Are there any suggested designs for payload attachment?
tia
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Edit: Saw this was under blue boat sorry for the confusion…
Hi @Darren1, welcome to the forum 
We’re planning to introduce a mounting bracket that attaches to the holes at the bottom of each hull, but the cross-beams also have plenty of holes for easy attachment.
Is there something in particular you’re wanting to attach? The main things to consider from the boat’s perspective are the weight and drag that a payload will add.
Survey grade single beam. Also, the acquisition software we use requires Windows OS, so not sure how that works. Thanks!
If you have a live wifi connection to the vehicle and are wanting to record data from the topside then that should be possible via either
- the VirtualHere or USBIP BlueOS extensions (if the sonar can be connected to via USB), or
- an Ethernet Switch (if the sonar connects via ethernet)
assuming your link to the vehicle has sufficient bandwidth to receive the sonar data.
If autonomous acquisition is required then the best approach would be to develop a BlueOS Extension that handles communicating with and logging data from the device, but that requires knowing the protocol the sonar uses to communicate.
Our Ping Sonar has an open-source protocol and has an integration built into BlueOS, if that’s relevant / of interest, for use or for reference.
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What sonar are you thinking of using? I’ve had impressive results with the ping2 mounted to blue boat in initial testing…
If windows is a must, you could install a small pc in one of the hulls, but the solutions @Elliot mentioned are definitely simpler and easier. I’ve had good results with a generic sensor, rs485 to usb adapter, and windows topside windows interface software (running on a m1 mac in parallels no less!)