NB: This project was completed by the director of Widget 5 before Widget 5 was formed.
Century Resources Ltd surveys geothermal wells around New Zealand and the world. With our help they were able to create a new tool that both measured and logged sensor data as it was lowered down extremely hot geothermal wells, operating at temperatures in excess of 300 degrees C.
Creating a solution that was totally reliable in these conditions was crucial to Century, as the costs of shutting down a well during a survey were in the tens of thousands of dollars per hour. With our on site support and testing we were able to deliver a highly reliable software product that has met those needs and has continued to perform unchanged for three years now.
The tools feature temperature and steam pressure rotor code, all custom designed to Century's needs. Several temperature probes monitor the on board temperature during the run and a reliable flash array saves the data for later retrieval. All data written to the flash is verified on several levels and the file system is carefully designed to both prolong the flash's lifetime and to also handle any data errors that may occur due to high temperatures or electrical noise.
For this project, Widget 5 provided all tool code and example PC interface code. Technman Electronics Limited provided hardware. We also worked in concert with engineers from National Instruments who created a Labview based application to talk to the tool.