GPS Tracking your dives

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I had to ask what he meant because one normally uses an SMB only at the end of a dive, and does not drag it around during a dive. The drag on a float is less than the drag on an SMB, so it is much easier to use a float to mark your location by GPS.

This is probably a UK vs. US thing but what you’re calling a float I’d call a SMB, a marker designed to stay at the surface which you tow with a reel. What you’re calling a SMB, the sausage you inflate and shoot, I’d call a dSMB, delayed Surface Marker Buoy. I’d imagine @BlueTrin was taught the same as I was.

On the subject of underwater tracking it’d be fascinating to set up a box with a mini inertial measurement unit to see how well that worked on a Diver.
 
This is probably a UK vs. US thing but what you’re calling a float I’d call a SMB, a marker designed to stay at the surface which you tow with a reel. What you’re calling a SMB, the sausage you inflate and shoot, I’d call a dSMB, delayed Surface Marker Buoy. I’d imagine @BlueTrin was taught the same as I was.

On the subject of underwater tracking it’d be fascinating to set up a box with a mini inertial measurement unit to see how well that worked on a Diver.
Yea I didn’t want to mention this. It was the subject of confusion in a previous post of mine last year.

In the UK we use more the word SMB for a float. And DSMB for the one you shoot up from underwater.

Also some people here will use a DSMB as SMB anyway for drift dives.

Regardless, this thread is very cool and exciting, it’s nice to be able to track your dive on a map.
 
A member here syncs the clock on her camera with the float/gps, and is able to then geo-reference her photographs...

takes a little work to produce the final product.
 
.....
On the subject of underwater tracking it’d be fascinating to set up a box with a mini inertial measurement unit to see how well that worked on a Diver.

This is something that has been discussed extensivelly hete in SB. Just search project Ariadna to see what has been developed up to now related to inertial underwater navigation.
IUN is something rather old, as every submarine relies in it to navigate underwater, but the news comes in the size suitable for a Diver.
 
This is probably a UK vs. US thing but what you’re calling a float I’d call a SMB, a marker designed to stay at the surface which you tow with a reel. What you’re calling a SMB, the sausage you inflate and shoot, I’d call a dSMB, delayed Surface Marker Buoy. I’d imagine @BlueTrin was taught the same as I was.

On the subject of underwater tracking it’d be fascinating to set up a box with a mini inertial measurement unit to see how well that worked on a Diver.
Rather than arguing about the name, let's focus on the shape. A long thin tube that is partially submerged is hard to tow, no matter what you call it. Something riding on the surface (Google scuba float) is much easier to tow. For the GPS tracking being discussed, you want the latter. As far as I can tell, when you say SMB you mean a long thin tube. Adding Delayed to the name just means how it is deployed. You never deploy a surface float from depth.
 
As far as I can tell, when you say SMB you mean a long thin tube. Adding Delayed to the name just means how it is deployed.

Yeah, it’s definitely a US vs. UK thing, two countries divided by a common language!

Sorry to be pedantic about it but I found that stuff like this really helped when I first started reading forums like this, and is probably even more useful if English isn't your first language. It's also useful, I feel, because sites like DAN also specifically call out the difference below.

To me this is a SMB, Surface Marker Buoy:
beaver_smb_buoy_marker_3.jpg

And this is a dSMB, delayed Surface Marker Buoy:
smb-e1330012355135.jpg


But I totally agree with the rest of what you wrote!

Project Ariadna sounds fascinating, I shall have to take a look at things and see if I can find a depth rated box to pop a RasPi and an Arduino in.

The other option is presumably sonar beacons of some kind, there is a commercial system out there that someone is trying to make work with the OpenCPN chart plotter, but it looks very expensive, I wonder if some of the Bluetooth location software could be adapted to it for an open source version.

Us Yanks are dim lot (look at who we’ve put in charge), but we will forgive you Brits for not speaking proper English....

Me fail English? That's unpossible!
 
At this point we are speaking American, not English.
 
Yeah, it’s definitely a US vs. UK thing, two countries divided by a common language!

Sorry to be pedantic about it but I found that stuff like this really helped when I first started reading forums like this, and is probably even more useful if English isn't your first language. It's also useful, I feel, because sites like DAN also specifically call out the difference below.

To me this is a SMB:
View attachment 525238
And this is a dSMB:
View attachment 525239

But I totally agree with the rest of what you wrote!

Project Ariadna sounds fascinating, I shall have to take a look at things and see if I can find a depth rated box to pop a RasPi and an Arduino in.

The other option is presumably sonar beacons of some kind, there is a commercial system out there that someone is trying to make work with the OpenCPN chart plotter, but it looks very expensive, I wonder if some of the Bluetooth location software could be adapted to it for an open source version.



Me fail English? That's unpossible!
Ok, I can be pedantic too. Your picture of a SMB is not something that is submersible, so why do you call it a SMB? MB, yes, but not SMB.
 

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