Black boxes have arrived! for the ferries

[queenofcowichan]

Global TV's 11pm news last nite reported that Black Boxes have arrived and all vessles will have one installed in the wheelhouse. Ships with 2 wheelhouses will have 1 black box installed in each wheelhouse.

March 01, 2007

[queenofcowichan]

Its also on the 12pm noon News today.

[Deleted]

As each ship goes in for maintenance, they are installing them. The NorAd has hers in already.

[NMcKay]

thats what the k class ones look like

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

harbourlynxkid said:

thats what the k class ones look like

Sorry, but isn't that the EPIRB, not the black box.

The "black box" is the same as what you would find in an aircraft. It monitors the status of the mechanical systems, as well as all inputs to the control system, and, typically, the location of the vessel. In the event of an "incident", the engineers/incident investigators can determine if any of the mechanical systems were operating outside normal parameters, but there is often little to indicate how the "human factor" played into the situation. This is why many planes now have voice cockpit recorders in addition to their "black boxes". Analysis of conversations can often give significant insight into the mood/atmosphere of the cockpit environment...especially when human error is suspected.

[NMcKay]

the box says "VOYAGE DATA RECORDER" so i would assume thats the black box.

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

Then you are right, it would be the black box. I would guess that it can release like an EPIRB in the event of a sinking. Good thinking if this is the case, as retrieving the QotN's navigational equipment for analysis was a bit of a chore!

[NMcKay]

the most amusing thing. is it uses Cat 5E Cable to run the information from the engine room and wheelhouse, but the amusing thing is they are using Indoor Unshielded Cat 5e Cable, which means that should it get wet, (Its out in the open) data from the recorder could be corrupt

[Hardy]

harbourlynxkid said:

the most amusing thing. is it uses Cat 5E Cable to run the information from the engine room and wheelhouse, but the amusing thing is they are using Indoor Unshielded Cat 5e Cable, which means that should it get wet, (Its out in the open) data from the recorder could be corrupt

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and not label them as twits! Perhaps to get it deployed quickly, the Cat-5e unsheilded/unarmoured is a stop-gap while the proper cabling is back-ordered from the one and only worldwide supplier of premium cabling products located in Deep Northern Siberia....

Then again .......

[Barnacle]

The ones I'm familiar with have a 48-hour capacity, I think. A push of the button and the VDR downloads and freezes the data to a hard drive for recovery.

[kylefossett]

48 hours it a good length of time. if something happens then you retrieve it and store it to a hard drive for further reference

[NMcKay]

i doubt that it would be a HD, i would think something a little more rugged like flash based memory would be the medium of choice, a HD can lose data if exposed to moisture and or vibration

[Barnacle]

Eh, could be. Puh-tay-toe, puh-tah-toe...

[NMcKay]

this isn't one of those situations. this is a "You say apple, when your looking at an orange"

[Barnacle]

Actually, I was thinking about another component entirely. The recording device--be it flash drive, hard drive, small man with sharp stick and clay tablet, whatever--in the orange box isn't the same as the one in the master unit, at least not in the one I'm dealing with. The master unit contains the hard drive, or at least I was told so. I don't know and, frankly, it's a small enough detail in the overall purpose of the unit that I don't really care about the specifics. As an officer, it's still enough to save my @$$... or hang it.

[Barnacle]

cascade said:

Barnacle,

How many vessels in the WSF fleet have "Black Boxes" and what type are they ?

Do they just record engine / bridge data and positioning via a GSP - or do they also have Bridge Video & Audio ?

I believe engine and bridge data are both captured, plus bridge audio. No video that I know of. I'm not sure exactly how many have them. And I'm probably not supposed to say if I do know. ;D

[Barnacle]

cascade said:

I know that the Cruise Ships use this info for training proposes - therefore does WSF ?

Not that I'm aware of.

[Doug]

Of course I had to do the obvious, as there seemed to be some confusion as to exactly what a "black box" looks like. I don't know myself, but Google does.

[Northern Exploration]

The black boxes on the planes (actually orange in colour despite the name) just maintain a certain number of hours of data and then begin rewriting over again. This data is not downloaded at any point unless there is an accident. This is different from any maintenance and performance data that is downloaded routinely. Some of the systems now maintain a constant connection that alert maintenance departments of any items that require attention. Do the black boxes on the ferries work the same way? In other words the black boxes are only for use after an incident to help reconstruct events and timelines.