Presenting RedWAVE, a ready and available underwater GPS system

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What is the power requirements and operational lifetime of the buoys?

Buoys have built-in batteries, under normal conditions (20 degrees Celsius) their autonomy is 24 hours. Their charging time is 10 hours with 110/220 V charger.
RedNAV has wireless charging, its autonomy is 8 hours, full charge occurs in 4 hours.
RedNODE (receiver for ROV / AUV) consumes 70 mA / 5 V.
 
Finally, someone is taking a concept that has been around for years and making an off-the-shelf version that we can use. That said, I have to comment on a few aspects:

Anchoring a buoy to the bottom in some areas is frowned upon due to delicate benthic habitats. Unattended buoys could thus be removed as marine debris, making for an expensive replacement. Can lost buoys be located remotely?

Depending on the acoustic frequency, the unit could disturb marine mammals in the area. Have you looked in to pre-checking this through an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement process?


At the moment there is no way to remotely find a lost buoy, at least by means of this system. We are working on the next version, in the future buoys will be equipped with a radio beacon.

The frequency range of the buoys lies between 10 and 30 kHz. Most divers who we worked with didn’t hear buoys, unless they approach them closely. The sound of buoys is like the leaves rustling in comparison for example with sonar sound or boat engines .
Sound pressure and frequency band in fact are close enough to the corresponding characteristics of the so-called underwater telephone (OTS, OceanReef etc).
Buoys transmit sufficiently short signals, so there is no reason to believe that they can have any negative effect on marine mammals.
 
What is the price?

According to the current exchange rate the price for 1 full set (4 buoys, 4 chargers, 1 navigation receiver RedNAV + wireless charging) is $ 12000 (EXW). An extra navigation receiver RedNAV is $ 3890. One buoy is $2230.
 
Well another system to file int the catagory of fiscally not feasable to own by the normal diver.
 
Well another system to file int the catagory of fiscally not feasable to own by the normal diver.

Agreed, maybe of some value for commercial operations, but will never be feasible for any recreational diving use. I don't think a dive op would even bite at that price. Almost $4k per diver after a $12k investment in a basic setup. I believe the number of potential sales for this product worldwide can be counted on two hands, and that is being generous.

The last underwater GPS product (Navimate) had a projected price of $1200 for the wrist unit, and $500 for the bouy (only needed one), and never seemed to get off the ground (Vaporware). If a product with a $1700 entry fee couldn't get off the ground, I'm not sure a similar product with a price tag 7x higher will be able to make headway.
 
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Maybe they'll get those scientific divers who spend $1,000 on ipad cases will be interested. If I had that kind of money to spend on diving I'd be looking at putting a downpayment on a boat.
 
Agreed, maybe of some value for commercial operations, but will never be feasible for any recreational diving use. I don't think a dive op would even bite at that price. Almost $4k per diver after a $12k investment in a basic setup. I believe the number of potential sales for this product worldwide can be counted on two hands, and that is being generous.

The last underwater GPS product (Navimate) had a projected price of $1200 for the wrist unit, and $500 for the bouy (only needed one), and never seemed to get off the ground (Vaporware). If a product with a $1700 entry fee couldn't get off the ground, I'm not sure a similar product with a price tag 7x higher will be able to make headway.



Yes, we understand that probably RedWAVE system isn’t for an average customer, but its price absolutely worths it.The system is popular among diving services and organizations that perform works on underwater structures inspection using ROVs. Currently we’ve sold more than 50 sets since 2015.

With regard to the infamous Navimate, that was announced back in 2009, we tend to believe the price of $ 1500 is more than unrealistic. Moreover, so far developers haven’t released a single prototype. From our point of view, the claimed characteristics are implausible like the layout of the system itself: 1 buoy with a direction-finding antenna constantly determining the location of all subscribers and transmitting the calculated coordinates to them.

USBL systems are quite capricious. The price for them starts from $ 17,000 for the simplest (Tritech MicronNAV) and reaches up to $ 170,000 for only one DF-antenna in serious widely used systems (Sonardyne).

At the same time, we would like to pay your attention to our diver's "compass". As we have already mentioned, this system solves the task of divers homing and the price for 1 set is $ 1,900 (EXW) One set includes homing beacon with submersible antenna + charger, 1 wrist- held device + 1 wireless charging module. An additional wrist unit costs $ 899 and additional beacon - $999.
This is an unique price for devices with such functionality and no analogues in the world. Our price is the approximate price of 1 set of simple buddyphone like AquaCom/OceanReef or two good diving computers.
 
Yes, we understand that probably RedWAVE system isn’t for an average customer, but its price absolutely worths it.

I agree, but whether it is worth it or not is a subjective value, and I suspect this is way beyond the price range of any recreational divers.

The system is popular among diving services and organizations that perform works on underwater structures inspection using ROVs. Currently we’ve sold more than 50 sets since 2015.

Congratulations on the sales, it has definitely surpassed my speculation, but I suspect you may hit saturation soon, at least from a civilian standpoint. Marketing to military, commercial dive ops, research institutions, etc is probably the only market for this. Indeed your own assessment seems to support this.

With regard to the infamous Navimate, that was announced back in 2009, we tend to believe the price of $ 1500 is more than unrealistic.

I think the price is to unrealistically high for it to be a common item among divers. At that price it may have found a few interested parties among recreational divers with a lot of disposable income, or dive operators looking to provide something unique.

Moreover, so far developers haven’t released a single prototype. From our point of view, the claimed characteristics are implausible like the layout of the system itself: 1 buoy with a direction-finding antenna constantly determining the location of all subscribers and transmitting the calculated coordinates to them.

Agreed if that was to be the underlying mechanism.

USBL systems are quite capricious. The price for them starts from $ 17,000 for the simplest (Tritech MicronNAV) and reaches up to $ 170,000 for only one DF-antenna in serious widely used systems (Sonardyne).

Agreed, prices are all over the map.

At the same time, we would like to pay your attention to our diver's "compass". As we have already mentioned, this system solves the task of divers homing and the price for 1 set is $ 1,900 (EXW) One set includes homing beacon with submersible antenna + charger, 1 wrist- held device + 1 wireless charging module. An additional wrist unit costs $ 899 and additional beacon - $999.

There has already been a product that does this, it was called Dive Trak, and was $499 a few years ago. I haven't seen one available in a while, so I don't think it is still in production.

This is an unique price for devices with such functionality and no analogues in the world. Our price is the approximate price of 1 set of simple buddyphone like AquaCom/OceanReef or two good diving computers.

If we are talking about the compass device, your offering is almost 4x more than one that was already brought to market, and is no longer available.

I don't want to give you the impression I am being overly harsh on your product. I do like it, and it is very interesting, I am just discussing my perception of the viability of such a product at that price point. At the end of the day, for recreational divers, its a novelty item, that isn't necessary as say a dive computer, or regulator, yet far outstretches the cost of such necessary items. Would I like one? Sure, it would be awesome for of my tech diving, but am I going to spend more for it than my rebreather? No.
 
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So it is the very same people that are buying the $1000 ipad cases. IJS :)

It looks like a cool toy for most divers, but too much to spend on just a toy when there are things like rebreathers and compressors to be bought for that kind of cash :)
 

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