Topic: Recording / Missing Files

[Blinky_Hunter]

This is my first time posting so I just would just like to say HI and thank everyone for their posts. I've found buckets of valuable information and instruction and also inspiration and ideas on how to mount my 998c HD SI and transducer on my kayak, which did pose some interesting challenges!  But, I'm proud to announce that I now have it up and running and have finally had a chance to play with it and I have to say that the results are nothing short of AMAZING!!!  I had a few hiccups but for the most part the SI images are crisp and detailed (thanks to Doug V for his settings suggestions) and I don't think I blinked once as I gaped for the first time at the Switchfire screen as I watched my jig descend to 70'.  WOW!!!   Great job Humminbird! 

One question that I have though...  I tried to do some recording and snapshots which worked for the most part but I seem to be missing some files.  The one I was really hoping to playback was maybe a 30 min recording where I was approaching a beaver dam.  Lots of interesting sunken trees and rocks. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the "recording" notice flashing at the top of the screen.

I have 2 cards, the first is a slower 8Gb class 4 which I intended to use just for updates and I have a second 16Gb class 10 Sandisk Ultra card (30MB/s) for recording and snapshots.  Yes, I realize that this isn't an Extreme III, but this card has a very high transfer rate as well.  Regardless, I apparently forgot to remove the slower 8Gb card...  After an exciting day on the water, I got back to my PC and I opened the folders on both cards and found that the snapshots were saved to the 8GB slower card and the recordings were saved to the 16GB fast card.  BUT...  looking at the file names for the recordings, there are only 4 recordings named R00001.dat, R00009.dat, R00010 & R00011 and 3 snapshots which are named S00002.dat, 3 & 4.  Where are the rest of the files???  I'm not too concerned about the snapshots but I'm missing Recordings 2 through 8!!!  Of course the beaver dam recording is one of the ones that disappeared...   

Doing some more reading on here, I now understand that I should avoid taking snapshots while recording, which I may well have done, but would that have erased whole records?  Any idea what else may have cause the files to disappear?  and yes, I was very careful to not manually delete any records.   

Thanks!!!
Vince

[Blinky_Hunter]

UPDATE:
Reading a previous post, Humminbird_Greg mentioned that "if you do not stop the recording that the data can be corrupted or lost".  I believe this is the cause of the missing files since I did not specifically stop the recordings which did actually puzzle me at the time as to why the recording stopped on it's own.  Does anyone know what causes the recordings to stop on their own?  a change of view maybe?  Taking a Snapshot? 

[Humminbird_Greg]

Vince,
Welcome to the Side Imaging Forum!

Attempting to make a Screen Snapshot or changing Views should not cause the unit to stop making a Sonar Recording.  I don’t know what would besides something power related.  Check to make sure that all of your connections are soldered and sealed, even the ones for the fuse holder.

[Blinky_Hunter]

Hi Greg,
Thanks very much for the greeting and the suggestion! I will correct my connections and try again!  Cheers!!!   

[rnvinc]

Maxing the storage capacity of the card will shut the recording off...

Rickie

[ITGEEK]

It's best to record multiple small files,
rather than one gigantic file.

[Blinky_Hunter]

Thanks for the additional info Itgeek. I will certainly keep that in mind. 
Thanks Rickie for your reply as well.  Although the card was only about 10% full, that doesn't mean that I don't have a faulty card... I just completed a full format which I didn't do originally so maybe that's the problem. 

On the same subject, I would like to ask one last question...
As I mentioned before, some of the .dat files and corresponding file folders are completely missing but of the 4 dat files and folders I do have, only 2 of the .dat files will load and run in Hummviewer.  The 2 .dat files that WONT load I notice have a file size of zero and if I try to open the file in an editor, the page is completely blank (ie, no letters, numbers or symbols like the 2 functioning files have).  Furthermore, if I look in the corresponding file folders of the 2 that don't run, one of the eight .son or .idx files is missing... Sorry I can't remember for sure which one but I think is was the B000.son.   As Greg had mentioned, the connections may be the culprit and corrupting the files which I assume that the unit will then delete automatically???   
Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone else has run into this and also
if it's possible to view the remaining .son files somehow?  They have substantial file sizes so I'm assuming that the information is there and maybe it just needs to be converted but that maybe one of the beams will be missing???  Is there a way to convert the .son files and view them?   
Thanks again all!!!     Vince

[matt@reefmaster]

Vince,
There's not a huge amount of information stored in the DAT file - the start time of the track is the most useful one that we extract. What it does have is the name of the sub-directory that the SON files reside in.

What you can do is try and "fake" humviewer by using an existing, good, DAT file and getting it to point to your orphaned SON file directory.
Say you have a good DAT file called R0005.DAT - there will be a corresponding directory R0005, which contains the sonar log and index files. If you rename that directory (temporarily), and then rename the directory that belongs to your corrupted DAT file to R0005 - you should find that opening the R0005 DAT file will now open your orphaned SON files.

I can't absolutely vouch for this, as Humviewer might use some additional information in the DAT file that we don't, but that workaround certainly works for our s/w.

cheers,
Matt

ps. edit to say - if you do manage to get it working this way, be aware of the fact that your track time as shown in HV will be wrong. The *relative* track point timings will be correct - but they are all that is stored in the SON file. The start time is retained in the DAT file. This might be a significant fact if you are planning to tide adjust your tracks.

[Blinky_Hunter]

Matt... you are a GOD!!!     I had tried to change the dat file name and edit the contents.. which of course didn't work, but I didn't think to try from the other way as you suggested.  IT WORKED!!!  Humviewer loaded the orphaned files and gps track and even uploaded it fine to Google earth.  I now have almost an hour of beaver dam goodness!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  Cheers!    Vince

[matt@reefmaster]

No worries Vince - glad I could help!

Incidentally I have seen the zero size DAT file issue a few times now - so you are not person this has happened to. I'm not sure what the cause in, in the HB unit but maybe it's something Greg could flag up with the development team.

cheers,
matt

[Blinky_Hunter]

Matt, Greg had mentioned in a previous post that it could be power related.  Although I have a good, reliable, fully charged battery, my connections are definitely not as solid as they could be.  I need to do some soldering & sealing and then test it again.  I suspect and I hope that will solve the problem.  I will post the results once I get some time.  Thanks again Matt and thanks to all for your help! Much appreciated!      Cheers, Vince

[rnvinc]

Just as a side note here...

If I remember correctly the B0000 is the 83kHz channel...if you had the "Beam Select" to 200kHz only ...there would be no B0000 file in the RECORD folder ...(I think) ...

Rickie

[Blinky_Hunter]

From what I've read, I think you're right Rickie. And being my first time playing with it, I honestly am not sure what I had turned on or off.  Thanks for the tip!  Vince

[rnvinc]

I always turn off the 83kHz channel when recording just to make the file size smaller...

Any target echoes missed without the 83kHz 60° 2d cone will still show up in the SI image water column...

Rickie

[Kim Christiansen]

  

[Blinky_Hunter]

Thanks for the tip Rickie.  I have sooo much reading to do...