Lowrance "Structure Scan"

[oracle]

Keep the images coming. I'm thinking of this for diving also and so far the images are looking pretty impressive.

[ryza00]

Originally Posted by BruceB

Well its manage to fool someone, despite the names on the pics

I never pay attention to the small print lol!!

[Diver]

A little contribution... its an awesome little machine:-)

Could have gone a little faster over it.

Henrik

[tnilsson]

Your settings on the contrast is quite low and still You get a very high detailed picture for the side scan. Do You run with higher brightness for the screen to receive more detailed picture ? I mean either You increase the contrast and then reduce on the screen brightness or visa versa. What is the best solution You have found ?

rgds tnilsson

[geir]

I am in the process of replacing my Furuno 4100 echo sounder with a HDS7. The echo sounder transducer will be fitted on the transom by the middle strake in the hull. I am considering fitting the sidescan unit directly on the strake in front of the echo sounder transducer without the bracket. Anybody have any experience/thoughts about doing it this way? The reason for this is to avoid too much clutter on the transom, but I am a bit concerned about turbulence from the side scan thingy interfering with the echo sounder at speed, and if the deadrise of the hull will limit the side scan's view to starboard.

[Jacek]

I sow Bruce and Diver side scans and I'm impress. On my Parker 900 Baltic I've got to HDS-10 with structure scan but in my opinion it doesn't work properly! Look at this screens. On both are wrecks. What can be wrong ? It's meeter of settings or hardware - on this film you can see how is transducer mounted :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlrLIwN6zs

. Dealer who sold me this - they only quest
Rgds Jacek

[Diver]

Hi Jacek,

The ducers sit just fine I think. The structure scan one could be angled a bit further down though. I go out diving tomorrow, will post a picture of my ducer setup.

I dont think there is anything wrong. What kind of wreck is it?

1. pic:
Pretty deep scan. To low contrast, I would crank it up to 85%. I also looks as if the water is not calm. The bottom structure bounge quite a lot. That doesnt improve the result. Try to get it on the side scan also. It seems quite big that wreck.
2. pic:
A small wreck, probably wooden, gone into the sea bed. Also a bit deep for the 800khz. Tune up the contrast here also or switch to 455Khz. You will not get anything on the the side scan of such a small wreck when you go diretcly over it. Thats why you have it on the down scan only.

And remove those depth lines!

1. Down scan, german steam trawler WW1. 40m long
2. Side image, same as 1.
3. Side image, 65m long steamer, sank in 1886 (bubbles from the diver at the stern)
4. Down scan, 68m long steamer, sank in 1896 ( a bit to much contrast). From right you see the anchor on the bow, the front mast 5m high and the davids at the bridge section.

Henrik

[Jacek]

Henrik
Thank you for information I'll tray to make corrections. First wreck is Abilla 25m long tug sank during WWII, second remains of Stuttgart German hospital ship bombing by B-17 in harbour (here film http://www.balticquest.pl/angielski/film4.html) . I'm waiting for your setup. In your opinion when change frequency to lower, how deep ?

[Diver]

Pics from todays divetrip as promised. The skimmer does not sit at the best location. Looses track above 10 knots. But have a lack of sprayrails!

Wreck images is from a german steamer, sank in 1916, 70m long.

Regards
Henrik

[Jacek]

Tomorrow I get back my boat from warranty reparation (one engine was broken) and in this weekend I'll tray to.

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by Diver

Pics from todays divetrip as promised. The skimmer does not sit at the best location. Looses track above 10 knots. But have a lack of sprayrails!

I might be being a bit thick here but is that two separate transducers for two different systems, or two to feed the structure scan unit?

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

I might be being a bit thick here but is that two separate transducers for two different systems, or two to feed the structure scan unit?

The Lowrance will take a standard depth feed which works at speed (so long as the transducer is in the water) as well as the Structurescan data which only works at displacement speeds.

[Diver]

With setup its the other way around. The skimmer/broad band sounder looses track at speed and the structurescan keeps track up to 27 knots at least. You can not interpret anything on the screen at that speed though. I think its a matter of the right tuning and placement.

Henrik

[BruceB]

Hopefully if the weather is calm tomorrow I may have some news scans of some the Clyde wrecks.......

[BogMonster]

What is the cheapest way to get the Structure Scan if you don't need a complete combined plotter/sounder unit?

My boat will have a Garmin GPSmap 556s on it so I don't need the chartplotter capability, but I think I'll be getting the structure scan system once the wallet has recovered a bit, I left a space on the console for "something in the future" and I think I now know what that something is

It seems that the cheapest model that supports structure scan is the Lowrance HDS-5x which is just a fishfinder for about £400 ish, and on top of that you need the LSS-1 which is a black box and a transom mount transducer for about £500 ish, is that correct?

How do you save the images and get them out of the unit and onto a computer - is anything else required?

Does it interfere with an existing sounder or does it use a completely different frequency range? I have a through-hull transducer for the Garmin which I'll want to keep so that it works at speed, but not sure if the two units will screw each other up with interference?

[Channel Ribs]

The cheapest of the Structure scan enabled fishfinders is about 350 ex-vat.

Exporting pics is just a matter of pressing a key and the image is saved to SD card.

The transducers should not interfere, but not clustering them would be a good idea.

The black box and t/d should be about 390 ex-vat.

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by malthouse

The cheapest of the Structure scan enabled fishfinders is about 350 ex-vat.

Thanks is that the HDS-5x or is something else which is cheaper?

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

Thanks is that the HDS-5x or is something else which is cheaper?

Thats the HDS-5x

It is a shame they don't bring out a dumb screen, your not the only one to have a plotter and fishfinder already while their broadband radar and Structurescan both offer killer features.

[BogMonster]

Dear Santa please can I have for Christmas......... just a couple of things

Thanks

[Jacek]

Today scans looks much better Thanks for advise. Parker also change place of transducer mounting they put it lower - I know that is not ideal place (much easer to damage) but seem to work better.
Wreck on scan shallower Stuttgart (this same as previous) and second is to WWII minesweeper (ca. 30m long)