SBE Data Processing/Seasave revision listing

The Revision History describes each version of software -- including bug fixes, modifications, and new features. You may not need the latest version; our revisions often include improvements and new features which may have little or no impact on your operation. Review this site regularly to view the latest changes. You may choose to download a revision if the bug fixes, modifications, and features would be useful in your operation.

	5.31b (SBE Data Processing only)	5.29a	5.27c	5.26b (SEASAVE only)	5.23
	5.31a	5.28f (SBE Data Processing only)	5.27b	5.26a (SEASAVE only)	5.22
	5.31	5.28e	5.27a	5.26	5.21
	5.30b (SEASAVE only)	5.28d	5.27	5.25b	5.2
	5.30a	5.28c	5.26f (SEASAVE only)	5.25a (SEASAVE only)	5.1
5.32a (SBE Data Processing only)	5.30	5.28b	5.26d (SEASAVE only)	5.25	5.0
5.32	5.29b	5.28a	5.26c (SEASAVE only)	5.24	Older versions

NOTE: Version 5.32a is an interim version that applies to SBE Data Processing only. Continue to use Version 5.32 of SEASAVE.

a. Data Conversion -- Data Conversion did not convert data correctly from an SBE 38 Remote Temperature Sensor used with an SBE 21 Thermosalinograph. This bug affected only versions 5.28 through 5.32.

a. SBE Data Processing would not convert .psu files created with Version 5.29b or earlier to .psa files.
b. ASCII In -- Negative numbers were output in .cnv file without a leading space in column.
c. Data Conversion and Derive -- If you selected CPAR, program prompted for angle from sun. This information was not needed or used, and prompt has been removed from software.

a. Header notes with line lengths greater than 95 characters would cause SEASAVE to crash.

NOTE: Version 5.31b is an interim version that applies to SBE Data Processing only. Continue to use Version 5.31a of SEASAVE.

a. SeaPlot -- When plotting elapsed time (hours, minutes, or seconds), the actual units plotted were always minutes, but the axis label was always seconds, regardless of which units you selected for the plot. This bug affected only versions 5.31and 5.31a.

a. All Modules -- If you deleted the directory that held the last used .psu or .psa file for a module, you would get an error message to contact Sea-Bird when next trying to open the module.
b. SeaPlot -- If you ran SeaPlot in batch mode with a w/, SeaPlot did not automatically print the output plot.

a. When using an SBE 45 MicroTSG and a PN 90402 SBE 45 Power, Navigation, and Remote Temperature Interface Box, and acquiring navigation data: If acquisition was started and stopped, and then restarted without exiting SEASAVE, the time written into the header line for NMEA UTC (Time) for the second and subsequent files was incorrect. In post-processing of the data, Data Conversion (in SBE Data Processing) would then use this incorrect time with the correct date to compute Julian days. This bug affected SEASAVE versions 5.28a through 5.31.

Note: Raw data files created by SEASAVE that have this problem can be corrected by deleting the data between the first date and last time on the NMEA UTC (Time) line in the header. Once you have edited the raw data file, rerun Data Conversion to correctly compute Julian days.
Example: Start and stop acquisition 4 times without exiting SEASAVE.
The line below is an example from the header of the fourth file acquired without restarting SEASAVE:
* NMEA UTC (Time) = Sep 03 2003 21:06:18 2003 03:17:23 2003 05:24:53 2003 06:34:18
To correct the file, delete the information in bold, so the line looks like this:
* NMEA UTC (Time) = Sep 03 2003 06:34:18
Caution: See Application Note 67 for information on the correct method for editing a .hex data file with a text editor. If you do not follow these instructions, you may corrupt the data file.

a. Command line utility, ConReport.exe, has been added to software. This program provides same reports generated using Report button on CTD configuration dialogs. ConReport accepts wildcards for file names, so multiple reports may be produced in a single invocation and reports may be placed into a specified directory. ConReport is installed in the same directory as SBE Data Processing during SBE Data Processing installation.

a. New program setup files are ASCII text, formatted in XML (extensible markup language). Files may be viewed and edited in any text editor or XML editor. Old binary setup files (.PSU) can be read, but not written; all setup files will be written in the new XML format (.PSA). Old binary setup files will remain, until manually deleted.
b. SeaPlot -- SeaPlot always generated Scan Count data and added it to the variable box, even when Scan Count was already included in the file. This would present 2 selections for Scan Count. Now scan count is generated only when it is not already present in the file.

