Dive Computers, iPads and the last century?

[ariddett]

Good morning the learned diving community! Enthusiastic amateur here looking for advice on why the process of downloading data from dive computers seems to be stuck on using Windows or Mac PCs and has apparently not progressed to include tablets such as the ubiquitous iPad.

I have a Scubapro Meridian which has just had its guts ripped out and replaced by Scubapro with the workings from a Mantis. To date I have been logging my dives hand-raulically, but have been perusing current apps and will start using Diviac (open to suggestions for alternatives!).

I'm a total tourist diver - warm water only! - and when I do go, the only hardware I have with me is my iPad (with a fully stocked Kindle app) and iPhone (with additional camera lenses). Before I waste £50 on a cradle and Lightning USB adaptor, it would seem that all the online advice is telling me that direct download from computer to an iPad is not currently possible. Scubapro's website only advises on how to do so via computer, and most of the forums I've searched suggest direct connection is impossible.

In an age when I can run a business from an iPad including card swipe machine, is this not a little backwards? Or have I missed something entirely and is it, in fact, possible?

 

[Oldbear]

Good question ... I wish I knew, but my guess is too many different programming platforms that all keep changing. So they pick the two most popular.

 

[ariddett]

Which is fair enough, but you would have thought Scubapro would put the effort into an Apple app, not just an Android one. The diving community is big enough, or so you'd hope!! Thanks shipmate.

 

[CuzzA]

Check out the DiveMate app.
DiveMate - the Beautiful Diving Log Book by AppZoo GmbH
DiveMate - the Beautiful Diving Log Book on the App Store

I do not use it, but looked into it once. They claim to support over 130 computers for direct log data transfer. I believe they sell a special cable.

 

[ariddett]

Magic! Well it's a promising option anyway! I'll have a play with the DiveMate App - it does promise connectivity with the Mantis as well as with Diviac. Not cheap at €66 though.

Anyone interested here's the website blurb - includes a compatibility checker:

FusionDescription

 

[CuzzA]

Yeah, seems like a solid option. My only complaint would be, and maybe I'm wrong, is that it appears to store the data on the device and not in a cloud. If there's a way to save it or back it up the cloud that would be great since there is still some risk of losing or crashing the device.

 

[doctormike]

MacDive does this, and it's a awesome piece of software...

MacDive

 

[ariddett]

My concern is that both of these additional decoders (the MacDive unfortunately does not support Scubapro as the watch is not Bluetooth capable nor does the DC Buddy extra have a Scubapro or USB connection) are OBE as soon as someone figures out how to transfer that code to the app. I thought that was what Scubapro had already figured out with their Android app - maybe it's as simple as a lack of demand for an iOS version. About time to email Scubapro direct methinks.

Big thanks for all the views so far!

 

[morejanus]

In this particular case, it's not necessarily ScuabPro's fault. Apple does not give developers/anyone direct access to the Lightning or dock connector and the iDevices don't come with a USB port. So there is no way for iOS software to "talk" to your USB/Serial based devices. If you want to integrate a piece of hardware with your iOS device, you have to get "approved" by Apple and follow their hardware integration program ($$$) and the dive computer market is just too small to make it financially viable. The same also applies to "regular" Bluetooth. The reason I've heard is that there is just too much crappy hardware and software out there that will drain your phone battery and that users complain about their battery life to Apple, and not to the providers of the crappy hardware/software. Apple puts a lot of restrictions on developers creating software too, just to protect battery life. For Android devices, Google gives you the flexibility to toast your battery because they know that it will reflect on the phone manufacturer, not them

The result is that Bluetooth LE is the first technology that makes sense to use for the dive computer industry and you're seeing it adopted by many of the manufacturers. ScubaPro/UWatec "back in the day" at least moved from serial interfaces to IrDA. And now that IrDA is essentially obsolete they have just moved back to USB/Serial instead of moving to another wireless interface. That may change soon though too.

DiveMate Fusion makes their USB devices and then uses the Apple "camera kit" accessory cable ($39 USD) to get a USB port and then their software talks to the USB device like a camera.

Even in this day and age, software talks to 80% of dive computers using a serial port interface. Although your Meridian/Mantis cable has a USB port on one end, you can be sure that all software, including ours, is communicating with it like a 40 year old serial port. Newer manufacturers are moving into the next century, but the last century is still with us

Janice

 

[undrwater]

Android devices can talk to dive computers with USB / serial ports, Bluetooth, and (I believe) IR.

A serial bus is still the standard for talking to devices at a low level, I believe.