Testing the prototype in the waters of the port of Cotonou.

03/10/2019 at “Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Océanologiques du Benin” (IRHOB)

Reporter: Wilfried Sintondji
Pictures: Wilfried Sintondji and Katrijn Baetens

The first session started at 9:00 in the morning in the presence of Katrijn Baetens of RBINS, dr. Zacharie Sohou, the director of IRHOB, dr George Degbé et mr. Médard Honfo of IRHOB. There is also an important participation of students selected for this project: Mr Sylvain Amoussou and Mr Wilfried Sintondji.

After an introduction to the project Katrijn Baetens présented all the parts and materials that are needed to develop the thermometers. During this occasion she used the prototype developed in Belgium to demonstrate how everything works. After this each student was trusted with a task to copy the prototype and get the hang of the system. Some of the tasks needed are:

Constructing and testing if the box containing the electronics is waterproof
The box remained waterproof during lab testing
Checking the voltage of the system
Test the wiring of the new thermometer system on a breadboard
Double check if the prototype is working
The prototype works independently and the GPS receives a signal
Programming the thermometer with the desirable time parameters

The students working hard on their assigned tasks. Médard on the left is wiring the new thermometers, Sylvain in the middle is preparing a new waterproof box and Wilfried on the right is isolating the electronic wires.

At the end of the day we were able to test our first prototype in the waters of the port of Cotonou.