Ping

After connecting to the Ping1, you should see a screen that looks like this:

Menu Items

To disconnect a device, click the menu icon on the top left (the oval with the 3 dots), then select Disconnect.

Ping Device Controls

These user items control the device settings.

• Start and Stop enable or disable the sonar pinging.

• Range and Gain can be set manually with their sliders, or automatically by checking the Auto Range and Gain checkbox. In Auto mode, the distance to the bottom (or other target) is determined by the device and range is continually adjusted to an appropriate distance to keep the bottom level centered in the display. Gain is also automatically adjusted.

• Pings Per Second can be manually controlled. This setting specifies a maximum rate only. In general faster is better, but best achievable rate is typically limited by the time it takes for the sound pulses to go out to the specified range and for the echos to return. 10 pings per second can be sustained out to about 65 meters, falling to about 7 pings per second at 100 meters.

• Save To File when checked causes all the ping data to be saved to the computer's hard drive. This is highly recommended. These files can be replayed later for subsequent inspection.

Ping Display Controls

These user controls adjust the display settings. Not to be confused with "device settings," these controls adjust how the sonar data is processed and displayed. These controls can be used "live" while the sonar is running as well as during the replay of saved sonar files.

• Contrast and Brightness are roughly what they seem though the names are not to be taken literally. For strong signals, a high contrast setting works best, using the brightness to control how much of the weaker signals are imaged.

• Integration: This controls how many consecutive pings are averaged to create the display. So at Integration = 1 there is no averaging. 3 is the default and is a pretty reasonable setting.

• Range Boost: This adjusts the amount of "range compensation" applied to the signal. Settings toward the left "Near" end cause nearer echoes to be emphasized (1/R^0 range scaling), whereas setting toward the right "Far" end amplify echoes at further range more (1/R^4 scaling).