Quick Start Guide to Interfacing the PulSAR Sidescan Sonar with SonarWiz

This quick start guide will take you step-by-step through setting up and using the interface between SonarWiz and the GeoAcoustics PulSAR sidescan sonar for real-time data collection.

This guide contains the following sections listed in the order we recommend you follow for your first survey:

Software Installation

The CTI software required to interface with the GeoAcoustics PulSAR sidescan sonar system consists of SonarWiz 7.07.05 or newer and the CTI GeoAcoustics PulSAR server interface. Both of these programs should be installed on the same acquisition computer.

1. Download and install SonarWiz 7.07.05+ onto the acquisition computer. You can find the latest version of SonarWiz from the CTI Download page here: https://chesapeaketech.com/download-sonarwiz/.

2. Download and install the PulSAR Server 7.07.04+ onto the acquisition computer. You can find the latest version of the CTI real-time servers from the CTI Real-Time Server Download page here: https://chesapeaketech.com/download-real-time-servers-2/

Real-Time License Check

In order to operate SonarWiz for sidescan data collection, you must have a license for sidescan data acquisition. The method used to verify that you have the required license depends on the type of software lock you are using:

For Dongle Free License (DFL) Users:

1. Start the CTI License Manager from the Windows Start Menu

2. Click the Accept button to close the Privacy Notice.

3. Click the Status Button

4. Verify that Sidescan acquisition or one of the Sidescan-Combo acquisition modules are licensed as shown below:
   
   

   Open

   

For USB Dongle Key users:

1. Insert the USB Dongle into your computer

2. Start the CTI Dongle Manager from the Windows Start Menu

3. Click the Read Dongle button

4. Verify that Server: GeoAcoustic is enabled is listed in the display.

Open

Create a SonarWiz Project

You must create a SonarWiz project before starting data collection. A SonarWiz Project is the container or context in which all data collection and post-processing is performed.

1. Click the New Project icon in the upper-left corner of SonarWiz.

2. Enter a Project Name and Project Folder.

3. Enter the Approximate Project Position latitude and longitude.

4. Set the Coordinate Source to Always use Ship Position.

5. Set the Time Constant for Course Smoothing to 300 (default)

6. Check the Automatically Select Coordinate System box to let SonarWiz pick an appropriate UTM coordinate system, or uncheck this box and use the Browse Coordinate Systems… button to select a different coordinate system.

7. Click OK to create the new project.
   
   

Add Basemaps and Overlays

While planning your survey, it is useful to display charts, bathymetry grids, and vector files such as survey polygons and other line files. SonarWiz uses the term Basemap (and GeoImages) to represent data that appears under the sonar data such as nautical charts or shaded bathymetry. SonarWiz uses the term Overlays to represent data that appears on top of the sonar data, typically vector polygons such as survey areas, cable or pipeline routing maps, etc. SonarWiz supports dozens image, raster and vector formats.

To add a Basemaps, GeoImages or Overlays to your project:

1. Right-Click the Maps branch in the Project Explorer and select Add Base map or Add GeoImage or Add Overlay from the Context Menu.

2. Select the file or files that you want to add to the project.

3. Your files will be displayed in the Maps branch of the Project Explorer where you can turn them on or off by checking the box next to their name.
   
   

    

Add Planned Survey Lines

On the Data Acquisition ribbon you will find the Survey Lines group which allows you to lay out your survey line plan before you start data collection. Survey Lines can be added individually or created in groups of parallel lines.

To Add a Survey Lines to a Project:

1. Zoom into the area where you want to place your first survey line.

2. Select Data Acquisition > Add Line

3. Your mouse cursor will change to look like a drawing pen.

4. Left-Click to start the line.

5. Left-Click again to stop drawing the line.

To Generate Lines Parallel to a Selected Line:

1. Right-Click a Survey Line to open the Context Menu

2. Select Generate Lines Parallel to the Selected Line…

3. In the Cloning Line dialog, fill in the desired settings for the new lines

4. Click OK
   
   

    

5. These new lines will also be listed in the Survey Lines branch of the Project Explorer

    

Configure Real-Time Log File Settings

Before you start logging data you should review the File Options settings in the SonarWiz Preferences and Settings menu. Here you can configure where SonarWiz will record new files and how those files will be named.

To Open the File Options dialog:

1. Click on the green Options icon in the upper-left corner of SonarWiz

2. Click on the File Options icon in the left-hand icon bar in the Preferences and Settings dialog

3. Review or Set the Log Data Files Path (defaults to your current project folder)

4. Review or Set the Real Time File Settings to control the automatic naming convention and file size limits of recorded lines.

