Rugged portables find divine application

A Dolch Computer Systems (UK) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 1, 2003

Groundflow, a company that specialises in equipment for high-technology aquifer mapping, has chosen NotePAC Plus portable PCs from Dolch Computer Systems.

Imagine the type of environment where water divining is undertaken; typically it will be hot, dry, dusty, remote and, most probably, sunny.

Of course there is also a demand for water divining in regions where there are dark skies, high humidity and a good chance of rain - such as Ireland.

Either way, for a portable computer to survive, it needs to be far more rugged than a conventional laptop.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Groundflow, a company that specialises in equipment for high-technology aquifer mapping, has chosen NotePAC Plus portable PCs from Dolch Computer Systems.

Traditional water diviners use birch twigs or other low-technology apparatus to find water.

Many of these individuals are highly regarded for their apparent success rates, frequently striking water when a well is dug.

In fact this is hardly surprising, since the water table extends under most landmasses, but such wells do not always produce a sustainable flow of water, and there is no guarantee that they have been dug to the optimum depth.

Groundflow develops high-technology electroseismic surveying instruments and electrokinetics logging equipment that is used to map water tables, predict groundwater productivity, assess aquifer permeability, and study fractures and pollution plumes.

In other words, Groundflow's equipment can be used to predict the optimum well location for a sustainable flow of water and estimate what the flow rate will be - which is far more useful than anything that conventional geophysical survey equipment will achieve.

The Groundflow system works on the principle that a sound pulse will penetrate the ground at the speed of sound and water or hydrocarbons will cause an electrical response that travels back at the speed of light.

The time difference between the transmitted and received signals can be analysed to produce a three-dimensional map of the aquifer.

The previous generation of Groundflow's equipment used a conventional 'lunchbox' style industrial PC (IPC).

Because of the remoteness of most sites, and the fact that the surveyor will probably use an off-road vehicle to travel between as many as twenty sites in a day, the PC is subject to frequent transit shocks, not to mention dust and dirt and high ambient temperatures.

The IPC was found to have a delicate video board which caused several failures.

The dealer repairs were satisfactory but inconvenient, and did not improve the reputation of the equipment.

Dr Richard Clarke, Groundflow's Director, says: "Dolch had been telling me for years that I should use a NotePAC if I wanted reliability and a quiet life.

After the problems with the IPC I decided to try it.

Sure enough, they were absolutely right: we have had no failures since we have switched to using the Dolch NotePAC Plus, which has proved to be perfect for our application".

While the Dolch NotePAC is an extremely rugged portable computer with a fully sealed, rubberised keyboard, the NotePAC Plus has the advantage of an 'Omnislice' expansion module that allows additional hardware - such as the two Groundflow ISA cards - to be installed beneath the body of the PC.

Plenty of space is available in the Omnislice, so expansion cards can be mounted in such a way that they are virtually impervious to shock and vibration.

Sealed to IP54 and capable of operating in ambient temperatures from 0-50C and humidity from 5-95% RH, the NotePAC Plus will cope with virtually any environment where groundwater is sought.

Groundflow's latest GF2500 system is built around a NotePAC Plus with a Pentium motherboard, 128Mbyte of RAM, an 800 x 600 TFT colour SVGA transreflective (sunlight-readable) display and a CD rewriter.

Dr Clarke believes that this high-specification PC is a major selling point for his customers: "People know that if they buy one of our systems it will stand up to the rugged environment in which it is expected to operate.

At the same time they find it an excellent machine for data storage, report writing and other tasks back in the office.

As such it represents outstanding value for money".

Groundflow has about 15 systems in service using the NotePAC Plus, some of which have been seeing hard use for more than a year.

One of the benefits of purchasing from Dolch is that customers have access to lifetime technical support from anywhere in the world.

However, thanks to the exceptional reliability, Groundflow has had no need to use this service.