Good to see you on the board sir. I look forward to having your new watch on my wrist! I've been holding out for a new watch in anticipation of this one.
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New Freediving Computer to be unveiled at DEMA 08
- Thread starterStephan Whelan
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Good to see you on the board sir. I look forward to having your new watch on my wrist! I've been holding out for a new watch in anticipation of this one.
Welcome to DeeperBlue, Doug! It is always great and very positive to see a manufacturer on this forum.
As for your F.10, it indeed sounds great, and I hope the reports from users will confirm it. I am curious to see the retail prices, and where can we buy it without waiting till it appears at our local dealers. If you have the information, please share it with us.
As for questions or wishes - it is great you are ready to listen! I previously contacted Suunto with several wishes, requests, comments, and questions, and also posted on their forum, but I encountered just a wall of silence.
Although I did not see yet the F.10 computer, I'd already have one serious wish: please make documentation of the API public, so that 3rd party developers (like myself) can write applications for it easier. Trying to make it proprietary and secret is useless and counterproductive. Even better would be making the firmware source code open - that would allow 3rd party developers writing modifications of it. Or if you cannot make it open entirely, offer at least some API to the internal functions, and a little space in the memory for external plug-ins. I already can imagine that there could be interface to the Apnea Training Manager database, allowing to load pre-selected exercises or entire training sessions into the watch, and then just following it in the pool. But very likely there would be many more developers who would welcome the opportunity to write extensions for it.
For a future generation, a built-in interface for an optional pulse oximeter sensor would be great. Technologically, such devices are rather simple, so perhaps the cost increase may not be even too serious.
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Not looking hard enough ah? here you had some pretty nifty stuff there as well? with a PO2 meter for breathers? any freediving based stuff?
DD
DD
The F10 was at the Aries booth, I don't think Oceanic had one (I may be wrong). Eric, I recently check into the freediving watch you use to deal with (not sure if it was yours or if yuo were a dealer??) I was ready to buy an F1. The X1 computer is just too much and I have gotten away from wanting to do as much tech diving. I was at one point interested in Cave diving. Maybe if I ever move to Florida I'll get interested again. But anyway, your F1 looked great for freediving.
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Hey ILDiver
pretty sure the F1 and X1 are the same with some extra stuff on the X1, the way i was told but Eric can correct me otherwise is that they both used the same hardware but had different software programs, so it would be as simple as getting the freediving software loaded onto the X1 hardware. so i cant imagine there would be much difference in price if both models were still current???
Not sure if oceanic had freediving computer on there stand but i have been using a test one for a while now and it is branded Oceanic
pretty sure the F1 and X1 are the same with some extra stuff on the X1, the way i was told but Eric can correct me otherwise is that they both used the same hardware but had different software programs, so it would be as simple as getting the freediving software loaded onto the X1 hardware. so i cant imagine there would be much difference in price if both models were still current???
Not sure if oceanic had freediving computer on there stand but i have been using a test one for a while now and it is branded Oceanic
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Once I heard about the Oceanic I started reading up on other freediving capable watches. The Liquidvision was higher than most, but it looked like it had a lot to offer. Being a smaller company, I wanted to support them. I'll have to look at them in more detail.
its a shame Suunto dumped freedivers
yes, fighting talk I know, but talk about eroding brand loyalty: they make a freediving specific watch (D3) which is well sold and liked, and then they say "bye" to us with the too expensive scubie biased D4.
I will be more than happy to switch brands.
OK, i get to do my wish list now (some stuff may already be in the F10)
- surface time alarms that are an automatic multiplier of down time: 2x by default, 4 times over 20M. Basically, out of the box, the thing complains and beeps at you if you are not respecting safe surface time. This one will save lives.
