Underwater Navigation Device

[C0mbatCarl]

Please excuse me to get off topic. I really haven't the slightest clue when it come to diving of any sort, but I know how to get around on land very well. From experience low tech navigation is always what saves lives. I never get out without a compass. I carry mini chemlight bundles and a strobe. Has anyone used chems or a strobe in a wreck or cave. Right on red, left on blue and straight on green are how I've gone about marking. I know plastic floats and water is three dimensional navigation unlike the 2d of land. Other than a drag line what are some simple navigation tricks?

 

[NAM001]

RF signals do not travel that well underwater and GPS signal (at ~1.5Ghz) gets attenuated by ~40^4dBm when traveling underwater (translation .. it goes only few meters ..at best), that is way they put the GPS on the buoy at the surface and then communicate with the handheld units via acoustic signals.

There is a LOT of research going on worldwide regarding underwater broadband acoustic communication ... so far I could not find any paper authored by them ...

I rather prefer to continue on the Inertial Navigation path.

AM

the unit does not transmit in the rf band it takes the gps data and retransmits a data bundle uaing a sonic freq band. they call it a gps access point. or gps router. it is mostly a mesioa converter from rf signal to acoustic transducer. some here in the hand shaking bettween the bouy and the wrist unit the wrist unit knows where it is relativly from the bouy and calculates its lat lon from the bouy lat lon reference. it talks directly from wrist to wrist units. sl says the maker. the bouy has a compas in it and i think a directional receiver in it. so it knows that you are east at 250 feet from the bouy. i did not get an understanding of how one wrist unit knows where the other wrist unit on another diver. you suposedly do not need the bouy to se your buddy. most the prosessing is done in the wrist units.

perhaps someone else has more info on it.



the bouy is sold for 300 and the wrist is sold for 700 so says the maker at the time i inquired.

 

[TwistedGray]

Has anyone used it yet or has it been shipped to customers yet?

 

[Guy Alcala]

Please excuse me to get off topic. I really haven't the slightest clue when it come to diving of any sort, but I know how to get around on land very well. From experience low tech navigation is always what saves lives. I never get out without a compass. I carry mini chemlight bundles and a strobe. Has anyone used chems or a strobe in a wreck or cave. Right on red, left on blue and straight on green are how I've gone about marking. I know plastic floats and water is three dimensional navigation unlike the 2d of land. Other than a drag line what are some simple navigation tricks?

Pretty much the same ones you use on land in limited vis in the mountains, assuming you nav. using map, compass and altimeter. All the standard orienteering techniques, such as handrails, contouring, collecting/catching features, aim off, and attack points can be used underwater. The depth gauge just replaces the altimeter.

Re chem lights, many of us won't use them, as they're pretty bad from an environmental standpoint. I realize that the military uses them by the hundreds of thousands if not millions, but except for emergency backup, environmentally aware divers try to avoid them, and use battery-powered equivalents. Of course, non-reusable batteries also have their issues (we normally use rechargeables for primary lights), but the consensus seems to be that the chem lights are worse.

Guy

 

[Guy Alcala]

For those of you who don't want to wait for the Navimate, or don't mind having to be attached to a surface receiver by wire, and you don't need to have GPS data below 60 feet, here's an option:

Sea Guide Diver GPS

This is essentially what military and scientific divers have been using for years, adapted to a widely used commercial GPS system. The only place I've been able to find a price, it was listed at $1,800, which presumably includes the GPS. This is almost double the advertised price of the Navimate and its buoy, and it's bulkier. It can apparently use the Garmin 60 and a few other units as well, although I'd imagine that would require different cases. But if you need something now, it's [apparently] available.

Re the Navimate:

originally posted by TwistedGray

Has anyone used it yet or has it been shipped to customers yet?

Not to my knowledge, but then last year the designer/president said it would be May or June for the first units, and AFAIK he hasn't changed that. Aside from any potential development problems that would delay it, who knows in this economy?

Guy

 

[TwistedGray]

For those of you who don't want to wait for the Navimate, or don't mind having to be attached to a surface receiver by wire, and you don't need to have GPS data below 60 feet, here's an option:

Sea Guide Diver GPS

This is essentially what military and scientific divers have been using for years, adapted to a widely used commercial GPS system. The only place I've been able to find a price, it was listed at $1,800, which presumably includes the GPS. This is almost double the advertised price of the Navimate and its buoy, and it's bulkier. It can apparently use the Garmin 60 and a few other units as well, although I'd imagine that would require different cases. But if you need something now, it's [apparently] available.

Guy

The problem with using towed GPS buoys are that they are bulky and you are tethered to the surface (perhaps some drag?). The NOAA science divers that we worked with who use(d) this system said it was annoying but eventually became "routine" work...

Not to my knowledge, but then last year the designer/president said it would be May or June for the first units, and AFAIK he hasn't changed that. Aside from any potential development problems that would delay it, who knows in this economy?

Guy

We still sell the DiveTrackers quite regularly. I haven't seen a decline in purchases over the last year or two...

 

[konadiverII]

It would be awesome to have a device to know where all my students and Divemasters are (including how much air they have in their tanks and how deep they're at) also including a map of the dive site and the location of all the boats on the surface. If something like this exists, I would drop over 5 grand for it, easily!

 

[reefduffer]

Anyone heard anything about the Navimate availability?
June 2010 has come and gone...

I was really hoping this one wasn't vaporware.

 

[HowardE]

I spoke to the guy last month. He expects something by fall. He said, making the production model was harder than he thought it would be.

 

[TwistedGray]

As with any new product I would be surprised if it doesn't take until Spring of 2011. Nothing is ever completed when it's supposed to be...especially if you don't have previous production experience...even then...