Questions for Suunto owners.

[danw2002]

for your Cobra, i did this and it works great and i dont have to go
behind the computer any more and also use it for my phone interphase cable as well, so i dont have to use my serial connection anymore. do a ebay search for USB to serial adaptor to give you an idea of types and prices....

ABQdiver once bubbled...
Right now all I have is the AI Cobra. Works very well with the PC interface. I do have to agree with Raybo, that a USB connection would be very nice. Most advanced computer peripherals are at least offering that as a interface.

I will more than likely add a Vyper to the stable as a backup since the interface is the same. The workings of the computer are similar and that way the learning curve is cut down.

 

[nickjb]

Jamei, if you still looking for the Stinger info:

There is one contact on the case. A small dimple about 1mm across (It is actually the water sensor to sense if it is wet). The other two pins on the interface just connect to the case. It works fine with two pins rather than three. These pins can be anything from 2mm apart to 15mm apart and it will still work fine.

 

[jamiei]

Yeah, I was trying to find a few people to test my cobra (2 pin) interface on the stinger/spyder to make sure it works reliably on them. For anyone wondering what the difference is, the oem has a plug that somewhat prevents it from being used on stinger/spyder models whereas the units I build have two exposed pins that don't cause this problem and should work fine with these models. I'll post as soon as I have a few to confirm that this works.

 

[Ari]

Already have your Vyper interface.

Ari

 

[jamiei]

For anyone reading this thread, the new interfaces I am making will work with both the cobra type models and the stinger/spyder type models because of the new, spring-loaded contacts. I also have kits for anyone that wants to build one themselves.

 

[RPanick]

I have a Mosquito and Cobra, since I only want the dive info from one of them, I use the Cobra for downloads. Hence I don't need to connect to the Mosquito. Besides the Cobra has all the air info that the Mosquito doesn't.

On the USB issue, I had to go buy one of those converters because my new computer doesn't have a serial port. It appears to work fine, however one issue. When I told the Suunto Dive Manager to go search for ports, it didn't find the USB port. I set it manually to port 5, and everything worked fine. You need to look in Device Manager for Windows 2000/XP to find out where it ended up.

If you want to dream about an improved interface, why not get rid of the cable entirely and use IR. A couple of dive computers out there are going that way and it sounds like a big improvement. Sorry jamiei that would end your side market, but it would be a lot better than a cable.

Of course if you really want to dream, how about a Blue Tooth interface. Imagine, getting out of the water, your dive computer automatically hooks up to your PDA, downloads the changes and your done. You pick up your PDA and use it to plan your next dive with all of your information already in place. Now all we need is a Blue Tooth, water resistant PDA. Actually we might be pretty close here for the PDA, most of the new Pocket PCs have Blue Tooth and I saw someone selling a water resistant cover for the Pocket PC. (Of course a zip lock bag might work okay too.

 

[jamiei]

you're talking about a lot of money there for these dreams. People that buy my interfaces and kits do so to save money. I plan on keeping my cobra for a long time and so will a lot of other people so there'll be a need for cable interfaces for a while. If they were to be obsolete tommorrow, trust me, I won't lose any sleep over it. I make them to help, not to pay the bills.

Suunto's software doesn't look for usb ports so thats why it will never recognize it.

The Cobra and the mosquito use the same interface, the cobra and the stinger don't. that was the point. Some people do want to download both. Some people have had a mosquito for a couple years and just now added a stinger for instance, but don't want to lose all the dive info they had in the mosquito so they would appreciate being able to use one interface with both. It doesn't cost any more, its just an added convenience.

IR cost money and if it goes out, you lose the ability entirely. Remember how finicky remote controls can be... a lot more possibilty for corrupted transfers in my opinion. Not really an improvement worth the additional cost unless you just want to be able to say its IR. My cobra will never be IR and the same can be said for every dive computer suunto sells up to now and in the foreseable future. Not that many offer IR and the only reason I see that they are is to make it almost impossible for anyone to easily make their own interface for it. Is that what you support? A monopoly on these interfaces so we'll have to pay even more?

No Dreams of a better interface... just an improvement on the one I make that saves people a heck of a lot of money. Someone that dreams of all the gadgets you do probably doesn't care to save money and has no use for my interface. I offer a product that does the same thing and more than Suunto's interface for less than half the price. If Suunto decides to go IR, i won't make them for people anymore obviously, no big deal. People make a big deal about usb and say if I want to improve my interface to make it with a usb plug. Suunto doesn't offer it with usb, why should I? If I did offer it with a usb plug, it would cost the same as if you go out and buy an adapter. Suunto determines the type interface you use, not me.
Finally, I have to say... Come On, give me a break. How hard is it to use an interface? Why do you want it to be easier? All you have to do is plug the thing in and attach it to your dive computer for a few seconds. The Suunto holds 36 hours of dives (at 20 sec sampling) and there's no reason why you have to download the info as soon as you pop out of the water. You went on the dive, it should be fresh on your memory.

