Tired of Suunto DiveManager? Try my new DLogViewer

[gianpaoloc]

Hi,
like most of you, I suppose, I do not like Suunto DiveManager. It is clearly a compromise between the needs of scuba divers and those of freedivers. In particular, from a pure freediver point of view, it offers several features I never use, which complicate the user interface, while it does not offer the feature I find most important: the possibility of plotting several dives at once, to visually compare them.

Accordingly, some times ago I started looking around for the information required to write my own software (in particular, the serial protocol used by Suunto to download dive profiles from their watches). After playing with the serial interface and with the different UI issues to produce what I had in mind, DLogViewer is ready. It is not perfect, yet, but I like it enough and want to share it with you. Observe that, as I mentioned, DLogViewer is specifically designed for freediving, accordingly it supports D3 and Mosquito, only. More precisely, it "should" support these two watches. Indeed, I do not own a Mosquito, so I only tested it with my D3
Another good reason to share it with you

If any of you is interested in trying it, the software can be downloaded for free from the following URL:
http://zeus.elet.polimi.it/divetools

If you have any comments or if you find bugs, please post a message here. I will try to address the issue. Also, observe that DLogViewer is open source (even if sources cannot be downloaded, yet, since I am still cleaning them out so as soon as I will release the sources, any of you could contribute, fixing bugs and/or adding new features.

I hope you like DLogViewer.

Ciao
G.

 

[DeepThought]

I don't have an interface (yet), but from the little playing I did with the dive manager this seems like a welcome step. I'll keep your program (and future updates) for the day I could use it.
Is there also an option to import data from suunto dive manager files?

 

[jome]

Hey, that's pretty cool!

If I may make some suggestions, data we'd all like to get out of SDM.

-Cumulative average depth and cumulative bottom time at avg depth in session
-Cumulative bottom time below depth x in session
-AVG ascent and descent speeds of a dive
-In general, if you take the cursor over the graph, it would be cool if it would show the speed at that point

Just to throw around ideas...It's nice as it is, but if you happen to have the extra time

One cool looking (but prolly useless) feature would be that you could get an animated "replay" of the dive. Like a blob going up and down a line, at the rate specified by the data. That way one could intuitively judge where the bottlenecks of a specific strategy are...But add some nice animation, cool ocean background and dramatic music and it's something to show off to you aunt, or whatever...

 

[gianpaoloc]

Next feature I would like to add is exactly what have been asked by DeepThought, the ability to import data exported from Suunto DM. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee to have enough spare time to work on it next week. As for the requests coming from Jome, most of them (e.g., his first and second bullet) seem more useful to scuba divers than to freedivers, at least this is my point of view. Instead, I like the idea of calculating the current speed at each point where the cursor is. I will try to add this feature too.

Stay tuned
G.
P.S. The sources are on-line, now, so if any of you know Java enough DLogViewer is open to contributions.

 

[jome]

Yeah, the cumulative times are just something I'd like to view now and then. Mainly to make some reasonable estimates about what kind of exposure one needs to start worrying about DCS.

As there are no DCS tables for freediving (that I'm aware of) I think it would be valuable to be able to see that, since as far as I know, most freediving DCS incidents have come from repetitive, relatively shallow dives with long bottom times and short rests, rather than a single or few deep dives.

 

[gianpaoloc]

I found some spare time today... and added the "import" facility!

Now you can export your Suunto DiveManager dives in SDE format (select the dives you want to export and choose "File->export"), than import the SDE file in DLogViewer.

As usual, report me any bug you find.

Have fun with DLogViewer
G.

 

[gianpaoloc]

I am pleased to announce a new version of my DLogViewer tool. It now includes the ability to show ascent and descent speed (try using your mouse wheel to change the area along which the speed is calculated), the ability of importing dives from Suunto DiveManager (export them in SDE format), and, last but not least, the ability to print dives.

I hope you like these new features.

 

[trux]

Many thanks for your hard work with the development. Being myself programmer, I can imagine how much work, time and effort was needed for cracking and reproducing the serial transfer protocol (or did you find any documentation?), the export file format, and also for the actual user interface.

Maybe you could contact Suunto - they might be interested in a cooperation, and for the users it might be also better if you implemented your features and improvements (including the possibility to remove/hide unused functions) directly into the original Dive Manager. The best solution would be if they opened their source code publicly - both the company and the users would profit from it, but unfortunately I am pretty sure it won't happen. Nevertheless, it is worth of trying.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to get your manager working with my Mosquito. Not only the serial transfer failed, even the SDE file import does not work. If you want, I can send you a sample file, so that you can see if it differs from your D3 files.

... while it does not offer the feature I find most important: the possibility of plotting several dives at once, to visually compare them.

