration
Warming Up
Starting and Ending Lines
The Main Screen

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 14

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 15
 Example Scenario
String 1 String 2 String 3 String 4 String 5 String 6 String 7 String 8 The best way to learn how to use the new user interface
is to simply dive right in to an example. We will begin by
1
50 100 100 100 100 100 100 50 configuring the system and defining all the necessary param-
DT eters. After which, we will warm up the system, test the
2
100 200 200 200 200 200 200 100 firing of the guns, and then actually start a line.
HYD
3 Let’s say that we have been given the following specifications
100 300 300 300 300 300 300 100
(illustrated to the right) for a survey. We will be conducting
4
200 300 300 300 300 300 300 200 the survey with an array of 64 guns. The array will consist
DT HYD of eight strings with eight guns per string, which will all be
5 manufactured by Bolt™. We will divide the array into two
200 300 300 300 300 300 300 200
HYD sources each controlled by a separate compressor and thus
6
100 300 300 300 300 300 300 100 there will be two manifold pressure transducers.

7 The third and fourth guns and the fifth and sixth guns on
100 200 200 200 200 200 200 100
DT HYD each string will be clustered together. We’ll place depth
8
transducers on the first, fourth, and seventh guns on each
50 100 100 100 100 100 100 50 string and a pressure transducer at the end of each string.
PT As for hydrophone sensors, we will install four per string:
one on the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh gun.
Source 1 Source 2

Inside each gun in the illustration, is a designation of that

gun’s volume. The total volume of the array equals 12,600
in3. According to the specifications, 97% of the gun volume
during a shot is acceptable. Each source represents half
the volume, so the minimum acceptable volume is approxi-
mately 6,100 in3 (12,600 / 2 x 0.97).

Also, on our boat, the gun shack and the instrument room
will both need access to the BigShot. However, the gun
BigShot GUI Navigation shack will be connecting remotely (as shown). For the pur-
Power Supply Rack

PS 1 - String 1
pose of this example, we will explain the main GUI. Refer to
Appendix - A for how to operate the remote GUI (BigShot
PS 2 - String 2
RMT).
PS 3 - String 3
Instrument Room
PS 4 - String 4
With the specifications defined, we can now use the BigShot
Switch
GUI to configure the BigShot for this survey. We’ll follow
PS 5 - String 5
these steps:
Gun Shack
PS 6 - String 6 1. Configure system mode parameters
PS 7 - String 7
2. Set the quality control limits
3. Define the system timing parameters
BigShot Controller PS 8 - String 8
4. Configure the gun parameters
5. Map transducer, and hydrophone ports
BigShot RMT 6. Configure the hydrophone
Example configuration: See Appendix-A for how to use the BigShot RMT 7. Calibrate depth, pressure, and manifold transducers

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 16

 Configuring the Array and System
Click on Connect on the menu bar and the connection
dialog will open (shown right). First, enter the IP address of
the BigShot in the box at the top and press Connect to es-
tablish communication. After successfully connecting, check
the status bar at the very bottom of the window (shown
right). You will notice a box labeled PSU for Power Supply
Units. If all the power supplies are connected and opera-
tional, their ID numbers will be listed here. You will know
right away if there is a problem with a power supply, because
its number will not be listed.

Note, for this example, we are not using BSHYD hydro-

phone digitizers. We’ll cover that in a later section.

1. Now, Click on Mode on the menu bar and set the

System Mode to Test to enable the power supplies
in test mode. This allows the transducers to receive
power, so we can calibrate them later. After we are
finished configuring the system, we will return to this
dialog to start warm up mode.

2. Click Setup on the menu bar and Under Array Con-

figuration, we’ll set both the Number of Strings
and the number of Guns Per String to 8, which will
give us our 64 gun array.

3. Set Number of Sources to 2.

4. Enter 2 for the Number of Manifolds.

5. Let’s call the Survey Name: Survey1 and the Line

Number: Line1. We want to increment the shot num-
ber by one each cycle, so set Shot Increment to 1.

6. Our power supply uses normal voltage levels, so select

Norm for Power Supply.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 17

 Setting Quality Control Limits
Now that the survey is defined, the next step is to set the
quality control limits and error conditions. Click on Q/C on
the menu bar. We want to be fairly strict about quality and
not tolerate very many errors before an alert is generated.

1. Enter 1 for the Maximum Spread, Delta Error

QC, and Maximum Delta/Shot. Typical values for
Max Continuity and Min Leakage are 100 Ohms
and 100,000 Ohms respectively.

2. For Pressure, enter 200 for the Range, 2000 for the
Target, and an Error of 100. The range will display
the pressure from 1900 – 2200 PSI and if the pressure
deviates by more than 100 PSI from the target an error
will be flagged. Similarly, for Depth set the Range
and Target to 5 and the Error to 2. The displayed
ranged will then be from the water surface (0m) to
10m. Should the depth fall below 7m or rise above 3m
an error will be flagged.

3. Let’s set the Hydrophone Display Start to 25ms

and a good Display Length is probably about 100ms.
We are definitely interested in recording the hydro-
phone data and because we will analyze the data in an-
other software program that accepts SEGY. Select
that as the recording type. As for the gun Sensor,
set the Display Start to 25ms and we only need to
show a Display Length of 50ms of the gun signature.
For our application we aren’t interested in recording
the sensor data.

4. Next, we are presented with the calibration options for

the manifolds. For the moment leave the manifold zero
and scale alone. We’ll come back to this point at the
end when we are ready to calibrate the depth, pressure,
and manifold transducers.

5. As given by the specifications, the minimum allowable

volume is 6,100 in3. Enter that value into Min Vol-
ume. For the Source Volume enter the actual vol-
ume of the source (in our case 1/2 the total volume),
which will be 6,300 in3.

6. For the sake of example, our navigation system’s baud

rate is 19200. Set it in the Serial Header section. Also,
selecting LOGICAL for Numbering will use the gun
number (not the gun port) in the serial header. For
safety, set Fire Spare Guns in Warm Mode to OFF.

7. Finally, we have the option of specifing Auto Cursor

and Auto Scale. Auto Cursor will automatically select
the gun which has the most errors in a shot. Auto Scale
will normalize all the hydrophone displays in the main
window.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 18

 Configuring Timing Parameters
We are now ready to set up the power supply and timing
parameters. Note, two of the three most critical param-
eters for the tuning (gun syncing) algorithm—Signal Look
Window and Peak Threshold—are configured in this
dialog.

1. First, let’s start with a Power Supply Voltage of

100v. Umbilical resistance is probably low enough that
100v will be adequate. If we start experiencing excess
no fires and delta errors, we might try raising the pow-
er supply voltage. For Bolt™ guns, use a Pulse Width
of 25ms.

2. For our hypothetical example, select an Aim Point

of 50ms.

3. As mentioned previously, Signal Look Window is

an important parameter. A value of +- 10 ms should
be sufficient.

4. Because we are using BoltTM guns, select Peak for the

Sensor Detect Method. If we were using another
gun manufacturer we would select the sensor detect
method specified by that manufacture. Also, if we were
using more than one type of gun in the array, we would
choose Mixed, which would allow us to set the sensor
detect method on a per gun basis.

5. The next most important parameter in this dialog is

Peak Threshold. A good figure to start with is 2v.

6. BoltTM guns require sensor power, so select ON for

Sensor Power.

