POSSIBLE CRITERIA FOR PME REJECTION

1. SIGNAL
• If the device has an analogue interface to the DP, or has a digital input for “healthy” status, are
those signals present? Do they look about the right sort of values? These may be worth
measuring with a multi-meter to check.
• If the device has a serial input to the DP, can the serial link be seen on the Serial Link Monitor
page? (Refer to the SerialLinkMonitor document for instructions.) If it is an ASCII string, the
data should look like a sensible set of numbers/words, not a garbled set of obscure characters.
• Does the serial link telegram contain any “Void” indicators or fault flags? These may be
indicated by a "V" character (for "void"), rather than an "A" character (for healthy), on some
ASCII messages.
• Is the signal arriving at the DP system at regular intervals (of usually once per second, apart
from acoustics, which will probably be longer)?
• Is the serial link’s checksum valid? Note that the DP software may have been configured to
ignore a checksum.

2. SOFTWARE REJECTION
The PMEs can be rejected if they fail a "window" check or a "median" check.
The DP runs a mathematical model that estimates the vessel's position using all data available
(PME measurements, wind, thruster activity, environment force, etc.). Each PME measurement is
compared with the "model" position. This is the "window" check. If the PME measurement falls
outside this window (the window is centred on the model position) then it is rejected. This check is
designed to reject a PME that the DP thinks is too far away from its best estimate of position to be
believable.
The other software rejection criterion is the median check. All PMEs' measurements are compared
with each other in two axes. The median check window is centred on the median of the
measurements and any PME fix falling outside of this will be rejected. This check is designed to
ignore any reading that is a long way away from the other readings.
• Are the fixes/errors outside the window check? You can check the size of this window by
clicking on the “Scale” button (top right) on the PME Weightings page, to change to “Window”
size. The "scale" for each PME can be adjusted in integer steps, to increase the size of this
"window" if necessary.
• Check the PME errors on the Median Check page. Is the median rejection window large
enough? The median check rejection limit can be adjusted to suit.
• Bring up the "PME Raw Data" (sometimes called "PME Raw Info" or "PME Maintenance") page
on the screen and leave it there. A box is displayed for each PME channel, and when the PME
is in the failed state the reason will be given (e.g. "Median Failed"). Note that the failure
indication may be shown only briefly, so keep an eye on the information for the relevant
channel.
There are a couple of quick checks on how noisy the PMEs are:
• Monitor the “PME Errors" on the Motion page. Are they moving around or jumping too much?
• Check the Position Fix Repeatability. Are the numbers relatively low?

Customer : M&O Service Author : JAS

Project : Support Documentation Version :D
Document : PME Rejection Criteria Date : 13/11/08
File : c:\documents and settings\ajp\desktop\global 1200 dp & automation Page : 1/2
©2006 Converteam UK Ltd Converteam Ltd
3. DGPS-SPECIFIC CHECKS
• Check the DP software version (e.g. 1.54, 2.09, 3.10). If the software version is 1.xx (i.e. not
version 2 onwards) then the Lat-Long Setup page must have been correctly configured. The
projection must be correct. If in doubt, configure the projection to be the nearest UTM zone,
and select the correct hemisphere (N or S).
• For a NMEA GLL fix, ensure that the serial link arriving at the DP agrees with Converteam’s
definition of the telegram; Converteam systems do not support the latest GLL telegram.
• For a GPGGA telegram, check that the mode indicator (or quality field) is showing the correct
value; 0 = no valid fix; 1 = uncorrected GPS fix; 2 = DGPS fix; 3 = military-encoded (PPS) fix; 4
= RTK fixed integer fix; 5 = RTK floating point number fix. Does the DGPS mode (selectable at
the PME Data page) match the DGPS mode? Note that this facility is only available on
software version 2.13 onwards; the option to select DGPS or GPS may have been configured
on earlier versions than this.
• Does the age of differential corrections exceed the allowed limit? Note that the DP may have
been configured to ignore the age limit. Also, on software version 2.13 onwards, the age limit
can be set by the operator.
• For the above checks, refer to the GLL or GGA documents, which specify the contents of the
serial link messages.

4. PME DESELECTION
Any PME that fails any of the above checks will have its reading ignored instantly. While the PME
measurement falls outside any of these checks then it will continue to be ignored. If the
measurement becomes okay again (e.g. back inside a window check), within the rejection time
limit, then the measurement will be used again immediately. If it remains outside the rejection
criteria continuously for more than the rejection time limit (usually configured to around 15s to 20s)
the DP will deselect the PME altogether.

Customer : M&O Service Author : JAS

Project : Support Documentation Version :D
Document : PME Rejection Criteria Date : 13/11/08
File : c:\documents and settings\ajp\desktop\global 1200 dp & automation Page : 2/2
©2006 Converteam UK Ltd Converteam Ltd