Discontinued Products Notification
On June 10, 2009 we were forced to announce the discontinuation of two System Studies products:

• Dial-a-Ducer™ (Part Nos. 9800-4350-W, 4350-X, 9800-4350-Y, 9800-4350-Z)
• Tandberg SLR7 tape drive (Part No 9800-5207)

Dial-a-Ducer
Due to the unavailability of various Dial-a-Ducer on-board components and housing materials, System Studies has been forced to discontinue the manufacture and sale of this small dial-up, multi-sensor product. Please note, however, that we will continue to repair returned Dial-a-Ducers, subject to specified service charges and parts availability.

To accommodate requests for an alternative, small-capacity air pressure monitoring option, System Studies offers two versions of our uM260 Micro Monitor™. One provides dial-up modem communications (Part No. 9800-6260M), and the other works on a Local Area Network (Part No. 9800-6260L). Either version can be operated as a stand-alone monitor or used in conjunction with PressureMAP™. The uM260 Micro Monitor extends the monitoring capability of the Dial-a-Ducer to 20 devices— 4 binary contact alarms and 16 resistive or current loop transducers.

Please refer to the Hardware Products, Office Monitoring Equipment section of this website for photographs and additional information about the Micro Monitor.

Tandberg SLR7 Tape Drive
The Tandberg tape drive has long been an important component of MAP Engine computers which are configured to work optimally with our PressureMAP™ monitoring software. We recently learned that the manufacturer has discontinued this product line.

Due to the extended backup capabilities of the BackupEDGE™ utility (sold separately with PressureMAP), it is now possible to perform system and data backups to a variety of media, including CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, RAM disk, or to a remote backup computer or server via file transport protocol (ftp). These backup options streamline the data storage process and are responsible for speeding tape drive technology toward eventual obsolescence.

If you would like more clarification regarding these discontinued products, or uM260 Micro Monitor capabilities and pricing information, please contact the System Studies Field Engineer in your area. You may also contact System Studies directly at the numbers listed below.

Digital Pressure Gauge
We'd like to announce availability of the latest addition to our line of cable pressurization tools: the Part No. 9800-3123 Digital Pressure Gauge. This rugged, portable pressure gauge has a four character digital display which reduces potential reading errors by eliminating the parallax problem associated with old-style C pressure gauges.

A four button key pad provides easy access to features, which include display backlight activation, peak and valley reading recall, auto zeroing, and measurement unit selection. To facilitate use in a variety of applications, the Digital Pressure Gauge provides 12 measurement output units including: psi, kPA, mbar, in. Hg, etc. Reading accuracy is +/- 0.50% full scale.

The gauge is supplied with a protective rubber boot, a 20 inch (50.8 cm) length of tubing, and a standard air pressure chuck valve for quick connection to standard chuck valves. The air chuck can be attached to the rubber boot tank valve for when not being used for carrying convenience and easier storage.

Please refer to the Hardware Products, Tools section of this website for photographs and additional information.

PressureMAP Version 27 Features
Final testing on the PressureMAP Version 27 product has been completed and the software is now available for purchase. This new PressureMAP Version is especially unique in that it represents the first version of the software that can be run on either the SCO UNIX 5.0.7 operating system or the Linux operating system (Red Hat Enterprise 4.2 or CentOS 5.2). Please refer to Software Release Note 82 for PressureMAP Version 27 Standard Operating Environment.

Please note that future releases of the PressureMAP software will be available only on Linux operating systems. This is due, primarily, to the unsurpassed portability, flexibity and capability of the Linux OS. As such, it provides numerous performance and support advantages over the SCO UNIX operating system and is ideally suited for current and future PressureMAP applications. Furthermore, customer licensing fees for Linux are either non-existent or considerably less (depending upon selected Linux distribution) than for SCO UNIX.

The following is a summary of the key feature available with PressureMAP Version 27.00:

• PressureWEB™ Version 2.0. This next release of the popular PressureWEB application builds upon the success of Version 1.3 and offers these several new display and setup functions: 1) a hyperlink from the main navigation bar to System Error (System 0) information; 2) a new Setup preference which allows you to designate the category of alarms that will be displayed in the application (4-star, 3-star and above, 2-star and above, etc.); 3) another new Setup preference which makes it possible to view device numbers that are in alarm as either a count (number) or a percentage of the total number of devices in the office; and 4) an update to the display of data in the In column of the Device Status View displays. Now when the word "Today" appears in the In column, it will also include an indication—in both hours and minutes—of how long a device has been in alarm.
  