7. Choosing a good Autofire Threshold is a bit of an

art. You want it to be sufficiently above the noise floor,
but below the level an autofire might reach. A good
starting point may be the same as the peak threshold. In
order to reduce the chance of a noise spike in the signal
triggering an autofire alert, set the Autofire Count
to 3. That way the BigShot will have to detect a signal
level above the autofire threshold for three counts be-
fore signaling an autofire.

8. For the Hydrophone Length, let’s collect 300ms

of data.

9. Set Contact Closure Time to 50ms and Contact

Length to 100 ms.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 19

 Port Mapping
We now move from configuring the guns to mapping the
transducer ports. As shown in the array configuration, we
will place depth transducers on the first, fourth, and seventh
gun on each string and we will put a pressure transducer
on the end of the string. The first two strings are shown
on the right.

It is important to realize that port mapping is a software fea-

ture distinct from the underlying hardware. Transducer and
hydrophone channels on any power supply can be mapped
to any port. However, for simplicity sake, in this example we
chose to consecutively assign port numbers and to restrict
the number of transducers and hydrophones on each string
to what a single power supply will allow.

String 1
Gun # DT Port HYD Port
1 1
2 1
3
4 2 2
5 3
6
7 3 4
PT Port
4

String 2
Gun # DT Port HYD Port
1 5
2 5
3
4 6 6
5 7
6
7 7 8
PT Port
8

The BSHYD port is used for a special BigShot Hydrophone

Module (sold separately). We are not using the hydrophone
module for basic operation, so ignore this parameter.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 20

 Configuring Gun Parameters
Our first priority in configuring the guns is to define the
sources. The specifications call for two souces, so we’ll di-
vide the array in half. Strings 1 through 4 will comprise
source 1 and, likewise, source 2 will consist of strings 5
through 8. Using the string selector at the top, scroll to
string 5. Choose Source number 2 for the first gun on the
string. Just like in the original BigShot interface, pressing Alt
= will apply the setting to all the guns. Repeat this process
for the rest of the strings.

Now, return to string 1 and set the Mode of the first gun
to AUTO. Again, press ‘Alt =’ to change all the guns. Do this
for every string.

Although the tuning algorithm will refine the Delay value,

we want to input a reasonable number to begin with. A de-
lay of 12ms should do the trick. Change the first gun, then
use Alt = to copy the setting. Do this for every string.

Usually the gun signal does not need to be inverted. If some-

one wires the gun incorrectly, the signal may be inverted, in
which case use the Invert check box to correct it. You
won’t know until after a shot is fired if you need to make
this adjustment for any particular gun.

The third most critical parameter for tuning

the guns is the gain. Adjust the gain such that the sig-
nal will be at least 2v above the peak threshold. Since we
previously set the Peak Threshold at 2v , a good starting
point for Gain is 4. As with the other parameters, change
the gain for the first gun and then use Alt = to set the rest.
Repeat this process for each string. Ignore Offset.

Now comes the tedious part—defining the volume for each

gun. Given the array configuration in the specification, we
simply need to fill in those values in the Volume fields.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 21

 Hydrophone Settings
Having defined the port mapping, we now turn our attention
to the hydrophone settings. Click on Hydro on the main
menu. You will see that the ports we enabled previously are
now enabled in this dialog. For the time being, ignore the
strength and scale settings (those are only for the farfield
calculation). Instead, our main interest is Gain. We won’t
know until we fire a shot how strong the hydrophone signal
will be. A good starting point for Gain is 2. Set the gain for
all the hydrophones on each string.

Leave all the hydrophones enabled. If a hydrophone breaks

while shooting, you can dissable it by checking the dissable
box. This will prevent the faulty hydrophone data from be-
ing used in the farfield calculation.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 22

 Manifold Calibration
The final step in configuring the system is to calibrate all
transducers. First, let’s calibrate the two manifold transduc-
ers.

1 1. At the bottom right of the status bar, you will notice

a box labeled Manifold. The value you see is what the
manifold is returning at zero pressure.
2. Click on Q/C on the main menu. At the bottom of
the dialog, input the current reading into the Zero field
and click OK. The status bar will now show a manifold
pressure of zero
3. Pressurize the manifold to 2000 PSI and observe the
manifold value in the status bar.
3.1 Divide 2000 by the manifold reading. This is the
scale value. In our example scale = 2000 / 853 =
2.35
3.2 Click on Q/C. Enter the calculated scale value into
Scale. Click OK to apply the change.

The first manifold is now calibrated and shows approxi-

mately 2000 in the status bar. Repeat this process for the

2
second manifold.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 23

 Transducer Calibration
To calibrate the depth and pressure transducers:
1. Ensure all transducers are not under pressure (i.e. on
deck).
2. Click on Transducer on the main menu. Notice the
Raw Freq field.This is the actual reading from the trans-
ducer before the zero and scale have been applied.
3. Check the Zero box for each transducer you wish to
calibrate..
4. Click the Zero button.

You will notice that the unpressurized raw frequency value

has been coppied to the zero field. Essentially you have
told the BigShot that the current frequency reading is the
frequency the transducer generates when on deck..

The frequency is then multiplied by the scale factor and add-

ed to the offset. The final value will be the depth/pressure in
the desired units, depending on what scale you use In this
example, with a scale of 0.01, the depth/pressure values are
in units of meters.

The transducers on string 1 are now calibrated. Repeat this

process for each string.
Raw frequencey of transducers before calibration

NOTE: The system will not power the

transducers if the mode is set to OFF. Put
the system in WARM or SHOOT mode to
get transducer readings.

Zero frequencey is now set to the unpressurized raw frequency

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 24

 Warming Up
Now that the system is fully configured, we are almost ready
to begin the line, but before we do we need to warm up the
guns. To set the BigShot into Warm/Cycle mode, press
Alt + W on the keyboard.

In warm up mode, the guns will fire in a fast tune mode.

They will continue to fire until you issue another command.
Typically, you will move directly from warm up to beginning
a line.

SoftStart
Instead of manually firing each gun individually, we’ll take
advantage of the soft start feature to automatically warm up
individual guns sequentially.

1. Open Setup from the top menu bar.

2. Set SoftStart Interval to 1.
3. Set SoftStart Increment to 1.
4. Open Mode from the top menu bar.
5. Set Cycle Time to 10 seconds.
6. In the SoftStart region click START.

The system will automatically begin cycling in Warm mode,

firing only one gun the first shot. In the next shot, two guns
will fire. By the the third shot, three guns will fire and so on
and so forth. After full capacity has been reached

When you press the SoftStart button, the system will auto-
matically enter Warm mode and the trigger will be set to
cycle. A shot will be fired each cycle. Starting with one gun,
after an interval is completed, more guns (as specified) will
incrementally be added to the shot.

If you set both SoftStart Interval and SoftStart Increment to

1, then with every shot, one gun will be added. This includes
multiple sources. The first shot contains one gun from
source 1. The second shot contains two guns in source two.
The third shot contains three guns in source one. Etc.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 25

 Starting and Ending Lines
Begin Line
Having warmed up the system on the approach to the line,
it is now time to switch to normal shoot mode and begin
firing the guns in response to external triggers from naviga-
tion.

One could, of course, open Mode and manually set the sys-
tem and trigger modes and fill in the information on the line.
However, it is far simpler to use the Begin Line keyboard
command. Additionally, this method will automatically gen-
erate a beginning of line report (see pg. 33).

