Depth/Fish Finders with GPS and memory
If anyone on the reservoir has a Depth/Fish finder that has GPS capability along with the ability to save data either internally or to an SD card, and you are willing to collect data for the benefit of this project, please let me know via the email at left. Listed below are some of the capable units I've found.
Lowrance Elite Series - The cheapest unit with side-imaging capability (StructureScan) is the Elite-5 TI TotalScan, which includes the Totalscan transducer.
This is the unit I own so I am able to provide support for it. The Lowrance unit (and likely Simrad as well) is able to load the routes, vector depth map, and shaded relief depth maps found here.
You can load the polygon layers (safe zones, etc.) but they show up as unfilled boundaries. I only created the "safe zones" file for the Lowrance. The depth map has deprecated the hazard layers anyway. The ReadMe guide should help you through loading the data.
There are now four separate owners of the Elite-5 TI units on the reservoir willing to contribute to the data collection.
Hummingbird Helix Series - Guide - The cheapest unit with side-imaging capability is the Helix 5 SI, which includes the transducer.
*** NOTE: Although the data from Hummingbird units can be utilized in the Reefmaster software to build a depth map, the resultant maps created cannot be loaded onto Hummingbird units. Their internal map formats are closed source, so software developers would have to reverse engineer HB's proprietary formats. If you want maps on your depth finder, go with the Lowrance units.
When purchasing a depth finder, be careful to make sure that the transducer is included with the unit and that it supports all scanning technologies the unit does. Many units either don't include the transducer, or it's a downgraded model that doesn't support all the capabilities of the panel unit, and you have to upgrade the transducer to support those technologies.
Over time, and working together, enough data could be pooled to complete the highly accurate contour depth map of the reservoir, and eventually create a high resolution side scan mosaic as well.
** Garmin units utilize a proprietary data format that they do not publish documentation for. Any data collected on a Garmin unit cannot be utilized in this project, therefore I do not recommend them.
This video shows how the depth measurements work using an OceanSciences Z-Boat