Hi Greg,
I have some more requests/ideas based on my dives yesterday. Apologies for the long post.
1. A quick dive log entry that starts by asking the site name and then allows for a GPS coordinate entry. It would allow you to save and then fill in the remaining details later. Further, I would suggest allowing the coordinate capture without use of a map if need be. On my dive there was no signal for my roaming provider but I also did not want to include a data plan on this trip so getting the map would have been of no value to me. I only say this as it might make things faster for a quick capture. Currently you need to fill in all the details and then go find how to add the coordinates which is rather long winded and not really convenient on the boat.
2. It might be nice to record the wetsuit thickness for prior reference and association with the dive temperature. To that end I would also include a warmth rating for the dive. Kind of a crazy request but I know that I would find it interesting if there is a grand and if I should look at a different suit.
3. This is a new territory for me as I am actually trying out Facebook now. In using the share function it would be really cool to have a google maps or some other location link included with the post. Normally I would suggest using the location feature of Facebook but that one does not allow you to select from a map. The other limitation is as above in number 1, no Internet access at the time of the log entry or not being at the site when completing it.
4. This is sort of a really complicated one that I am not sure could be pulled off. The dive master had a app that showed all the different sea life that you could look through. It would be really cool to be able and link to such an app and select what you saw, then associate it with the dive site.
5. To a few of the above all together, in addition to Facebook there are other social dive sites (www.like2dive.com is one) thatit would be cool to post to. Specifically this would be cool if you can pass along links to the sea species that were identified from the dive and the time of year. The result could be a massive database for divers to contribute to and benefit from.
Just some thoughts. Not sure how viable they are.
-Peter
Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
-
schneideris
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:57 pm
Re: Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your thoughts. As always, I really appreciate your insights.
I think you can already do what you want to do with respect to item #1. What I usually do when I'm about to go on a dive at a new site is tap on the Location tab, Dive Site and then tap "+" to add a new dive site. I then enter the name and then tap on the GPS Coordinate item. There are three options at the top, "GPS", "Manual" and "Map". You can tap on "GPS" and then tap the "Start" button. Even without a data plan, you will eventually get a GPS location (the time to acquire* a location depends on how long the iPhone takes to lock onto enough satellites and depends on a number of factors like if a cell tower is near by and how close you were to your current location when you last got a GPS lock in any app on the iPhone) without having to enter it manually. I then select the photo option and take a photo of the dive site of the drawing that the dive master has done. Later, when I'm ready to log the dive I simply add a new dive and choose the previously created dive site.
You can also achieve #2 in the current software. Simply enter a new wetsuit name that includes the thickness when you enter the dive suit. The options that are presented are just to get you started but you can enter any name you like. The other option is to create an explicit Equipment item for your various wetsuit options and at that to the specific dive. This has the advantage of allowing you to use the Dives By Equipment feature of Statistics to see all your dives with that wetsuit grouped together.
I had hoped to use the location feature of Facebook to include the GPS location captured in the Dive Site, but the programming interface available in Apple's Facebook support does not allow this (it wants to always use your current location at the time you make the post). I think it is possible to do this if I switch to using Facebook's direct API's but that has some additional negative implications. I will revisit this and see if I can improve on this aspect of the Facebook integration.
The last two are great suggestions ... as you say, they are a real challenge to pull off. We have looked at options to do both in the past and continue to consider them. Thanks for letting me know that these would interest you.
* The iPhone uses an "aGPS" chip to help lock onto satellites more quickly. What the "a" part does is use a near by cell tower to get a rough fix on the iPhone's location so that it can listen for the "right" satellites for that area and it doesn't have to search for all the possible satellites. If it can't get a cell tower location, it will use the last fix that it had as a starting point for looking for satellites. If you have travelled a long way to get to the dive site, it is possible that your last fix was a long way from your current location. What you can do to help this situation is to get your iPhone to lock into a GPS location (either using Maps, Dive Log or some other location aware application) when you first arrive near your diving destination (hopefully when there is still a cell tower around). This will speed up the location acquisition later at the dive site. However, you can still get your location even without this step. You just may need to tap the "Start" button more than once as Dive Log will time out after a while to help save battery, but tapping Start again will have the iPhone pick up looking for satellites where it last left off. Once you get that first fix, subsequent ones will be much faster.
Cheers,
Greg
Thanks for your thoughts. As always, I really appreciate your insights.
I think you can already do what you want to do with respect to item #1. What I usually do when I'm about to go on a dive at a new site is tap on the Location tab, Dive Site and then tap "+" to add a new dive site. I then enter the name and then tap on the GPS Coordinate item. There are three options at the top, "GPS", "Manual" and "Map". You can tap on "GPS" and then tap the "Start" button. Even without a data plan, you will eventually get a GPS location (the time to acquire* a location depends on how long the iPhone takes to lock onto enough satellites and depends on a number of factors like if a cell tower is near by and how close you were to your current location when you last got a GPS lock in any app on the iPhone) without having to enter it manually. I then select the photo option and take a photo of the dive site of the drawing that the dive master has done. Later, when I'm ready to log the dive I simply add a new dive and choose the previously created dive site.
