Issues getting valid Omniscan 450 side sonar data

Third Party Products Sonar and Acoustics
1

Hi,

I am new to the forum, so please let me know if there is something wrong with this post!

I have been having issues with getting valid data from the Omniscan 450 side sonars. The side sonars were installed and configured on a blueboat through following the provided integration guide. While I seem to get readings through sonarview, it does not look like I am getting any actual data?

For instance, here is what the images I get from sonarview look like in my testing so far:

image
image1209Ă—852 157 KB

The images are always smooth gradients, even when I know that there are discrete objects in the water that should be visible with sonar. There is also no discrete cutoff in the image for the area under the path of the boat that is out of the FOV of the sensors as seen in demos I’ve looked at.

Demo file referring to the one included here. (Can only include one image in the post)

Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong with the side sonars? Thanks!

2

Hi @kingfisher -
Welcome to the forums!
Something does look a bit strange there - you seem to have the depth compensation turned on, and set to 0m - maybe it’s worth turning off?
What water depth have you been testing in? How have the surface water conditions been, calm?

It may be best to reach out to Cerulean directly if the issue persists…

3

It looks similar with depth compensation turned off. I had to use the web application here since it doesn’t seem like I can turn it off on the desktop application?

image
image1505Ă—863 351 KB

Yes, the surface conditions have been calm. It was tested in a pond that has a max depth of ~2.5 m.

4

Hi @kingfisher -
Wow, that’s quite a shallow body of water! You may want to turn off auto gain, and reduce the gain to a minimum - you may be “overpowering” the environment if it is a small body of water or tank? Make sure you’re using the latest version of the desktop application, they should be identical…

It’s also possible your transducers aren’t connected properly. Make sure you’re fully inserting the wires into the PCB receptacles as the guide details, inside the hull on each lid-tray.

5

I’m thinking transducers not connected properly. As Tony suggested please put in a support ticket directly here at Cerulean and we’ll get you sorted out. https://ceruleansonarhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

6

A quick test: out of the water start pinging. If your hearing is as bad as mine you’ll have to put your ear right up to the transducer but you should be able to hear a rapid clicking sound. If not, it’s very likely your transducers are not connected properly.

7

I’ve definitely heard the transducer making their buzz while out of the water, so at the very least they seem to be doing something.

8

Well, that image does look like what I would expect if the transducer was not connected, or the vehicle was out of the water. Kinda weird that they both are exhibiting the same symptoms.

9

To any future readers, the problem was a bug in Omniscan FS/SS Firmware 1.5.8, which was packaged in SonarView 1.13.21-beta. The bug was fixed in Firmware 1.5.9 and SonarView 1.13.22-beta.

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