Dive Computers & Linux

I've seen some minor posts asking about alternatives (to Windows) for downloading profiles from dive computers. I only use Linux at home, and I'd like to be able to download my profile to my Linux computer (including my handheld one).

This is how I envision this post:
I'll post what I've tried, what works, and what doesn't (at least in my world ) You post your experiences, and I'll update the original post (this one), so that anyone looking can find the info easily. If this is redundant (ie; someone knows of a source of comprehensive dive computer with linux info), please also let me and others know. I know there are sites with bits and pieces of info for different computers, and we can cull them here as well.

I'll start with my experience with the Mosquito:

Suunto Mosquito (and possibly Vyper, Stinger, et al)

mosquitotools
My first attempt to get a download on the Mosquito was through mosquitotools. Unfortunately this would not compile on my computer. It appears that development is no current for this set of packages, however the developer told me that assistance is best conducted directly with him as opposed to through the mailing list.

gdivelog
gdivelogI was able to compile and install. It successfully downloaded my computer profiles, but looks to be about as buggy as SDM. On the main dive profile itself (the chart), the depths show accurately, however if you pick a specific point on the dive, the depth is tripled. "Oopses" are not displayed as they are in SDM. It appears as if development is still ongoing (wiki states latest version to be available this month!).

jdivelog
jdivelog, as its name suggests, is a divelog written in java. I'm not a big fan of java, but the screenies looked nice, so I thought I'd give it a try. Everything compiled fine, and it does look good...lots of options for data input, equipment tracking, photos and such. The problem I had with it is that it requires a version of comm.jar (it's java's serial port access extension thingy) that is no longer available on Sun's website. I MIGHT be able to have someone send me that file, but it gets shady due to Sun's licensing policies. Since I couldn't get the proper comm.jar file, I couldn't get downloads from my computer. The developer states on the sourceforge forum that the next release should include support for the newest comm.jar file.

That's all I've got for now. Oh! The above (excluding mosquitotools) will work with computers besides Suunto. IIRC UWATEC and Sensus will also work with the above.

IMPORTANT!: Currently none of the above have the option to print, although a screen capture is possible.

Is this helpful?

I'd love to find a Java or Native Linux dive log that I could run on my Motorola A1200 (MING). It even has a USB port on it.

The USB port is a "client" port, and is not an OTG, or server port. This the A1200 will not "see" USB devices attached to it.

HOWEVER; there are some bluetooth-to-serial/usb dongles that you might be able to use with a dive computer (I'm not sure which you use, nor can I be positive that it'll work). It's using the same processor as my Zaurus, and Java is included, so it's possible that jdivelog may work on it. I'm actually going to make an attempt to install jdivelog on my Zaurus.

I have some updates...better late then never...though based on the overwhelming activity on this thread, you'd never know! :mooner:


Bad News
OK...got an email from the maintainer of mosquitotools a couple of months ago, and it appears he's no longer going to maintain it. He might accept emails for troubleshooting and such...but no patches.

Good News
jdivelog has been updated and now has printing capability! Also I was incorrect in stating that the comm.jar file was unavailable. There was a link to the correct file on the home page of the site (as opposed to the downloads section, where I was expecting it ) I got everything installed as described and downloaded my dives from my mosquito. The log grabs everything from the mosquito except (i think) surface temp and tissue saturation. It also doesn't have an SAC calculator. I'm going to make feature requests for these things as I feel they are important.


gdivelog was supposed to be updated by this time. According to the website wiki:

Current Version

The current stable version is 0.5.1. Version 0.6 is expected to be released around June 2006.

Click to expand...

I'll email the maintainer to find out what the plans are.

Now I'd really like to know...DOES ANYONE FIND THIS INFORMATION USEFUL AT ALL?? :11:

Yes, keep it coming please!

I should also mention that I'm really close to getting SDM2 working via wine (well...CrossoverOffice really).

I've sent emails to g&jdivelog...we'll see what happens.

Here's a response from Pellmont from JDivelog:

1) you can print the charts directly when right-clicking on a chart. i wanted also to add printing of detailed dive data (one sheet per dive, including profile), but unfortunately i didn't have time yet :-(

2) as mikko translated for me sac is surface air consumption. we have a field called amv (atem-minuten-volumen, we didn't know the english word for it...). this field is calculated if you do not enter anything there, but fill in all necessary data (tank size, pressure begin/end, duration, average depth). after you filled in all these fields close the window and reopen the dive, et voilà: your sac/amv is calculated
but i will rename the label in the english translation

3) i have to check against the specs, maybe i missed a data record. so you would like to have two temperature fields? i guess we could improve this ;-)

4) tissue saturation is quite a complex thing. we want to add further models for dive simulation, such as vpm. probably we could use this logic also for displaying tissue information somewhere. i cannot commit a date to release this, but we are working on it...

Click to expand...

I haven't heard anything back from gdivelog yet.

This is good information. I started a thread about jDivelog here. My interest is getting this application running on my Macintosh under OS X. :blinking:

Pellmont was able to find the surface temp bit from the Mosquito and will add that to the next version.

They're going to have to implement RGBM independently for jdivelog, since SDM was performing the calculations on the PC.

@MichiganDiver: I've replied to your post, and will help you to my best ability (I have access to an iMac, so if worse comes to worse, I can do the hands-on thing.

thanks!