1. Press Alt + ‘B’

2. Optionally, you can name the:
2.1 Line
2.2 Shot Number
2.3 Shot Increment
2.4 Source Next Shot
3. Click OK

Everything in that dialog is optional if navigation is going to

set those variables. When you click ‘OK’, the system will au-
tomatically go into Shoot mode with an external trigger. At
this point, navigation will control the line name, shot number,
shot increment, and which source is firing.

NOTE: Statistical counts (except mainte-

nance) will be cleared

End Line
When you are finished shooting the line, you can stop the
system either manually, or through navigation. In both cases,
an end of line report will be generated in the survey direc-
tory (see pg. 33).

To end the line manually:

1. Press Alt + ‘E’
2. Click Yes

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 26

 The Main Screen
Now that the system is firing guns, lets turn our attention
to the main screen. The top of the screen is divided into
eight columns each representing a string, with eight guns per
string. First, you will notice that the active source displays
gun signatures in green, while the inactive source shows only
a grey line. Each gun is selectable by clicking and a chosen
gun is indicated by a white border. Along the bottom row
are three graphs for the selected gun. On the left is the hy-
drophone graph with various display options. In the middle,
is the sensor display, with gun details below. On the right
are plots for delta, manifold, depth, and pressure.

Let’s examine string one in closer detail. Below the string

number are four display options (S, D, H, and E). Selecting
a circular button changes the view type of all guns on the
string to gun Sensor, Depth, Hydrophone, or delta Error,
respectively. The little white numbers below the green sen-
sor signature are the depth transducer values. At the very
bottom of the string, the pressure transducer is shown in
blue. Click on a gun and a boarder will appear around the
selected gun. Notice how the three graphs at the bottom of
the screen change to display the data for that specific gun.

On the far left, the hydrophone graph displays the signature

of the hydrophone associated with the selected gun. There
are two overlay options: cal and adj cal, which display the
calibrated and adjusted calibrated trace, respectively. The
calibrated trace is the original hydrophone signal written to
SEG-Y during the calibration procedure. The adjusted trace
is the calibrated signal scaled and time shifted based on the
current shot.

In the middle, the sensor graph displays a more detailed

graph of the gun sensor. Below the center graph is a grey
box enclosing important information about the selected gun
(designated by string and logical gun number.
Time: The time the gun fired based on the chosen sensor
detection method in the Timing dialog.
Delay: The time before the aim-point at which the sole-
noid fire pulse is activated for this gun.
Gain: Linear gain applied to sensor signal prior to digitizing
(set in the Gun dialog).
Mode: The firing mode of the gun (set in the Gun dialog).

On the far right lies the statistical graphs for Delta, Manifold,
Depth, and Pressure. The Delta history bar graph displays
the fire time deltas of the last fifty shots for the monitor
channel selected. Each bar represents one shot and its size
is relative to its variance from the aim point (the solid cen-
ter line). The color of each bar is determined by the delta
value. If the delta is greater or less than the Delta Error QC
(represented by the dashed lines) set in the QC Menu, the
bar is red. Otherwise the bar is green.

The Manifold graph displays the current real-time mani-

fold pressure in the leftmost bar position. The rest of the

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 27

 graph to the immediate right displays manifold pressure val-
ues of the last fifty shots corresponding to the channel tab
selected (at the bottom of the graph). The color of each
bar is cyan (light blue) unless the manifold pressure value is
greater than the Pressure Target plus the Pressure Error or
less than the Pressure Target minus the Pressure Error (set
in the QC Menu). In either of those instances, the color is
red. The target is the solid center line and the error is rep-
resented by the dashed lines above and below the target.

The Depth graph is a bar graph displaying the current

real-time depth in the leftmost bar position and a historical
representation of the depth value (for the last fifty shots)
immediately to the right of that. The Depth Target and Er-
ror (set in the QC Menu) are represented as the Pressure
Target and Error (above). Again, red bars indicate errors;
blue represent shots without depth errors.

The Pressure graph displays current real-time string pres-

sure and string pressure history similar to the Manifold
Pressure Graph (above) except that the graph pertains to
the pressure transducer for the string to which the current
monitor channel belongs.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 28

 Reports
Statistics
Logs
Reports

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 29

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 30
 Statistics
Counts
Program Files When you shoot a line, the statistics counted each shot in-
clude:
Real Time Systems • Delta Error
• Missfire
Stats • Autofire
BigShot Counts • Depth
Parameter files • Pressure
###### These are cleared every time you begin a line.
Version Number
Gun maintenance (how many times a gun has fired) is also
Survey#
recorded, but it is not cleared with each new line. It is
Line maintained persistently so that you know when to replace
logs a gun.
...
Reports
These statistics are saved in a counts file in the version fold-
er. You can also access them in the statistics dialog.
...
Statistical counts are stored in the version folder

Statistics Dialog
In addition to viewing the counts accumulated thus far, the
statistics dialog also allows you to manually clear all the
counts or edit/change specific counts.

Statistics dialog, Top: Depth errors Bottom: Gun maintenance

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 31

 Logs
Viewing Logs
You can view a log of the system at anytime, including during
shooting. As each shot occurs, you can monitor the data of
your choosing. To view the log, click on View Log under the
File menu.

Line Selection
1. Select a survey. A survey directory is named in the
Mode dialog and created when a line is started.
2. Select a line within that survey.

Shot Selection
If you want to jump to a specific shot, enter it in and click
‘GO.’ If you are still shooting on the current line, auto scroll
will always keep the latest shot record on the screen.
View Log - Standard view shown
View Selection
• Standard View
This view only displays error totals per shot. In other words, how
many delta errors and how many misfires etc.
• Error
The error view breaks down the reporting into more detail and
shows all guns on each string that flagged an error for each shot.
• Show All
This view displays information for every gun in the array regardless
of its error status.

Notice under each error category is an S:L. The ‘S’ stands

for Shot and ‘L’ represents Line. What is displayed under
‘S’ is the number of that type of error for that shot. The ‘L’
value is the cumulative number of errors on the line up to
the current shot.

Printing Logs
Exporting a log to a file is similar to viewing it on screen, in
that you can select which view to output.

1. Select a survey.
2. Select a line within that survey
3. Choose all shots within the line or a range of shots.
4. Select a view to output.
5. Click on the little box next to “Save As” to choose a
directory where the log file will be placed.
6. Name the log.
7. Click OK.

Print Log

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 32

 Reports
Begin of Line Report (BOL)
Program Files When you begin a line, either with the Alt + ‘B’ command or
a BL command from navigation, a Begining of Line report is
Real Time Systems automatically generated.

Stats This report is saved in the survey directory and the name
BigShot Counts is the combination of BOL, the line number, and the date
Parameter files and time.
######
A BOL report consists of a detailed list of every configura-
Version Number
tion parameter prior to starting the line.
Survey#

Line End of Line Report (EOL)

logs As with the BOL report, an End of Line report is automati-
...
Reports cally generated when a line is stopped, either by key-combi-
nation (Alt + ‘E’) or by navigation (EL).
...
This report is saved in the survey directory. The format of
Reports are stored in the survey folder the file name is EOL plus the line number and the current
date and time.

An EOL report contains a statistical summary of the line.

You’ll find for each shot, the total error counts for each gun
on the line.

For more detailed reports, use the log feature.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 33

 Appendix - A
Remote GUI

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 34

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 35
 Remote GUI
The BigShot RMT
The BigShot RMT looks exactly like the BigShot GUI. How-
ever, it does not directly communicate with the BigShot
controller. Instead, it remotely connects to the PC running
the BigShot GUI and unless the BigShot PC gives the remote
PC control previleges, then the remote will only be able to
view the operation.

