NorthStar Echo Sounder NorthStar 491 manual

Northstar 4 9 1 Echo Sounder Operations Manual This manual is for using the 491 sounder with the Northstar 957, 958, 961 and 962 navigators. For the Northstar 6000i , information in Section 6 of its manual can be used instead. Revision A Part Number GM494 Northstar a unit of Brunswick New Technologies Marine Electronics 30 Sudbury Road Acton, Massa[...]

Contents 1 Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Welcome to the Northstar 491 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Using this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 How echo sounding works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Powering the 491 on [...]

Introducing snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Setting up the video image overlay . . . . . . . 49 6 Reviewing past echoes using SoundTrac . . . . . 51 Viewing past echoes using SoundTrac . . . . . 52 Marking fish as waypoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Navigating to a past echo position . . . . . . . . 53 7 Setting the Alarms . . .[...]

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491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 1 1 W elcome Welcome to the Northstar 491 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Using this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 How echo sounding works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5 Powering the 491 on and off . . [...]

Page 2 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual W elcome to the Northst ar 4 91 Congratulations on your purchase of the Northstar 491 Echo Sounder. The 491 connects with a Northstar navigator and a third-party transducer to add echo sounding capability to the Northstar 957, 958, 961, and 962 navigators. See the Northstar 491 Installation Manual (part num[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 3 Chapter 4 describes how to adjust the depth settings to choose what portion of the water under the vessel you’ll display. Chapter 5 explains other functions—the A-Scope, etc. Chapter 6 describes Northstar’s exclusive SoundTrac™ feature, for accessing past echoes and navigating back to their location[...]

Page 4 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T echnical support After you follow the instructions in this manual, if you need technical support or if you have any other questions, you can contact Northstar by email, fax, phone, or U.S. mail as follows: Hearing fr om you Your feedback is important and helps ensure that this manual is a valuable resourc[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 5 T o prevent delays, it is critical that you first obtain a Return Materials Authorization (R MA) number before returning your unit to the factory . If you purchased your 491 through a dealer , to get an R MA number , call the dealer with the serial number . The 491’ s serial number is located at the top [...]

Page 6 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Figur e 1: 957 /95 8 echo sounder system components Figur e 2: 9 61/96 2 echo sounder system components 957/958/6000i Navigator 491 module GPS antenna T ransducer Ship's Po w e r 10-f oot cable (Nor thstar-supplied) 10-f oot cable (Nor thstar-supplied) 33-f oot cable (par t of transducer) 961/962 Proce[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 7 Pow ering the 4 91 on and off As part of its power-up sequence, the navigator automatically activates the 491. The 491 is automatically shut off by the navigator when you press and hold PWR until the screen goes dark. Setting up the 4 91 Your 491 should be installed by a qualified marine technician. Your sa[...]

Page 8 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual 4. Check that the FORMAT option is set to “49 0. ” If not, set it now . Using the 4 91 with the 957 /95 8 Before starting, you should double-check that the navigator’s AUX port is set to the Sounder option: 1. Press STAR until you reac h the OPTIONS/SERVICE INFO screen. 2. Press the PORT SETUP OPTIONS[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 9 Figur e 3: Figur e 4: 9 61/96 2 echo sounder menu structure ST AR key A uto Picture F requency Zoom Depth More ECHO SCREEN Gain Clutter Noise Limiter Hue Signal le v el Return Shift Range Bottom bo x Return Alarms Advance Speed Snapshot A-Scope Data Return Fish alarm Bottom alarm T emp alar m Return Bottom [...]

Page 10 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Figur e 5: 957 /95 8 echo sounder menu structur e ST AR key A uto Picture F requency Zoom Depth More ECHO SCREEN Gain Clutter Noise Limiter Hue Signal le v el Return Shift Range Bottom bo x Return Alarms Advance Speed Video A-Scope Data Return Fish alarm Bottom alarm T emp alar m Return T emp box T emp gra[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 11 2 Quick St art: Using the E cho Sounder Displaying the echo sounder’s picture . . . . 2-12 Using demo mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-14 Introducing the displayed information . . . . 2-15 Using automatic mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-16 Changing the frequency of ec[...]

