System Requirements

  • 64-bit Windows 11
  • 8GB RAM or more
  • 4GB Free disk space
  • Intel Core i5, but i7 recommended
  • Virtual Com Port (VCP) Drivers for transceivers made before mid-2024
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Release Notes

8.3.1.450

New Features

New Automatic Survey Line Marking Feature

  • Automatically subdivide survey into lines based on the initial line direction and heading deviation tolerance, with custom line end margin distance.

Serial Port Terminal Window Enhancements

  • Change diagnostic log filename
  • Send entire command line at once (especially useful for Synapse)
  • Annotate the log with comments.

Import Filters

  • Filter imported data using specified Min/Max limits, for most data columns

Miscellaneous

  • Parsing NMEA ZDA sentence in addition to existing support for GGA and RMC. This can help to get the correct date if RMC is not available.
  • Support GEM Systems magnetometer logs exported in “BOB Mode”

UI Enhancements

  • “Goto Marker” option centers marker in Geo Plot.
  • Better accuracy when placing line markers on Geo Plot
  • Previously just moving the mouse in the profile plot would move the hairline cursor. You must now drag the mouse (hold the mouse button down while you move the mouse) to move the hairline cursor.  Users requested this so they could move the mouse out of the profile plot without changing the selected point in the log table or geo plot.
  • Previously dragging the mouse would scroll the profile plot horizontally. Now you must hold the shift-key down while you drag to shift the plot.
  • Numerous formatting and usability improvements.

Fixes

  • Fix support for surveys without GPS data. Importing lines, markers, targets no longer fails if data contains no GPS fixes.
  • Improved accuracy when placing selection highlight.
  • Deleting multiple Survey Lines now only asks for confirmation once.
  • Drawing on Geo Plot near 0E,0N fixed.
  • Improved sorting options for survey list in setup
  • Fix crash when starting a new survey while geographic coordinate system is selected in GeoPlot (i.e. not UTM).

8.2.1.408

Jan 9, 2025

  • Support for old SeaQuest 1 devices without tilt sensors.

8.2.1.404

Jan 8, 2025

Import Assistant — New Feature!

  • The Import Assistant imports delimited text for Mag and GPS readings collected by autonomous vehicles.
  • One of the field types that can be imported is the raw reading string from a SeaSpy or Explorer.
  • The Import Assistant also replaces the old guide line delimited text import, so users can import guide lines from other survey planning applications.
  • Presets for importing known formats including:
    • GEM GSM-19
    • GEM GSMP-35U Standard
    • Gavia AUV + explorer
    • Iver  AUV + explorer

Synapse Configuration

  • Keep sensor enabled indicators up to date with online nodes.
  • Prevent storing “empty” samples if no nodes are online.
  • Keep the configuration of the main altimeter and main depth gauge instead of switching to default after getting a structure update (#CLST).

Profile Plot

  • Default Y scales are set to more typical values
  • Resizing the profile plot window maintains the same full scale.
  • Stop traces from moving when rescaling. While scaling, wrapped field traces are auto-adjusted to pin the end of the trace on the y-scale so they don’t appear to move or scroll up the window.

UI improvements

  • Simplified UI when using an imported survey.
  • Fix indicator lights on the main mag panel
    • Leak indicator correctly shows a leak condition in any of the mags.  (Note a warning message was always shown when a leak was detected. This fix pertains only to the indicator light on the panel)
    • Indicators for Signal and Gradient Condition aggregate the worst case of all the mags in multi-mag devices.

Markers

  • Create a marker when the sample rate is changed, or when starting sampling with a new rate.
  • If updating a marker that’s already been placed, copy the color, and merge the new text and label instead of overwriting.
  • Update marker placement for sampling and layback. Allow duplicate marker times.

Backward Compatibility

  • Fixed an issue upgrading surveys from 2014 and earlier

Other Improvements and Fixes

  • Fix hiding readings and the unhide-all feature in Base Station Review.
  • Prevent applying base station correction for measured gradients with SQ as well as SeaSpy gradiometers.
  • Show the Corrected Gradient in Survey Export
  • Fixed an issue regarding restarting sampling after synchronizing.
  • In the terminal window and logs we add lines indicating the opening and closing of the serial ports.
  • When finding Fish location, ignore invalid GPS fixes.
  • Allow -1 as a Fix Quality option for NMEA sentences (to support a HyPack driver)
  • Improve auto-selection of the date of NMEA GGA readings if no RMC is available.
  • Fix export of first reading so it’s either the GPS or fish position as needed (instead of always just the GPS position)
  • Fix UTM projection for surveys crossing the Equator.
  • Filter out any zero nT magnetic field values, since they are always invalid.

8.1.1.340

Oct 24, 2024

  • This release supports a special project which needs to support an SeaQuest 1 upgraded with SeaQuest 2 firmware and an upgraded altimeter.
    • Users must select “SeaQuest2” for BOB to recognize samples from this version of the firmware.
    • Empty columns show in the log table for Aft sensor even if it is not installed in the mag.
    • The survey export does not calculate the total gradient in this release.