  
• Added Support for Digi PortServer II. PressureMAP Version 27 now includes 4-star alarm generation capability when loss of network connectivity is detected between PressureMAP and PortServers. In addition, PressureMAP Version 27 for Linux operating systems also includes a Network Administration option which enables you to initiate a connectivity test manually.
  
  
• DNS Lookup Capability. PressureMAP Version 27 for Linux operating systems also includes the ability to resolve a mail server name via either an IP address or DNS lookup.
  
  
• System Uptime Display. Both the SCO UNIX and the Lixus versions of PressureMAP Version 27 now include a new System Administration menu option, which allows you to view the System Uptime in a new System Statistics Menu. The output includes the current time of day, an indication of how many days and minutes the system has been operating uninterrupted, the number of users cuuently logged on, plus load average data.
  
  
• Reading Histories Added to Dispatch Histories Report. In past PressureMAP releases when a user selected View Dispatch Histories (option #4) from the Dispatch Histories Menu and included the "extra" option, which was "4ssi" instead of just "4", the output included the reading time and value for the device that caused the dispatch. In PressureMAP Version 27, additional reading history information similar to the Specific Device Information data is now provided without having to enter the "SSI" extension. Values are now provided for Last, Tdy, -1, -2, -3 and -4.
  
  
• System Dispatches Added to Dispatch Priorities Listing and Dispatch Report. PressureMAP Version 27 now includes "system" dispatches that are related to an office with the corresponding Dispatch Priorities listing and the Dispatch Report. These appear following the usual "high five" display, under the new heading "System Alarms for OFFICE_NAME". Additionally, alarm delivery is modified to also send office-related system alarms when alarms for a given office are evaluated for delivery.
  
  
• Migrate PressureMAP Data. Due to the differences in file formats and structure alignment between operating systems, a method was devised to make the transition from SCO UNIX to Linux as straightforward as possible. A special PressureMAP 26.02 release was created to provide a "Create PressureMAP Linux Migration Backup" option. This option, which is also included with SCO UNIX Version 27, converts data to a portable text format and archives it to backup media. A new System Administration Restore option, "Restore from Linux Migration Tape," was then added to PressureMAP Version 27. This new Restore option extracts the data from the backup media and uses it to create the corresponding data files in the native binary format.
  
  
• New Ring/Ground Variants for Current Loop Transducers. Several new Transducer Types have been added to Version 27 for 289H Current Loop Transducers. The new Transducer Types are required when wiring transducers using ring with a sheath ground. The new TD Types are as follows: Pressure Transducers (CPA/RG/15.0 and CPA/RG/30.0); Flow Transducers (CF/RG/9.5, CF/RG/19.0, CF/RG/47.5, CF/RG/95.0, CF/RG/190.0, CF/RG/475.0, and CF/RG/950.0). Please note that the KPA and LPH equivalents for these devices are also supported, plus the following special application designations: BARO/RG/35, BARO/RG/1200, TEMP/RG/167 and TEMP/RG/75.
  
  
• Support for Puregas C-Board (PVD800). In Version 27 PressureMAP has been modified to support the PureGas PVD 800 monitor. If PressureMAP detects a C-board, it then requires that the office designation be a PVD 800 office, rather than a Sparton 5300B, for example.
  
  
• Expanded Circuit Number Field. The number of characters that PressureMAP allows in the Circuit # data field in a Chatlos-monitored office has been expanded to support six characters instead of four. This change pertains to the Device Log and Device Lop by Location reports.

If you would like additional information about PressureMAP Version 27 and its availability, please give us a call at the number below or contact us via email.

Cable Theft Monitoring
We've begun to see an increasing number of inquiries on Airtalk.com about copper cable theft. We know this is a major problem in many countries and areas worldwide, so we've devised a monitoring application called CableWATCH™ that can quickly identify when a cable has been cut and approximately where. When the electrical continuity of a cable has been interrupted, the application generates an alarm and distributes it to selected individuals and locations, bringing realtime notification of a possible cable theft in time for a meaningful reaction. To learn more about this monitoring solution, click here.