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BREWER ELECTRONICS THE NEXT GENERATION

KIPP & ZONEN. BREWER ELECTRONICS THE NEXT GENERATION. 13th Brewer User Group Meeting Beijing, China 12 – 16 September 2011 Clive Lee Business Manager, Meteorology. WHY DO WE NEED TO UPDATE THE ELECTRONICS ?.

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BREWER ELECTRONICS THE NEXT GENERATION

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  1. KIPP & ZONEN BREWER ELECTRONICS THE NEXT GENERATION 13th Brewer User Group Meeting Beijing, China 12 – 16 September 2011 Clive Lee Business Manager, Meteorology

  2. WHY DO WE NEED TO UPDATE THE ELECTRONICS ? Kipp & Zonen and Environment Canada both wish to continue producing new Brewers and to ensure the continuing operation of existing Brewers. We have now reached the stage where it is becoming necessary to replace the current ‘single board’ electronics by a new generation of hardware. 162 Brewers were built with the original ‘multi-board’ card rack electronics based on the Motorola 1800 family micro-controller. In 1997 production switched to the ‘single-board’ electronics using the 8051 micro-processor architecture. By the end of 2011 nearly 60 Brewers will have been built in this form. The current design is now 15 years old and many components are becoming obsolete.

  3. WHY DO WE NEED TO UPDATE THE ELECTRONICS ? As an example, the current Brewer uses 14 micro-controllers (for the motor drivers) and a single central processor with distributed peripherals (memory, ADC, etc). The specific DIL-style chips for these items are no longer available and we have bought the last stock. In order to continue production of new Brewers a re-implementation of the current electronics is necessary. The current design no longer meets CE approval standards.

  4. WHY DO WE NEED TO UPDATE THE ELECTRONICS ? The current ‘single-board’ main pcb

  5. KEY CONSIDERATIONS • Operation with existing DOS PC software. • Use current firmware with the minimum number of low-risk modifications. • Improve some functions related to hardware that cannot be changed with the existing board. • Use industry standard ‘chip’ families that are widely used with a long prospective availability. • Direct replacement for existing single-board main pcb. • Compliance with CE and other relevant standards. • The new main electronics pcb must also be available as a retro-fit package to suit multi-board Brewers.

  6. SOLUTION The new pcb is the same size as the current board, but is split into two parts for easier manufacturing and separation of functions. Many components are SMD for wide availability. Uses the current firmware, written in C for the 8051 kernel and instruction set. but with modifications to suit. Firmware modifications limited to different pin/port locations to suit the new micro-processors, micro-controllers and peripheral devices. No changes needed to the PC software as currently supplied with new single-board Brewers. A package that can be retro-fitted to any Brewer using normal instrument workshop tools without affecting the optical systems.

  7. WHY DO WE NEED TO UPDATE THE ELECTRONICS ? The new ‘single-board’ main pcb

  8. DEVELOPMENT STATUS The R&D test Brewer fitted with the new main electronics board was operating at the RBBC-E Brewer and Dobson inter-comparison in Huelva, Spain, in July this year. Three prototype boards have been assembled and tested. One board will be sent to Environment Canada for testing and approval. Following testing by EC and Kipp & Zonen any modifications required in the design will be made. The target is to have production boards available in January 2012. The last of the existing ‘single-board’ units have been made and all Brewers delivered from 2012 onwards must have the new main electronics pcb.

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