Eye4Software Hydromagic

  Hydrographic Survey Software


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Unabara Hydro-2F Plugin

The Unabara Hydro-2F plugin is a which 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:

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

the Unabara Hydro-2F dual frequency echo sounder


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.

the devices tab in the preferences dialog

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 Unabara Hydro-2F plugin


Configuring the Unabara Hydro-2F plugin

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

configuring the Unabara Hydro-2F plugin


Communications settings

When using the default configuration, the echo sounder connects with the computer using an 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 send over the serial port should look like this:
(Tip: Use the build-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

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


Testing the sounder

When the sounder has been 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 have a look at 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 already should 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.

open the data analyzer screen for the active raw data file

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:

the data analyzer screen for the active raw data file