Better computer interfaces coming?

[TechnoMage]

I just wish that the computer manufactures would give a little thought to how their dive computers data will interface with a PC application. How hard would it be to assign guid to each dive? This would make it much easier to do thing like combining dives on the PC end.

I ran into this after a dive to Hawaii. We forgot to reset the time on our dive computers so when I downloaded the data to my PC I changed the time of the dives. On my next download the PC Software added the Hawaii dives back since it didn't recognize the old ones with the new times.

-Ron

 

[chrpai]

There are USB to RS-232 cables that have COM port drivers available for a mere $20.

 

[MildlyDamp]

It's interesting to see that others have been thinking along the same lines as I have regarding dive computers. The PDA type display is exactly what I was thinking, too. Instead of having a custom LCD where only certain characters can be displayed in certain positions, how about a "design your own computer?" By this I mean you'd have a program that would allow you to drag and drop all the indicators (pressure, time, depth, etc.) from a toolbox on to the display, and then position and size them as you want. You could also make use of color for various alarms and indicators; since the display is emissive, you wouldn't have the problem of red going to black at depth, too.

 

[jamiei]

There are USB to RS-232 cables that have COM port drivers available for a mere $20.

I actually have found one on ebay with drivers for $3.50... and it worked