Reson SeaBat 7125 SV2, Operator'S Manual

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ACTIVE SONAR USAGE
SeaBat 7125 SV2 Operator‟s Manual
Page 104 July 25, 2011
Version 3
6.3 System Efficiency
6.3.1 Auto Pilot
The sonar can be switched to Auto Pilot mode by selecting this option from the Mode
drop-down menu. This disables operator selection of certain parameters such as range,
gain, and power until the Manual mode is reselected (see
section 5.3.8 Change Modes ).
Once Auto Pilot mode is initiated, the 7k Center analyzes bottom detection data from a
series of pings. If a certain amount of those pings are judged to have good bottom
detection quality, the average bottom depth and maximum usable swath angle are
determined. Then an appropriate range setting is determined and commanded to the
sonar.
The process then repeats for the next series of pings. If too few of the analyzed pings
are judged to be good (for example, if the water depth exceeds the current range), the
Auto Pilot will command the next greater range setting to the sonar before analyzing the
next series of pings. This way Auto Pilot mode can be reset to the minimum range and it
will incrementally try greater ranges until the bottom is found.
Auto Pilot mode also automatically adjusts sonar parameters (power, gain, pulse length,
and maximum ping rate) according to a user editable table (see
section 4.2.10 Edit Auto
Pilot Settings ). This is made up of rows corresponding to each range setting of the
sonar. Depending on the automatically selected range, the corresponding parameters
from the table will be copied to the sonar settings. This way, critical sonar settings as
well as range are all automatically adjusted when in Auto Pilot mode.
NOTE
The user always has full control of what the Auto Pilot settings will be.
The following routine is suggested for populating the Auto Pilot table in cases when the
default values are not optimal:
1. In the AutoPilot Parameters dialog select the Easy-fill ON check box and
click OK.
When the Easy-fill ON check box is selected, the Settings -> Autopilot button
on the Primary Display will be enabled.
2. Continue operating in Manual mode and click the Settings -> Autopilot button
to transfer the current sonar settings to the row in the AutoPilot table that
corresponds to the current range setting.
This procedure allows the operator to quickly and easily build an AutoPilot
table while running the sonar over the range of water depths the table needs
to cover.
3. Once the desired number of range scale values is populated, open the
AutoPilot Parameters dialog and save the settings to a file.
For further instructions, see
section 4.2.10 Edit Auto Pilot Settings .