Saturday, June 6, 2015

Trial Run A Big Success

Went out today for a few hours and did some calibration runs mapping depth in Dr Depth with the "Black Box" while using the Think Pad Tablet 2's internal GPS for general navigation. Depths were mapped using both the rear (main) transducer as well as switching to the one up front. Here are some pictures of it mounted and set up



Here is Dr Depth displaying position on a pre-existing map. Even in bright sunlight the PC Hood makes the screen bright and readable and even better than my old set up.



GPS antenna is mounted on the back deck (the hook part of stick on Velcro holds it to the carpet) almost directly about the transducer making calibration much easier



This is up front with the GPS antenna in storage position held on with Velcro


And here it is with the GPS antenna mounted on top of the navigation lights. There was a large tree stuck on the ridge of construction waste by the bicycle bridge and I was able to work around and map it with the trolling motor and front finder much easier than trying to do it with the rear transducer and motor, especially with a stiff breeze blowing right down the harbor. I won't use it a lot but it will come in handy in tight spaces like around the still standing trees in Lost Grove Lake.


I am very pleased with the new computer and set up with the ability to log both position and depth from the time I hit the water until I take it out. Well that's it for now but I do have some new picture of Lost Grove Lake I'll be putting up on the lake blog tomorrow. I estimate it has about 7-7.5 feet to go with rains coming this weekend and late next week. With normal rainfall for June which it looks like we'll have I expect it should top off in early July

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you ever provide the diagrams for the livewell pump pulse width modulator? I am currently working on a baitwell tank for the back of the kayak and I am currently running with a SLA rated a 12v 10ah and would love to cut the power consumption down to be able to run other items. Love seeing stuff like this done. Thanks.

Long John said...

I used the same basic circuit you find on this website
http://www.learnabout-electronics.org/Oscillators/osc46.php
or just Google "555 timer PWM" and you'll find several versions of the same circuit using different transistors. A MOSFET is generally better but in this application a bipolar transistor will work just fine too like a TIP31