Page 12 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Displaying the echo sounder’s pictur e Once the navigator has been configured to operate with the 491, you’re ready to start viewing echo sounding data. To see the echo sounding screen at any time, press STAR from any screen. You’ll see live echoes moving across the screen. Figur e 6: Illustr ated EC[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 13 real-time echoes. For details, see “Reviewing past echoes using SoundTrac” starting on page 51. Figur e 7: Illustr ated SOUNDTRAC screen NOTES: All of the alarm messages always appear on all of the echo sounder’s screens. You won’t miss any alarms while displaying echo sounding data, and you never [...]

Page 14 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Using demo mode The echo sounder can be operated in “demo mode” for training and familiarization. Simulated echo data generated by the 491 will be displayed. To enter demo mode: 1. Press STAR several times to display the ECHO SOUNDER SETUP screen. 2. Press the CURSOR PAD down to select demo mode, then [...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 15 Intr oducing the display ed information The following information can be displayed on the ECHO screen. E cho sounding • echo sounder data • echo sounder frequency in use (50 or 2 00 kHz or both) • A- scope • automatic mode indicators (fishing or cruising) • manual operation indicator • echo co[...]

Page 16 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Using automatic mode To operate the echo sounder automatically, just press AUTO . All of the 491’s adjustments will be set to produce a useful picture under most conditions. When you’re too busy to optimize the settings manually, the echo sounder can automatically set the optimal gain, clutter, and ran[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 17 Manually ov erriding automatic mode You can always manually change any of the echo sounder’s settings: the gain, clutter, noise limiter, shift, and range. Changing the appearance of the picture (colors, gain, clutter, and the noise limiter) is described in Chapter 3. Setting the range and shift is descri[...]

Page 18 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual • when adjusting the picture, you can see the effect of changes on the right side Figur e 8: ECHO scr een with b oth frequencies display ed To change the display frequency: 1. On the ECHO screen, press FREQUENCY until you display the desired frequency or frequencies. The frequencies in use are shown pict[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 19 When using the zoom feature (which also splits the screen into halves), both sides of the screen always display the same frequency. Zooming in and out On the ECHO screen, the echo sounder’s zoom feature expands a portion of the echoes. You can examine closely any part of the water column, to determine th[...]

Page 20 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual • marker zoom The original unzoomed echoes are on the right side, and the magnified area is shown on the left side of the screen. A tab below the ZOOM key shows which zoom mode is in use. Using b ottom zoom When you select bottom zoom , the contour of the bottom is magnified, clearly displaying canyon ed[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 21 Using b ottom lock/ center zoom When you select bottom lock/center zoom , the sea bottom is flattened out and displayed in the center of the screen. You can see any fish near the bottom, as with the bottom lock zoom, and also examine the seabed’s composition. Using mark er zoom When you select marker zoo[...]

Page 22 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual the magnified area up or down, press the CURSOR PAD to move the depth marker. Leaving zoom mode You can return to the normal unzoomed display just by pressing and holding ZOOM for more than one second, or by pressing ZOOM repeatedly until you have cycled through all the zoom modes. Setup functions Several [...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 23 961/962 echo sounder setup screen 957/958 echo sounder setup screen Entering numerical v alues When changing the numerical value of the echo sounder’s settings, you can either press the CURSOR PAD to increase or decrease the value, or use the KEYPAD to manually type in the desired value.[...]

Page 24 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T ransducer depth This option specifies how far below the surface of the water the transducer is mounted. The number is added to all depths measured by the 491 so they will refer to depth from the surface, not from the transducer. This value should have been set correctly during installation and should not[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 25 sequence number restarts at 00, and the oldest waypoints with this same name will be overwritten (unless they have been renamed). To turn this feature on or off, or to change the maximum number of each of these waypoints: 1. Press the CURSOR PAD up or do wn to highlight the waypoint type you want to change[...]

