GPS technology and diving????

[herman]

The company I mentioned has solved the problem. They make water tight cases for the most popular brands of hand held GPS's and a long antenna lead that leads up to the external antenna left at the surface in a float. There is some type of amplifier (don't know what type, I'm extremely ignorant when it comes to matters of electronics) the boosts the signal down to the receiver. If I remember correctly, the current max depth for the antenna is only about 25 feet or so.

This would be fairly easy to do as a DIY project. There are plenty of external antennas for current GPS's . The antennas are already waterproof..or at least rain proof, so mounting them on a float at the surface is no problem. Don't remember off hand how long the one I installed on my boat was but seems like it was around 25 ft. A waterproof cable and a waterproof box for the GPS would be the challange. As for me, my compass works fine.

 

[The Kraken]

Comapsses are great unless you have no reference points upon which to take bearings and triangulate your position . . . . currents, winds, etc.

I know a lenghty antenna would be problematic, but it sure would be nice to have one.

 

[Michael Freeman]

Underwater Geocaching.

 

[pipedope]

There are lots of ways of position fixing underwater.
In the commercial diving world lots of things have to be done to very accurate position.

Generally they use GPS to locate the ship position accurately and sound transducer systems to locate things underwater. These systems vary in complexity and cost and the accuracy is as good as you want to pay for.

You can do a cheap version by towing a float with a GPS on it. If there is much current you can log the direction and length of tow line and do a mathmatical correction later.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Better yet, a low freq. UW transmitter that, when activated, sends a signal that includes a depth gauge reading. Surface unit including GPS and three low-freq receivers triangulates on the signal and uses the depth info to calculate a 3D offset from the GPS reading.

Whatayathink?

You've got it, now lets get this contraption off the ground.......I would also like an underwater propulsion device that has all this stuff built into the dash. Oh, two propellers with adjustable pitch. Imagine two of these side by side, diver cockpit in the middle. Could we put the air in the torpedo's? Now we have to fand a way to control the ballast.

http://www.underwater.pg.gda.pl/01_diver.htm
http://www.ussubs.com/submarines/triton.2.pdf
http://www.deepflight.com/subs/

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

You've got it, now lets get this contraption off the ground.......I would also like an underwater propulsion device that has all this stuff built into the dash. Oh, two propellers with adjustable pitch. Imagine two of these side by side, diver cockpit in the middle. Could we put the air in the torpedo's? Now we have to fand a way to control the ballast.

http://www.underwater.pg.gda.pl/01_diver.htm
http://www.ussubs.com/submarines/triton.2.pdf
http://www.deepflight.com/subs/

I was thinking more like this one:

http://ussubs.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3

Do you need a first mate?

 

[H2Andy]

hey, check out these Seahorse subs... they're pretty nifty (and relatively
inexpensive at around $40,000 for the single):

http://www.caribsub.com/seahorsesubmarines.htm

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

hey, check out these Seahorse subs... they're pretty nifty (and relatively
inexpensive at around $40,000 for the single):

http://www.caribsub.com/seahorsesubmarines.htm

The link I posted above is the big sub, but I actually like this design better:

http://ussubs.com/submarines/luxury.php3

It's 1/3 lexan! Can you imagine ridding around in the front of that thing??

 

[H2Andy]

nice! i can't find where it says the price. how much do you think they'd want
for it?

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

nice! i can't find where it says the price. how much do you think they'd want
for it?

In the FAQ it says (regarding the Phoenix 1000):

"Initially, the owners would retain us to modify the design and develop the interior to meet their specific requirements. Subsequently we would sign a manufacturing contract that would require a 10% initial payment followed by four 20% payments made at easily verifiable milestones in the construction process with the final 10% on delivery. The price of the Seattle 1000 is $19.7 million. Construction time would be 24 months."

So do YOU need a first mate?