Sent you a PMOriginally Posted by nsfr1206
Sent you a PM
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
I need some electrical help. I ended up putting my transducer on a trolling motor shaft that I removed all the motor and wiring from. Worked fairly good but turn rate was a little fast. I bought a variable speed board and installed in line with the power going to the turning motor. Works great turning one direction but more it won't turn the other direction at all. Should i have bought a different kind of controller board? Thanks in advance.
Replied to your PM.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Hello sir, I am about to attempt this build but I have a Terrova and won’t be mourning it to that. Your pictures for the alternate deck mount that your friend had aren’t showing up, would you mind re posting those if you have them please?
Don’t know what happened to the picture but here is a copy.
I also included the latest PDF build sheet.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Hey there Mr. Bill. Thanks for the build info! I can't wait to get started. I've got almost all the parts ordered, but wanted to see if you would share what diodes you purchased for the limit switches in the head unit? There seems to be a lot more selection criteria than I was prepared for lol. Thanks again!
I think it was like this one. not very critical.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Finished mine up did a bit of a watered down one to start using just a remote for control works awesome Thanks for all the time you spent on setting this up and answering question.
That’s Great, I tried to design it for flexibility. Hopefully you can build the base unit for less than $100 and add features as you find a need for them.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
If you have any old trolling motors that you don't work, or just not going to use, you can disassemble it and use as a mount for your forward facing sonar. All you need is the shaft and the mount. Run the cables up through the shaft. You can take the electric parts out of the head unit and use the handle to turn it in any direction. There are plenty of old trolling motors lying around people's garages and at garage sales. I saw this on a you tube channel called Adventures with a Purpose.
If you have any old trolling motors that you don't work, or just not going to use, you can disassemble it and use as a mount for your forward facing sonar. All you need is the shaft and the mount. Run the cables up through the shaft. You can take the electric parts out of the head unit and use the handle to turn it in any direction. There are plenty of old trolling motors lying around people's garages and at garage sales. I saw this on a you tube channel called Adventures with a Purpose.
I am starting to build this. Thank you Bill and all for doing such a great job. I was wondering if anyone has a design for a mounting bracket for the Garmin Force.
what did you program a plc by chance?
I need to correct this: Use these diodes instead of Rectifier diodes, they have less voltage drop on reverse current.I think it was like this one. not very critical.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
I know this thread's a bit old, but wow! what a resource. Thanks Bill Reynolds for putting this together. Can't wait to build it this winter.
My question is whether anyone had any success mounting this to a Terrova? I think there were some images upthread, but I couldn't get them to load.
Thanks!
Take a look at this thread, it highlights my most recent build which is much simpler. I have tried many types of controls but was never happy with any of them, they all worked, but required more wiring than I prefer. The UltraScan II has an integrated battery, WIFI remote and or foot control and it is simple plug and play wiring.
As mentioned in the thread, I have not added the Ultrex bracket to the build sheet yet, current design is still in beta testing but should be added soon.
https://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=1194005
As for mounting on the Terrova or Ultera, it can be done with a couple dog bones but I do not have any machining capabilities so can’t build them. There is at least one commercial source, I think it is Ryteck
I offer this as food for thought: I started out with a deck mount fitted alongside my trolling motor. You can see what I did here.
I made the base bracket from a piece of cutting board and mounted a short piece of 1 1/4 PVC that had a spring loaded shot pin attached. I extended the LB with a piece of 1 inch PVC that contains holes for the shot pin, located 90 degrees apart and spaced correctly to hold the pole in the desired position. Requires a separate deploy from the Terrova but it is quick and simple.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Bill,
Thank you for the amazing work on this project. You are thinking outside the box with all the features integrated into the transducer pole. I registered here after watching your videos on Youtube. I took your photo of the Ultrascan Automatic Sweep box and drew up a schematic. It helped me visualize how it all worked. Hope you don't mind me posting it.
Does it look correct? I didn't draw lines for the grounds to keep it uncluttered. Now I'm trying to think of a way to integrate the wireless controller and the UltraLock. I might have to learn how to program an arduino.
Auto Sweep Schematic.jpg
I have a few questions.
- Is 5 rpm motor fast enough? I was thinking of getting the 10 rpm, but the energy hit might not be worth it.
- Have you experienced any issues with motor not having enough torque to turn the transducer while the boat is moving while scanning?
- Do the limit switches affect the way the auto sweep timer works?
- Does speeding up the motor effect the timers?
Thanks again! Can't wait to build mine!
Last edited by Datsun510; 10-05-2024 at 07:21 PM.
Welcome to the BBC, this is a great place to get help with all aspects of boat ownership and fishing techniques and based on your first post, it appears you will be a good contributor.
Thanks for the wiring diagram of the AutoScan module, I have not gone through it yet but will when time permits. Could you send this as a PDF? You can attach the PDF here by going into Advanced mode and a menu option will appear across the top.
The WiFi controller will simplify this circuit considerably as it eliminates all the foot switch wiring. I don’t remember if the latest build sheet with the WIFI controller is on my UTube channel, so I attached it below. This shows the wiring for the WIFI controller and how I built a simple foot switch using the WIFI remotes.
- There is so much speed reduction in the motor drive that there is plenty of torque in the 5 or 3 RPM motors to rotate the transducer.
- In use, 5 RPM is too fast, I prefer 3 RPM if I don’t have a potentiometer in the circuit. However, the 5 RPM with speed control is required in Auto Scan mode to adjust the rotation limits during scan. (The time lapse is fixed so the degrees of rotation is set by the speed of the motor)
The 5 RPM motor is also required on the UltraLock series to give it enough speed to react quickly to compensate for boat movement.- I have not used the AutoScan module since designing the UltraLock series. For me this is the ultimate transducer wand, since you have the ability to lock onto a target. I am close to making a new UTube video and releasing the PDF build sheet for what I refer to as UltraLock II. If you subscribe to my channel, you will get an alert when the video is posted.
- The rotation limit switches are wired into the circuit past the timer module and work independent of the timer module.
I too have been considering learning to program an Arduino, it would be much simpler than stacking up several analog modules. I probably would have gone this route if I had not designed the UltraLock series.
Hope this answers your questions, I look forward to reading your future posts.
Last edited by Bill Reynolds; 01-09-2025 at 12:48 PM.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Thanks Bill for your response and answering my questions.
I hope to contribute more if I can. If anyone has an Takacat inflatable boat I have PVC creations for rod holders and for a bow mount spot lock (Autoboat) trolling motor.
Also made a portable fish finder box.
IMG_9769.jpgIMG_9097.jpgIMG_9023.jpg
I'll post as I get going with my pole build. I have a lot to think about.
Thanks again.
I built mine following Bills design just did not include auto scan has been working great. Only issue I have had is the relays in the WiFi switch the relays I found on Aliexpress for 55 cents each, only place I could find them being they are soldered onto the board
Thanks again Bill.
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