- alarms you can feel/hear through a 7mm suit hood
- a strap that, without extenders, fits around an average male wrist, in a 7mm suit, with a 5mm glove on (thats 12mm thickness on top of wrist size at wearing point)
- a nice simple PC connector and open database that can be imported to Excell for example. I'd like to see:
---- how long it takes in a dive session for my peak dive times to appear, given same comfort factor
---- during the year how my depths or dive times improve
---- ascent and decent rates
- a really hard face that stands up to rough spearing dives without those hideous protectors
What I like about the Suuntos that should be repeated (maybe all dive watches are like this): they auto activate dive mode on entering the water.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE PRODUCT and thanks for thinking about freedivers!
yes, fighting talk I know, but talk about eroding brand loyalty: they make a freediving specific watch (D3) which is well sold and liked, and then they say "bye" to us with the too expensive scubie biased D4.
I will be more than happy to switch brands.
OK, i get to do my wish list now (some stuff may already be in the F10)
- surface time alarms that are an automatic multiplier of down time: 2x by default, 4 times over 20M. Basically, out of the box, the thing complains and beeps at you if you are not respecting safe surface time. This one will save lives.
- alarms you can feel/hear through a 7mm suit hood
- a strap that, without extenders, fits around an average male wrist, in a 7mm suit, with a 5mm glove on (thats 12mm thickness on top of wrist size at wearing point)
- a nice simple PC connector and open database that can be imported to Excell for example. I'd like to see:
---- how long it takes in a dive session for my peak dive times to appear, given same comfort factor
---- during the year how my depths or dive times improve
---- ascent and decent rates
- a really hard face that stands up to rough spearing dives without those hideous protectors
What I like about the Suuntos that should be repeated (maybe all dive watches are like this): they auto activate dive mode on entering the water.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE PRODUCT and thanks for thinking about freedivers!
One thing I'd like in a spearing computer is memory that didn't record just individual dives, but one that charts a whole session, 3 hours or less for me, on a graph. So it shows surface time, number of dives, depths, all in one file that i could open on my pc to show the whole sessions profile. I do loads of individual dives in a session and have no interest in downloading a separate dive file for each one as I would have to if I could be bothered with my D3.
Regardless of that, the F10 sounds great, but the crucial factor will be the price. It should be far less complicated than a scuba computer so the price should be far less too.
Regardless of that, the F10 sounds great, but the crucial factor will be the price. It should be far less complicated than a scuba computer so the price should be far less too.
First of a big thanks for taking part in this forum discussion, and also for consulting Martin Stepanec, who no doubt has supplied you with much expert knowledge!
As of features for the F10,
- 3 depth alarms, hear able through hood at depth.
- Selection of different sounding alarms (pitch, melody)
- programmable countdown timer, for those pyramid schedules we like to practice in the pool. When reaching the countdown a peep at 10, 5, 3,2,1, peeps before the starting peep (higher pitch) at 0 is very helpful to time the final breath. This way one can also use the F10 for the competition start timing, dynamic speed and turn timing and the various many other breath hold exercises like "Table A and B".
- Scratch proof face.
- Strong housing and buttons.
- Blue tooth, IR or other wireless PC interface.
- Upon surfacing displaying: Not only Dive time, Maximum depth, but also average decent and ascent speeds.
- 1 second recording interval. (very useful for counting number of swim strokes)
- Log function (in watch) allowing to jump not only individual dives but also groups of dives know as 'dive sessions'.
- Logging permanently your 10 favourite dives to a separate directory in memory in detail, so you can relive and show your most memorable dives in detail without fearing they get over written by the next dive session.
- User replaceable battery.
- Hydrodynamic design, but not compromising user-friendliness.
- User configurable, programmable through PC, like Trux proposed.
- Bright caracter display, with wide view angle, like the Liquidvision's X1-F1.
For future models:
- perhabs a Pulse Oxygen meter monitor integration, (and setting alarms to that)
- Heart rate monitor integration. (And recording integrated in the deep dive logging.)
I'm sure some of the things I wish are beyond the F10 range at the moment, but some are just a matter of software programming (like the extended countdown* and alarm programming) and can be done without little energy adding much value, and even broaden the field of users to triathlon and swimmers.
Love, Courage and Water,
Kars
*ps one of the downers of the D4 is the lack of a repeating countdown timer.
As of features for the F10,
- 3 depth alarms, hear able through hood at depth.
