Installing a new mapping device on your vessel
Discover how this technology is empowering these communities to build and strengthen their data collection capabilities.
Transcript
Before you begin your installation, it is important to understand how it works onboard your vessel. You can install a logger on just about any boat as long as it has a multi-function display, a GPS antenna, an echosounder and a NMEA2000 backbone.
The installation requires a bathymetric data logger. There are 3 types, cellular, wifi, and internal storage. You'll also need a drop cable, a “T” Connector, and an SD Card between 8 and 32 gb. Here's how all of the components of the installation work together. It's easier to see in this environment than it is on the boat. To begin the installation you need to locate the GPS unit, the echo sounder, and the NMEA 2000 network. Make sure the power is turned off before you start the installation. You'll also need a dry place in the center of the boat to mount the Bathymetric data logger as it cannot be directly exposed to the elements.
Now that everything is in place, connect the datalogger to the backbone. Turn on the vessel power. You can now validate the datalogger's activation. You'll know it's working by the flashing lights that shows that it's acquiring data. Next, you'll need to measure the lever arms - which is the 3 axis distance between your GPS antenna and echosounder.
The first axis is bow to stern or front to back. The second axis is port to starboard or left to right. The third axis is the vertical distance between the echosounder and the GPS. These measurements will help improve data quality at the processing stage. From now on, the time, depth, and location data of the boat will be collected and stored on the SD card wherever you travel. Once you've returned from your trip, your data is uploaded, either by cellular, wifi, or manual upload from the SD card.
Typically the data are transmitted via cellular service and/or by wi-fi hotspot if cellular isn't in range. If that isn't available, the data can be transferred to a computer or cellphone when connecting to the wi-fi hotspot generated by the datalogger. If there is no transmission capability, the data can be manually transferred using the SD card and a computer with internet access.
This data is then converted to a uniform bathymetric data format, using the lever arms information.
Tidal adjustments are also applied on the time and date the data was collected. A quality assessment is then performed to compare this data with reference data. The bathymetric datasets are now imported to a visualization portal and available to communities.
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