Abstract: Safety monitoring plays a crucial role in ensuring the safe and stable operation of water conservancy projects, serving as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving intelligent water conservancy. By directly capturing the displacement (or deformation) response of building structures under external loads, deformation monitoring offers a direct reflection of building safety. Currently, automatic monitoring of dam horizontal displacement primarily relies on the tension line method, vacuum laser alignment method, and vertical line method. The CCD vertical coordinate instrument has seen widespread use in dam engineering practice; however, it suffers from drawbacks such as the lack of on-site configuration and real-time data reading capabilities, and the absence of direct remote interaction function. This necessitates the use of auxiliary acquisition devices or switching devices for remote communication. To address these limitations, we designed an intelligent CCD vertical coordinate instrument with a microprocessor and Ethernet interface, eliminating the need for connection to additional acquisition equipment and enabling direct connectivity to the software system. This solution effectively resolves issues related to complex instrument integration and the unstable nature of traditional communication modes. To address field parameter configuration, real-time acquisition and display challenges, we employed bluetooth communication and a smartphone APP in designing this instrument. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive dimming technique to enhance the instrument’s self-adaptability and stability.

Key words: dam deformation monitoring, linear array CCD, vertical coordinate instrument, Ethernet, bluetooth communication