Ohmex SonarMite Plugin

The Ohmex SonarMite plugin can be used to retrieve (dual frequency, when you own the DFX model) depth data from your Ohmex SonarMite echo sounder. Since the Ohmex SonarMite supports multiple serial output protocols, most likely you can use this plugin for a range of other echo sounders as well. This plugin offers support for the following echo sounder protocols including:

• Old SonarMite Format;
• New SonarMite Format;
• DXF SonarMite Format;
• Simple ASCII depth output;
• NMEA0183 - DBT sentence;
• NMEA0183 - DPT sentence;
• NMEA0183 - XDR sentence;
• Odom SBT protocol;
• Odom DBT protocol;
• DESO 25 protocol;

The Ohmex SonarMite BTX Bluetooth single beam echo sounder

Old SonarMite Format

The "Old SonarMite" format provides single frequency, single beam digitized depth information as well as the quality of the measurement and the voltage of the internal battery in the echo sounder. The zero fields were originally reserved for heave, pitch and roll information, but were never used.

1 0.48 0 0 0 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 0 0 0 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 0 0 0 17.8 116 0 
1 0.48 0 0 0 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 0 0 0 8.9 115 0

New SonarMite Format

The "New SonarMite" format provides single frequency, single beam digitized depth information as well as the quality of the measurement and the voltage of the internal battery in the echo sounder:

1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 
1 0.48 8.9 115 0 

DFX SonarMite Format

The "DFX SonarMite" format is only supported on the SonarMite DFX sounder which supports dual frequency. The "DXF SonarMite" format extends the "New SonarMite" format by adding an additional field for the low frequency digitized depth.

1 28.55 29.25 15.15 10.9 7
1 28.36 28.96 15.15 10.8 7
1 28.18 28.72 15.15 10.8 7
1 28.05 28.48 15.15 10.8 7
1 27.90 28.21 15.15 10.9 7
1 27.73 28.06 15.15 10.9 7

Odom Echotrac SBT protocol

SBT stands for "Single Bottom Tracking" and can be used to transfer single-frequency echo sounder data to the computer over a serial (RS232) connection.
The string contains an error and a fix mark flag, a frequency indicator and the depth value.

 et  00572
 et  00577
 et  00588
 et  00580
 et  00577
 et  00574

Odom Echotrac DBT protocol

DBT stands for "Dual Bottom Tracking" and can be used to transfer both single and dual frequency echo sounder data to the computer over a serial (RS232) connection. The string contains an error and a fix mark flag, a frequency indicator and the depth value.

ET H 00016
ET H 00016
ET H 00017
ET H 00016

et B 00572 00576
et B 00577 00641
et B 00588 00645
et B 00580 00591
et B 00577 00592
et B 00574 00605

Loading the Ohmex SonarMite plugin

To load this plugin, open the preferences window by selecting "Preferences..." from the "Options" menu. In the window that appears, select the "Devices" tab. Next click the "Add..." button.

Select the "Devices Tab" and click the "Add..." button.

A list of available plugins will be displayed. In this list, select the "Ohmex SonarMite plugin for Hydromagic" plugin
and click "OK" to load and display the plugin's configuration dialog.

Select the "Ohmex SonarMite plugin for Hydromagic" item and click OK.

Configuring the Ohmex SonarMite plugin

When the plugin loads, a dialog with some required settings will appear first. In order to get the plugin to work correctly, you have to configure the protocol and communication settings.

Communication settings

Since the echo sounder is most likely to be connected via a serial port, you have to select the serial port and its operating speed first. When using an USB-to-Serial adapter cable, a virtual serial port will be created in Windows and you have to select this serial port. In most cases the Ohmex is connected using a Bluetooth connection which will always create a serial port in Windows. The "Pairing and configuring Bluetooth hardware (Windows 11)" document explains how to connect a Bluetooth echo sounder to your computer.

The drop down box will be populated with all serial ports detected on the system. To get more information on the ports available, please refer to the device manager. The device manager can be found via the Control Panel in Windows.

A list of serial ports installed can be found in the Windows Device Manager.

Selecting the protocol

Select the correct protocol depends on your sounder's configurations. In most cases the "New SonarMite" or "DFX SonarMite" protocols will be used, depending on whether your sounder supports dual frequency or not. You can determine the protocol used by looking at the incoming data in the device monitor and compare it with the examples above.

Selecting the minimum quality

When one of the proprietary SonarMite protocols is used, you can compare the quality of the sounding send to the plugin with the "Min Quality" field value. When a sounding is worse then the selected quality, it will be ignored and not sent to the Hydromagic software. The quality value will be between 0 and 128 were 128 is the best and 0 the worst.

Starting the plugin

When the required settings have been configured, click the "OK" button to save the settings and start the plugin. After a few seconds, there should be a green icon in front of the plugin, indicating data is coming in successfully.

Testing the sounder

When data is received, you should be able to see the depth and position information in the data window. To have a look at the echogram data, select "Echogram(Hi)" or "Echogram(Lo") from the View menu.

Unloading the Ohmex SonarMite plugin

To unload the Ohmex SonarMite plugin, open the preferences window by selecting "Preferences..." from the "Options" menu. In the window that appears, select the "Devices" tab. Next right-click the "Ohmex SonarMite plugin for Hydromagic" plugin and select the "Remove Device..." option from the popup menu.

Select the plugin you want to remove from the configuration and click "Remove...".