Setting up ISIIS
by Jessica Luo, on
Our first challenge upon receiving the ISIIS container was the winch. We typically use a University of Miami winch for ISIIS because it is already equipped with a fiber optic cable and appropriate connectors for communicating with ISIIS. The ship did not have the appropriate hydraulic connectors for the winch, so we had to contact some other specialist suppliers who said that, since it was after work hours on a Friday, we could either receive the hydraulics in Nice on Tuesday (way too late!), or we could go to their shop, 45 minutes north of us, on Saturday morning. We chose the latter option and Jean-Olivier drove up in the mountains north of Nice, with the chief mechanic of the ship, to come back 2 hours later with the proper connectors and hoses… and a big smile on their faces.
The problematic winch connectors
Meanwhile, we unpacked the main ISIIS computer and discovered that it would not turn on properly. The computer would power on but went immediately into a Startup Restore and never started up completely. This could potentially be a huge problem – without the main ISIIS computer, we would not be able to communicate with ISIIS at all. Resolved to solve the problem quickly, Cédric took apart the insides of the computer and discovered the culprit was a cable that had come detached. A cable that went to the CD-ROM drive, of all things. But he plugged the cable back in and the whole system powered up beautifully. Voilà! A simple solution!
… Only that when we powered up the computer, we discovered that the two main programs for communicating with the ISIIS mainframe and camera were missing. They were nowhere to be found. Not in the Program Files, not in the Recycle Bin, not anywhere on the computer. After a lot of tinkering and asking our best friend Google, it appeared to be due to the Windows 7 Startup Restore, which will delete all new executable files on your computer since the previous system backup, which evidently happened prior to the installation of these two crucial programs. All that without a hint of warning of course. Genius. Grrrrr…
We did not have independent copies of these programs, as they came came pre-installed on this system we ordered from Prime Test, the company that built the software for us. And we could not get in contact with them – they were in Boca Raton, Florida, and, at the time, it was 2 am on Saturday morning. We sent an urgent email, left voicemails and texts… but just had to wait. Thankfully, they responded quickly and after a whole night of cloning hard drives (as failsafe), restoring old versions of the system and reinstalling the ISIIS programs, we could get it to work.
A looong night setting up the computer
Those computer problems ended up costing us over a day. We had initially anticipated that set up would take one day, but it ended up taking both Saturday and Sunday. Through the set-up, we could observe the dynamic duo of Jean-Olivier Irisson (informatics) and Cédric Guigand (mechanics) tackling all of our problems, one by one. This pair needs to work together more often. We solved the UVP communication issue (faulty cable), the ISIIS - UVP power mismatch issue (discharge the UVP to the ISIIS power levels), the lack of GPS signal from the ship (reroute through another GPS system onboard, thanks to another miraculous intervention by Grigor Obolensky, late on a Sunday night. Thank you again Grigor!), and our diminishing supply of wine and chocolate (send Jessica on a purchasing mission). We slowly checked off items on our Hit List and ran a successful test-dunk of ISIIS in the Nice harbor.