In our example, the gun shack remotely connected to the

main GUI in the instrument room. This way, the instrument
room has full control over the settings and operation of the
BigShot, but can allow the gun shack to view and control the
BigShot if needed.

Allowing Remote Connections

Before the remote system can connect to the GUI, remote
connections must be enabled.

1. In the main GUI, open “Connect” on the menu bar

2. Check the box in the upper right corner of the dialog
to allow remote connections

Connecting to the GUI

On the remote system, open the “Connect” menu item.
The connection dialog is very different from the main GUI
connection dialog. You only have the option of connecting
to the GUI PC, either by it’s network name (set in Windows
networking), or by it’s IP address. Choose either option
and then click “Connect.” If remote connections have been
enabled on the main system, then the “Connect” button will
gray out. Close the dialog and you can now remotely ob-
serve the BigShot in action.

Giving the BigShot RMT Control

Once connected, the remote system can only observe the
operation. The main GUI must explicitly give the remote
system control.

3. In the main GUI, open “Connect” on the menu bar

4. Check the box next to the IP address of the remote
connection to enable CTL of that connection

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 36

 Appendix - B
Useful Features

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 37

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 38
 Useful Features
Single Gun Dialog
By double clicking on a gun in the main screen, a control and
configuration dialog will open up for that gun. The single
gun dialog allows you to quickly control the mode, gain, and
delay of that specific gun. This is useful, for example, when
you need to adjust the gain on individual guns during warm
up or production.

You can also use this dialog to manually fire an individual gun
or a gun cluster (defined in the geometry dialog). You will
notice two buttons at the bottom left of the dialog to serve
that purpose.

Additionally, next to the fire gun/cluster button are a couple

of buttons to BLEED and SEAL an individual gun.

Keyboard Shortcuts
As an alternative to the single gun dialog, many of the gun
parameters can be manipulated by the keyboard. A list of
these commands are always available in the help menu.
These keyboard shortcuts will be familiar to users of the
GCS-90.

About dialog in the Help menu

Firing Spare Guns in Warm Mode

Often times in normal operation, you will have spare guns
in the array that won’t fire during shooting. However, prior
to beginning a line, you’ll want to warm up every gun in the
array. You could enable all the guns and then just before
starting the line, spare the guns you won’t be using. How-
ever, this might be error prone and slow under the time
constraints in moving from warm up to shooting.

Alternatively, you can set the spare guns to fire in warm

mode only. When this option is set, spare guns will fire
when the system is in warm mode, or during a soft start,
but as soon as you switch to shoot mode, the spare guns
will be deactivated.

1. Open the QC dialog in the menu bar

2. Select the OFF or ON toggle as shown

WARNING: Use this feature with caution

because the expected default behavior of
the system will NOT fire spare guns. Be
sure everyone is aware of changing this be-
havior.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 39

 Configuration Snapshot
Sometimes it is nice to be able to quickly visualize the array
configuration. By selecting Show Config in the top menu
bar, you can view the entire array setup at a glance. Each gun
is colored according to its mode. Within each gun is dis-
played its source(s), or port, or volume depending on what
option you choose at the bottom of the dialog. Transducer
connections and ports are also readily visible.

Show Configuration

Saving Gun Modes

Quite often you may find the need to quickly assign gun
modes en masse. For example, when you have reached the
end of a line, it could be advantageous for safety to turn all
the guns off at once.

Consider also the ability to have a warm up and a produc-

Gun dialog
tion configuration. For instance, if you did not want to
change the default spare mode behavior (spare guns do not
fire in warm mode), but wanted to warm up all the guns, you
could do this: Save a gun mode with all the guns set to auto.
Then save a production gun mode file with the desired guns
set to spare.

While warming up the system, all the guns would be enabled

for firing. You might change the gains and delays and other
manual adjustments as you see fit. Once you are ready to
start the line, however, simply load the production configu-
ration. All your manual adjustments are preserved and only
the gun modes are changed. In other words, the changes
you made to the gain and delay of each individual gun are
still in place, but the gun modes will be different. The guns
you defined to be in SPARE will not fire in shoot mode.

Likewise, you could save an all off configuration to quickly

turn the entire array off at the end of a line. This would be
useful as another layer of safety as no guns would be capable
of firing regardless of the system mode.

To save modes, simply open the Gun dialog, click Save Modes,
and choose a name for the configuration. Similarly, to load
a mode configuration, click Restore Mode and choose a file.
You can also manage your saved gun modes by deleting un-
used configurations. Just click Delete Modes and select the
name of the configuration file you wish to delete.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 40

 Continuity and Leakage Testing
It is possible to test the continuity and leakage of the sen-
sors and solenoids from within the GUI while the system
is in OFF mode. This is a quick way to check continuity
and leakage without having to walk down to the gun shack
and plug in a multi-meter to the test points on each power
supply.

When testing a small voltage (5v) is applied to the solenoid

line and the voltage drop across the resistance is measured.
This is not enough voltage to actually fire the guns.

Shortcut to Gun Dialog

A quick way to access all the gun parameters for a string,
is to click once on the string name at the top of the main
window. Rather than opening the gun dialog and advancing
to the desired string, this method brings the gun dialog up
already set to the string you want.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 41

 Whale Mode
This mode allows you to cycle a single gun at a specified
interval to scare off marine life in the area. Go to Setup and
set the whale cycle time to your desired interval (from 10
to 9999 seconds).To activate this mode, open the Mode dia-
log from the menu bar and set the System Mode to Whale.
When you hit OK, the selected channel will begin firing at
the interval set in the Setup dialog. You can also toggle this
mode via the keyboard shortcut, “CTL+W.”

In-Water Gun Correction

Bleed and Seal are two operations that can be performed
on an individual gun during a survey. When activated, all
other guns on the same power supply as the selected gun
are turned off and the selected gun will fire five times at the
interval specified by these parameters.

Bleed is typically a very short interval with the intent of

rapidly decreasing the air pressure. If you have a pressure
valve on the line, this will effectively shut off air from the gun.
Seal is used to jostle the air shuttle into closing. If after a gun
repair, the gun isn’t quite sealing, you can use this feature to
hit five times in a row helping it to seal.

Both operations can be activated while shooting a line.

However, if a shot occurs while a bleed or seal is being con-
ducted, there is a chance that all other guns on that power
supply will be off during the shot.

The bleed and seal intervals can be set in the Setup dialog.

Transducer Scanning
Transducer scanning allows you to configure when pressure
and depth sensor data is recorded. If you want a continu-
ous display of transducer output, set real time monitoring
on and the scan and power delays to zero (this is the default
setup). Sometimes it is advantageous to leave the power off
of the transducers until the time you want the data to be
recorded. In that case, you can adjust the power and scan
delays to control when transducers will be activated and
when their data will be read, respectively.

Multiple Source Selection

A new feature (that was once an old feature of the GCS90)
is that a gun can be associated with more than one source at
a time.You can now configure more complicated source pat-
terns by asigning multiple sources to guns. To do this, open
the Gun dialog from the men bar. Notice the source select
box is scrollable and the numbers inside correspond to the
total number of enabled sources. By clicking on a number
you toggle it’s selection state. In this manner, you can assign
each individual gun more than one source. Of course, “ALT
=” works on this parameter as well. So, if you set gun 1 to
sources 1 & 3 and then hit “ALT =”, every gun on that string
will be set to fire on sources 1 & 3.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 42

 Appendix - C BSHYD
BSHYD Hydrophone Viewer

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 43

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 44
 BSHYD
The BSHYD unit digitizes 32 near field hydrophone chan-
nels at 1, 2 or 4kHz sample rate at 24 bit samples. The unit
is triggered by the BigShot with the Closure Out signal and
takes sampled or the hydrophone record length and sends
these via an ethernet connection to the BigShot GUI.

