Loren Data Corp.

'

 
 

COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 21,1996 PSA#1535

US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1325 East West Highway - Station 4301, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-3283

A -- PRECISION ELECTRONIC ANERIOD BAROMETER POC Norbert Szymanski, (301)713-0839 The National Weather Service (NWS) is seeking sources to provide a precision electronic aneroid barometer. The desired barometer shall be sufficiently rugged so that conditions incident to normal shipping, installation, use and service shall not affect its serviceability, accuracy or stability. The unit shall be made of suitable materials that will permit storage and use in natural weather conditions. Subjection of the unit to pressures up to 1.2 times the full scale shall not damage the unit or affect its performance. Units shall be no larger than 43.18cm x 24.13cm x 20.32cm (w x l x h) and be available in panel mounted and desktop cases. The maximum weight of the unit will be less than 7 kg. The precision electronic aneroid barometer shall sense and continuously display both the real-time ambient atmospheric station pressure and the real-time ambient atmospheric station pressure corrected to mean-sea-level using a common transducer(s). Each individual numeral on the unit displays shall be no less than 1.27 cm in height and shall be proportional and legible. Displays shall have a multiple scale unit measurement selection, which shall be prominently displayed to the right of the measurement. Displayed resolution shall be to at least 6+ digits for all available units of measurement. The precision electronic aneroid barometer unit shall record and store the historic ambient atmospheric station pressure for a period of 35 days. The 35-day period will be resettable at any selected time interval less than 35 days and shall include a timed sample mode selectable to a minimum 10 second interval and a burst mode. The unit shall automatically sense rapid changes barometric pressure and default to the burst sample interval. The burst mode shall be ON/OFF selectable within the software. This data will be continuously accessible via a display panel or computer interface, and downloadable via a standard RS232 computer interface. The unit shall not be sensitive to humidity or changes in air density and automatically compensate for the effects of varying temperature. All performance parameters shall be maintained over an operational external temperature range of -20x to 50x C. The unit shall have an ambient pressure range of 50 to 110 kPa minimum and an elevation range adjustment with software restricted access for altimeter settings of - 50 to 3750 meters minimum. Accuracy of the unit shall be 0.01 % of full scale (FS) or better in any unit position or configuration, drift shall not exceed 0.005% FS per year and hysteresis shall not exceed 0.005% FS. Active supplemental devices to control the barometric transducer units~ physical environment shall not be used. The barometric transducer(s) shall be field replaceable, easily removed and replaced. The unit shall operate from a standard +115 q 10 VAC power outlet, have internal surge protection and be capable of maintaining unit power requirements for a minimum of 36 hours if facility power should fail. A warmup time of less than 1 minute shall be required to full operational status. The unit shall perform continuous self-tests to ensure proper operation of all systems. A minimum of one 9-pin RS232 serial port and one optional variable baud modem with a standard 4-wire RJ11 connector shall be available on the standard unit. All units shall be upgradable to support additional 9-pin RS232 serial ports for an ancillary input. Personal computer interface software shall be provided by the manufacturer for on-site and remote programing and interrogation. The software shall accept data input in multiple forms, manual input on the standard unit and automatic input from external sensors available through a menu option on upgraded units. The unit shall provide a method to enter the Pressure Reduction Ratio ~r~ as calculated from NWS station tables and optionally enter the current temperature (T0) and the temperature twelve hours previous (T-12) and optionally allow an external temperature transducer to log (T0) and (T-12). The software shall then be able to read or calculate the Pressure Reduction Ratio ~r~ as entered or programed for a station and determine the sea-level pressure. The unit shall also provide a method to compute and display the Pressure Altitude, and the Density Altitude with the input of current temperature. Temperature input from an external temperature transducer(s) is a required future option, but for many reasons will not be included in the initial procurement of this unit. Reprogramming for this option shall not be necessary. To request a copy of the Draft Specification, submit a written request to: Department of Commerce/NOAA, National Weather Service, Attn: Al Wissman,W/OSO321, M/S 3396, 1325 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. The anticipated initial purchase will be for 100-130 units with the purchase of more units and upgrades possible. It is expected that if several responses are acceptable, a prototype unit(s) from more than one manufacturer will be purchased and evaluated. The final bulk production purchase will be from only one manufacturer. Requests for Draft Specifications will be honored for 30-days after publication of this notice. Technical and cost proposals will be honored for 60-days after publication of this notice. (0047)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0006 19960220\A-0006.SOL)


A - Research and Development Index Page