Create a Real-Time Screen Layout

SonarWiz has a large number of dockable windows and widgets. The default screen layout shows only the basic controls. You can add or remove windows and widgets to the screen layout and then save the new layout for later use. At any time, you can recall saved screen layouts to reconfigure the SonarWiz screen.

What we want to do now, is create and save a screen layout that is optimized for data collection. We will add screen widgets that are important for real-time quality control and system monitoring.

On the View Ribbon Menu, you will find the Data Displays group. The Data Acquisition Views drop-down contains more than a dozen real-time monitoring widgets. To turn these widgets on, Click on the Data Acquisition Views icon and then click on the desired widget.

We want to enable the following widgets:

• Waterfall Display 1

• System Information

• Sensor Status

• Left-Right Steering Indicator

To Enable and Dock a widget:

1. Click on the Data Acquisition Views drop-down

2. Left-Click and drag the Waterfall Display 1 with the mouse

3. While holding the mouse button down, hover the mouse over one of the docking icons that appear as you pan over the screen

4. Release the mouse to drop the Waterfall display into place as shown below:
   
   

    

5. Repeat this for each of the Waterfall Display 1, the System Information panel, the Sensor Status Panel and the Left-Right Steering indicator. We placed the widgets like this:
   
   

Next, we need to save this layout for future use on the boat.

To Save a Screen Layout:

1. Click on View Menu > Layout Manager icon

2. Click on the Save New Layout button

3. Give the new layout a name

4. Click OK to save the layout

To Load a Screen Layout:

1. Click on the View Menu > Layout Manager icon

2. Select the layout you want to load

3. Click the Load Layout button

Hardware Configuration

Prior to connecting the system together:

• Verify that the Deck Unit is powered off.

• Verify that the connectors and seals are clean and free of dirt and debris.

• Lubricate the wet mate connectors on the deck cable and tow cable with O-ring grease.

The following sections refer to this connection diagram:

Connecting the PulSAR system to the PC

In normal operation, there are two cables connecting the GeoAcoustics Interface Deck Unit to the PC running SonarWiz. These cables have custom water resistant connectors on the IDU ports and conventional jacks on the PC side (see the connection diagram)

Connect the two cables between the IDU and the PC running SonarWiz:

1. Connect the USB port on the IDU with a USB jack on the SonarWiz PC (for GPS data).

2. Connect the DATA OUT port on the IDU with an ethernet jack on the SonarWiz PC (for sonar data).

Network Configuration

To configure the ethernet wired network interface on your PC:

1. Open the Network Settings window by right clicking on the network icon next to the clock and choosing Open Network & Internet settings or by holding down the windows key and X (on Windows 10) and then clicking on Network Connections options.
   
   

2. Click on the Change Adapter Options link in the Network Settings window.
   
   

3. Double click on the Ethernet icon to open the Connection Properties window.  This connection may be called Ethernet or Local Area Connection.  If you have more than one ethernet adapter available, you can identify the one used by the IDU by powering on the Deck Unit and watching the icon change from having a red X on it to having no X on it.
   
   

4. In the Ethernet properties window, Select Internet Protocol Version 4 and Click the Properties button.
   
   

5. Configure the IP address and subnet mask as follows:

   Set the IP address to:  192.168.0.1
   Set the Subnet mask to:  255.255.255.0
   
   

6. Click the OK button on both the Internet Protocol Version 4 properties window and the Connection properties window to save the changes.

   The PulSAR Interface Deck Unit (IDU or Deck Unit) takes 50 seconds from power on to startup and connect.   It assigns itself the IP address of 192.168.0.254.

   
   To test the network connection you can use the PulSAR server or use the Ping command line utility that comes with Windows.
   
   

7. To do this type Ping 192.168.0.254 in the Windows search box as shown below.
   
   

8. Press the enter key to run the ping command. It will ping the sonar 4 times and report how long the sonar took to respond.
   
   

   
   If the ping command reports that the connection timed out or any other errors please check:

   • The Deck Unit is powered on and the Towfish is connected properly.

   • Waited at least 50 seconds for the system to completely power up.

   • Network address has been properly configured.

   • The Deck Unit is connected to the PC properly.

