I am looking for a solution to embark my single beam dual frequency sonar (1-30khz/200kh) onto a boat to map shallow bays (this sonar works in 20cm of water). Do you all have suggestions or experience with packages that already exist? I currently map out of kayaks or jon boats (or airboat) but looking something that can carry my rig using my RTK system. THe boat does not need to use my RTK GNSS (Emlid RS2 or even RS+) for positioning, but I am pretty content with the sonar I have and do not need another setup. I just need a carrier which uses mission planner for planning the mission.
I am a bit on the budget, but I think I can make it work for a sub $5000 price tag.
I also have a small roto molded catamaran that I can put a trolling motor on and could use that too and go completely custom. But all working system would be my preference right now…or just revamp something that already exists like autoboat from brazil.
We have a similar setup to what you have described. Plastic hull cat, with a dual frequency SBES and an RS2+ RTK setup via NTRIP, 75Ah of batteries, long-range WiFi, and 4G connection plus the normal telemetry radios.
The RS2+ currently doesn’t feed into the AP as we only use it for SBES positioning. The AP has dual GNSS receivers that provide the AP with position/speed etc.
It’s taken a little while to get sorted with a number of rebuilds, but overall it’s fairly cheap to buy the components and I think what we have ended up with is far more than anything you can buy off the shelf for anywhere near the same price.