CruzPro PcFF80 User Manual

Pc sonar/ fishfinder for win98, winxp, win2000 & vista

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CruzPro PC Sonar/ Fishfinder
for Win98, WinXp, Win2000 & Vista
PcFF80 User's Manual

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Summary of Contents for CruzPro PcFF80

  • Page 1 CruzPro PC Sonar/ Fishfinder for Win98, WinXp, Win2000 & Vista PcFF80 User’s Manual...
  • Page 2 Updates of this manual will be periodically placed on the CruzPro website at the location: www.cruzpro.com/pcffman.pdf Corrections, suggestions for improvements and additions are welcome. Copyright 2005 CruzPro Ltd., New Zealand PCFFMANM http://www.cruzpro.com...
  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Introduction ......7 Warning ......7 Specifications .
  • Page 4 ....27 Background Color ..... . .27 Auto Settings .
  • Page 5 Hints and Suggestions for Settings ....41 Other CruzPro Products ....44 Windows, Win98, WinXP, Win2K, Win2000 are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.
  • Page 6 Page 6...
  • Page 7: Introduction

    GPS is connected to your PC. All displayed data can be saved to logfiles for later playback. The PcFF80 software is easy to learn and uses an intuitive Windows interface with drop down menus and mouse control. All settings and control values such as transmit power, pulse width, depth/temperature units, zoom modes, etc.
  • Page 8: Specifications

    Specifications Operating Voltage: 9.5 to 16.0 VDC, 0.05 amps nominal, 4.7 amps peak at max power Indicator: Front panel LED for Power ON/Off and communications indicator. Output Power: 2560 watts peak-to-peak (320W RMS). 24KW DSP processed power (3200 WRMS) Depth Capability: 1000 feet or more at 200kHz 1500 Feet or more at 50kHz Operating temperature: 0 to 50 deg Celsius ( 32 to 122 deg Fahrenheit).
  • Page 9: Features

    Features ▲ High resolution Color FishFinder ▲ 200kHz, 50Khz and water temperature ▲ GPS Latitude, Longitude and Ground Speed display ▲ Auto and Manual controls for depth, gain, transmit power, etc. ▲ Full or Split screen ▲ Six different depth ZOOM settings ▲...
  • Page 10: Installation

    Installation Mounting and Wiring The Interface Box (“black box”) should be located in a dry area in where the temperature does not exceed 50 deg C (120 deg F). The length of the cable between the Interface Box and the PC should not exceed 2M (6 feet) in length.
  • Page 11: Transducer Installation

    Never install a metal housing in a hull with a positive ground. The transducer supplied for use with the PcFF80 is a dual frequency 50/ 200Khz depth and temperature transducer. The use any other transducer other than that expressly supplied with the PcFF80 will void the warranty and can result in damage to the Interface Box.
  • Page 12 A low profile plastic thru-hull transducer is supplied as standard with the PcFF80 PC Fishfinder. Two different bronze thru-hull transducers or a transom mount transducer are available as options. The following in- structions are for installation of the plastic thru-hull transducer. Please see the separate installation instructions provided with the other trans- ducer options for the correct installation of those units.
  • Page 13 location you have chosen will not interfere with any bulkheads, plumbing or any other obstruction. 1. Drill a small hole first from the inside of the hull at the desired location for the transducer. This will be a locating hole for the final drilling. 2.
  • Page 14: Software Installation

    If the installation was successful, you should see: If you connect to the PcFF80 Interface Box with a RS232 serial cable and one of your serial COM ports, then you can skip the following USB Driver Installation section and proceed directly to the “Connecting a GPS”...
  • Page 15: Usb Driver Installation