a. Filter – Did not always filter selected variables. The file header always listed the actual variables that were filtered.
b. SeaPlot --
-- Seaplot now allows processing of duplicated data variables. For example, you may want to convert salinity 3 times in a file, and then apply 3 different filters to salinity data. You need ability to select and differentiate from these modified salinities in plots. A duplicate count suffix is appended to duplicated variables (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). This should not be confused with duplicate sensor numbering - for example "Salinity, 2 [PSU], 1st" and "Salinity, 2 [PSU], 2nd" would be duplicated salinity conversions based on secondary temperature and conductivity measurements from a 911 with secondary CT sensors. Prior versions would only plot the first instance of a duplicated variable appearing in a header. This was misleading, as you could select, for example, the third salinity in the variable box, but the first salinity would be plotted with no indication (except perhaps the plot shape) that something was wrong.
-- SeaPlot sometimes crashed when switching between TS and non-TS plots.
-- Values below 1.0 would not plot on a log scale. Very small values, down to 1.0e-8, may now be plotted on a log scale.
-- Some older converted headers had a 2-digit year in the 'start_time' entry, newer headers use a 4-digit year. The routine that parsed the header would fail when reading this 2 digit year (a Y2K problem). SeaPlot can now handle both 2- and 4-digit years.

a. SEASAVE's algorithms were not changed; this revision incorporates minor changes to the Help files, and keeps the SEASAVE revision number in line with the SBE Data Processing revision number.

NOTE: Version 5.30b is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.30a of SBE Data Processing.

a. When using an SBE 45 MicroTSG and a PN 90402 SBE 45 Power, Navigation, and Remote Temperature Interface Box, and acquiring navigation data, the month shown in the NMEA Data display (SEASAVE's View menu, NMEA data display) was incorrect. Note that the data written to the saved .hex data file was correct.

VERSION 5.30a
30 October 2003 (SBE Data Processing) and 24 November 2003 (SEASAVE)

a. Window Filter did not work -- this bug applied to version 5.30 only.
b. Some Help file links did not work properly -- this bug applied to version 5.30 only.

a. Dr. Haardt Fluorometer with voltage level gain range selection did not switch between ranges -- it always used the low gain range.

a. SeaPlot -- Added ability to create TS plots with density or thermosteric anomaly contours. Note that this is an official release version (not a Beta version) of SeaPlot. Because of major changes, the SeaPlot setup file, seaplot.psu, is not backward compatible with previous versions of SeaPlot. SeaPlot will create a new default .psu file the first time version 5.30 is run.

a. Run menu was re-ordered to list common processing modules first, in the order they are typically used, followed by less common modules.
b. Rosette Summary module was renamed Bottle Summary.

a. SBE 25 .con file -- If user selected bottom contact switch for an A/D channel, software saved selection of bottom contact switch to a different channel.

a. SBE Data Processing (Data Conversion, Rosette Summary, and Derive modules) and SEASAVE -- now use secondary salinity to compute secondary potential temperature if secondary conductivity is available in SBE 9 / 9plus data. Previously software used primary salinity in calculation.

a. Added Bottom contact switch to list of available A/D sensors for SBE 19plus in .con file.

a. SeaPlot -- did not let users select more than approximately 15 files (only affected V 5.29a).

a. Output latitude and longitude from a NMEA navigation device with up to three digits to right of decimal point.

a. SeaPlot -- Added overlay plot capabilities, so data from multiple files can be viewed on one plot.
b. SBEBatch Batch processing --
- Program names and options can be separated by any combination of space and tab characters. Previously, only a space character was accepted.
- W option added, to pause processing at start of a module to allow user to review setup before processing data.
- D option added, to pause processing at end of a module to allow user to review output before continuing with rest of processing.
- SBE Batch can now launch system commands, such as copying or renaming a file, deleting a file from an intermediate step, etc. Additionally, it can launch non-Sea-Bird programs.

