Elec­tron­ics Work­shop

A platine in the electronics workshop. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, K. Matthes)
A platine in the electronics workshop. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, K. Matthes)

What is done in the elec­tron­ics work­shop?

In the elec­tron­ics work­shop, the tech­ni­cians de­velop elec­tron­ics for re­search equip­ment that must func­tion un­der very dif­fi­cult en­vir­on­mental and op­er­at­ing con­di­tions. These devices and ap­pli­ances can­not be pur­chased. Many of the devices used by re­search­ers at our In­sti­tute need to func­tion when im­mersed in wa­ter – and that is a fea­ture that most elec­trical devices lack to be­gin with. Design­ing equip­ment for use in the oceans is a great chal­lenge. The devices must be able to with­stand high pres­sure and a wide tem­per­at­ure range. They must also be ex­tremely cor­ro­sion res­ist­ant.

There are three tech­ni­cians in the elec­tron­ics work­shop. They de­velop and pro­duce the devices to­gether with the re­search­ers and the tech­ni­cians from the other work­shops. The elec­tron­ics work­shop is only a part of the device de­vel­op­ment. It all de­pends on the suc­cess­ful in­ter­ac­tion between sci­ent­ists, the elec­tron­ics work­shop, the mech­an­ics work­shop, and the re­search­ers out at sea. In some cases, the work­shops also work to­gether with sci­ent­ists and tech­ni­cians from other re­search in­sti­tutes. Without team­work, even the best idea can­not be im­ple­men­ted.

Many of the devices de­veloped at our In­sti­tute are reg­u­larly used by other re­search in­sti­tu­tions. For ex­ample, the “Pro­filur” and “Lance-A-Lot” pro­filers as well as vari­ous cham­ber landers. The “Tramper” benthic crawler is a new de­vel­op­ment that was cre­ated in co­oper­a­tion with the Al­fred Wegner In­sti­tute. Other sci­ent­ists have filled an ex­ist­ing gap in the mar­ket. Spin-offs such as Pre­sens, Pyros­cience, and Plan Blue have emerged.

In ad­di­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of re­search equip­ment, it is also a very im­port­ant task of the elec­tron­ics work­shop to main­tain and re­pair ex­ist­ing equip­ment at our in­sti­tute.

How is re­search equip­ment de­veloped?

A technical drawing. Those drawings are used as a template to build the electronics in our research equipment.  (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, K. Matthes)
A technical drawing. Those drawings are used as a template to build the electronics in our research equipment. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, K. Matthes)

If sci­ent­ists at the In­sti­tute need a spe­cial device for their re­search, they can con­tact the elec­tron­ics work­shop. The elec­tron­ics en­gin­eers first need to know what ex­per­i­ments the sci­ent­ists want to do in situ (i.e. in the sea). Of­ten, the re­search­ers only come to the work­shop with a re­l­at­ively vague idea. To­gether with the en­gin­eers, they think about how the ex­per­i­ments can be car­ried out and what data needs to be col­lec­ted. With these ideas, the en­gin­eers cre­ate ini­tial designs that are tested for suit­ab­il­ity in many ex­per­i­ments.

Then it’s on to the im­ple­ment­a­tion. The parts that are avail­able to buy (e.g. un­der­wa­ter bat­ter­ies) are pur­chased. Everything else is built by the tech­ni­cians. It is of­ten a mat­ter of meas­ur­ing para­met­ers such as oxy­gen, salt, tem­per­at­ure, and pH value. The en­gin­eers build the ne­ces­sary elec­tron­ics to col­lect and re­cord the meas­ure­ment data. The devices need a con­trol sys­tem, which also re­quires soph­ist­ic­ated elec­tron­ics. For a first pro­to­type, all parts are in­teg­rated. The tech­ni­cians and sci­ent­ists then con­duct tests in or­der see whether they work to­gether as planned.

If you want a com­plete sys­tem that you can throw over­board and bring back without hes­it­a­tion, you have to factor in at least a year of de­vel­op­ment time. Des­pite nu­mer­ous tests be­fore the trip, the device can nev­er­the­less fail. It can then be re­paired or re­vised. Be­cause of the time-con­sum­ing plan­ning of ex­cur­sions, the retest of the re­vised device can take up to one or two years. Oc­ca­sion­ally one of the elec­tron­ics en­gin­eers goes on the ship with the device. However, this is the ex­cep­tion be­cause of the high ex­pense and the lim­ited space on board. The sci­ent­ists there­fore need to be fa­mil­iar with the devices and ba­sic tech­nical func­tions so that they can op­er­ate them on the ship and fix minor prob­lems them­selves.

It is there­fore quite ex­cit­ing whenever the new de­vel­op­ments are used in the field for the first time. The first use of a newly de­veloped device is also an ad­ven­ture for the elec­trical en­gin­eers – even if they are not on board.

Ex­ample: in situ mass spec­tro­meter

The tech­ni­cians of the elec­tron­ics work­shop are cur­rently work­ing on a large pro­ject that the MPI is car­ry­ing out to­gether with MARUM. The Quest re­motely op­er­ated un­der­wa­ter vehicle (ROV) is to be equipped with a “sniffer nose”. This nose, a mass spec­tro­meter, is to be en­closed in a wa­ter­proof and pres­sure-res­ist­ant hous­ing and in­teg­rated into the in­fra­struc­ture of the Quest. The aim is for the re­search­ers to be able to find wa­ter leaks (vents) on the sea­floor dur­ing dives with the ROV based on the gases they emit into the wa­ter.

For this pur­pose, the con­trol and data col­lec­tion of the mass spec­tro­meter must be trans­por­ted via the ROV to the ship. To this end, the en­gin­eers are de­vel­op­ing and pro­gram­ming a mi­cro­con­trol­ler board that is spe­cially tailored to the needs of the mass spec­tro­meter. To­gether with our sci­ent­ists, soft­ware is be­ing de­veloped to dis­play the data from the mass spec­tro­meter on board and to con­trol the device. Spe­cial de­mands are placed on pre­ci­sion mech­an­ics. The 0.2 mm-thin mem­brane through which the gases pass from the wa­ter into the “nose” of the mass spec­tro­meter must be ten­sioned so that it can with­stand a pres­sure of 400 bar. This is par­tic­u­larly im­port­ant work. If the mem­brane tears, wa­ter will pen­et­rates the sens­it­ive meas­ur­ing elec­tron­ics, and the mis­sion will fail.

That’s why every­one is work­ing to­gether to­wards one goal – the “sniffer nose” for the Quest.

The in situ mass spectrometer is slowly taking shape. (©Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, F. Aspetsberger)
The in situ mass spectrometer is slowly taking shape. (©Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, F. Aspetsberger)

Who uses the elec­tron­ics work­shop?

The elec­tron­ics work­shop is open to all em­ploy­ees at the In­sti­tute.

Please dir­ect your quer­ies to

Electronics Workshop

Volker Meyer

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Room: 

1302

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-5300

Volker Meyer
 
 
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