Side imaging front to back

[spindle]

As the old saying goes "the only dumb question is the one that never gets asked" here goes. If a person was to turn the side image transducer 90 degrees sideways wouldn't it scan to the front and rear of the boat? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

[rnvinc]

As the old saying goes "the only dumb question is the one that never gets asked" here goes. If a person was to turn the side image transducer 90 degrees sideways wouldn't it scan to the front and rear of the boat? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

Yes it would...as long as the xducer was moving in the direction parallel to it's (the xducer) "forward to aft" axis....

SI sonar is not a camera...it's a compilation of slices of the water ("pings") stacked on top of each other in the SI image...

The xducer has to be moving in order to "ping" a new slice of water on each successive "ping"....

The xducer sitting still would create an SI image that was just a bunch of white streaks down the image as the successive "pings" reflected off the same slice of structure/fish "over and over and over".....

So basically if the xducer is turned 90º, the boat would have to move sideways (90º to the normal boat travel) to create a discernible SI image...

Rickie

[Stymie]

But, if you want to check on the school of fish in front of your boat... just turn the trolling motor a bit and check if those white streaks are still where you want them or have they moved.
SI images aint got to be a purty picture to help you find the fish. But you do need to understand what it is trying to tell ya.

[chrispbrown27]

This post got me thinking....what about a transducer turned as the OP was talking about but had some sort of a drive system that pivoted it slowly, sweeping from side to side. wouldn't this cover a large area and still be able to collect the data? I guess it would be similar to the HB 360 but instead of a circle it would cover a rectangle.
Chris

[rnvinc]

The most difficult part of this scenario is interpreting what is shown on the display in relation to the "sweep" that was performed...

Taking the traditional SI Xducer on a "pivot" (like a TM) scenario ....turning the TM to the right would, in fact, "sweep the left SI beam in an arc in front of the boat (in a clockwise sweep arc)"...

But the unit is still going to display the "traditional" SI image format of left beam echo returns on the image left and right beam echo returns on the image right....

So, the user has to mentally interpret the "image left" of the traditional SI screen display into the "arc" that was physically performed with TM "sweep"...

It definitely can be done....

It just comes down to interpreting the data the Xducer is gathering vs the data that the screen image is showing...

Rickie

[justinp61]

As the old saying goes "the only dumb question is the one that never gets asked" here goes. If a person was to turn the side image transducer 90 degrees sideways wouldn't it scan to the front and rear of the boat? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

Yes it would scan but the information would not be useful. With the transducer at a 90* angle to the centerline of the boat and the the boat moving you will only be seeing a small slice of the water coming and going, yes it would show that thin slice moving on the screen but there would not be much useful information there IMO.

It will work in a sweep as already mentioned but it would take some practice (for me) to interpert the image.

[filletfetish]

I've often wondered why you couldn't have a transducer that actually put out two cones.

Say the TD is mounted to the TM. As long as the cones were actually shooting forward and slightly down than it should be able to read the distance and changes in the water column with each relative ping. I say two cones because this way you would be able to get a better return, because they would be coming at slightly different angles. I think it's brilliant...I just wish I was technical genius...

[rnvinc]

I've often wondered why you couldn't have a transducer that actually put out two cones.

Say the TD is mounted to the TM. As long as the cones were actually shooting forward and slightly down than it should be able to read the distance and changes in the water column with each relative ping. I say two cones because this way you would be able to get a better return, because they would be coming at slightly different angles. I think it's brilliant...I just wish I was technical genius...

The HB Quadrabeam is similar to your idea ...

It has a "Left cone" and "Right cone" allowing the image to be displayed similar to the SI image with "left cone echoes" displaying on the left of the screen image and "right cone echoes" displaying on the right of the screen image....

Fish and structure returns are displayed as the "traditional 2d cartoon-like" returns...but in the screen display format of what we normally associate with an SI image format...





Rickie