Multi-bank power supply system for small towed hydrophone arrays

"Passive acoustic monitoring is quickly becoming a standard component of shipboard cetacean population surveys. Power supplies on survey vessels are often electronically noisy and result in poor quality recordings. An independent battery-powered voltage supply is regularly necessary for high quality recordings. Here we describe the design of a simple system to provide independent, single-sided 12 V power for a towed hydrophone system, such as the Southwest Fisheries Science Center's (SWFSC) Acoustic Recording System (ARS, Rankin et al. 2011) and hydrophone arrays. This system allows for simultaneous use of one battery bank while charging a depleted battery bank. This multi-battery bank system was successfully field tested by SWFSC for four and a half months during the 2014 California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (CalCurCEAS), and is based upon an original design Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) has been using since 2011"--Introduction. [doi:10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-544 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-544)] Emily T. Griffiths, J.Scott Ferguson, Erin M. Oleson, and Shannon Rankin. "May 2015." doi:10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-544 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-544) System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Includes bibliographical references (page 3).