Dive R1595
During the first leg of VISIONS'13, "ROPOS" worked at the summit of Axial Seamount at a depth of 5000 ft to test Primary Node 3B. This node is similar to a large electrical outlet on the seafloor, providing 8 kW of power to 7 ports, and communication back and forth to the Internet at 10 Gbs. The node is connected to the Pacific City (Oregon) Shore by 320 miles of fiber optic telecommunication cable, providing power and communication from shore. This primary infrastructure was installed by L-3 MariPro using the TE Sucom cable laying ship in 2011-2012. During testing of the Primary Infrastructure a ground fault was found in PN3B, likely associated with a camera that had been deployed on it to visually image the seafloor as the node was deployed. During this dive, ROPOS removed the camera assembly and the node was powered up from the Shore Station. Testing showed that it was the camera that caused the problem and now the node is working well.