NOTE: Version 5.28f is an interim version that applies to SBE Data Processing only. Continue to use Version 5.28e of SEASAVE.

a. Data Conversion -- For 911plus, pressure for first scan was computed with a pressure temperature of 0.0. This bug affected only version 5.28 to 5.28e.
b. SeaPlot -- Versions 5.28d and 5.28e were inadvertently built with a development version of SeaPlot.

a. Data Conversion -- Program would not calculate pressure temperature output for 16plus, 19plus, and 49.

a. SEASAVE and Data Conversion -- SBE 49 temperature coefficients were not stored correctly. Three lines were added to .con file:
    Line     Description
     245       SBE 49 temperature sensor serial number.
     246       SBE 49 temperature sensor calibration date.
     247       SBE 49 temperature sensor A0, A1, A2, A3, slope, and offset
b. SEASAVE and Data Conversion -- SBE 49 conductivity was not computed correctly.

a. Archived data with header line lengths greater than 100 characters were not processed correctly. Header lines can now have up to 300 characters.

a. When configuring an SBE 25 with one or more A/D voltage sensors, software did not correctly save all configuration information. This bug was present in version 5.27 and later.

a. Start initial playback of archived data at a faster rate than it was set for in version 5.28a.

b. Added additional control of playback speed for archived data: No Wait in ArchivedData menu (or type Ctrl N). This plays back data at rate at which it was acquired.

a. Wild Edit: If input .cnv file contained scan count, time, byte count, or pump status before variables that user selected for Wild Edit, then output variables were not ones selected.

a. A duplicate copy of SBEBatch.exe, our batch file processor, is now placed in Windows system folder. This allows user to run SBEBatch.exe from anywhere without having to specify path. Previously, SBEBatch.exe was only placed in same directory as SBE Data Processing (default location c:/Program Files/Sea-Bird/SBEDataProcessing-Win32).

a. After SEASAVE synchronized .hex or .dat file and the .con file, user was brought to prior .con file when selecting or modifying .con file.

b. If path name had a '.' when selecting an archived data file, SEASAVE replaced everything past '.' with '.dat'.

c. View Data Header button did not work in Start Archived Data Display dialog box.

a. SEASAVE's .cfg file now remembers whether NMEA Data Display and Fire Bottle Control displays were open.

b. SEASAVE now warns user if they are trying to save to a .con file that is read only (for instance, trying to save to a .con file on a CD-ROM).

c. SEASAVE now turns off SBE 11plus Deck Unit alarm when data acquisition is halted.

a. Added -ss command line option, allowing user to start SEASAVE and view data, but to delay writing data to a file until user prompts to begin saving data.

b. Added ability for user to control playback speed of archived data (select Faster or Slower in ArchivedData menu).

b. Added support for SBE 45 MicroTSG thermosalinograph and optional 90402 - SBE 45 Interface Box.

c. Added support for SBE 38 secondary temperature sensor for SBE 21 thermosalinograph.

a. If SBE 21 or SBE 45 has a remote temperature sensor, remote temperature is now used to calculate density and sound velocity.

b. Changed WetLabs ECO-AFL description to ECO-AFL/FL to cover WetLabs' new instruments.

VERSION 5.27c
20 December 2002 (for SBE Data Processing) and 22 January 2003 (for SEASAVE)

a. SEASAVE sometimes crashed when clicking the Select Variable button in a Display Variables Setup dialog box.

a. SeaPlot sometimes crashed after plotting one file, if the user then selected a file that had a different set of variables.

a. Loop Edit -- Used depth rather than pressure when both were in the input .cnv file, if depth followed pressure. This caused too many scans to be marked bad if the user had low pass filtered pressure, but not depth, prior to running LOOP EDIT.

c. Align CTD, ASCII Out, Filter, Rosette Summary, Strip, Wild Edit, and Window Filter -- On the Data Setup tab, you click a button to select the output variables, specify filter values for variables, etc. In the dialog box that appears, if the number of variables in the header is large enough so that a vertical scroll bar is needed to display all the variables, the scroll bar was not displayed and not all the variables could be seen. This bug only affects SBE Data Processing V5.27 and 5.27a.

a. ata Conversion -- Now uses NMEA time for Julian days if NMEA UTC (Time) in the header contains both date and time. Previous versions used system time for Julian days. SEASAVE versions prior to 5.27 wrote NMEA date and time into the system time line in the header if NMEA date and time was available, so this modification only affects SBE Data Processing V5.27 and 5.27a.

a. If the NMEA message contained time but not date, and time in the message had fractional seconds, then NMEA UTC (Time) was incorrect.

a. SeaPlot Beta 1.2 version did not work and would not plot. SeaPlot revision was rolled back to version 1.1.