Setup the BSHYD

1. Connect the BSHYD trigger input to the Contact clo-
sure oy of the BigShot Controller.
2. Connect the BSHYD ethernet connector to the local
area network.
3. Assign an IP address to the BSHYD that is in the local
network space.
3.1 To set the BSHYD IP address, connect a terminal
emulator (Hyperlink) via a serial cable from the
computer to the BSHYD.
3.2 Then power on the unit. You will be presented
with an opening banner displaying the current IP
address.
3.3 You can change the address by issuing the following
command: IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (ENTER).
3.4 Finally, reset the power to apply the new address.
Using HyperTerminal ® to connect to the BSHYD 4. Set closure out in the Timing dialog to 25 msecs.

Enable BSHYD Data Source

1. Open Setup in the top menu bar
2. For Hydrophone Data Source select Hydrophone
Digitizer(s) (24 bit)

Connect to the BSHYD

Click on Connection in the menu bar.
1. Enter the IP address of the BSHYD units.
2. Press connect.
3. The Link LED on the BSHYD unit will light up if a con-
nection is accomplished.
4. The enter the hydrohone length in the Timing dialog.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 45

 BSHYD GUI
The BSHYD GUI, or hydrophone viewer application, allows
you to view hydrophone records of greater length than in-
side the BigShot GUI. If you have the farfield package, then
calculating and viewing farfield QC is done in this applica-
tion as well. But first, we’ll cover the regular hydrophone
viewer.

To open the hydrophone viewer

1. Connect to the BigShot
1.1 In the BigShot GUI, select “Connect” from the top
menu and click the connect button on the BigShot
2. Connect to the BSHYD
2.1 Again in the BigShot Connect menu click the con-
nect button for each BSHYD unit you have.
3. In the BigShot GUI select “HydView” from the top
menu.

The main screen

This application only displays hydrophone data and what
you’ll see upon launch is your array of hydrophones (array
configuration is automatically transferred from the BigShot
GUI). The mini graphs of hydrophones will look familiar to
you as they are the same type of display found in the main
screen of the BigShot GUI. However, if you look at the bot-
tom of the window, you will see a single hydrophone graph
extending the entire length of the window. This shows you
a longer stretch of data for the currently selected hydro-
phone.

The length of data displayed for both the mini and large
graphs is configurable, which we’ll look at next.

Setup
Click on “Setup” in the main menu bar. You will be pre-
sented with the following options:
• Mini Graphs / Large Graph
Display Start, sets where in time the display of hydrophone data be-
gins.
Display Length, sets how much of the hydrophone data will be dis-
played.
• Auto Scale Display
Enabling this option will normalize the mini graphs.
• Spectrum Display
This option is only visible if the farfield analysis is enabled in the Big-
Shot, GUI. The value entered here, will determine where the starting
level of the spectrum graph. This parameter and farfield analysis are
explained in the next section.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 46

 Appendix - D Farfield Setup
Hydrophone Calibration
Observing the farfield in the BSHYD GUI

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 47

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 48
 Farfield Setup
NOTE: This is only relevant if you have the farfield
package

Configuration
Before the BigShot can calculate the farfield signature (FFS),
you have to supply a few necessary parameters. All con-
figuration settings are located in three dialogs: Geometry,
Hydro, and Timing.

1. Define the array geometry

The first step in configuring the system is to define the array
geometry.The location of each source (gun or cluster) must
be defined in order for the algorithm to calculate the FFS.
Select the Farfield --> Geometry dialog to input the
coordinates of each gun and hydrophone.

2. farfield observation point.

After the locations for each source are defined, Open the
Farfield QC dialog and set the coordinates for the obser-
vation point.

3. Farfield inputs
Now that the array geometry is defined, the next step is to
tell the Bigshot how fast the boat is moving and the veloc-
ity of sound. Both parameters are located in the Farfield
QC dialog.

4. Farfield Technique
The final step is to decide which algorithm to use. This
choice is found in the QC dialog. The Notional Near Field
technique is a processor intensive, but precise mathematical
calculation. The Calibrated Hydrophone technique trades
precision for speed. If you want a quick estimate of the
farfield, this is the technique to use. However, you also must
go through an extra calibration step. For now, go with No-
tional Near Field. We will cover the calibrated technique in
a later section.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 49

 Hydrophone Calibration
NOTE: This option is only available with the far-
field package.

If you have enabled the farfield calculation, you will need to

calibrate the hydrophones for the farfield to be accurate.
Each hydrophone must be calibrated individually.

1. Open the hydrophone dialog

2. Enter the source strength (the pressure in bar-meters
experienced by the hydrophone) for each hydrophone.
The gun volumes are displayed as a reference to help
you calculate the source strength.
3. Click “OK” to save changes.
4. Change the view on the strings to display only hydro-
phones by selecting the “H” above each string.
5. Double click on a hydrophone in the main window.
When the hydrophone calibration dialog appears, click
“Calibrate “ and the system will proceed to fire the
gun/cluster associated with that hydrophone. The re-
sulting trace will be saved in the BSHYD directory as a
calibrated reference (in SEGY format).
6. Repeat for the previous step for every hydrophone on
the system.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 50

 Observing the Farfield in the BSHYD GUI
The Farfield graph
With the system configured, calculation of the FFS is au-
tomatic. To view the FFS after each shot, simply select the
Farfield tab in the lower left of the BSHYD hydrophone
viewer. (select HydView in the BigShot GUI to launch the
hydrophone viewer app).

Overlaid on top of the farfield trace are the peak to peak

(difference between primary and secondary), peak to bubble
ratio, and peak to bubble time. The scaling is bar-m, but
these values are only meaningful if the hydrophone signa-
tures are calibrated.

Notice that the time line does not start at zero. Instead the
graph is shifted by the minimum delay of the first arrival of
sound to the farfield observation point.

On the right side of the main window, with the other statis-
tic graphs, are two historical plots of the primary and bubble
characteristics. As long as the characteristic value lies be-
tween the error tolerance (dashed lines), it is colored blue.
If it reaches or exceeds an error limit, it is colored red.
As with all other graphs, you can specify error limits for
the FFS in the Farfield Q/C dialog (In the BigShot GUI).
Simply define the target value for the primary and bubble
peak differences (in bar-m) and set a range and error toler-
ance. Use the window start and length to find the primary
and bubble.

Spectrum Analysis
Click on the Spectrum tab in the lower left data display.
Here you will see full scale decibel plot of the Foure trans-
form of the farfield signature. Basically, the power spectrum
or FFT. The range is constant, but you can set where the
display starts in the Setup dialog (in the BSHYD viewer).
Set the decibel level in the Spectrum Amplitude Limit field.
You also have the option of applying a Hanning window to
the FFT calculation to reduce noise.

