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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: J.Hellevoort on March 19, 2020, 12:38:46 PM

Title: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: J.Hellevoort on March 19, 2020, 12:38:46 PM
Hello,

I am a student in the Netherlands studying hydrography and currently I am doing research to cheap solutions for gaining bathymetric information of shallow waters. For this research one of my solutions is a fishfinder. Is it possible to connect a externe GPS receiver to the fishfinder and to output real-time NMEA messages including depth with corresponding position to a pc through a comport (not usb because of latency problems)? Something like this scheme.

If this couldn't be done I would really appreciate alternative ideas.

Thanks!

Jort
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: rnvinc on March 19, 2020, 10:33:12 PM
This may help with part of your query  ...

https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/HELIX_EXT_GPS (https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/HELIX_EXT_GPS)

Rickie
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: J.Hellevoort on March 20, 2020, 08:16:23 AM
Yes it helps for connecting the gps to the fishfinder. But after that, how can I connect the fishfinder to a pc? It is possible, according to the manual to switch on NMEA output, so the fish finder outputs NMEA messages.
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: rnvinc on March 21, 2020, 09:48:27 AM
See if this helps  ... (I have no experience with NMEA)  ...

https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/how-do-i-output-digital-depth-information (https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/how-do-i-output-digital-depth-information)

Rickie
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: J.Hellevoort on March 25, 2020, 08:34:08 AM
Like that you can connect the fishfinder to the pc and output depth to the pc. But it uses a USB port and not a COM port. A USB port introduces to much latency for my project. So that's not an option.
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: rnvinc on March 25, 2020, 11:35:51 PM
Here is some contact info  ...

https://www.johnsonoutdoors.com/locations?id=127 (https://www.johnsonoutdoors.com/locations?id=127)

Rickie
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: abraquelebout on March 28, 2020, 05:52:35 AM
hi
you can connect lot of thing talking in nmea using a "multiplexeur", it collect nmea sentences, sounder, gps and put them on rs232 db9 connect (it's old) or usb (recent)
reefmaster can make a bathymetry using Humminbird or other system
i join a pdf (in french)
good luck, it's possible to do it, i go on my stock of lot of thing to search, i think i get an old model on a case (sounder, gps, multiplexer, rs232 connect for PC)
Title: Re: Bathymetry Helix 5 Sonar G2
Post by: J.Hellevoort on April 22, 2020, 04:32:54 AM
Thanks everyone for helping me out!

I found a way to connect an external GNSS receiver to the input of the Helix 5 and connect the output to my PC. For anyone who wants to know how, I will explain:
1. I bought the Humminbird AS HHGPS cable (it comes with a y-cable as well but I didn't use that one).
2. I cut the cable in two and connected it as shown in the image below.
3. I attached RS-232 DB9 connectors to both ends of the cable to connect it to the GNSS receiver and my laptop.
4. When everything is tuned in on eachother (correct baudrates etc.) I get NMEA 0183 messages on my laptop.

I didn't want to connect the Helix 5 to my laptop via USB because of latency issues. If you don't have a RS-232 comport on your PC/laptop you can buy a device like the Moxa NPort-5110.

I still have some problems to solve now:
1. The output rate of the Helix 5 is to low, I want it to output NMEA messages at 10 Hz.
2. My GNSS receiver sends correct altitudes in the GGA string to the Helix 5, but the Helix 5 doesn't send this correct altitudes to the laptop.
Example of a GGA string, the two altitudes are bold:
$GPGGA,123519,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47
My Helix 5 only sends the first altitude to my laptop and leaves the second altitude as a blank field.

If someone knows how to solve these problems I would really appreciate that.

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