Suggestions/question

[wahoo]

I have a friend who is a Dean of a major Engineering college. HE IS NOT A FISHERMAN. Senior Engineering students are required to take on a Design project to fill a need in any industry. He knows I fish constantly and asked if there any problems to be solved fishing--other than how to get them to open their mouths.

He asked, for example, when I explained ice fishing, is there anything that electronically measure the ice thickness instantly. Well, I am unaware there is anything that does that, but some of you whizzes on electronics may tell me otherwise.

Other suggestions I have so far are: Wireless transducer; true sealed/waterproof bearings; etc.

If not, would the ice measuring device be an item that would assist? Any other suggestions would be welcome.

thanks

["Just Add Ice"]

well IMO with a person or person's life on the line nothing will beat drilling a hole and measuring it by hand. Seeing with your own eyes VS electronics is the only way to go. But I know that in the ice arena industry they have electronics to measure the depth of ice but they are measuring down to a concrete base not sure how that would work with water.

[TruthWalleyes]

So would you just drop the wireless transducer down the hole and then go buy another one?

[wahoo]

Not down the hole, rather, this was a suggestion for boats--sorry to list it here. Good to see sharp persons catch such errors.

[TruthWalleyes]

Design us some auto leveling boat trailers using hydraulics.

A device to push the boat off the trailer with a wireless remote.

About a wireless transducer, this Could have some merrit for kayaks / canoes. However probably not practical...but that would make it a perfect project for some outside the box thinking engineers.

[LMITOUT]

I believe there is already a device that measures ice thickness but it is more on the commercial scale than consumer. Saw it on Ice Road Truckers!

[pulleye16]

USB (connected) transducers and software for those transducers so people can use tablets/phones/computers...just about anything that has USB for both ice and open water fishing. I truley feel you could dominate the market cause the ideas would be endless and poeple could use anything USB device they wanted...people would only have to purchase your transducers and software! You could also evolve to wireless some day...just like a smart phone, you could almost do anything with a USB device transduce.

Any transducer that was USB driven or underwater camera that was USB driven, side scan USB, downscan USB...anything! Just need the software and the market would be endless!

FYI, IMO...ice thickness would hardly sell and only to those who do early ice and even those people would rather trust their insticts and skills then some machine cause alot more plays into affect then just ice thickness.

[Brad B]

a wireless transducer is possible for ice fishing if you think about it. we already have the float that holds the transducer now just remove the wire by building a transmitter on the end of the float that is read by your flasher wirelessly. you could take this one step farther and do a computer based flasher with multiple transducers and have it be selectable as to which one shows on the display or even make it so you could have multiple displays at once. by having multiple wireless trans ducers you could drill a series of holes and place one in each hole and monitor them all from inside your fish house to see where the fish are in the area then move accordingly. the technology is there but it is the cost that keeps things from becoming reality.

[wahoo]

Thanks for the good ideas/ I'll get them to my friend. Brad, i like your idea.

[TooTallTom]

And with multiple transducers and the right software, you could image the bottom. (Similar to what the SI transducers do when underway.) It would also allow you to triangulate distant points for navigational purposes.

[shedzbo]

Hummingbird has a Wireless transducer the Smart Cast