Spooling an AquaView Camera

Anyone have any ideas on an inexpensive contraption for dropping and retrieving the camera on an AquaView? I bought one for use on the ice and in the boat but don’t use it much because I hate manually unwinding the cable from the base it came on (bought the ‘base’ model).

I’m thinking there must be some sort of hand-crank on a spool that could be mounted on a box or something ???

With all the experience of the folks using this website, I’m sure someone out there has an excellent solution for a rig that can be used on the boat as well as in the shack!

I hear ya. Its a pain in the boat. Not too bad in the shack, less moving. I will be watching this post also.

big g

How about an extension cord reel.

I was thinking some time ago, a downrigger may work, and there is even downriggers that you can control with a switch, now it may not be the cheapist option, but it serves more than one purpose. Then again I haven’t really figured out a good way to spool the camera line, maybe one of the extention cord reels, I think they have ones that reel the cords back in.

I’ve thought a little about it, not sure what all is possible, frankly I haven’t had the time or need yet to do it, so it’s still brewing in my head.

Aquaview makes a unit that has a wind up feature to wind up the cord. And another unit that has automatic deploy and stow pictured above.

.

He did mention cheap though, even as cool as the automatic one is, have you seen the price??? Neat in concept, I think it’s a tad spendy for 99.9% of people.

There are also those anchor things, spool in back, hold you anchor in a base on the edge of the boat, those may work too.

Sorry, I did miss that part. $2,499 for the auto (MAV) and $499 for the yellow unit (S-100).

ouch… those prices are a bit high for what I’m looking for (although I’d love to have those products!).

I may end up out in the shop rigging something. I like the idea of using a power cord reel – just have to figure out how to mount it to the monitor. Some sort of boom, like a downrigger, would be cool.

How well will one of these units hold up running in waves. Mounted to the bow, you would think that it would get beat up pretty good running in rough seas, unless it is easily removed.

Looks like a pretty cool idea. I know the biggest problems I’ve had with an underwater camera is setting the correct depth with it and wrapping up the cord. This unit would solve both of them.

Josh

Josh, early reports is that it has held up well just like a locator or GPS unit mounted to the bow. Only the cord box in mounted on the bow, the LCD screen for the camera is mounted on your dash.. Pretty sweet..

The first time I would use that, Id forget to put it up, and the prop would eat it for lunch

$2,499..Please tell me that is for everything including screen? I saw that on Al Linders Angling Edge, looks cool! I would buy one if I had the money lying around, why not…some high rollers spend close to that on new depth finders.

I’m with Grump…I would take off and forget it down. Infact, a couple weeks ago after jigging all day, I organized everything in the boat, put my life jacket on, started the motor and started back towards the launch…. Well after a few hundred yards I happened to look back too see alot of splashing! What the heck is that??? Oh…the anchor! No harm, but I felt pretty stupid.

Cool, Thanks Derek