GPS Configuration

The internal GPS included in the PulSAR system is a Hemisphere P102 DGPS.  It is configured at the factory to output a NMEA 0183 GGA string at 4800 8,N,1 baud.  The GPS connects to the PC via a Serial to USB connection on the IDU.

To Configure SonarWiz to receive the GPS data:

1. Click Data Acquisition > Navigation to open the Navigation Input Setup dialog
   
   

2. Check the box to Enable Nav IO

3. Set the Navigation Source drop down to: NMEA-0183

4. In the Serial Port Configuration section:
   
   Set the Baud Rate to: 4800
   Set the Data Bits to: 8
   Set the Stop Bits to: 1
   Set the Parity to: None
   
   

5. In the NMEA Record Types section:
   
   Set the NMEA Position string to: GGA

   
   NOTE: the P102 DGPS is not configured to provide heading so the heading section is ignored.
   
   

6. Click View > Data Acquisition Views > System Information to display the System Information window

7. Optionally, open the Layback Setup dialog to compute Towfish position instead of ship position
   
   

   
   
   

8. Verify that the vessel position is updating as expected.
   
   

Starting the PulSAR Sonar Interface

The PulSAR Server provides the real-time data interface for working with the GeoAcoustics PulSAR sidescan sonar system. The interface provides command, control and data to and from the PulSAR Integrated Desktop Unit (IDU). The interface should be installed and run on the same computer as SonarWiz.

To start the PulSAR Server

1. Open your SonarWiz project.

2. Click the Data Acquisition > Sonar icon to open the Select Sonar Interface dialog

3. In the Sidescan section, look for the PulSARServer and select it.

4. Click the Start/Configure button
   
   

    

5. At this point the PulSAR interface should launch. Verify that the PulSAR interface is listed in the Current Servers: Sidescan section.
   
   

    

6. Verify that the SonarWiz indicator is green on the PulSAR Server interface. This indicates that the server has a connection to SonarWiz.
   
   

    

Configure Sound Velocity

In order to convert ping two-way travel time to range, the PulSAR Server uses a sound velocity of 1500 m/s. This is the approximate speed of sound in standard sea water. This value will be stored in the file for use by post-processing software and should be updated as required.

To modify the default speed of sound of the PulSAR Server:

1. Click the Advanced… button

2. Enter the Sound Speed in Water for your survey area (m/s)
   
   

    

3. Click OK.

Configure Server Acquisition and Transmitter Settings

Once a connection has been established between the SonarWiz and the GeoAcoustics IDU, the server will allow you to control the Sonar Acquisition and Transmitter setting directly from the interface.

Verify Sonar Data is Flowing from the IDU to SonarWiz

After the connection is established between the server and the IDU, and the PulSAR is pinging. The server should indicate that data is flowing in several ways:

1. The QC display is scrolling raw ping profiles

2. The Sonar Info display is showing ping number, range and samples of the most recent pings.

In SonarWiz, you should see:

1. The System Information panel should show the vessel position and speed.

2. The Sensor Status panel should indicate that Navigation is enabled and Sidescan is enabled. It should indicate the age in milliseconds since the most recent update.

3. The Waterfall display should show sidescan data scrolling down the display

4. If you click the Auto Ship Centering in the Mapping Tool Bar, the main map display should snap to the position of your vessel. The vessel is indicated by a cartoon outline of a ship.

Configure the Waterfall display for Sidescan

The Real-Time Waterfall displays in SonarWiz can display up to 2-channels of sidescan and 2-channels of sub-bottom data simultaneously. When you first open these displays they may be configured to display channels you are not using.

To Reconfigure the Real-Time Waterfall display:

1. Click the Gear icon in the toolbar of the waterfall display

2. Select (check) the sub-bottom and sidescan channels you want to display. Unselect (uncheck) the channels you do not want to display.

Adjust Sidescan Gains

Most sidescan data requires gain adjustments to look it’s best. SonarWiz provides a band-pass filter, AutoTVG, AGC, ping stacking, and water column blanking.

To adjust sub-bottom gains in the real-time waterfall:

1. Right-click in the real-time waterfall display you want to adjust

2. Select Adjust SSS Gains… from the Context Menu

3. Adjust the gain settings as desired

4. Click OK to apply the settings
   
   

   
   
   

Adjust Real-Time Bottom Tracking

The realtime-bottom tracker is used to compute altitude for systems which do not compute altitude in the towfish. Although this can be done in post-processing, it is useful to have a valid bottom track in real-time so that you can apply the swell filter to the real-time display. The Real-Time bottom tracker is accessed similarly to the real-time gain settings.