Page 26 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual 957958/ sensor setup screen To simplify operation, the “sensor installed” options can be set to “No” to remove all references to temperature and speed from all the screens. Highlight the appropriate line and press EDIT to change an option. Speed calibration is entered as a percentage from –99% to[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 27 3 Adjusting the E cho Sounder Pictur e The picture menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-28 Adjusting the gain (strong echoes) . . . . . . . . 3-28 Adjusting the clutter (weak echoes) . . . . . . . 3-29 Adjusting the signal level (weak echoes) . . 3-30 Suppressing interference (the noise l[...]

Page 28 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T he pictur e menu You can adjust the appearance of echoes in five different ways: • gain (for high intensity ec hoes) • clutter (for lo w intensity echoes) • noise limiter (for interf erence) • hue (to choose colors and white level) • signal level (to remove weak ec hoes) Gain and clutter change[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 29 3. At the GAIN windo w , press the CURSOR PAD left or right to adjust the gain, or use the KEYPAD to manuall y enter the desired gain value. The available settings range from zero (minimum) to 75 (maximum). Gain window The window shows the effect of adjusting the gain. The fish symbols near the bottom of t[...]

Page 30 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual displayed. If you select 5 , for example, all weak and moderate echoes will be displayed using the background color (just as if they weren’t there). You might choose this setting to eliminate high levels of background noise and echoes from turbulence or plankton. A setting of 0 allows all echoes to be di[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 31 desired signal range, Signal Level completely removes the weaker colors and their echoes. To adjust the signal level: 1. On the ECHO screen, press PICTURE . 2. On the PICTURE screen, press SIGNAL LEVEL . 3. At the SIGNAL LEVEL windo w , press the CURSOR PAD up or down to remo ve the weaker color levels fro[...]

Page 32 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Selecting the color bar (hue) and white lev el Underst anding the color bar The color bar displayed at the extreme left of the ECHO screen shows the range of colors used to display different echo strengths. Weaker echoes are displayed with colors near the bottom of the scale, and stronger echoes are displa[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 33 Hue and white level window 4. Press RETURN to go back to the ECHO screen. Setting the white lev el You can replace any single color in the color bar with white. On the HUE AND WHITE LEVEL window, press the CURSOR PAD up or down to select that color. To remove the white level and return to using all the col[...]

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491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 35 4 Underst anding Depth Settings Viewing the seabed depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36 Viewing the depth marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36 Changing the depth settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36 Setting the picture’s shift (starting depth) . . 4-37 Setting the picture’s range . . [...]

Page 36 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual V iewing the seab ed depth The seabed depth (the “bottom”) is displayed in a black box at the left edge of the ECHO screen. You can change the size and location of the depth box on the ECHO screen. Its size on the SOUNDTRAC screen is always small. There are four available sizes: • small • medium ?[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 37 you can manually override these auto values for your specific needs at any time. There are two depth settings: • shift (how far belo w the surface the echo sounder picture starts) • range (the depth covered b y the echo sounder picture from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen) Setting the[...]

Page 38 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual In the large rectangle on the right, the blue area at the top (with waves) represents the surface of the water , and the brown area below represents the seabed. The number at the bottom is the depth of the picture, and the seabed depth is also labelled. The smaller rectangle inside the larger one represent[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 39 Range window The vertical black arrow in the SET RANGE window ind- cates the values that this window adjusts: the range of the echo sounder picture, relative to the depth of the water . The white number in the black box indicates the current range setting. 3. Press the CURSOR PAD up or down to adjust the r[...]

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491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 41 5 Other Functions: Using the MORE k e y Using the MORE key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-42 Changing the advance speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-42 Displaying the A-scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-43 Setting the ECHO screen data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-44 Introducing sna[...]

Page 42 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Using the MORE k e y Pressing the MORE key accesses the following functions: • alarms (described in Chapter 7) • advance speed • A- scope • data (numeric and graphic information on the ECHO screen) • snapshots (961/962 only) • video overlay setup (95 7 /95 8 only) When the menu function is in u[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 43 The A-Scope shows every ping received, even when the advance speed setting causes pings to be averaged before display Displaying the A-scope The echo sounder’s A-scope lets you look closely at present or past echoes by horizontally magnifying the echo from each ping. To display the A-scope: 1. Press MORE[...]

