Unabara Hydro-2F Plugin

The Unabara Hydro-2F plugin is that reads out dual-frequency and bottom parameters, and sends this information as raw data to Hydromagic. The plugin is able to read and store the following data from the echo sounder:

• Bottom depth (high frequency;
• Bottom depth (low frequency);
• Bottom loss (high frequency);
• Bottom loss (low frequency);
• Bottom reflection (high frequency);
• Bottom reflection (low frequency);
• Bottom density (high frequency);
• Bottom density (low frequency);
• Bottom porosity (high frequency);
• Bottom porosity (low frequency);

All the above parameters can be stored and processed in the Hydromagic software.

Loading the Unabara Hydro-2F 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 to add new plugins.

A list of available plugins will be displayed. In this list, select the "Unabara Hydro-2F Plugin for Hydromagic" and click "OK" to load and display the plugin's user interface.

Select the "Hydro-2F" plugin from the list.

Configuring the Unabara Hydro-2F plugin

When the plugin loads, a dialog with some required settings will appear first. You need to set the communication options and the latency to include in the time calculations (optional).

Communications settings

When using the default configuration, the echo sounder connects with the computer using a USB-to-Serial adapter cable. When plugged in, a virtual serial port will be created in Windows and you have to select this serial port. Also, make sure you select the correct serial port speed for the device.

Selecting the correct output format

In order to retrieve the bottom information from the Hydro-2F, make sure the proprietary Hydro-2F data format has been selected. This format can be selected in the Hydro-2F application which is shipped with the sounder.

When configured correctly, the data sent over the serial port should look like this:
(Tip: Use the built-in communications monitor in Hydromagic to check!)

UPC,F, ,  10.1,20,10,1.23,87,  10.3,18,13,1.32,82, 56.8
UPC,F, ,  10.1,20,10,1.23,87,  10.5,18,13,1.31,83, 57.4
UPC,F, ,  10.0,20,10,1.23,87,  10.4,18,13,1.32,82, 55.4
UPC,F, ,  10.1,20,10,1.24,87,  10.5,18,13,1.31,83, 56.3
UPC,F, ,  10.1,20,10,1.24,87,  10.3,18,12,1.30,83, 57.0
UPC,F, ,  10.0,20,10,1.24,87,  10.3,18,13,1.32,82, 55.4

If you want to operate the sounder with either the DESO20 or Odom Echotrac output, need to use either the "STN Atlas DESO 20/22/25" or "Odom Echotrac" plugin shipped with Hydromagic.

Testing the sounder

Once the sounder is connected and configured, click "OK" to store the settings and start the plugin. There should be a green icon in front of the plugin name when data is coming in successfully.

When data is received, you should be able to see the depth and motion sensor information in the data window. To view the echogram data, select "Echogram(Hi)" or "Echogram(Lo") from the View menu.

Displaying bottom parameters

Besides dual-frequency depth data, this echo sounder is also capable of collecting bottom information. Hydromagic contains a set of features to process this data.

To check whether this bottom information is coming in, create a new project and record some data with this echo sounder. How to setup a project and start recording data is discussed in this manual page.

After recording incoming data for a couple of seconds, bottom information should already have been stored in the active raw data file. The currently active raw data file name is displayed in the lower-right corner of the software.

To view the data, locate the active raw data file name in the "Project Explorer", and right-click on it to open the context menu.

In the context menu that appears, select the "Analyze Data..." option. Click the "Next Data" button once to advance to the next page of data where the bottom information is displayed: