To: John Flynn
Cc:
William Mudge; Dawe, Craig; Etchemendy, Steve; Brock J. Rosenthal; Heller,
Ken
Subject: New ODI connector issues
John
Happy New Year. OK,
enough chit chat. We just recovered the CTD that we installed on MARS
immediately after the node installation in November of 2008. You can see
how it was deployed in the attached photo. When we recovered the
instrument yesterday (Jan 7) we observed oil in the SIIM can and on the face of
the Seacon Min-O connector. I'd like to send the cable assembly
(S/N1033248-1) back to you for failure analysis. Can you look at it
in the very near future? If so, please let me know the return
details.
Here are some
observations.
1) It doesn't look like the
SIIM can filled with oil. There are definitely dry areas on the inside of
the housing.
2) The oil on the face of
the Min-O connector may be due to a failure of the Min-O
connector. We are investigating this now.
3) The CTD/SIIM worked
without observable issues the entire duration of its
deployment.
4) There is clear evidence
of oil on the rubber boots.
5) The only source of oil
in the entire CTD/SIIM assembly is the oil in the ODI connector
assembly.
A related issue is the
fixed ODI connector on the MARS node port
4 that The CTD flying connector was connected into the fixed ODI connector
MARS port number 4. When the connector was de-mated for recovery of the
CTD, it appears as if the stem on pin 12 of the fixed connector remained
retracted. We are waiting for the images from this dive to be processed
and will send them to you with more information in a subsequent
e-mail.
Thanks for the
help
Gene Massion
Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute
7700 Sandholdt
Road
Moss Landing, California 95039
831 7751922 (tel)
831 7751646 (fax)