Page 44 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Using the A-scope with dual fr equencies If you’re displaying both 50 and 200 kHz echoes, the A-scope magnifies echoes from the frequency shown on the right side of the screen. A-scope on dual-frequency echo screen Using the A-scope with zoom mode If you’re in zoom mode, the A-scope magnifies the unzoo[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 45 Echo screen data selections Bottom depth b ox Press BOTTOM BOX to set the size and location of the box displaying the bottom depth (white numbers on a black background). Press this key again to cycle through the available sizes: small, medium, large, and huge. Press the CURSOR PAD up and down to set the po[...]

Page 46 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T emper ature gr aph Press TEMP GRAPH to turn the temperature graph on or off. The temperature graph displays an orange temperature scale at the left of the screen, and an orange line tracing out the varying water temperature measurements, superimposed on the echoes. Speed thr ough the w ater Press SPEED t[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 47 Snapshot screen (961/962 only) To rename a stored snapshot, from the SNAPSHOT screen, press the CURSOR PAD to highlight the desired slot, and press RENAME . Use the KEYPAD to enter a new name and press ACCEPT . To display a stored snapshot, from the SNAPSHOT screen, press the CURSOR PAD to highlight the de[...]

Page 48 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Ar chiving and r estoring snapshots with a Zip disk If your 961/962 has a zip drive installed, you can save up to 10 snapshots on each disk. To save a stored snapshot onto a zip disk, from the SNAPSHOT screen, press the CURSOR PAD to highlight the desired slot, and press ARCHIVE . A new screen appears disp[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 49 Setting up the video image ov erlay If you’ve connected the 957/958 to an NTSC-compatible device, you can display the image on the echo sounder screen. To display the video image on the ECHO SOUNDER screen, first press MORE , then press VIDEO . To change the transparency of the image while you’re displ[...]

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491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 51 6 Reviewing past echoes using SoundT r ac Viewing past echoes using SoundTrac . . . . 6-52 Marking fish as waypoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-53 Navigating to a past echo position . . . . . . . . 6-53 T his chapter describes how to use SoundTrac to view past echoes, and how to navigate to any past[...]

Page 52 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual V iewing past echoes using SoundT r ac On the SOUNDTRAC screen, you can use Northstar’s exclusive SoundTrac feature to look back and examine past echo data. To enable SoundTrac, at the ECHO screen, press the CURSOR PAD to the left. A dashed vertical line—called the position marker—is now displayed. T[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 53 Echoes from the last 3000 pings are stored. The number of minutes of past echo data available depends on two factors: • the depth of the water • the advance speed In deeper water, the 491 pings at a slower rate, so the echo sounder saves data over a longer period of time. A slower advance speed will ha[...]

Page 54 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual • to add a past echo position to the end of an alread y dis- played route Going to a past echo position is described below. The other options are described in the Operator’s manuals for your Northstar navigator. Going dir ectly to a past echo position To go directly to a past echo position (as long as [...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 55 7 Setting the Alarms Understanding the alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-56 Setting the fish alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-56 Setting the bottom alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-58 Setting the temperature alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-60 T his chapter describes the ech[...]

Page 56 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Underst anding the alarms The echo sounder’s alarms work just like the other alarms. Their status is updated every second, and their messages are displayed in the following ways: • at the bottom of the ECHO screen, and also on various windows that may be o verlaid onto these screens • on the ALARMS s[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 57 4. Follo w the instructions below f or each of these five settings. Fish alarm window Setting the alarm’s echo str ength level To set the fish alarm’s minimum echo-strength level: 1. At the FISH ALARM window, press SET ALARM LEVEL . 2. Press the CURSOR PAD up and down to set the ec ho strength level f[...]

