in air use of an underwater sonar sensor
Account cancelled 2026-07-17 19:21:23 133 Views1 Replies Hello everybody,
with my firm I am designing a a certain type of instrumented buoy and I need to have a low-cost, reliable, sonar sensor to exstimate the buoy's buoyancy level. With this purpose in mind I have found this IP68 sonar transducer: https://wiki.dfrobot.com/sen0598/#tech_specs , now, from the instrument's specs I have seen that it is aimed for an underwater use (it is, in fact, labelled as an IP68 sensor), so my question is, can this sensor operate in out of water? Does it need a convertion equation for the measured distance to take into account the differences between sound's speed in water and in air? Or is it possible to configure the sensor to properly work underwater?
Thanks in advance to evryone that will support me!
Hi there. The SEN0598 is designed specifically for underwater measurement and is not suitable for ranging in air.
According to the product documentation, the sensor must be placed in water to output distance data; otherwise, the distance value will be 0. Changing the distance conversion based on the speed of sound in air would therefore not be enough.
If the measurement needs to be made through air, an ultrasonic sensor designed for air would be a better choice.
Could you explain where the sensor will be installed and what distance represents the buoyancy level? This will help us suggest a more suitable sensor.
