Garmin entering the dive industry?

[stuartv]

They already have those; the US military has had them for years. Something to do with GPS or manual source fix to start and updating position from a gyroscope. Now it just needs official declassification and sale- and someone willing to pay whatever huge cost one is.

They might also need to make them just a wee bit smaller...

 

[T.C.]

My point was that as Garmin can lead you astray on the surface, should you rely on them underwater?

The maps installed were not updated, but the GPS functions on Garmin work properly. I've used their products in combat many times, and they've been better than military receivers (not to trash a military reciever, as they do things a civilian one can't).

 

[T.C.]

They might also need to make them just a wee bit smaller...

The person I spoke with said they're about the size of a large dive computer, like the Petrel.

 

[victorzamora]

They already have those; the US military has had them for years. Something to do with GPS or manual source fix to start and updating position from a gyroscope. Now it just needs official declassification and sale- and someone willing to pay whatever huge cost one is.

In college I worked with a team developing an IMU-based INS, but the goal was to cross-reference INS outputs with the navigation information gleaned from other (more sensitive) navigation methods. They used the IMUs partially in conjunction with the "other" system, but also used them for more "normal" INS. The biggest issue with INS is that it's really, really tough to compensate for drift due to things like current.

The person I spoke with said they're about the size of a large dive computer, like the Petrel.

Ours was this size (maybe a touch bigger) including battery, but could've been done smaller on fully custom hardware instead of the off-the-shelf stuff we were using for prototyping.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Ours was this size (maybe a touch bigger) including battery, but could've been done smaller on fully custom hardware instead of the off-the-shelf stuff we were using for prototyping.

When I was in college a single gyroscope, let alone a full IMU, was larger than that. Nowadays, the modern equivalent is found in cheap toy helicopters. Amazing.

 

[dmaziuk]

The person I spoke with said they're about the size of a large dive computer, like the Petrel.

I believe they're called Ratio and can be bought wherever dive computers are sold. Dunno how much course plotting they actually do/log.

Oh, and these huge classified mega-expensive things are actually the size of a US quarter and cost ten bucks: Pololu - MinIMU-9 v3 Gyro, Accelerometer, and Compass (L3GD20H and LSM303D Carrier)

 

[Lorenzoid]

That's great to see there is still "hobbyist electronics" out there. I had been under the impression that everything had gotten so microscopic that breadboards and soldering had become useless tools.

 

[dmaziuk]

It has morphed somewhat: now you buy a credit-card sized computer and microscopic ready-made peripherals, and most "hobbying" is programming it in python to make them work together. But it is alive and well alright.

 

[JohnnyC]

Putting an INS into a dive computer isn't tough, what's tough is doing things like compensating for drift due to current, or flow in a cave.

 

[kelemvor]

It has morphed somewhat: now you buy a credit-card sized computer and microscopic ready-made peripherals, and most "hobbying" is programming it in python to make them work together. But it is alive and well alright.

Traditional electronics hobby stuff still happens. Visit a local hacker space and I'm sure you'll see plenty of it. Sure, sometimes folks will use a raspberry pi or other ready made tiny all in one computers to control their creations but there's often lots of stuff that's done on a breadboard or a custom etched circuit board. Although etching a nice board is far easier these days as you can use a laser cutter instead of a pen and a bunch of nasty chemicals that dissolve copper plating.