Page 58 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual 2. Press the CURSOR PAD up or down to set the depth, or use the KEYPAD to manually enter the desired depth. The depth is displayed in the tab below the SET UPPER MKR key . To set the depth of the lower marker: 1. At the FISH ALARM windo w , press SET LOWER MKR . The lower marker window is highlighted in bl[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 59 To set the bottom alarm: 1. At the ECHO screen, press MORE . 2. Press ALARM . 3. At the ALARM screen, press BOTTOM ALARM . The options on the BOTTOM ALARM window are on/off and the depth setting. Bottom alarm window Setting the b ottom lev el You can set the depth level for the seabed, so that as soon as t[...]

Page 60 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T urning the b ottom alarm on and off To turn the alarm on, at the BOTTOM ALARM window, press TURN ALARM ON . To turn the alarm off, press TURN ALARM OFF . T he alarm When the bottom is detected, the alert tone sounds and the message “Bottom Collision!” is displayed. This message clears automatically a[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 61 Setting the upper and low er temper ature limits You can set the upper and lower temperature limits. When the water temperature is either inside or outside these limits, the temperature alarm will sound. To set the upper temperature limit: 1. At the TEMPERATURE ALARM windo w , press SET UPPER LIMIT . The u[...]

Page 62 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T he alarm When the temperature alarm sounds, an alert message is displayed. This message clears automatically after 20 seconds and the alarm is reset.[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 63 8 T r oubleshooting 4 91 Oper ations Troubleshooting the echo sounder . . . . . . . 8-64 Checking the transducer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-65 T his chapter explains how to troubleshoot the echo sounder system before returning the equipment for factory service.[...]

Page 64 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual T r oubleshooting the echo sounder Figur e 9: T r oubleshooting the echo sounder (9 61/96 2) No echoes display ed when ST AR ke y is pressed. Is the 961/962 software V ersion 3.0 or greater? Has NMEA Port 3 been configured for the 491? Check the 491's ST A T indicator Is the Advance Speed set to zero?[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 65 Figur e 10: T r oubleshooting the echo sounder (957 /95 8) Checking the tr ansducer To provide the best possible performance with the 491 echo sounder, Northstar recommends the use of an Airmar No echoes displayed on sounder screen. Has the navigator ʼs Aux Port been configured for the 491? Check the 491&[...]

Page 66 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual transducer. The models below can be purchased from Northstar. Airmar Technology Corporation may be reached at 35 Meadowbrook Drive, Milford, New Hampshire 03055-4613; phone 603/673-9570; fax 603/673-4624. NOTE: Detailed information on maintaining and troubleshooting a trans- ducer is outside the scope of t[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 67 A 4 91 Featur es and Specifications T able 4: 4 9 1 echo sounder featur es Perf ormance characteristics Output Single/Dual Channel, 50/200kHz, 600W Alarms Fish, seabed, temperature Update rate 10 Hz maximum (depends on water depth) Auto modes Fishing and cruising Zoom modes Marker, bottom, bottom lock, bo[...]

Page 68 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Screen notations Echo data Seabed depth (various size digits) Frequency of each window Speed through water (if connected) Water temperature (if connected) Depth scale for each window Depth of depth marker Latitude/longitude of position marker and vessel Alarm status and auto/manual status Zoom mode Name of[...]

491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 69 Manual controls Gain 0 to 75 db Clutter 0 to 9 Signal level 0 to 5 Noise limiter ON/OFF White level Any single color Other Screen color palette Depth marker Position marker Zoom in/out Shift Ranges 15, 30, 60, 120, 200, 400, 800, 1000, 2400 feet 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 150, 300, 500, 800 meters Advance speed 1/[...]

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491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual Page 71 G Gloss ary A-scope A horizontally magnified view of each echo, where the strength is shown by the width as well as the color of the line. COG C ourse- O ver- G round. The actual path of your vessel relative to the surface of the earth. clutter Distracting echoes caused by turbulence, plankton, etc. Can be[...]

Page 72 491 Echo Sounder Operations Manual longitude Imaginary lines on the Earth's surface running North/South and expressed in degrees (0-180) east or west of the Prime Meridian (a line running from the North to South Pole, passing through Greenwich, England). meter A unit of measurement (length) equal to 39.37 inches, slightly more than a s[...]