You can also achieve #2 in the current software. Simply enter a new wetsuit name that includes the thickness when you enter the dive suit. The options that are presented are just to get you started but you can enter any name you like. The other option is to create an explicit Equipment item for your various wetsuit options and at that to the specific dive. This has the advantage of allowing you to use the Dives By Equipment feature of Statistics to see all your dives with that wetsuit grouped together.
I had hoped to use the location feature of Facebook to include the GPS location captured in the Dive Site, but the programming interface available in Apple's Facebook support does not allow this (it wants to always use your current location at the time you make the post). I think it is possible to do this if I switch to using Facebook's direct API's but that has some additional negative implications. I will revisit this and see if I can improve on this aspect of the Facebook integration.
The last two are great suggestions ... as you say, they are a real challenge to pull off. We have looked at options to do both in the past and continue to consider them. Thanks for letting me know that these would interest you.
* The iPhone uses an "aGPS" chip to help lock onto satellites more quickly. What the "a" part does is use a near by cell tower to get a rough fix on the iPhone's location so that it can listen for the "right" satellites for that area and it doesn't have to search for all the possible satellites. If it can't get a cell tower location, it will use the last fix that it had as a starting point for looking for satellites. If you have travelled a long way to get to the dive site, it is possible that your last fix was a long way from your current location. What you can do to help this situation is to get your iPhone to lock into a GPS location (either using Maps, Dive Log or some other location aware application) when you first arrive near your diving destination (hopefully when there is still a cell tower around). This will speed up the location acquisition later at the dive site. However, you can still get your location even without this step. You just may need to tap the "Start" button more than once as Dive Log will time out after a while to help save battery, but tapping Start again will have the iPhone pick up looking for satellites where it last left off. Once you get that first fix, subsequent ones will be much faster.
Cheers,
Greg
-
schneideris
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:57 pm
Re: Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
Thanks Greg,
Great inside into ways to use the app. I will remember the location approach for the future. One thought might be to give the buttons along the topa bit more height and colour to make them out. I have a weather protector that I slip my iPhone into and in the sun it can make things a little more difficult to see. Even without though these approaches that you provided will work really well.
Great App and the dive master that I went out with was very interested in it.
Aloha,
Peter
Great inside into ways to use the app. I will remember the location approach for the future. One thought might be to give the buttons along the topa bit more height and colour to make them out. I have a weather protector that I slip my iPhone into and in the sun it can make things a little more difficult to see. Even without though these approaches that you provided will work really well.
Great App and the dive master that I went out with was very interested in it.
Aloha,
Peter
Re: Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
Hello, I've recently started diving, which meant that I had to find someway to implement my new hobby into the digital realm. Thankfully, I found your software which is a godsend!!
Further in support of Peters suggestion, the quick entry dive log would be appreciated. Let me explain my experiences with my diving and logging.
When diving from a chartered boat, I found that we would zip off from dive site to dive site relatively quickly. Upon reaching the dive site, we would be gearing up and getting ready to jump in the water. I was always able to ask the driver or dive master where we were diving however being the nerd that I am, I did want my logs and records to be meticulously accurate. After the dive, not only were we getting our kit off and attaching the second tank but there was also the fact that I was dripping wet!
Now that I have most of the dive sites in place, and found a website that lists gps co-ords, I've had a much easier time setting up logs retroactively. A simple, New > last dive as template, and then I can edit the data as I see fit.
However, for new sites I would have found it very handy to have a magic button I could have pressed to store gps information, that way I could focus on gearing up rather than logging. I also now have my own dive computer, so it makes things even easier as I can enter almost all the dive information after the dive.
I can't wait till my IRDA dongle arrives so I can use my UWATEC computer with your software, brilliant work <3
Further in support of Peters suggestion, the quick entry dive log would be appreciated. Let me explain my experiences with my diving and logging.
When diving from a chartered boat, I found that we would zip off from dive site to dive site relatively quickly. Upon reaching the dive site, we would be gearing up and getting ready to jump in the water. I was always able to ask the driver or dive master where we were diving however being the nerd that I am, I did want my logs and records to be meticulously accurate. After the dive, not only were we getting our kit off and attaching the second tank but there was also the fact that I was dripping wet!
Now that I have most of the dive sites in place, and found a website that lists gps co-ords, I've had a much easier time setting up logs retroactively. A simple, New > last dive as template, and then I can edit the data as I see fit.
However, for new sites I would have found it very handy to have a magic button I could have pressed to store gps information, that way I could focus on gearing up rather than logging. I also now have my own dive computer, so it makes things even easier as I can enter almost all the dive information after the dive.
I can't wait till my IRDA dongle arrives so I can use my UWATEC computer with your software, brilliant work <3
Re: Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
Hi Phil,
Thank you for your thoughts. I always appreciate hearing directly about use cases that can help improve Dive Log.