Setup Dialog

Setup Dialog

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 51

 Appendix - ESetup Dialog
Mode Dialog
QC Dialog
Timing Dialog
Gun Dialog
Hydro Dialog
Transducer Dialog
Ports Dialog
Geometry Dialog
Statistics Dialog
Cont/Leak Dialog
Connect Dialog

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 52

 Setup Dialog
Array Configuration
• Number of Strings
Total number of strings (all sources)
• Guns Per Sting
Number of guns on an individual string
• Number of Sources
Total number of groupings the array is divided into.
• Number of Manifolds
Total number of manifold pressure transducers
SoftStart Parameters
• SoftStart Interval
The number of shots before incrementally adding guns to the firing
sequence
• SoftStart Increment
Number of guns added to the firing sequence each interval
Transducer Scanning
• Scan Delay
Specify the time when depth/pressure transducers will be powered
on relative to a trigger.
• Power On Delay
Specify the time from when the transducers are activated to when
their data is read relative to the scan delay.
Option(s)
• Use System w/ Radio
Enable the radio dialog (accessible from the menu bar) and prepare
the BigShot to be controlled by the GCSL.
Whale Mode
• Cycle Time
The cycle time in which a single gun (the one selected) will fire.
Survey Name
The name of the survey used to create a directory for logs
In-Water Gun Correction
• Bleed Gun Interval
Set the rate of firing for the bleed operation
• Seal Gun Interval
Set the rate of firing for the seal operation
Hydrophone Data Source
• BigShot Controller
Use the BigShot power supplies as the source for hydrophone data.
This data will be 16 bit.
• Hydrophone Digitizer(s)
Use the BSHYD(s) as the source for hydrophone data. This data will
be 24 bit.
Power Supply
• Norm
Specifies normal voltage level
• HV
Specifies high voltage level
GI Guns
Select “ON” only if you are using GI guns, otherwise this MUST be
“OFF”.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 53

 Mode Dialog
System Mode
• Off
Disables gun firing.
• Shoot
Normal operating mode.
• Warm
Gun firing is enabled. A fast tuning algorithm is used to synchronize
the guns. Shot statistics are not recorded. Spare guns will not fire
unless enabled in the QC menu.
• Test
The sensor pulse is generated by looping back the fire pulse signal. A
fast tuning algorithm is used and Shot statistics are not recorded.
• SoftStart Interval
The number of shots before incrementally adding guns to the firing
sequence
• SoftStart Increment
Number of guns added to the firing sequence each interval
• SoftStart/Stop SoftStart
Begins/ends the soft start. When starting, the system is automatically
placed into Warm Cycle mode.
Trigger Information
• Ext
External trigger start (See timing description for hardware jumper
settings in the BigShot operations manual)
• Cyc
Internal cycle mode
• Cycle Time
Interval between shots when firing in Cycle mode
• Man
Manual fire from keyboard or single gun dialog
Shot Increment
Increment value for the shot point (typically set at 1)
Shot Number
Starting value of shot designations on the line
Source Next Shot
The gun grouping that will fire on the next shot
Line Numer
The line name used identify logs, shot statistics, and hydrophone
data
Soft Start
• Start
Place the sytem into WARM mode and begin the soft start
procedure.
• Stop
End the current soft start procedure.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 54

 QC Dialog
Max Spread
When the shot spread (time difference between the first and last gun
to fire) exceeds this value, an error is flagged.
Max Continuity
Maximum measured resistance of solenoid and sensors.
Min Leakage
Minimum measured leakage to water allowed for solenoid and sen-
sors.
Delta Error QC
Any gun outside this tolerance value will flag a delta error (typically
set at 1.0 msecs).
Max delta/shot
The allowable number of delta errors that can occur in a single
shot.
Pressure & Depth
• Range
The potential range of values plus or minus the target.
• Target
The ideal value.
• Error
The allowable deviation plus or minus the target (less than the
range)
Hydrophone & Sensor
• Display Start
Time at which the graph will begin plotting data
• Display Length
Number of msecs of data that will be displayed
• SEGY
Record data in SEGY format
Manifold
Select and configure the manifold transducers (see Manifold Calibra-
tion pg. 19)
Volume
• Min Volume
The minimum volume level that must fire each shot.
• Source Volume
The total volume of a source.
Serial Header
Communication parameters for the NAV system (COM 1)
• Numbering
Select the format of gun numbers in the COM header. Logical - gun
numbers as displayed (logical position on string) Physical - the physi-
cal gun ports (as defined in the ports dialog)
Auto Cursor Enable
When enabled, the cursor will automatically jump to the most prob-
lematic gun (most errors)
Auto Scale Hydrophone Display
Toggle the automatic normalization of hydrophone signatures.
Fire Spare Guns in Warm Mode
Toggles the behavior of spare guns in warm mode. If enabled, spare
guns WILL FIRE.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 55

 Timing Dialog
Power Supply Voltage
Selects the output voltage level of the power supplies.
• Pulse Width
The length of the fire pulse signal (G or GI guns = 60 msecs, Bolt =
25 msecs, Sleeve = 15 msecs)
Sensor Detect
• Aim Point
Time after trigger at which guns are aligned (typically 50 msecs)
• Look Window
Number of msecs before and after the aim point where the algo-
rithm looks for the sensor peak
• Peak, Zero, Level, Mixed
Select what type of sensor detection algorithm is used
• Peak Threshold
The voltage level that must be exceeded for a sensor level to be
considered a peak.
Sensor Power
• Off
Gun sensors are not powered.
• On
Gun sensors are powered by the power supply (Bolt guns)
• Mixed
Some sensors are powered (chosen in the gun menu)
Autofire
• Threshold
The voltage level a sensor signal must cross before an autofire is
flagged (used to distinguish from noise).
• Count
The number of times a sensor signal must cross the voltage thresh-
old before an autofire is flagged.
• Delay
Number of msecs after the aim point at which autofire detection
begins.
Hydrophone
• Start
The delay time before hydrophone data is collected.
• Length
The number of msecs of hydrophone data to record.

CTB
• Width
Pulse width of the Clock Time Break signal.
• Low/High
Normally low, active high pulse shape of the CTB signal.
• High/Low
Normally high, active low pulse shape of the CTB signal.
Contact Closure
• Time
Time after trigger that the program pulse and contact closure output
are activated.
• Length
Length of the program pulse and contact closure in msecs.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 56

 Gun Dialog
Gun String
String number/letter (can be changed in the Ports dialog)
Gun
Logical gun number (position on string)
Port
Physical port number associated with the logical position of the gun
(set in the Ports dialog).
Source
Assign which source will fire the gun (used for flip flopping)
Cluster
Designates which cluster the gun belongs to. If the gun is not a part
of a cluster, assign it a value of zero. Cluster definitions are used in
the farfield calculation or to fire clusters in the single gun dialog.
Mode
• Off
Gun will not fire, nor is autofire detection enabled.
• Spare
Gun will not fire (unless enabled in QC dialog), but autofire detec-
tion is enabled.
• Manual
Gun will only fire with keyboard command, single gun dialog, or trig-
ger button on the controller. Gun fires at static delay time.
• Auto
Gun will fire with external trigger or internal cycle. Its delay will
automatically be tuned to the aim point.
Delay
The time before the aim point at which the solenoid fire pulse for
this gun is activated.
Invert
Check to invert the sensor signal (used to correct polarity sensitive
sensors connected backwards).
Gain
Linear gain applied to sensor signal prior to digitizing.
Offset
Static offset applied to the gun delay regardless of aim point. For
example, with an offset of 0.7, a gun will fire at 50.7 msecs.
Volume
Individual gun volume used to compute the total volume of the
source and shot.
Sensor Power
Enables sensor power. This option is only accessible for individual
guns if Mixed is chosen for sensor power in the Timing dialog.
Sensor Detect Method
Selects the sensor detection algorithm. This option is only accessible
for individual guns if Mixed is chosen for sensor detect in the Timing
dialog.
Save / Restore / Delete Modes
Load and save snap shots of mode configurations (See Useful Fea-
tures pg. 36 ).