To enable and modify the settings for the real-time bottom tracker:

1. Right-click the waterfall display where you want to enable the real-time bottom tracker

2. In the Context Menu, select Real-Time Bottom Tracker.

3. In the Real-Time Altitude Tracker window

   1. Enable the Auto Tracker in the check box

   2. Select the radio button for SSS or SBP as appropriate

   3. Select the radio button for the channel you want to track

   4. Select if you want to Use Telemetered Altitude from the towfish

   5. Select if you want to Trace the bottom track on the display

4. If you do not have Telemetered altitude from the towfish, or you want to re-compute the altitude using the SonarWiz algorithms, uncheck the Use Telemetered Altitude check box and:

   1. Adjust the Threshold percentage (higher if the bottom track is not reaching the bottom, lower if it going below the bottom)

   2. Set the blanking distance below the surface reverberation

   3. Set the duration to the number of samples the bottom trace must be. If your water column is noisy this setting helps the tracker jump over speckle in the water column

   4. Enable tracker smoothing once you have the tracker locked onto the bottom

   5. Click the Apply button to check current settings.

   6. Close the window when done.
      
      

Adjust the Color Palette

The Color window controls how a color palette is mapped to sonar data in the SonarWiz. SonarWiz supports two different kinds of color palettes for sub-bottom data. Linear palettes for unipolar data (data with positive intensities only), and symmetrical palettes for bi-polar data (data with both positive and negative intensities).

To open the Color window:

1. Click the Color Window icon in the mapping toolbar.

2. In the Datatype drop-down, select the Sub-bottom channel you want to adjust

3. In the Palette Options drop down, select the color palette, optionally select to Smooth or Invert the palette.

4. In the Scale Mode drop down, select one of the automatic modes if you want SonarWiz to automatically adjust the color palette to your data as it is collected, or, select manual mode if you want to adjust the color palette yourself.
   
   

Steer a Selected Survey Line

Once you are ready to start your survey, align the boat with the first of your planned survey lines and steer the selected line. The Left/Right Steering Indicator will indicate how far off the planned line the vessel is maintaining. It also indicates how far along the line and how far remains of the line.

To Steer a planned survey line:

1. Select the line you want to steer

2. Right-Click the line to open the line Context Menu

3. Select Steer the Selected Line

If necessary, you can reverse a selected line, add run-in and run-out so that the tow-fish is properly aligned before it reaches the planned survey line or before you start the turn at the end of the line.

Recording a line

When ready to start recording data. Switch to the Data Acquisition menu.

To Record a track line:

1. Verify that data is feeding into SonarWiz. In the status bar, the navigation icon and the sonar icon should not have a red X flashing. The data recording icon will show a red X until you start recording.

2. Click the Quick Record button in the Data Acquisition Menu.

3. Verify that a new sidescan file is added to the Project Explorer and you will see red “Rec” icons in the main view and the real-time waterfall display.
   
   

   There should be no red “X” flashing in the status bar

    

4. When you are ready to stop data collection. Click the Stop Recording button.

   
   The sidescan file will be closed and the red “Rec” icons will disappear and a red “X” will appear in the status bar over the data recording icon:

    

For each of your recorded tracks, you will have two records of the data:

1. A CSF file is created along with several associated data files in the CSF folder of your project. The CSF files is a proprietary file that is displayed in SonarWiz for QC purposes. This file is only used only by SonarWiz.

2. A XTF file located in the SSS folder of your project. This is the permanent record of your recording. This file is non-proprietary and can be easily imported into SonarWiz (with a sidescan processing license) or other sidescan analysis software.

Replaying a XTF file

After data collection, your raw sidescan data is stored in XTF format in the SSS folder of your project. You can review the data you’ve collected using the SonarWiz Playback utility.

To review a previously recorded sidescan XTF file:

1. Click Post-Processing > Playback to open a XTF

    

2. Select the files you want to review and Click Open

3. Use the green controls at the top of the waterfall display to control the playback

    

   View of SonarWiz during file playback:

    

    

Shutting Down SonarWiz and the PulSAR Server

To safely shut down SonarWiz:

1. Click the Stop Recording icon to stop all logging.

2. Open the Sonar Interface window by click Data Acquisition > Sonar.

3. In the Current Servers section, click Disconnect from any servers that are currently listed.
   
   

    

4. In the PulSAR Interface server, click Quit button.

5. Close SonarWiz.

Related articles