VERSION 5.27
30 October 2002
November 1: A bug was found in this version and it was removed from the FTP site. All additions and modifications in 5.27 are included in 5.27a.

a. Support for new sensors: Capsum METS methane, Seapoint Rhodamine, Sequoia LISST-25 Suspended Sediment, and WETStar CDOM.

b. Support for new sensor for SBE 16plus only: Pro-Oceanus Gas Tension Device (GTD) for dissolved oxygen and/or nitrogen.

c. Support for secondary sensors for: PAR, WET Labs WETStar, Seapoint Turbidity, and Turner SCUFA.

e. User-input descriptive text for User Polynomial sensors makes sensor identification easier in data file.

a. SEASAVE; Data Conversion and Derive in SBE Data Processing: Use harmonic mean to calculate Average Sound Velocity; convert pressure to depth for calculation (with user-input latitude).

a. Command line parameter allows you to automatically start SEASAVE and data acquisition.

b. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to start data acquisition or display of archived data without using a mouse.

a. System Upload Time in data file header is now always computer time and date, regardless of whether a NMEA navigation device is connected.

a. Derive: Was using depth for pressure when both were in .cnv file and depth followed pressure.

b. Derive and Rosette Summary: Was ignoring match instrument configuration to input file check box selection on File Setup tab.

c. Data Conversion: Both BL file and AFM file appeared in header as source of bottle scan range information.

b. Bin Average: Parameter for run options, command line, or batch file processing allows user to set center value for first bin.

a. Align CTD: Maximum allowable number of scans to advance is increased to 1000.

NOTE: Version 5.26f is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.26 of SBE Data Processing.

NOTE: Version 5.26d is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.26 of SBE Data Processing.

a. When Lat/Lon was not appended to every scan, SEASAVE used a latitude of 0.0 for depth calculation, even if a different value was specified. This bug applied to real-time data acquisition only; playback of archived data was not affected.

NOTE: Version 5.26c is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.26 of SBE Data Processing.

a. The ASCII shared file was not closed when displaying archived data if the Generate Shared File option was enabled in the ASCII Output Set Up dialog box (Configure menu, ASCII Output). This caused the message Error, could not open shared file: filename to appear the next time real-time or archived data was displayed.

NOTE: Version 5.26b is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.26 of SBE Data Processing.

a. NMEA date and time data was not correctly displayed for an SBE 11plus Deck Unit transmitting data to the computer using the RS-232 interface.

NOTE: Version 5.26a is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.26 of SBE Data Processing.

a. An invalid bottle number or communication error message displayed, and bottles were not always fired, for a system with all of the following setup parameters (problem occurred only if all of these setup selections were made):

Configure menu, NMEA (lat/lon) Interface -- Store Lat/Lon in Data File selection is Add to Header Only.
Configure menu, Water Sampler Configuration -- Firing Sequence selection is Table Driven.
Configure menu, Instrument Configuration (old or new) -- NMEA position data added is selected.
RealtimeData menu, Start Acquisition -- Store on Disk is selected.

a. For systems with two SBE 43 Dissolved Oxygen Sensors -- In the configuration (.con) file, calibration coefficients for the secondary dissolved oxygen sensor were overwritten by the primary dissolved oxygen sensor coefficients.

a. SeaPlot Beta Version 1.1
-- Numerous enhancements were made, including: logarithmic plotting; multiple file operation; date/time plotting; calculation and plotting of salinity and density if C, T, P in file; and batch processing. Additional features will be added to SeaPlot over the next few months.

b. SeacalcW
-- A Windows version of Seacalc was added to SBE Data Processing. SeacalcW is a seawater calculator that computes a number of derived variables from one user-input scan of temperature, pressure, etc.

a. SEASAVE was not closing serial ports correctly. In Win XP this caused the following message to display: Cannot initialize comport 0. In Win XP it also prevented SEATERM from opening the COM port.

b. SBE 16 and 19 (not 16plus or 19plus) with Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor -- Pressure temperature was not being computed correctly. This bug was introduced in SEASAVE version 1.20.

a. Data Conversion
SBE 16 and 19 (not 16plus or 19plus) with Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor -- Pressure temperature was not being computed correctly. This bug was introduced in SBE Data Processing Beta version 1.3.