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 57

 Hydro Dialog
Hyd
Logical position of the hydrophone.
Port
Physical port associated with the logical position of the hydrophone
Disable
Check to prevent the hydrophone signal from being used in farfield
computations..
Gain
Linear gain applied to the hydrophone signal prior to digitizing.
Gun/Cluster Volume
The values defined in the Gun dialog, are provided here as a refer-
ence for calculating source strength.
Scale
Relationship between volts to pressure.
Source Strength
The pressure in bar-m experienced by the hydrophone.

Transducer Dialog
NOTE: See Transducer Calibration pg. 23
on how to use this dialog.

Raw/Freq
The real-time output frequency of the transducer
Zero
Zero offset frequency of the transducer. It should be approximately
1900 Hz for AG, 4000 Hz for Syntron, and 200 0 Hz for I/O.
Scale
Because of the proportional relationship between frequency and PSI,
the scale is 0.01 for depth channels and 1.0 for pressure channels, to
display values in meters.
Offset
The depth transducers will be placed at a location above the gun.
Therefore, because the gun is located at a depth greater than the
transducer reading, the static offset is the distance of the gun from
the transducer.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 58

 Ports Dialog
NOTE: See Port Configuration pg. 11 and
19 on how to use this dialog.

In addition to configuring the ports, you can also rename the

strings. In the String box, simply click and type in your own
name. In this way you can re-order string names and even
use letters instead of numbers.

Farfield QC Dialog
Farfield Method
• Dissable Farfield Analysis
Completely disables farfield functionality.
• Notional Near Field
This method mathematically isolates hydrophone traces before cal-
culating the farfield. Note, it is processor intensive.
• 1st Order Hydrophone Superposition
This technique quickly estimates the farfield by shifting and scaling
pre-recorded hydrophone traces and superimposing them at the far-
field observation point.
Observation Point
The coordinates of interest for observing the farfield.
Parameters
• Tow Speed
How fast the boat is moving in the water.
• Sound Velocity
How fast sound travels in water. Note, this value is affected
by salt concentration. Therefore, you will have to change this
value depending on where you are in the ocean.
QC
• Primary
The allowable range of the peak to peak difference in bar-m.
• Bubble
The allowable range of the peak to bubble ratio in bar-m.
Hydrophone Peak
The allowed percentage a hydrophone peak can deviate from the
pre-recorded calibration trace.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 59

 Farfield Geometry Dialog
X,Y,Z
The location of the gun in relation to the stern and surface of the
water (see coordinate diagram).

Statistics Dialog
NOTE: See statistics on pg. 31 on how to
use this dialog.
Coordinate system

Cont/Leak Dialog
NOTE: See Continuity and Leakage on pg.
40 on how to use this dialog.

Connect Dialog
BigShot Controller
IP address of the BigShot
BSHYD 1
IP address of the first BSHYD unit
BSHYD 2
IP address of the second BSHYD unit
Enable (if connected to controller)
When checked, remote clients (BigShot RMT) are able to observe
the operation. This is only possible while the GUI is connected to
the BigShot.
CTL
When checked it allows a remote client (BigShot RMT) to control
and change parameters.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 60

 Radio Dialog
Firing Cycle Time
Internal cycle parameter for the GCS Link. This value trumps the
cycle time in the Mode menu, because the GCS Link is now in con-
trol of the system.
Radio Aiming Point
The total time between when the GCS Link slave unit prepares for
a shot, arms the master unit, triggers the BigShot, and when the guns
fire.
Serial Data Timeout
The length of time the GCS Link slave unit will wait for incoming
data after a shot has been triggered. If data is not received before
the timeout the data packet sent to the master unit will contain an
‘M’ flag (for missing).
Radio Link Trigger
Select the method of triggering the GCS Link. EXT = Navigation,
Manual = keyboard, and CYC = internal cycle.
Trigger Location
Select which GCS Link will be responsible for initiating triggers (ei-
ther SLAVE or MASTER).
Nav Port Baud
Baud rate for the NAV port on the SLAVE unit.
Aux1 Port Baud
Aux port baud rate for the SLAVE unit
Com2 Baud
Com2 port baud rate for the BigShot controller. This is an auxiliary
input on the BigShot, that is sent to the GCSL if enabled.
Record Out Baud
NAV port baud on the MASTER unit (typically, this port is connected
to a recording system).
Radio Link Enable
Enable/Disable the radio units.
Record Closure Out
Programmable closure signal on the MASTER unit. (typically, used to
arm the recording system).
Record Start Out
Programmable TTL signal on the MASTER unit (typically, used to sig-
nal an armed recording system to begin data acquisition)
Slave Closure Out
Programmable closure signal on the SLAVE unit.
Slave Select
Select the ID number of the GCS Link this BigShot is connected to.
Nav, Aux1, Com2 Data Enable
When enabled, data present on these ports (SLAVE side) will be
sent to the MASTER each shot, otherwise, it is ignored and only gun
data is sent.
Radio Data
Sometimes a radio, requires data to be inverted. As of the time of
this writing, VHF required inverted data, while UHF required normal
data. The manufacture has changed this standard before, so you will
have to determine for yourself if your radio unit requires inverted
data.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 61

 Appendix - F
DOS Interface Installation Notes
How to Install the DOS BigShot Software
How to Install ROMDOS
How to Manually Update Firmware

© 2006 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 62

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 63
 DOS Interface Installation Notes
The BigShot Gun Controller consists of a PC as well as an embedded
PC. The PC runs ROMDOS as its operating system. The BigShot con-
troller interface software runs on this platform. The embedded PC runs
a version of firmware to operate with the BigShot controller interface
software.

Before a controller is shipped to a customer, the software and firmware

are installed on the system.

When a version of BigShot software is installed on the controller a cor-

responding software directory is created on the hard drive inside of the
“C:\bigshot” directory. For example, if a version 1.00 were installed, you
should find an entry on the hard drive as follows:
C:\bigshot\v100

Subsequent installations do not overwrite previous installations, so in-

stalling a version 1.01 would show up as the following:
C:\bigshot\v101

Now there would be two version directories:

C:\bigshot\v100
C:\bigshot\v101

Inside of each of these folders, you should find:

• bigshot.exe
• bigshot.hlp
• u.bin
• fcbburn.exe
• cvt_txt.exe
• reset.com
• autoexec.bat
• config.sys

When a controller is powered on, it should automatically run the Big-

Shot interface software after booting up. In order to access a DOS
prompt, you must press “Esc” and “y” when asked if you want to exit.

When you are provided with a packaged release of the BigShot interface
via floppy, CF card, USB drive, or zip file, the included installation routine
will automatically install the new version and update the firmware. This
is accomplished by running a batch file (“Install.bat”) in the packaged
release.

IMPORTANT: As of the DOS Interface Re- Reverting to an Old Version

lease Version 2.51, there is a new version of If you ever want to revert to a previous version of the BigShot DOS In-
terface, you will need to copy this new fcbburn.exe from the v251 direc-
fcbburn.exe.
tory to the directory corresponding to the older BigShot DOS Interface
version you want to use. After copying fcbburn.exe to the old directory,
you must then run it to burn in the old firmware. At that point it is safe
to run the old version of the BigShot DOS Interface.

