side imaging on laptop

[snjneu]

Hi, Can anyone point me in the right direction on this? I want a tranducer that is small like the humminbird with rs232/usb/ethernet interface connection that doesn't drag behind my boat for bodies of water less that 200' deep with software for windows/linux that will display with the quality of the towfish type sonar units. I have been googling this for days. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanxs
Scott in TN

[UWLocator]

Hi Scott,

I just came across your post. You will find a lot of info in the Side Scan Forum. But you will not see anything that has what you are looking for.

There are several companies that make laptop or PC interfaces for sonar, but they do not have the resolution of the commercial sidescan units without the long transducer units.

The resolution is related to the length of the transducer, even the HB unit has a suspected beamwidth of 1.5 degrees. That is better than the 8 degree, or wider, beamwidth of most fishfinders but still not as good as the less than 1 degree of most commercial sidescan units.

You can start by looking at:
http://www.interphase-tech.com/pcview.htm
http://syqwestinc.com/hydrobox/index.htm
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~bvdb/pcff20.html

There is also a lot of information on building your own towfish or transducer array in the other forum.

Good luck with your project,
Rip

[snjneu]

Thanks for the reply

Thanks for the reply and I am still looking. Not needing forward imaging though. I am needing the detail of side imaging in a compact size I can put on a hard drive to capture a replay later with motion not just stills.
Scott

[UWLocator]

The units from Interphase can be configured for side scan but will still not have the resolution of the commercial units.

You might also look at
http://www.burtonelectronics.com/14940.html

He sells systems and transducers that interface to several of the Lowrance fish finders and allow them to be used in side scan mode. With the Lowrance units, you can record to SD or MMC cards and playback on a PC using software that is available from their web site. The software is SonarViewer and it has motion playback of files from the cards.

Still not a complete PC based system, but cheaper than most commercial side scan units.

Rip