I may be missing something in your suggestion, but Dive Log already has a quick "Last Dive As Template" feature. When you tap "+" on the Dives tab you are given three options:
Add a new dive using:
an empty dive
last dive as a template
or choose a template dive
choosing the "last dive as a template" will copy over all the information that makes sense from the last dive that you logged and create a new dive quickly using that template information. Possibly what you meant was to have a similar feature for adding a new "dive site" ... although I'm not really sure that there is much information that would make sense to copy over for a dive site entry. Please feel free to clarify your suggestion if I've missed your point.
Quickly grabbing a GPS coordinate is not really possible without some user interaction (due to the way that Apple restricts access to location services). The quickest way to add a GPS coordinate is to follow the previous suggestion that I made. Basically, add a new dive site, then tap the "GPS coordinate" row and then tap the "Start" button. Once the iPhone has a coordinate available, you can tap "Save" and proceed with your dive. You can then add the other information later. One thing that I often do when on a trip is create a couple of "blank" dive sites and dives before I even head out on the boat (you usually know how many dives you will do and obviously which city and country they are in but may not know the name of the actual site until the briefing starts) and then I can just quickly edit those entries with the actual site name (I usually initially name the blanks sites "A1", "A2", etc. so that they are easy to find later), GPS coordinates and photos at the site during the briefing and complete my log later after the dive day is done. This would be pretty close to the "magic" button as you could just leave your iPhone on the GPS coordinate screen for the new site and then just tap "Start" when you are ready to capture the GPS coordinate and "Save" when you are done (Dive Log will stop acquiring automatically once it gets an accurate position, so you could always come back to it and hit save later if you don't have time to wait). Keep in mind though that your iPhone needs to "see the sky" to get a fix, so you can't stuff it back into a cabin and expect it to get a good fix and leaving your iPhone on the dive deck might not be the best option (unless you have something like a "Life Proof" case on it). I will keep thinking about ways to streamline acquiring a GPS coordinate for the situation your describe and see if I can get any closer to the "magic button" concept.
Thanks again for your thoughts. As I said, they are always welcome and appreciated.
Cheers,
Greg
Thank you for your thoughts. I always appreciate hearing directly about use cases that can help improve Dive Log.
I may be missing something in your suggestion, but Dive Log already has a quick "Last Dive As Template" feature. When you tap "+" on the Dives tab you are given three options:
Add a new dive using:
an empty dive
last dive as a template
or choose a template dive
choosing the "last dive as a template" will copy over all the information that makes sense from the last dive that you logged and create a new dive quickly using that template information. Possibly what you meant was to have a similar feature for adding a new "dive site" ... although I'm not really sure that there is much information that would make sense to copy over for a dive site entry. Please feel free to clarify your suggestion if I've missed your point.
Quickly grabbing a GPS coordinate is not really possible without some user interaction (due to the way that Apple restricts access to location services). The quickest way to add a GPS coordinate is to follow the previous suggestion that I made. Basically, add a new dive site, then tap the "GPS coordinate" row and then tap the "Start" button. Once the iPhone has a coordinate available, you can tap "Save" and proceed with your dive. You can then add the other information later. One thing that I often do when on a trip is create a couple of "blank" dive sites and dives before I even head out on the boat (you usually know how many dives you will do and obviously which city and country they are in but may not know the name of the actual site until the briefing starts) and then I can just quickly edit those entries with the actual site name (I usually initially name the blanks sites "A1", "A2", etc. so that they are easy to find later), GPS coordinates and photos at the site during the briefing and complete my log later after the dive day is done. This would be pretty close to the "magic" button as you could just leave your iPhone on the GPS coordinate screen for the new site and then just tap "Start" when you are ready to capture the GPS coordinate and "Save" when you are done (Dive Log will stop acquiring automatically once it gets an accurate position, so you could always come back to it and hit save later if you don't have time to wait). Keep in mind though that your iPhone needs to "see the sky" to get a fix, so you can't stuff it back into a cabin and expect it to get a good fix and leaving your iPhone on the dive deck might not be the best option (unless you have something like a "Life Proof" case on it). I will keep thinking about ways to streamline acquiring a GPS coordinate for the situation your describe and see if I can get any closer to the "magic button" concept.
Thanks again for your thoughts. As I said, they are always welcome and appreciated.
Cheers,
Greg
Re: Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database
Thanks for the reply Greg, what I was detailing in my post was the process I use to log my dives. The idea to add the bank dives before hand is wonderful and so simple (now why didnt i think of that, hah).
The software is wonderful and does what is needed, my suggestions were just little tweaks that could make all the users lives just a little bit easier but unfortunately as you have highlighted the limitations are with the iOS
The software is wonderful and does what is needed, my suggestions were just little tweaks that could make all the users lives just a little bit easier but unfortunately as you have highlighted the limitations are with the iOS