Author Topic: My DIY Fish  (Read 9585 times)

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Offline Spd 135

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My DIY Fish
« on: October 31, 2014, 12:42:58 PM »
Flew this for the first time yesterday.  Great images.  I will be using this in Kentucky next week to scan an area we intend to dive.  Prior to building my fish I added 4 / 30' extension cables (EC-W30) to my existing transducer.  I attached them 1 at a time and tested my machine to see the clarity of the image.  I had no degradation of the image.   Outland Technology scotch-koted each connection point to ensure it is waterproof.  My fish is 32" long 2" pvc.  I made aluminum fins and the filled the fish with sand.  I have about 130' of usable cable (140' total).  The chain allows me to change the pitch.  1-3 mph seems optimum to keep the fish at depth.  My unit is the 898. 
Image 2 and 3 are the washout of a pumping station.
Image 4 concrete pilings
Image 5 a barge on the surface
Image 6 Sailboat and keel on the surface
Image 7 pilings
Image 8 sunken boat next to pilings
Image 9 depression in bottom where old dry-dock used to be
Image 10 Sunken boat next to an old lock
Mark Michaud

ila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_renderedila_rendered

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southeast-Louisiana-Underwater-Search-and-Recovery-Group/1438568169746982


https://www.facebook.com/groups/comehomeclarence/?ref=br_tf

 


Offline abraquelebout

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2014, 02:37:53 PM »
hi
soory for my poor inglish
nice to see another towfish man user ;)
good job, i see your screen shot, do you make an experiment to convert scan in deep wiew or yelowfinn to get better picture ?
Autochart give a good resolution in screen too.
In few screen shot i see gosht image, a reflect of shore line, reflect of piles...
I think you can get better in ethernet cable than extension, because you get 3 connection in your câble.
 

Offline Spd 135

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2014, 05:30:13 PM »
The image did not change from the transducer cable to the added cables.  As I scotch-koted the attachment points they are protected.  The ghosting you see is prop wash from a tugboat that was moving a barge.  The water is only about 15 feet in that area.  A 36" wheel curns the water up pretty good.  In the deep water the transducer will be 20' or less from the bottom so the image should stay the same.  I had been adjusting contrast and sharpness, so the images are a tiny bit grainy.  The unit seems to have enough power to push the right amount of energy through the added cables as the pictures are of the  same quality as my boat mounted transducer.  What is yellowfin?

Here are images from my boat mounted transducer in this thread. 
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=7849.0

Mark

Offline sfw1960

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2014, 10:41:51 PM »
Very nice.
Are you using the 800 KHz beams on that?

Offline Spd 135

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2014, 11:13:23 PM »
455 / 200.  Since the fish was close to the target it is more clear.  800 seems to work better in deeper water.  Maybe too powerful in the shallow. 

Offline sfw1960

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2014, 11:46:43 PM »
Cool, very nice!

Thanks!

Robert ;D

Offline Rüdiger

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2014, 05:59:58 AM »

Hi Mark

Nice towfish; I also use 3 extension cable for my fish. :)
If you do not necessarily need the information display on the right side of the screen, you can also turn them off, then there is more space for the essentials.
Yellowfin is the software of another sonar manufacturer to ensure that the HB-records after conversion can be evaluated well. Software and converter you can find in this forum under Downloads.
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?board=46.0

mvh
Rüdiger

Offline Rickard

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2014, 01:53:41 PM »
Mark,
Welcome to the DIY towfish family! There are some rather experienced towfish experimenters in this forum and most of us were not at all as successful as you on our first trials. The issue with ghost image mentioned by abra is about the tendency for strong signals to be mirrored in the other sidescan view. There are such traces in your images, but they don't look worse than in any towfish image. This mirror effect gets worse the longer the cables are. In very long cables, more than 150 feet, the standard HB extension cables have problems. That's why most of us use ethernet and other types of signal cables. The crucial factors are level of shielding of individual twisted pairs and if the channels have individual ground conductors all the way to the head unit, or not. Grounds get mixed causing imbalance in the twisted pairs with unpredictable effects when standard extensions are used with their original connectors.

I recommend Humviewer for inspection of recordings with a computer. This programme can read Humminbird recordings with no preprocessing with other software.

Regards,
Rickard


Offline Spd 135

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Re: My DIY Fish
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2014, 05:06:04 PM »
To Rickard and Rudiger....Thanks.  I am headed to Laurel River Lake Kentucky Monday morning and will use the sonar for a specific area that we will be diving on.  I started in 2009 with a 797si and then 2 years ago moved to the 898si.  I have had real good luck in waters less than 90' finding objects of varying size.  I have since moved into recovering missing persons when others have given up and when there is good reason to believe the bodies are intact and can be recovered.  I bring water certified cadaver dogs and cave divers who have good skills to dive deep, cold and in limited visibility.  I bring years of searching and recovering objects in rivers lakes and bayous around me.  Knowing how water works and what happens to objects when they sink is so important on successful operations. 

I hope to be teaching Search and Recovery Operations soon on a large scale.  I have watched over the years as Public Safety Organizations go through the same motions over and over and either the body floats or they take much longer than they should to locate and recover someones loved one.  Coming from Public Safety (over 23 years as a police officer) I have some good and practical information to make the operational aspect much more effective.  Many times we (PS) have to go outside of our own resources and bring others in.  That is the tough part because of who we are and our personalities.  Deep water, very cold water, and limited visibility all present dangers that agencies don't know can be overcome by having the right resources on tap to bring in when needed.

Here is a little about who I am and what I do.  Thanks for your tips and experience.  Mark Michaud

http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/Missing-teacher-s-car-pulled-from-bayou/20486962
http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/diver-who-found-monettes-car-brings-closure-to-her-family/20497606
http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/New-group-out-searching-Laurel-Co-waters-for-missing-Madison-Co-man-256190261.html#.U1atYs4uMjU.facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southeast-Louisiana-Underwater-Search-and-Recovery-Group/1438568169746982


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