Oh yeah, you don't need to download your dives to be able to plan your next dive so the bluetooth/pda idea seems far fetched, impractical, and unneeded as far as my needs are concerned anyway. Just a waste of money, but if you have the money to waste and thats what you want, go for it. The dive computer does that for you, its called the plan button and it gives you all the info you need. Whats that saying... Keep it simple stupid. If you're speaking of planning your dive based on the amount of air time you have, you should know your SAC rate already as it remains fairly constant. Don't get me wrong, if gadgets are your thing and money isn't an issue I see nothing wrong with your ideas except that I believe IR is nothing more than a ploy to force feed us expensive interfaces by taking away the other options we have now. You seem to be in support of us having to pay whatever price the manufacturer wants us to pay. Why would you want me to not be able to make interfaces for people and save them money. Do you also support the pricing policies of the dive industry? Could I also assume you are against divers buying from places like Leisurepro because they save people money? Thats all I do is save divers money... If you want an IR interface, go buy a uwatec. Those things are perfect fo you, they only hold like 6 full dives so you could download your info via IR all the time. For me, I'll download my info when I have time and be happy as I can be that I didn't give my LDS $175 for one or leisure pro $115 for one along with a lot of other people.

 

[jamiei]

one other idea... what if you go somewhere on a trip and don't take your regs. The mosquito (or stinger in my example) can still easily go with you and record your dive info. In that case, you would need or at least benefit from it. Again, you don't have my interface and you don't need the added convenience of it so its no big deal, but some do.

 

[RPanick]

I fully admit to being a gadget nut, I have been one for years. Unfortunately the only cure is to run out of money.

Sorry if you took offense Jamiei, none was intended. The USB section was intended for something that was mentioned independently, not as a suggestion for building a USB cable. I totally agree using the adapter makes perfect sense and see no need to build a USB version.

On the IR and Blue Tooth issues, not having a cable is a distinct advantage, one less thing to loose/carry or have to crawl under the desk for.

IR devices are actually fairly reliable, its the packaging that makes all the difference. Most TV controllers are actually very cheap and get lots of abuse. The most common failure isn't the IR, its the buttons on the remote control. The IR circuit and the control chips are also very cheap and common, and actually derived from standard serial port mechanisms. So doing IR would actually save many people money because an interface simply would not be required.

Blue Tooth costs are predicted to get very cheap in the near future as the components become more common. Blue Tooth is even more desireable than IR, it has no pointing or directional requirements. Many computers, phones and other devices are getting built in Blue Tooth capability. So the thought of dive computers talking to your computer through Blue Tooth isn't so far fetched.

As to standardization, almost all IR and Blue Tooth devices actually conform to standards, there simply are different data structures for the interface once a connection is established. So in most cases there wouldn't be anything prorietary at all about IR or Blue Tooth.

The proprietary part is simply the data format and commands used to exchange information. Unfortunately its unlikely that manufactures of these devices will start exchanging information in something convienent like XML. Of course the number of people that could deal with it anyway is very small.

My example of having your dive computer talk to your PDA probably was a bit far fetched I will admit. I would however like to be able to see my Nitrogen saturation information which I can't do in detail on most dive computers. Particularly when on a live aboard and doing four or five dives a day. And yes I do use my dive computer for plannning, I also look at the tables as a reference to what my dive computer is telling me. It would be nice to at a glance see a graph of my dive.

My gear got delayed on a trip once and I had to use boat equipment. I will absolutely never do that again. If I don't have my gear, I don't go diving. But I see your point about the Mosquito, it is very practical to take with you even without the rest of your gear.

By the way Jamiei I actually have a pretty good level of respect for you and your efforts to make these interfaces. I realized quite a while ago you weren't doing it for the money. However anyone that goes to the trouble to figure out how to reverse engineer a data transfer cable, and then improve on it also suffers from a slightly different form of tech toy disease. But that's okay, so long as we are all having fun, it only upsets our spouses.

 

[jamiei]

IR is a good idea, but you do have to have an interface or at least some additional hardware. If you look at the Mares "Iris" as well as what other companies offer you see that you do still have to have some type of interface. My point was that its much easier for myself or anyone else to build a serial port interface than to build an IR interface like the Iris. Parts would be more expensive and the design would likely be much more complicated and prone to errors in building it.