Not sure what version of the Dive Manager you use, but I actually love the current 2.3.0 quite a lot. It has many nice features, and although there are still things that are missing or could be done better, it is quite flexible and has a lot of functionality. So for example you can compare multiple dive profiles in a single chart very easily - simply select then in the left column, right-click the selection and click "Compare Logs". In the right pane (Dive Computer display) you can then quickly modify the selection or highlight individual profiles. Also the global statistics in the bottom pane, comparing times and depth of all selected dives (or whole folders), and cumulative dive times are quite interesting. The bottom charts are freely configurable, so you can add your own graphs too. See an example below:

​

I also love the possibility to associate various fields (location, dive gear, weather, buddies, ..., even multimedia or custom fields) to individual profiles and organizing them into folders and subfolders. Although I admit it makes the interface unnecessarily complex for those who do not need those features, if you ave the time to play with it, it can be very useful - you can use the manager even for analyzing the influence of different conditions (i.e. type of fins, diet, streching, breathup patterns, etc - simply add those conditions into the custom fields or notes and you can then use the search function to group them together and compare.

However, as I told there is still plenty space for a skilled programe like you to make improvements. Although I appreciate your effort with your own manager, it is little bit a pity to reinvent the wheel. As I wrote, it would be much better if you could cooperate directly with Suunto. Though, I am aware it is not too likely they would care about such offer, I think you should try contacting them.

If not that, then there is also another Open Source diving log manager for Suunto and some other diving computers at SourceForge - gDiveLog - it may be worth of checking their source code. It may help you with the support of other devices than just the D3.

You should also contact [ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/member.php?u=93"]View Profile: efattah@@AMEPARAM@@View Profile: efattah</title>@@AMEPARAM@@efattah[/ame] - he may be interested in giving you information about the F1 data transfer protocol, so that you can add support for it too.

 

[gianpaoloc]

Tying to be a tool for everyone, scuba divers and freedivers, Suunto DiveManager as become very complex. So complex that I was not able to find the possibility of comparing dives before. Thanks for letting me know it was there. In any case I think there is space for other tools. gDivelog is very nice but it is Linux only. Also it suffer of the same weakness of Suunto DiveManager. It is complex and tryis to fit the requirements of both scuba and free divers.

My idea was to build something very specific for freedivers. Easy to use, and flexible enough, and capable of running on different platforms. From windows to MacOs and Linux (the OS I use, BTW).

Probably you are right, in general it is always better to contribute to existing projects rather than initiating a new one. But you know, we like so much writing code and we hate reading code written by others... and the last winter was so long...

As for the bugs you found, it would be very useful to give a look at the SDE files you could not import. Please send them to gianpaoloc[at]gmail{dot}com if you can. Meanwhile, I am trying to borrow the mosquito of a friend to test the serial connection.

As for the ability of associating different fields to each dive, the resulting complexity is something I would like to avoid. I added the "comment" field to have you put there whatever you want. I am adding a free search capability to let everyone use such field as they like. I am also adding the possibility of specifying the "comment" field for a set of dives at once. This way, adding information like location and blades used to all the dives done in the same day will become a breeze.

As for Eric Fattah's F1, I would be very happy of adding it among the supported computers. As its name suggests, the F1 is the "formula one" of freeng computers and if DLogViewer could become the first software to officially support it I would be the happiest programmer
Eric, are you interested?

 

[trux]

Yes, I understand your arguments. And you are right that there is certainly room for a specialized application too. On the other hand, I'd love to see the official manager implementing some of your ideas too. Even complex applications can be user friendly, ergonomic, intuitive and easy to use. They could add a configuration option for a simplified freediving skin/mode and change the function set in that mode accordingly.

PS: I've sent you a sample SDE file

 

[gianpaoloc]

A new version of the software is out. If you already used javawebstart to test it, you can launch it again (in "on line" mode) to download the new version, or you can go to the software page:
http://zeus.elet.polimi.it/divetools/
and click the appropriate link to download and launch the new version.

This new version adds some features, like the ability of searching dives on your log and fix some bugs.

Please, let me now if you find any new bug (I am pretty sure there are many, but the software seems useful to me

Bye
G.

 

[fishon]

Hi, I really like this program, but the only way I can get any dive data is by downloading it directly from my D3. I tried to open files from my Suunto Dive Manager but nothing happens. Is there something I am doing wrong, or do you know how I can fix this? Thanks, Derek

 

[sanso]

Great stuff, that!
Here's an idea for a feature: Can You make it show the marker that one can set on the D3 during the dive by pressing the top left button ('S')?
When I have the time (say, during hangs or when fundiving) I usually mark the time my contractions start and I'd be interested to see those times....

 

[sanso]

Say where did You find the specs of the protocol, the D3 speaks over the serial port? I'm thinking of a programming project and would like to write libd3-ruby . Any hints apreciated.

 

[trux]

There are couple of geeks who reverse-engineered the protocol. You will find it easily in Google (for example here: papers:suunto_protocol [Markus Fritze (MMM)] or here: Suunto Spyder, Vyper and Copra Protocol). There are also numerous Open Source projects for Suunto products, and they already contain all necessary functions for handling the data transfer - you can find some of them for example at SourceForge.net:

SourceForge.net: ExportDive
SourceForge.net: gdivelog
SourceForge.net: JDiveLog

 

[sanso]

Love You, trux.
I found some of these already, and decided against reinventing the wheel.

 

[rxcnc2]

I really despise the SDM so I welcome your effort Gianpaolo.
However, I am not able to import the old logbooks. I read in the thread that I should have SDE files... I only have SDL, or optionally CSV.
Note I use version 1 of the SDM. I tried long time ago to install version 2 but I found it even worse so I disinstalled it immediately.
Any advice? Thanks