Our CPT data is digitized in 2cm (now upgraded to 1cm) intervals and displayed on a touch screen in front of the CPT operator. At the completion of the sounding the data is transferred to a USB memory stick for download to a ruggedized field laptop for backup, data analysis and transfer back to our offices. A printer/scanner/copier is typically available to print sounding logs, quantities and track data throughout the field investigative process.
Reporting -
Upon completion of the project, Minnesota GeoServices can produce formal reports of the investigation results, however more commonly our clients are primarily interested in the CPT logs and electronic data (typically Excel spreadsheets), all of which can be tailored to your needs.
Our current reporting method is to transfer data to our clients on a secure server (server url with ssl authentication certificate) in ascii format, as Excel spreadsheets, and as PDF logs. Each client has a folder with each of their projects stored in sub-folders. We provide a user name and password for each person needing access to the data (with concise instructions for setting this up, it is quite easy to do).
This system is vastly superior to emailing data for several reasons including the following:
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It allows us to transfer large data sets without locking up your email and won't be blocked by junk mail or spam blocker programs. Data sets often are several hundred megabites so this can be a real problem,
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you can more easily share the data with remote sites or from the field,
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it offers improved data security over email,
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data access permissions can be changed for different projects, added for clients, or removed as needed,
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uploading to an offsite server allows us to simultaneously backup the project data and reduce the chance of losing or corrupting field data,
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it allows us to use version control software (Tortoise Subversion SVN) to track changes to the data and ensure that the most recent data is the only data available. Especially when dealing with large data sets, data integrity is paramount.
For the future we plan to add remote wireless capability to the CPT rig to upload the data immediately from the field. Our aim is to reduce turnaround time on the data wherever possible, while maintaining strict data integrity.
