Depth Sounder with NMEA 0183 output

[Rasbats]

Transducers with only NMEA output (no display) are available but seem expensive. Talked recently with Alan Mulley, director at NASA Marine Limited.
https://www.nasamarine.com

This company developed a prototype of a transducer/connection box setup but did not put it into production. The unit had NMEA 0183 output, no display, with just a sensitivity control on the connection unit.

NASA Marine have a low cost wind instrument in production that follows the same principle.

Just wondering if there is any interest in such a depth sounder. Perhaps this thread could be used for noting expressions of interest (or not). I will pass the results to Alan to determine if taking the product to market is a viable proposition.

Mike

p.s. I have no personal connection with this company.

[seandepagnier]

Someone finally sent me one which had a price written ($75) but I think it is a used price. So I added the depth alarm to the watchdog plugin, but it could still be improved.




If this can work with any transducer at various frequencies and the price < $100 I think it's worthwhile. I built my own electronics to drive a transducer inverting 12 volts up to 150vac, then amplify the return signal with 2x30x so 900x amplification. So putting 150 volts in, and get 2-3 millivolts return signal, but I stopped at the point of receiving a return ping, sidetracked by other things.

[rgleason]

Sean, depth is now in Watchdog PI Manager version (many thanks to Mike for his help). Jon & I also worked on the frontend code and it is considerably better now. Mike has also added the manual and I've made some changes to that too. I've made a PR to your repos.