Tritech Gemini (Forward Looking Imaging Sonar) - 47

Description

Driver to decode data from a Tritech Imaging Sonar.

The following imaging sonar products are supported by this driver:

Gemini 720i

Gemini 1200i

Driver Information

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Driver	Tritech Gemini (Forward Looking Imaging Sonar)	Interface Type	SDK	Driver Class Type	Freebase
UTC Driver	No	Input / Output	Input/Output	Executable	DrvFLSControl .exe GEMINI
Related Systems	Tritech Gemini (Forward Looking Imaging Sonar) - 47 Forward Looking Imaging Sonar

System Interfacing

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Notes

This driver is using Tritech's SDK to communicate with the imaging sonar unit.

There is a known issue that this SDK only allows to have one instance accessing the sonar unit.

That means that you can not run Tritech’s Gemini Evo software simultaneously with Qinsy on the same computer.

Database Setup

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Add a Forward Looking Sonar to your template setup and select driver “Tritech Gemini (Forward Looking Imaging Sonar)“.

Wizard Page 1

There are no interfacing parameters required.

When going online the driver will automatically try to make a TCP network connection in the background with the sonar computer.

Of course this computer must be on the same network as the Qinsy computer.

The sonar system can be controlled using Qinsy while being online (see chapter Online).

Wizard Page 2

Select the correct node location where the imaging sonar is mounted
The transducer alignment corrections are currently not used so you may leave the three values to zero.

Online

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Controller

When on-line, the imaging sonar unit can be (limited) controlled using the Controller.

Select Echosounder Settings, click on the Forward Looking Sonar System icon, and select the 'Control' tab page.

First of all make sure that the Device Status in the bottom pane of the dialog says ‘Connected’.

This status should always be ‘Connected’ regardless of the selected Mode (Off, Online and/or Replay).

Note that when the status is ‘Not Connected’ you could try the ‘Reset System I/O’ option from the Controller’s pull-down menu.

Action	Note that a change of action will be applied immediately so using the dialog Apply or OK button is not necessary. The selection will always revert back to [ None ] after each selected action. [ None ] This will be the selection after each action. Nothing will happen when you hit the Apply or OK button. [ View Daily Log File ] This will open the daily forward looking sonar log file using the standard Windows text editor, e.g. Notepad. [ Open Log File folder ] This will open the current project's LogFiles folder using Windows Explorer. This folder contains the daily forward looking sonar log file. More information about this file can be found in the Additional Info pane of this document under section Troubleshooting. [ Request Sonar Information ] Select this option to get some relevant settings from the imaging sonar unit: gain, range mode, sound velocity and the ping rate. Besides these current settings the current version of the Tritech’s SDK will also be retrieved and displayed in the dialog event list.
Mode	Note that a mode change will be applied immediately so using the dialog Apply or OK button is not necessary. Off Decoding of any incoming sonar imaging data (whether from online or from replay) will be suspended in this mode. So displays won’t show any imaging data nor data will be stored when recording. Online This mode is the default normal mode. Qinsy is interfaced to a real sonar unit and raw sonar data will be received straight from the unit. Replay This mode is useful for testing/training purposes for simulating the entire Qinsy Forward Looking sonar flow without being connected to a real unit. In this mode raw sonar data will be read from an earlier recorded sonar file using Tritech raw '*.GLF' format.
Ping Rate	Select a fixed interval for pinging the sonar unit or set the unit in free running mode. 1 Hz This setting will request the sonar every second for a new sonar image. 5 Hz This setting will request the sonar five times per second for a new sonar image. 10 Hz 25 Hz 50 Hz Free running Ping as fast as possible. This may result in an enormous amount of data when recording Note that the actual ping rate is limited by range settings
Sonar Range	Set the sonar range in meters Valid ranges are 1m - 150m
Sonar Gain	Set the sonar gain as percentage Valid values are 1 - 100 percent
Log File (GLF)	Enter the full path and filename of the GLF file for replay, which will start immediately when the file exist. This setting is only visible in Replay Mode Tip: when the replay has ended the playback can be restarted by changing the Mode to Off and then back to Replay again.

Displays

Click here for some useful display examples

Alert Display

An Alert Display is useful to see if data is coming in regularly at the I/O port.

Therefore it should be the first display to check when going online.

Observation Physics Display

An Observation Physics Display is also useful to monitor if incoming imaging data is decoded successfully and at what update rate.

Further use the additional columns to monitor some meta data values that comes with the decoded imaging data.

Columns

Raw
A text label with the manufacturer’s SDK version being used
Quality
The size in bytes for the entire ping image update
Parameter 1
The current sound velocity used by the sonar
Parameter 2
Incrementing ping number
Parameter 3
Always a fixed value of 7201200

Raw Multibeam Display

Use this display to visualize the imaging data.

Use the View Properties dialog to change some specific Forward Looking Sonar settings:

Note that settings from the other tab panels have no effect when using a forward looking sonar system.

Format

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