NOTE: Version 5.25a is an interim version that applies to SEASAVE only. Continue to use Version 5.25 of SBE Data Processing.

a. SBE 19 (not 19plus) and 25 -- When real-time data acquisition was restarted without exiting SEASAVE, the CTD would wake up before the message to switch on the CTD with the magnetic switch was displayed. This prevented it from starting logging.

a. SeaPlot Beta Version
-- SeaPlot module, for plotting converted data (C, T, P as well as derived variables and data from auxiliary sensors), was added to SBE Data Processing. SeaPlot can plot up to 5 variables (1 Y-axis and 4 X-axes or 1 X-axis and 4 Y-axes) on a single plot. SeaPlot allows you to view plots on screen, and then print or save to a file or the clipboard. This release is a Beta version of SeaPlot -- additional features will be added to SeaPlot over the next few months.

a. Data Conversion
-- Potential Temperature Anomaly description was incorrect in the output header.
-- When 'Create bottle (.ROS) file only' was selected, the start time was omitted from the output .ROS file.

b. If computer is communicating with deck unit using GPIB interface, change logic to determine if NMEA data is available from deck unit.

a. Rosette Summary
-- The value -1.#IND000 was sometimes displayed in the standard deviation field if all values were the same.
-- If the .ros input file (created in DATA CONVERSION) contained depth, or contained pressure followed by depth, Rosette Summary used depth instead of pressure to compute derived variables. In doing so, it treated the depth as if it were pressure. For example, it interpreted 5 meters as 5 decibars, resulting in small errors in variables derived from pressure. Note that if both pressure and depth were in the file, but the pressure column was after the depth column, the error did not occur.

b. Label for Oxygen, SBE, percent saturation incorrectly just said Oxygen, SBE.

c. On some computer monitors, field to view NMEA Date/Time in NMEA Data dialog box (View menu / NMEA data display) was not large enough. Field was changed from 1 line to 2 lines.

a. Added command line argument -nmeatime. For NMEA messages that contain time but not date, -nmeatime directs SEASAVE to use the system date and NMEA time for the System Upload time.
Time in the header has been modified to be:

a. Configuration (.con) file
-- secondary SBE 43 calibration date was being overwritten with primary SBE 43 calibration date.
-- PAR serial number was being written to line for IFREMER nephelometer serial number.

a. Align CTD -- Line length for list of aligned variables in header was not long enough.

b. Bin Average -- Scans per bin was being added after flag column instead of before.

a. Added CNV37.exe and CNV39.exe to SBE Data Processing. These programs are used to convert SBE 37 MicroCAT and SBE 39 data to formats compatible with SBE Data Processing. Note that CNV37 and CNV39 are not available in SBE Data Processing's menus; the .exe files can be found in the same folder as SBEDataProc.exe.

a. SBE 19plus -- Comm port configurations was not prompting for baud rate between SBE 32 and CTD and baud rate between SBE 33 and computer.

b. SBE 16plus and 19plus -- Configuration (.con) file for instruments with NMEA did not have correct number of bytes per scan.

b. When tabbing through fields on File Setup tab, file and directory change dialogs will not unexpectedly pop up.

c. Input file drop down on File Setup and Header View tabs was made non-editable.

b. Valid variable was not switched to x-axis #3 if overlay display x-axis #3 was set to none and x-axis #4 was set to a valid variable.

a. Data Conversion, Rosette Summary, and Derive -- Offset for SBE 43 was being read as 0.0 from the .con file.

a. Data Conversion -- Temperature and pressure were not found when processing SBE 16plus or 19plus data files.

a. Added logic for overlay plots to rearrange x-axis variables if none is selected for one x-axis and a variable to plot is selected for a higher numbered x-axis.

NOTE: For this and all future software releases, the Windows software real-time data acquisition and analysis software (SEASAVE and SBE Data Processing) will have the same version number. The 4.0 series and below indicates SEASOFT-DOS; the 5.0 series and above indicates SEASOFT-Windows.

a. Data Conversion -- Added support for SBE 19plus used with Auto Fire Module (AFM).
b. Data Conversion -- Added command line, run options, and batch file processing /xdatcnv:pump and /xdatcnv:nomatch.
c. Derive -- Added command line, run options, and batch file processing /xderive:pump.
d. ASCII In -- data in input files can now be separated by spaces, commas, or tabs (or any combination).

a. Data Conversion -- If Append to .NAV file was selected in SEASAVE's Configure/NMEA Interface, and Data Conversion could not find the .nav file, Data Conversion would crash.

a. Added an option to display both the bottle number and pressure to the Bottle Line Configuration.

a. New style .con file changes did not take effect until .con file was looked at a second time or until SEASAVE was restarted.
b. Lat/Lon configuration could be modified by information in header when displaying an archived data file.

When the Windows versions of SEASAVE and SBE Data Processing were incorporated in SEASOFT-Win32 and began having the same revision number:

SBE Data Processing - SEASAVE Revision HistorySBE Data Processing Version 5.32a and SEASAVE Version 5.32

SBE Data Processing - SEASAVE Revision History
SBE Data Processing Version 5.32a and SEASAVE Version 5.32