- Selection of different sounding alarms (pitch, melody)
- programmable countdown timer, for those pyramid schedules we like to practice in the pool. When reaching the countdown a peep at 10, 5, 3,2,1, peeps before the starting peep (higher pitch) at 0 is very helpful to time the final breath. This way one can also use the F10 for the competition start timing, dynamic speed and turn timing and the various many other breath hold exercises like "Table A and B".
- Scratch proof face.
- Strong housing and buttons.
- Blue tooth, IR or other wireless PC interface.
- Upon surfacing displaying: Not only Dive time, Maximum depth, but also average decent and ascent speeds.
- 1 second recording interval. (very useful for counting number of swim strokes)
- Log function (in watch) allowing to jump not only individual dives but also groups of dives know as 'dive sessions'.
- Logging permanently your 10 favourite dives to a separate directory in memory in detail, so you can relive and show your most memorable dives in detail without fearing they get over written by the next dive session.
- User replaceable battery.
- Hydrodynamic design, but not compromising user-friendliness.
- User configurable, programmable through PC, like Trux proposed.
- Bright caracter display, with wide view angle, like the Liquidvision's X1-F1.
For future models:
- perhabs a Pulse Oxygen meter monitor integration, (and setting alarms to that)
- Heart rate monitor integration. (And recording integrated in the deep dive logging.)
I'm sure some of the things I wish are beyond the F10 range at the moment, but some are just a matter of software programming (like the extended countdown* and alarm programming) and can be done without little energy adding much value, and even broaden the field of users to triathlon and swimmers.
Love, Courage and Water,
Kars
*ps one of the downers of the D4 is the lack of a repeating countdown timer.
Yes, Kars has some excellent proposals. Some of the suggested features are already built in the current model (as far as I can tell from the specification), others (requiring new hardware) can only be added in a future generation, but most of the remaining wishes (and many others, not mentioned yet) could be fulfilled by simply opening the firmware source code as I already proposed - the community would help adding all missing features at no development cost for the manufacturer. That's the beauty of Open Source programming.
As for the hardware changes, besides the pulse oximeter (which is always also heart rate monitor in the same time) that I already mentioned previously too, I agree with Kars that Bluetooth and OLED display (like at Liquvision's X1, or better yet full color hi-res matrix display like for example at the watch shown below) would be very welcome. Also rechargeable battery like at X1 is not a bad idea. It could be even rechargeable inductively without any external contacts, avoiding also case opening, and making so the watch much more reliable.
As for the hardware changes, besides the pulse oximeter (which is always also heart rate monitor in the same time) that I already mentioned previously too, I agree with Kars that Bluetooth and OLED display (like at Liquvision's X1, or better yet full color hi-res matrix display like for example at the watch shown below) would be very welcome. Also rechargeable battery like at X1 is not a bad idea. It could be even rechargeable inductively without any external contacts, avoiding also case opening, and making so the watch much more reliable.
These are the features Divewire listed:
• Freediving and Digital Watch modes
• Free Dive Mode Main displays Depth and Elapsed Dive Time with access to either a pre-set countdown timer or lap timer
• Audible alarms with flashing LED and auto-backlight illumination
• User-defined surface recovery timer, repeating elapsed dive time alarm, repeating depth interval alarm, and 3 max depth alarms
• Digital watch functions including alternate time, countdown timer, lap timer, and daily alarm
• 99 dive log with :01 step profile
• History mode
• User-replaceable battery
• Optional PC Interface with 1-second sampling rate
• Freediving and Digital Watch modes
• Free Dive Mode Main displays Depth and Elapsed Dive Time with access to either a pre-set countdown timer or lap timer
• Audible alarms with flashing LED and auto-backlight illumination
• User-defined surface recovery timer, repeating elapsed dive time alarm, repeating depth interval alarm, and 3 max depth alarms
• Digital watch functions including alternate time, countdown timer, lap timer, and daily alarm
• 99 dive log with :01 step profile
• History mode
• User-replaceable battery
• Optional PC Interface with 1-second sampling rate