Burton Side Scan Sonar

I could not agree more. The M1 is a great unit for the price. The image quality rivals many comercial units that cost a lot more. And, since it uses the Lowrance fish finder units for display and storage, it is very compact and water resistant.

The only draw backs, the frequency of 200kHz limits the resolution on close or small objects, and it only looks one direction at a time. For most searches, neither of those is really an issue.

Rip


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Hi Christian,

I had a Sport Scan for a short time. The images from that were not very good considering the price and the fact that you had to have a laptop on the boat to use it. Not a problem in a large boat, but some of the searches I do require a very small boat to get to the area.

I also use a JW Fishers and a Marine Sonic. Both are very good, but cost is a lot more than the M1. And they are both much larger and take longer to set up. For searching small areas, for most objects, the M1 is the one I will grab first.

The new Humminbird units with side imaging are another low cost option for a lot of searches. The only draw back is having the transducer mounted on the boat. The angles are too sharp to get good shadows for objects close to the track.

Side Scan technology seems to be moving forward very slowly. I hope to see some improvements coming in the next couple of years. Most of the available units are the same as they have been for many years now. I think software is one big area that the manufacturers need to work on. I would like to see more units that record the raw data and allow full post processing. The other is the horizontal resolution. We need to see beam widths that are half of what we get today. That will require rethinking the transducer.

HH,
Rip


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Christian,

The next time I go to the boat, I will try to remember to get some photos of the towfish.

I do like the JW Fishers side scan. The software for it comes closer to allowing full post processing than any of the others I have used.

The hanger is one thing that I have changed on all of my towfish. I often work in shallow water with holes that you can not see in with the standard angles on commercial towfish. I have to be able to rotate the fish to look into those holes.

I designed my own hangers that I use on all of my towfish. I am going to see if I can find the original svg file that has the design and if so I will post an image later today. My hanger consist of an o-ring that is surrounded by an aluminum saddle that has tension adjusting cap screws on both sides. If you think of the piston connecting rods in an engine, the saddle looks very much like the end that connects to the crank shaft. In fact, the first saddles I made were made from connecting rods from small engines. The top of the saddle, has a block with a hole through it that I put soft copper wire through to give a shear point on the saddle that is at the balance point. I put another saddle on the rear of the fish and attach a secondary, recovery, rope to that saddle with a shackle. On some fish, notably the Marine Sonic, I have to use two saddles, one on each end of the transducer, with a flat bar between them in order to attach at the balance point. I use 1/4 inch bar for that and drill multiple holes in it to give me the best balance for the water conditions. I still use a secondary saddle at the back for recovery.

These have served me well. The copper wire link shears easily if the fish gets caught up in something and the secondary rope pulls it out tail first. I have not lost a towfish or had one damaged beyond use since I have been using this arrangement.

Hope that helps and I will try to find that file and post the images later,
Rip



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Hi Christian,

I still have not found the final drawings with all the detail for the hanger. I still have a lot of old disks to look through. I did find the original idea sheet that I had taken to machine shops to get an idea of pricing for the clamps.

I converted it to a png and have attached it. The links that I use to attach the tow cable are made from 1/16" stainless and are about 2" long and 1" wide. On smaller towfish I use 22ga or 20ga copper wire for the shear point. I run it through the top holes in the clamp and through the link then twist it behind the clamp. The recovery rope is attached to the rear clamp with a shackle and is taped to the tow cable with duct tape. I leave a long loop of tow cable between the clamp and the connector so the pull will be just on the recovery rope if the safety wire shears.

To  use the clamps, I lubricate the O-Ring with silicon grease, put the O-Ring on the towfish, then put the clamp over it and tighten the cap screws until the towfish does not turn in the clamp. I can usually loosen one of the cap screws and rotate the towfish when I need to.

Hope this will give you some ideas. The final version of the clamp has all edges rounded and has a chamfer at the junction of the blocks. I also, always have a couple of extra clamps and O-Rings with me just in case. I have stripped out the cap screw threads a couple of times by making it too tight.

HH,
Rip


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Hi Christian,

I am a newbie to this forum and also a newbie to sidescans. But I have been hunting wrecks for 23 odd years. I have been wanting to get a sidescan for yonks - obviously price of the units has played a major role in me not being able to invest in one ( So I just focused on the wrecks that I could find without one!) My main passion lies in locating and diving WWI and WWII deep wrecks - in the 50-100m range. I have very limited knowledge on sidescans and need as much advice as possible. I saw your post on the Burton sidescan and was really interested to learn more about it. Had a look on their site, but the best thing I think is talking to people who use the thing.

First of all, is it possible to use this fish to the depths that I need? (100m and shallower)
What sort of cable lengths will I need to use it for these depths.
What will I need to get to be totally operational to get out and look for wrecks, save the information for future analysis and future replotting on prospective sites?

I am probably asking all the Numpty questions and you have probably answered them a million times. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

We are in the process of looking for a 3100 ton passenger carrier which hit a German mine in 1917 off the north coast of NZ. Wreck is sitting in 100m of water on a shale bottom! Hope to find it this year!! With the help of a sidescan (and future wreck sites)

Many thanks

Pete Mesley

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Auckland NZ

		Quote:			Posted by Christian
	The Burton M1 Side Scan Sonar is a really nice device offering great image qualiyt for compareable little money. Its towfish can be improved with some slight modifications and it's a really nice unit afterwards. You can find more information on it at: You are not allowed to view links. Please Register or Login

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