IOS 13 and Mares Icon HD compatible dive log apps

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-Moe

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I have been using the Divemate app and their Fusion USB adapter until now to connect my Icon to my iPhone to download and log dives.. Suddenly Divemate has revised history and removed all evidence from their website that they ever had an IOS product and removed the app from the App Store. Naturally the existing app on my phone stopped downloading from the DC as well.

IOS 13 now allows direct connection to USB devices are there any apps that support the Mares Icon HD directly connecting to the iPhone? I realize iPhones still need to use a USB to Lightning adapter such as the Camera dongle that Apple sells.
 
Although you're right that iOS 13 now "supports USB devices", it does so in a very specific way. It supports USB devices that looks like a memory stick or a "disk drive". So the device needs to look like a series of files/folders like a memory stick does. Your Mares Icon HD does not work like this. So no iOS logbook software is going to be able to talk to it directly.

There are some dive computers that *do* work that way, like a Garmin or a DiveSoft dive computer. If you want to upgrade your dive computer, I'd look for something with Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE. If you want to stick to Mares, there is the Mares Genius.

If you don't want to upgrade your dive computer, then I suggest software like ours that allows you to start logging your dives on your iOS device (or Android) on site, and then later on download your profile information from your dive computer using macOS (or Windows) and merge that into what you've already logged.
 
Although you're right that iOS 13 now "supports USB devices", it does so in a very specific way. It supports USB devices that looks like a memory stick or a "disk drive". So the device needs to look like a series of files/folders like a memory stick does. Your Mares Icon HD does not work like this. So no iOS logbook software is going to be able to talk to it directly.

So how does the Android app DiveMate support the Icon HD using OTG? To me that sounds like the Icon presents itself just fine or am I missing something?
 
Although you're right that iOS 13 now "supports USB devices", it does so in a very specific way. It supports USB devices that looks like a memory stick or a "disk drive". So the device needs to look like a series of files/folders like a memory stick does.

IOS 13 also recognize keyboards and mice using (USB) OTG. There is no requirement to present a file system only.
 
Android devices can support USB just fine - they don't have the same restrictions. I was just talking about iOS and then specifically your question about iOS 13. Yes, you can do more with iOS13 but still not enough to support your Mares Icon HD.
 
IOS 13 also recognize keyboards and mice using (USB) OTG. There is no requirement to present a file system only.

Keyboards and mice are called "Human Interface Devices" or HID devices in iOS Land and they have been supported in iOS for a long time, before iOS 13. iOS 13 just added support for memory stick like devices. HID devices send a specific format of data to the "host" and often times it's a one way data connection even. Your Mares Icon HD does *not* look like an HID device to iOS.

Your Mares Icon HD just uses a "regular old" USB Serial cable. Just like a whole slew of other dive computers out there, you're using a USB Serial cable to talk to it. So you need a "driver" of some sort to talk to it. On a macOS device, you can use either a kernel level driver or a "user land" driver and our macOS product supports both. In iOS, you can't add drivers. No drivers. Notta. No USB Serial drivers. The USB Serial cable used by the Icon HD is different from the USB Serial cable used by eg: the Puck or Puck Pro, but it's still a USB Serial cable.
 
Keyboards and mice are called "Human Interface Devices" or HID devices in iOS Land and they have been supported in iOS for a long time, before iOS 13. iOS 13 just added support for memory stick like devices. HID devices send a specific format of data to the "host" and often times it's a one way data connection even. Your Mares Icon HD does *not* look like an HID device to iOS.

Your Mares Icon HD just uses a "regular old" USB Serial cable. Just like a whole slew of other dive computers out there, you're using a USB Serial cable to talk to it. So you need a "driver" of some sort to talk to it. On a macOS device, you can use either a kernel level driver or a "user land" driver and our macOS product supports both. In iOS, you can't add drivers. No drivers. Notta. No USB Serial drivers. The USB Serial cable used by the Icon HD is different from the USB Serial cable used by eg: the Puck or Puck Pro, but it's still a USB Serial cable.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. There is speculation that Apple is not finished with its USB device specs and have already updated the iPad Pro to include a USB 3 controller. Perhaps serial controller support will be enhanced in the future.

An interesting example of work in this direction...
Serial Control - Serial Device Application Software for iOS, Android, and Chrome Browser | StarTech.com
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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