underwater mapping

[darkmoon3d]

Has anyone tried experimenting with linking GPS and fish finder together for underwater mapping? This would allow for mapping of lakes, quarry's, etc. Instructors could probably use it for DM training to check accuracy of students required to map a particular area. I know some fish finders allow for 3d mapping of underwater terrain but can this data be exported and alligned to gps coordinates and a cad software application?

 

[FatRob]

yes,
yes,
yes...

any gps virtually can be connected to a computer, some echo sounders can too, via the serial port... you want to enable NMEA outputs from both and then read them into a mapping program such as oziexplorer or fugawi... or write your own it's easy if you just want to log positions and depths into a file to graph later in excel....

most boats have software that allows you to display depth and position...

you don't have to restrict yourself to depth, you can profile currents\, map temperature, salinity, chloropyll ... etc all for a price of course