Tilting Current Meters

We have deployed a very large array of around 40 tilt meters attached to the sea floor in relatively shallow water. South African specialist Zane Thackeray and Leigh from the durban company EMS have flown in to help us out. Zane turned out to be a very dynamic character and has assisted almost everybody in their projects regarding the electronics, a true nerd amongst nerds.

Zane in Action

The tilt current meter (TCM) system consists of an autonomous logging tilt meter which is connected to the sea floor on a tile and a buoy. That means of course around 40 stones buoys and ropes in the holiday parc, in the van, in the boats and of course in the water.

Ropes, stones and buoys !

The idea is that the current determines the tilt of the device. Since the tilt meters are very economic and easy to deploy we are experimenting with an extensive array. Last Sunday the loggers have been deployed and data has been collected continuously since then. Tomorrow we plan to go trough the effort of retrieving the full array again (local fishermen will probably be happy about that).