Underwater Navigation Device

[Noboundaries]

It would be interesting to know if this ever went anywhere.

 

[Garrobo]

Maybe someone with some knowledge could come up with a sonar device which could act as a direction finder to locate the boat. The boat would have a device which would send out a sonar signal either aboard ship or hanging off the end in the water. The diver would have a device which would pick it up and give the correct direction to follow back to the boat. Sounds easy to me but evidently it isn't or someone would have come up with it by now. OK inventors, get with the program.

 

[Noboundaries]

The device wouldn't have to be a GPS. Could just be a low power, low cost transmitter/receiver of some type, something similar but not as expensive as what they tag on sea life. The boat would just toss a tethered low power transmitter over the side and the divers would strap the receiver on their wrist. The water/pressure proof receiver would only have to give a bearing indication, but distance in feet, yards, or meters would be cool too. Or the bearing indicator could have a "relative strength" factor implying distance. The shorter the bearing indicator, the greater the distance and visa versa. Models sold to divers would have to have dialable frequencies so they could easily set to different channels used by different transmitters when several boats are in the area.

But lets face it, basic navigation skills are essential. Knowing how to use a compass and keep track of headings, time, distance traveled, and how any current is impacting you is vital. Navigation devices like transmitters/receivers can quickly develop a state of over-dependence upon them. Then what do you do when it fails?

 

[Garrobo]

What do you do when it fails? Just make sure you dive with a buddy who can get you back to the boat.

 

[ScubaSarus]

Nice for UW geocaching, saving air to get to were you want fast and get back fast. But saving waypoints of certain features and rock formations would be awsome to revisit them or give to other divers via a software download.

We could also record the coordinates of what fish we have seen at what times; as some fish populate areas at specific times and we can revisit that area. You would be surprised how fish can come back to a small area a year and hundreds of miles after it left that area. Great scientific potential as tagging is also very expensive.

Now were can I find that underwater Gooseberry Arch in RI ? do you have a waypoint for it or specific coordinates? last time my buddies went there, they couldn't find it.

 

[jbmooney]

1 - What are your feelings about an underwater navigational device?

2 - What do you find most difficult about underwater navigation?

3 - How long have you been diving, and how has your answer to the last question changed as you’ve become more experienced?

4 - (a)When looking for a specific feature at a dive site (cave, wreck, etc&#8230 how often do you have difficulty find it? (b)If you’ve had difficulties with this, would your rather have a map to look at, or a simple arrow telling you the distance, direction, and depth to the feature?

5 - Have you ever used any devices (other than a compass) for underwater navigation, and if so, what were your experiences with them?

6 - How often have you been separated from your dive partner? Of those times, how many times have you easily found them, and how many took longer than you would have liked?

7 - What would be your biggest reason for purchasing a navigation device (safety, better dives, comfort, etc&#8230?

8 (a) - Do you use a dive computer? (b) - If so, what type do you use, how much did it cost, and what made you purchase your particular model?

9 - How often do you replace your computer, and what will you be looking for in your next one that your current model lacks?

10 - If your next purchase of computer had an option for a practical navigational aid, how strongly would you consider the following features? Please rate from 1= Unnecessary to 5=Important, and add any comments you feel are necessary.

a - Distance and direction to boat (or dive starting location):

b - Distance and direction to dive partner (or other divers):

c - Waypoints for dive features (caves, wrecks, etc&#8230:

d - Actual map of dive site:

e - A recorded path of your dive (including air usage and swim speed):

Some facts about you:…

----------------------
1: It would be fun and useful (great for SAR, fun for mapping dive sites and aquacaching). I'd get one if I could afford it...

2: distance and current drift calculations.

3: not long enough to have had any changes happen.

4(a): Not yet (b): an arrow would do for finding a site, but a map would be more useful for other reasons (see below)

5: No

6: Not yet

7: Safety and more fun

8(a): Yes (b): Aeris XR1nx

9: Not yet, and I’ll look for better dive planning features.

10: A standalone nav unit would be fine with me – I don’t see any real value in integrating the two, though if you have the processing power to do nav functions and the addition of sensors for depth isn’t cost-prohibitive, it would be of value as a backup (I’d still carry a separate dive computer, I think)

a: 4

b: 2 – I don’t think I’d use it to find another diver in a hurry, and meeting at a predetermined waypoint would serve just fine for saving unnecessary ascents to meet at the surface. Making such units send position would dramatically increase the cost, I’d think, and if the device became at all popular (as it might), its usefulness would diminish dramatically (you’d have too many potential targets)

c: 5

d: 5

e: 4

Geographic location (state or country): New York, USA
Do you prefer boat dives or beach dives: Boat (so far)
Favorite dive spot: English Harbor, Antigua (very limited experience)

 

[mntdiver]

Pingers have been around for quite a while.

Sport & Scout

 

[D_B]

The sonar device/dive computer exists for transmitting and receiving signals and direction finding for regular divers underwater, made by UTC and debuted at DEMA (no GPS but with the bearing and distance to each diver known, I think you could extrapolate a GPS coordinate for each one based from the boats location)

I would say that there is a market, unfortunately it's at the high end of cost perspective and not many individuals will have one, but may be just the thing for major dive ops

 

[Lucy's Diver]

If you've got something that gets high accuracy GPS coordinates underwater you're going down the wrong road. The underwater construction, oil and gas, commercial diving, public safety, and military dive communities would have dozens of uses for such a thing and would have wheel barrels full of money for it.
I don't mean transponder technology that extrapolates GPS data from essentially sonar produced range and bearing from a fixed point GPS station. That is really expensive and just not as accurate as it claims.

 

[Lake Muroc Diver]

A combination of a gps before submersion to give present position, MAybe just a keypad entry from the dive boat's nav. system fed to a small accelerometer type of Inertial measurement system. to measure and indicate changes in position, would seem to be the economical means of navigation. Accuracy to within 100' in a 45 minute trip seems doable. A friend of mine who retired from the Skunk Works is experimenting on this type. Cost is unknown for now.