What do you want in an "online" dive log?

[amascuba]

I figured I'd ask my buddies here and I know that a couple of you are developers.

Paper logs are a hassle and therefore have stopped keeping paper logs. I've used a online divelog from divelogonline.com (which appears to be dead now), but over the last year or so, I've been slowly developing my own. It's not pretty right now, but it's functional. I'd like to add some more features and make it open source so that individuals can host it where ever they want. Right now it's it's utilizing PHP/MySQL.

Some of the features that I've been thinking about implementing are:

* Automatically calculate altitude corrected depth based on altitude that is provided by the user.
* Automatically calculate CNS/OTU's for dives.
* Upload capability from dive computers - This is something that I would need to get with somebody else to write the code for, but this could possibly be the most useful/time saving feature.

Here is a link to the basic log:

MyDiveLog v0.01 - Short List

You can click on the dive number and it will give you more detail. If you were going to use an online based dive log, what else would you want? Would it be useful to you?

 

[amascuba]

Some feature suggestions that I've received so far are:

* Dive classification - Such as wreck, cave, open water
* Dive statistics - Basically a compilation of how many fresh water, salt water, cave, wreck, open water, doubles, deco, stage dives, etc have been completed.
* multi-platform availability (MAC, Windows, Linux) - The actual data would be hosted via a hosting service provider and viewed via a web page. However, software that would provide the ability to upload dives from your computer would need an application to be installed on your PC. This would need to be programmed in a portable language (like Java), but could be done.
* Ability to perform backups - This could be implemented by being able to download the database information (not easily recreated) via a cvs file format that could be burned to a CD for backups. Files that could be easily recreated such as php and java files could be downloaded again.
* Ability to switch between metric and imperial
* Dive rating system

 

[ABQdiver]

All of what you have is good. I like to calculate my air consumption on dives. Not useful all the time but it's good to know if it's needed.

Maybe a place for exposure protection and weight required for the parameters




just a couple of quick thoughts

 

[amascuba]

All of what you have is good. I like to calculate my air consumption on dives. Not useful all the time but it's good to know if it's needed.

Maybe a place for exposure protection and weight required for the parameters




just a couple of quick thoughts

Having it automatically calculate your SAC rate is a good suggestion. That could easily be implemented, but it most likely wouldn't be very accurate as the log doesn't know ho long you spent at each depth. Now if I get it to upload the sample data directly from the computer to the website, then it could be very accurate.

Exposure protection and weight parameters have already been implemented. Clicking on the dive number gives much more detailed information.

Here's an example from our last dive.

MyDiveLog v0.01 - Dive Detail

 

[ABQdiver]

Sweet! That dive looks like mine.....

I've been using Suunto's Dive manager and if you input the tank size, starting and ending pressure it will calculate the gas usage. No idea what's behind that calculation, but it's interesting to see the difference between dives.

Looks good so far!

 

[RonFrank]

The main thing I want to log these days is who I was in the water with, fish ID, topography, basically memories. Most of the hard info I have multiple times on multiple log pages even if I do reference it sometimes.

For tech diving all the numbers maybe of more interest, but IMO the stuff I want to log is not the numbers (my computer dive log does that just fine), but the things that make the dive memorable.

I guess in our area those maybe few and far between which is why my dive log is rather boring until I get on vacation.

 

[wedivebc]

There should be the ability to download dive computers in some standard format such as csv.

 

[amascuba]

Sweet! That dive looks like mine.....

I've been using Suunto's Dive manager and if you input the tank size, starting and ending pressure it will calculate the gas usage. No idea what's behind that calculation, but it's interesting to see the difference between dives.

Looks good so far!

The Scubapro/Uwatec/Aladin SmarTrak software takes something like a four or ten second sample (I can't remember which off the top of my head) of the dive and gives you a nice pretty graph for you to look at. Once you input what tank size you used and how much gas you used it will show you what your consumption is. I ASSUME that it makes it's calculations based upon each sample depth.

Here's an example of the SmarTrak Graph:

If it just said you did 80ft, 45 min run time, 154 cf tanks (double AL80's), 1000psi used that it would come out astronomically low SAC rate of .067 cf/min. Most likely if a person had that low of a SAC they would be unconscious. I know mine averages out to about .58 cf/min. When doing gas plans, I usually just use .7 cf/min on the bottom portion of the dive just to give myself some wiggle room.

The main thing I want to log these days is who I was in the water with, fish ID, topography, basically memories. Most of the hard info I have multiple times on multiple log pages even if I do reference it sometimes.

For tech diving all the numbers maybe of more interest, but IMO the stuff I want to log is not the numbers (my computer dive log does that just fine), but the things that make the dive memorable.

I guess in our area those maybe few and far between which is why my dive log is rather boring until I get on vacation.

That is good idea Ron. I'll have to implement a section for fish id and topography. I do have a dive buddies and comments section. Here's dive 300 from last Friday.

MyDiveLog v0.01 - Dive Detail

I'm with you. I do like to jot down some memories/comments from the dive. After a while Blue Hole becomes somewhat redundant, but I do take note's on the things that I want to look back on and remember.

 

[amascuba]

There should be the ability to download dive computers in some standard format such as csv.

My only personal experience is with the Scubapro/Uwatec/Aladin series into SmarTrak. It stores the information in a .slg format. I'm looking into reverse engineering that so that you can export that data directly into the MySQL database.

 

[RonFrank]

I have an Aeris computer that does downloads. I'd have to look to see if I can tell what format it uses for transfer. If you want files from that type of computer, I can try and see if I can get anything. It current downloads into the Aeris/Oceanic dive log, and I have no idea of what format is used.

Dan messed around with this a lot for the apple from his Oceanic. Not sure how far he got.