    USB Driver Installation If you connect to the PcFF80 Interface Box with a USB cable, then you will need to install and setup the appropriate USB driver software. Leave the distribution CD in the CD ROM drive and plug a USB cable into the Interface Box and your PC USB port.
  • Page 16 When the “Add New Hardware Wizard” comes up, click “Specify a loca- tion”, type “D:\drivers” (substitute your CD ROM drive letter for “D”) and click “Next”. Depending on your operating system Windows will select a driver from the distribution CD. Click “Next” and the correct driver will be automatically installed.
  • Page 17 If the USB driver installation is successful, then you will see the follow- ing screen. Click “Finish” to complete the installation of the USB driver. After the USB driver has been installed, it must be optimized using the Windows “Device Manager” before you can use the new driver. To get into the Windows Device Manager: In Win98: Click “START”, “Settings”, “Control Panel”, “System”,...
  • Page 18 Select "View device by type" then click on "Ports (COM and LPT)" and select "USB Serial Port (COMx)". Click the “Properties” button to bring up the USB Serial Port properties page. None None None Click on "Port Settings", set "Bits per second" to 115200 and set “Flow control”...
  • Page 19 This completes the USB driver installation and setup. If using the USB port, be sure to plug the USB connector into the PcFF80 Interface Box and your PC USB port and boot your PC before connect- ing +12V power to the Interface Box. Turn off the power to the Interface Box before removing the USB cable.
  • Page 20: Regional Options

    Regional Options The PcFF80 Windows software expects to see numbers with a decimal point not a comma. If the Regional Options in Windows is set to use commas for numbers the software will not work. Use Control Panel - Regional Options to set numbers to match the figure below.
  • Page 21: Operation

    Operation Initial Installation You will probably want to place a desktop icon for the PcFF80 PC Fish- finder software on your desktop for easy access to the program. Click the “Start”, “Programs” buttons and use the mouse to navigate to the “ Cruz- Pro PC Fishfinder”...
  • Page 22 The program will communicate with the Interface Box on the COM port you specify and the following default screen is displayed: Page 22...
  • Page 23: Operator's Console

    Operator’s Console The main Operator’s Console (shown on the last Page) allows for imme- diate control of a number of important functions with a click or two of the mouse: Pause/Run the fishfinder hardware Clear the display screen of all previous data Select Full or Split screen operation Select Automatic or Manual operation mode Enable or Disable the alarm sound (On/Off)
  • Page 24 The three screen menus are very similar except control only those features of their respective Full, Left or Right screens. Chang- ing a control with the Right Screen Settings menu will not affect the Left Screen Setting or Full Screen Setting values. The Screen Settings menu will stay on top of the data screen until you close it or click else-...
  • Page 25: Right Click On The Color Bars

    screen display looks and want the Full screen to have the same settings, you can export all the Display Settings from the Right Screen to the full screen with a click of the mouse. You can also import all the Screen Settings from another screen to the current screen the same way.
  • Page 26: Drop-Down Menus

    Drop-Down Menus You can access a number of drop-down menus from the main operator’s console by clicking the mouse on the “File”, “Options”, “View” and “Help” menus at the top-left of the screen. File Menu The “New” selection will create a dis- play with all “factory”...
  • Page 27: Options Menu

    Options Menu The Options Menu items are used to select Units Of Measure, Set Alarms, select screen colors and turn ON or OFF features such as recording or playing of data log files. The selection of some of these menu items will result in sub- menus being displayed or entire new windows in order to select, view or set the...
  • Page 28: View Menu

    View Menu The View Menu is used to select what you want to see displayed on the Operator’s Con- sole. Items can be individually turned ON or OFF with the click of the mouse. Help Menu The Help menu is used to display some help text and details about the PC Fishfinder program and Interface Box.
  • Page 29: Console Settings And Their Effects

    Console Settings and Their Effects This section discusses some of the various PC Fishfinder Operator’s Con- sole settings, their options and some of the effects they have on the opera- tion of the PC Fishfinder. Full/Split Screen Selecting Full Screen results in the entire display width being used to display data from a single frequency - either 200kHz or 50Khz.
  • Page 30: Sound On/Off

    As the depth of the bottom varies the PC Fishfinder will automatically change the Depth Range to keep the bottom return on the display and adjust the power settings for the best picture. Sometimes the settings that produce the best picture of the bottom will not be the settings that result in the best display of fish in more shallow water and you will want to control the settings yourself in manual mode.
  • Page 31: Noise Filter

