DANIAMANT ECHOPILOT FLS

A good echo sounder is arguably one of the most important instruments on any boat – in shallow water, knowing how much of the wet stuff is beneath you is essential. But what most won’t tell you is how much water is ahead of you, arguably even more important to know. Danish company Daniamant’s Echopilot FLS (forward looking sounders) have been around since 1992 and this is its latest version.

It features a full-colour 7in display that can be flush or bracket mounted. Alternatively, the Echopilot FLS Platinum Engine is a ‘Black Box’ unit with NMEA 0183 Version 2.0 output that enables any chartplotter, multifunction display or PC with a video input to become a fully functional 2D colour FLS.

The full-colour display is particularly useful for understanding the seabed below. Stronger echoes produce colours at the red end of the spectrum, indicating a hard seabed such as rock, whereas weaker echoes received from softer materials such as sand or mud are shown as colours at the yellow end of the spectrum – all very handy for anchoring.

There are a range of through-hull transducers that operate at 200khz and send out a signal that spans from straight down to straight ahead. Think of it much like an underwater radar turned on its side and scanning a vertical plane instead of a horizontal one and through 90°. It updates every 0.2 seconds giving virtually real time information and has a typical forward range of 10-20 times the depth. This means that in 10m of water you should achieve a forward range of 100-200m.

There is also a 3D version that uses two through-hull transducers to produce a ‘cone’ signal that scans 60° on the horizontal plane rather than the 20° of the 2D versions. This provides mapping for a larger area of the seabed – to the sides as well as ahead.

PRICE FROM £999.95

CONTACT www. daniamant.com