Method and apparatus for gathering event data using a removable data storage medium and clock

A data gathering system comprising:

• a data gathering instrument, the data gathering instrument comprising a processor, a sensor, an instrument clock connector and an instrument data storage medium connector;
• a main data recovery unit comprising a main clock, an instrument clock connector and an instrument data storage medium connector;
• a removable instrument clock module comprising a clock and a connector, the connector being adapted for communicating time information with the data gathering instrument and for communicating time information with the main data recovery unit;
• and
• a removable instrument data storage module comprising a data storage medium and a connector, the connector being adapted for receiving data from the data gathering instrument and for transferring data to the main data recovery unit.

Event data storage apparatus for use in a data gathering system, the apparatus comprising:

• a housing;
• a clock disposed in the housing;
• a data storage medium disposed in the housing;
• a connector;
• and
• a communications bus between the clock and the connector and between the data storage medium and the connector.

A data gathering instrument comprising:

• a processor;
• a sensor;
• a removable clock module comprising a clock and a clock connector;
• a removable data storage module comprising a data storage medium and a data storage medium connector;
• and
• a communication bus between the processor and the data storage medium connector and between the processor and the clock connector.

A method for gathering event data comprising the following steps:

• gathering event data using a data gathering instrument;
• storing the event data in a data storage medium disposed within an event data storage apparatus housing, the event data storage housing being disposed within the data gathering instrument;
• obtaining time information from a clock disposed in the event data storage housing;
• and
• storing the time information in the data storage medium.