Hi, I want to use a Ping Echosounder to create a profile map. I have a few questions. How is the data collected by the echosounder stored and how many depth points can be stored if all the factory settings are kept constant? I also wanted to find out whether it is possible to obtain coordinates for each depth or do I need to collect GPS points separately? Thanks!
Hi @Udhav_M, welcome to the forum 
The echosounder itself does not store any data - that needs to be done by the controlling/receiving software.
If you’re using Ping Viewer then the sonar profiles get stored in log files, which there’s a forum thread about parsing and extracting data from. If you’re using some other software (e.g. a custom program using one of our software libraries) then you’ll need to record the data yourself.
I’m not certain what you mean by this - data can be recorded until your controlling device / computer runs out of memory.
The sonar does not contain a GPS receiver, so positioning data will need to come from some other source. If you’re operating a boat with a GPS receiver (like the BlueBoat) then you should be able to extract the GPS data either live (from the MAVLink telemetry) or in post (from the telemetry/DataFlash logs). If you’re running BlueOS on your vehicle and turn on the MAVLink integration for the Ping echosounder then you should be able to extract both the GPS locations and Ping distance estimates from the same log file.