Example:
If you are running DOS Interface version 2.51 and firmware version
0228, but you want to revert to version 2.50 with firmware version
0227, you would need to copy fcbburn.exe from C:\bigshot\v251 to C:\

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 64

 bigshot\v250 and run it.
1. From a DOS prompt type the following: cd C:\bigshot\v250
2. Press Enter
3. Type the following: copy C:\bigshot\v251\fcbburn.exe
4. Press Enter
5. Type the following: fcbburn
6. Press Enter

It should now be safe to run the old version. If you want the control-
ler to boot up and automatically run this old version, you will need to
modify your autoexec.bat file accordingly.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 65

 How to Install the DOS BigShot Software
(Make sure ROMDOS is installed prior to attempting any of the fol-
lowing. ROMDOS is installed by Real Time Systems prior to releasing
the product to the customer, but if there were ever a need to replace
a hard drive, etc in the field, it would be necessary to install ROMDOS.
To do this, just locate the section of this document entitled, “How to
Install ROMDOS to the HDD on the AMPRO 420,” and follow the pro-
cedure.)

Floppy Disk
To install the interface, you will need to insert a floppy disk containing
the installation files into the BigShot controller’s floppy drive. If you re-
ceived a new version via an email attachment in the form of a zip file, you
will first need to unzip the contents, and copy them to a floppy disk.

1. Make sure the controller is powered on and access a DOS

prompt.
2. Insert the floppy disk.
3. Type “a:\Install” and press the “Enter” key.
4. The installation routine should begin. It will copy the appropriate
files to the new version directory, burn the firmware into the em-
bedded PC automatically, and reboot. Make sure to eject the floppy
after the controller begins to reboot. If you forget, that is OK. The
controller will just pause when it sees that the floppy disk is still
inserted. Simply eject the floppy and press a key to continue.
5. After the controller reboots, it should automatically launch the new
BigShot interface. You can verify this by checking the top of the
interface screen to read the version numbers.
6. The system should now be ready to use.

NOTE: Power should be OFF when plugging/ CF card/USB Drive

unplugging CF cards and USB drives. The To install the interface, you will need to insert a CF card into the IDE
slot or a USB drive into the USB port on the front panel of the con-
system will not recognize the media other-
troller. The CF card/USB drive should contain the installation files. If
wise. you received a new version via an email attachment in the form of a zip
file, you will first need to unzip the contents, and copy them to either
media.

7. Make sure the controller is powered OFF.

8. Insert the CF card or USB drive.
9. Power the system ON.
10. At a DOS prompt type one of the following (depending on which
media drive you are using): d:\bigshot\vXXX\install
11. or e:\bigshot\vXXX\install ....where “XXX” is the corresponding
version number you are trying to install.
12. Press the “Enter” key.
13. The installation routine should begin. It will copy the appropriate
files to the new version directory, burn the firmware into the em-
bedded PC automatically, and reboot.
14. After the controller reboots, it should automatically launch the new
BigShot interface. You can verify this by checking the top of the
interface screen to read the version numbers.
15. Exit the software by pressing “Esc” key and “y” key. Power the sys-
tem OFF and eject the CF card or USB drive.
16. The system should now be ready to use.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 66

 How to Install ROMDOS
1. Make sure the CF card to be used in this procedure is bootable
and contain ROMDOS. The card must also be inserted before the
controller is powered ON.
2. With the CF card inside the unit, power the controller ON while
holding down the "Delete" key.
3. In the BIOS Setup Utility Main Page make sure "BIOS and Hardware
Settings" is selected, and press the "Enter" key.
4. Set the Date and Time on the "Settings" page.
5. In the Drive Assignment category, set Drive A to (none). Confirm
that Drive C is set to "HDD on Pri Master" and set Drive D to
"HDD on Pri Slave."
6. In the Boot Order category, set Boot 1st to "Drive C" and set the
rest to (none).
7. Press the "Esc" key to get to the main page. Select "Exit, Saving
Changes" and press the "Enter" key twice - once to make the selec-
tion and again to confirm the choice.

At this point the controller should boot up on the C: drive (the front
panel CF Card).

8. At the DOS prompt run fdisk as per the following: C:\fdisk

9. Press the "Enter" key.
10. Select "V) View partition(s)" by pressing the "V" key or the "Enter"
key. Two fixed drives should be listed. If needed, partition the sec-
ond drive (Drive D:).

DO NOT PARTITION THE FIRST DRIVE (DRIVE

C:)

11. Make sure the second drive is set to be bootable. Write the Master
Boot Record to the second drive by selectin option <M>.
12. When the correct options are set for the second drive (Drive D:),
save changes and reboot the controller (Option <S>).
13. After the system boots up execute the COPYDOS.BAT file to set
up ROMDOS on the D: drive as per the following: C:\copydos d:
14. Press the "Enter" key.
15. Reset the controller while holding down the "Delete" key in order
to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. On the Main Page, make sure "BIOS
and Hardware Settings" is selected, and press the "Enter" key.
16. Set the Time and Date on the "Settings" page if needed.
17. Now, to reverse the Drive C and Drive D settings, set Drive C to
"HDD on Pri Slave" and set Drive D to "HDD on Pri Master."
18. In the Boot Order section, make sure that Drive C is selected to
Boot 1st and the rest are set to (none).
19. Press the "Esc" key to get to the main page. Select "Exit, Saving
Changes" and press the "Enter" key twice - once to make
the selection and again to confirm the choice.
20. After the system reboots on the new Drive C: power the system
OFF. Remove the CF Card from the front panel.

At this point the system should be able to boot to Drive C with ROM-
DOS installed. The system is now ready for software installation.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 67

 How to Manually Update Firmware
Firmware exists as a binary file entitled “u.bin” which is burned into the
embedded PC. A program entitled “fcbburn.exe” performs this task.
This is done automatically with the installation routine however a situa-
tion may arise where you would need to do this manually (if you needed
to update the firmware but not the software interface).

1. Make sure the controller is powered on and access a DOS

prompt.
2. Change the directory to the one corresponding to the software
you will use. For example, if you will be using version 1.00 of the
software interface, type the following at the DOS prompt: cd C:\
bigshot\v100
3. Then press “Enter” to actually execute your command.
4. Now that you are inside the correct directory, you need to copy
the new “u.bin” file to this directory unless the “u.bin” file you want
to use is already inside this directory (in which case you can not
skip to the next step). If you want to back up the existing firmware
file before overwriting it with the new one, you can just rename the
old one to something like “u.bak” before copying the new file. To
copy the “u.bin” file from the floppy disk, type the following: copy
a:\u.bin (If using CF card/USB drive just change the drive to “d:\” or
“e:\” depending on the media type being used.)
5. Then press “Enter” to run the command.
6. You should now have the correct firmware file, and you are ready
to burn it into the embedded PC. Type the following: fcbburn
7. Then press “Enter” to burn in the new firmware. If you do not get
a message indicating success, make sure the “fcbburn.exe” file is in
the directory by typing: dir
8. Then press the “Enter” key. Copy the “fcbburn.exe” file into that
directory if it is not there and try again. If you still do not succeed,
and you have verified that both files are in fact inside the correct
directory, your problem may be more serious. If so, contact us at
Real Time Systems.
9. If Step 6 succeeded, the new firmware should be burned into the
embedded PC. Reboot the controller and verify that the new ver-
sion is displayed at the top of the screen in the DOS BigShot In-
terface.

© 2007 Real Time Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved 68