8.1.1.325

Sep 30, 2024

  • UI Improvements
    • Full-scale is fixed when resizing the profile plot
    • Show tuning value correctly when manual tuning
    • Cleaner presentation
    • Clearer warnings
    • Alignment is more stable when values are changing rapidly
  • Better support for Satellite-Synched Transceiver
    • Check if transceiver has a lock
    • Force transceiver to sync mag if needed
  • Synchronization improvements
    • More precise
    • More resilient to variable system latencies
    • Easier to use and understand
    • Auto-Correct
      • Keep logging even if mag restarts without sync
      • Keep time if GPS disconnects or loses lock
    • Sync with Satellite-Synched transceiver

8.0.1.258

Sep 6, 2024

  • Fix for crash when opening About window after deactivating BAM license.

8.0.1.202

July 11, 2024

  • Fix: Valid surveys made with BOB 8.0.1.200 wouldn’t show in survey list after re-install.
  • Fix: Parsing of Sea Quest readings would fail sometimes.
  • Fix: In some cases starting a survey with no active GPS connected would fail.
  • GPS Date and Time have been added to the survey export column list.
  • Remove support for obsolete Explorer Gradiometer.

8.0.1.200

June 4, 2024

  • Updated infrastructure for better support, security, and speed with these components:
    • SQL Server 2022
    • .NET 8.0 Desktop runtime
  • Support for new Marine Magnetics Products including
    • Synapse
    • Explorer Gradiometers
    • More AUV file types
  • BAM now plots partial gradients from any two sensors on our gradiometers
  • Simpler installation experience
  • Numerous performance and usability improvements

4.18.1.476

June 4, 2024

  • This is a transitional release which contains a notice, and dialog with instructions to upgrade to the latest BOB.

4.17.1.427

September 18, 2023

  • Additional support for SeaQuest 2 gradiometers
  • Text in the application is more compatible with airborne surveys. (e.g. removed references to “fish” and “boat”)

4.16.1.422

December 5, 2022

  • Create multiple lines in an area marked on the GeoPlot.
  • Fix order of columns in intermagnet parser
  • Fix reset the selected parser for each import of base station readings
  • Fix overlapping survey lines.
  • Fix error in deleting single mag readings.

4.16.1.419

October 5, 2022

  • Improved support for importing GEM drone mag files, including laser altimeter.
  • Import GEM base station data
  • Improved Gavia AUV import speed, and set GPS fix quality
  • Fix: Allow “>” to be sent to the mag from terminal window.
  • Fix: GPS icon sometimes showed invalid fix when it was valid.
  • Various UI and usability improvements.

4.16.1.414

June 13, 2022

  • Support GEM drone mag
  • Altimeter series inverted so higher is bigger
  • Marker export improved.
  • USB connections no longer supported. Transceivers are configured as virtual COM ports so only com port connections are needed.

4.15.1.406

May 31, 2022

  • Improved Guide Line Importers
  • Fixed bug when selecting COM port for repeater.
  • Fixed default wingspans for SeaQuest gradiometers.
  • Exporting gradients have an extra digit of precision (4) now.
  • Numerous UI improvements.

4.15.1.339

December 21, 2021

Additional support for Sea Quest 2

4.15.1.324

November 11, 2021

Support Sea Quest 2 differences in zeroing the depth sensor.

4.14.1.317

October 12, 2021

Overview

  • This release improves several features,
  • supports the new SQ2 mag responses, and
  • the Sentinel 2 base station import allows filtering by signal strength.

Profile Plot

  • Initialize visibility of series when loading.

Import

  • Filter by date for base station and AUV data.
  • Don’t import readings to a significant gap in the survey
  • Dialogs are topmost and modal.
  • Add signal strength filter for base station import.
  • Default file type for import set to all log file types, instead of just the intermagnet observatory format.

Survey Lines

  • Keep survey line list from restoring default sort order after an edit.

Geo Plot

  • Calculate GPS time offset relative to mag clock so it has the same sign as shown on sync warnings

Mag support

  • Handle new SQ-2 string

Markers

  • Format marker list, change icons for expander and visibility buttons.

Diagnostics

  • Log BOB version number to Alert.log

Prior Releases

4.10.1.294

  • Show signal strength in profile plot
  • Get user consent before upgrading BOB
  • Allow user to enter fraction of a second into marker time in marker dialog.
  • Ok button in preferences closes the dialog now
  • Import Sentinel-2 data.

4.10.1.291

  • Fix incomplete drawing of path when selecting a survey line in some cases.
  • Improve placement of markers near edges of profile plot.

4.10.1.187

Miscellaneous

  • Improve detecting when mag is sampling
  • Stop GPS readings from being logged in newly opened survey before we start sampling.
  • More support for Vector mags
  • UI formatting improved

GeoPlot

  • Zoom to mouse point instead of center of screen
  • Show coords where mouse is.
  • More accurate placement of markers.

Mag Profile Plot

  • Sometimes scale was wrong
  • Fix drawing error when crossing midnight.

Log Table

  • Allow user to reorder columns.

Diagnostics

  •  Notifications are saved to alerts.log now

Export

  • Individual mag positions are exported for longitudinal gradiometers.
  • Export failed for surveys that cross midnight.