    Transmitter Power The PcFF80 PC Fishfinder contains a dual frequency sonar transmitter whose output strength can be controlled by software in 256 steps to output a signal from 0 watts to 2560 watts peak-to-peak (320 watts RMS). In manual mode the Transmitter Power selection is used to set the transmitter power.
  • Page 32: Display Threshold

    side of the display can be wrong if too much (or too little) power is used. The usual rule of thumb is to increase the power level and/or receiver gain until you can just start to see a “double bounce”. A double bounce is where you see a second return from the bottom at twice the actual depth.
  • Page 33: Cursor Position

    is ignored. If the strength of the signal is greater than the AScope thresh- old it is painted in the AScope area in the color determined by the Color Bar. If the signal of that particular pixel of data is weaker than the AScope Threshold then that pixel is ignored and not drawn on the AScope.
  • Page 34: Date And Time

    Date and Time The current Date and Time (of the computer clock) will be displayed in these two boxes unless you are playing back a prerecorded log file, in which case the Date and Time the data was recorded to file will be displayed instead.
  • Page 35: Screen Settings And Their Effects

    Screen Settings and Their Effects When you right click the mouse while the mouse cursor is located on the data display area, the “Full Screen Settings”, “Left Screen Settings” or “Right Screen Settings” menu is displayed, depending on where you click and whether the screen is in full or split mode.
  • Page 36: A-Scope

    A-Scope Whereas the sonar display screen shows a time his- tory of the sonar signal, the “A-Scope” region shows the instantaneous amplitude (strength) of the sonar signal currently under the depth transducer. can turn on an A-Scope region for the “Full”, “Left” and/or “Right”...
  • Page 37: Depth Range

    fish appear to have the same strength (color) irregardless of the depth. When you select Analog Time-Varying Gain you will be asked to provide two different gain values - the start gain (gain at the surface) and he rate of change of the gain (how fast you want the signal gain to increase). Selecting these two values is a function of trial and error until you find settings that work for your particular situation.
  • Page 38: Depth Offset And Zoom

    Depth Offset and Zoom As discussed in the previous section on Depth Range, The Depth Offset is the depth value that you want dis- played at the top of the screen. The Depth Offset in conjunction with the Depth Range allow you to “Zoom”...
  • Page 39: Analog Time-Varying Gain

    the length of the transmit pulse. A shorter pulse provides more resolution and helps prevent small objects (such as fish) from blurring together but longer pulses will often provide more depth range in deeper water. In Analog Time-Varying Gain mode you must supply three different values as already mentioned earlier - The Transmit pulse Width, Surface...
  • Page 40: Nmea 0183 Output

    NMEA 0183 Output The PcFF80 Windows software can be told to turn ON NMEA 0183 serial data output from the “Options” menu <--> Serial Data Out ON/OFF. When “ON” is selected the PcFF80 will send the depth, sea water tem- perature and GPS position and ground speed data out to a serial port (or USB port) of your choice.
  • Page 41: Hints And Suggestions For Settings

    Hints and Suggestions for Settings The transmit power, receiver gain, pulse width, and signal processing type etc. all affect how the display will look and how well the unit func- tions as both a fish finder and as a depth sounder. If you are not already familiar with the adjustments we suggest that you start with the following settings and then experiment with the settings to suit your preferences:...
  • Page 42 You could use time-varying gain on one side of a split screen and Fixed Analog Gain on the other side to help compensate. In split-screen mode the PcFF80 uses the screen that is set to see the deepest when calculating the bottom depth. If you are looking for fish...
  • Page 43 1 with white line turned ON. In this mode the PcFF80 will work to about 3000 feet (1000M). DSP will also allow you to find fish in deeper water than either of the analog modes If you are not seeing fish when you know that they are directly below you then you may be using too little power or too little receiver gain.
  • Page 44: Other Cruzpro Products

    Other CruzPro Products l Depthsounder/Fishfinder & Speed/Log/w Temperature l DC Volts/Amps/Amp-Hour Monitors l AC Volts/Amps/Frequency/kW Monitor l LPG/Petrol Gas Detectors/Alarms l Bilge Water Alarms & Bilge Pump Controllers l Windlass Controller/Chain Counter l Digital Fuel Gauge & Fuel Consumption Calculator...

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