Patent ID: 6843119

Claim:
Apparatus for measuring and recording data from a borehole, wherein: the apparatus includes a surface unit and a down-hole unit, and includes a mechanical suspension, for physically supporting the down-hole unit from the surface unit, and the suspension includes a down-hole-base; the apparatus includes a station, which includes a module-controller, and includes a data-logger; the station includes a pair of relatively-insulated metal station-conductors; the down-hole unit includes one or more operable modules; the modules include respective pairs of relatively-insulated metal module-conductors, corresponding to the pair of station-conductors; each one of the modules is a self-contained mechanically-unitary structure, which can be physically plugged in, and can be unplugged, as a single whole unit; when the modules are plugged in: the plugged in modules, together with the down-hole-base, form a mechanically-integrated structure; the pairs of module-conductors of the plugged-in modules make metal-to-metal electrical contact with each other, forming, in aggregate, a pair of line-conductors; the aggregate of the module-conductors of the plugged-in modules, being the line-conductors, make metal-to-metal electrical contact with the station-conductors; each one of the modules includes: an operable data-sensor, which is effective, when operated, to take a measurement of a down-hole parameter; a data-reader, which converts the measurement to a digital data-packet; an operable data-transmitter, which is effective, when operated, to apply that data-packet to the pair of module-conductors; each module is so structured that physically plugging the module in is effective simultaneously to bring the pair of module-conductors of that module into metal-to-metal electrical contact with the pair of line-conductors, without the need for a separate operation of electrically connecting the module-conductors; each module is so structured as to be rendered operable electrically, simultaneously upon the module being physically plugged in; the module-controller of the station is effective to allocate respective transmission-periods of time to the modules, each transmission-period being a period during which the module can apply its own data-packet to the line-conductors; the modules include each a line-monitor, for recognising that module's allocated transmission-period, and for operating the data-transmitter of that module, and thereby for applying that module's data-packet to the line-conductors, during that transmission-period; and the data-logger of the station is effective to log the respective data-packets transmitted from the modules.