Head Mounted Compass using Arduino

[johnohuk]

Hi All,
following on from the Arduino dive computer previously on this forum... I decided to have a go with a compass chip. Its still a WIP but there is enough to share...

Its mask mounted, has two RGB LEDs ( Red/Blue/Green/White) to show North/South/East/West and another LED to show whether your level or pointing in the direction of a waypoint... for navigation...these are hard coded in a list at the moment but looking to add bluetooth so you can program them from a phone..

I've yet to try it next to a large metal object underwater ( i.e. wreck) so its definitely a prototype, but you get the idea... if your in zero vis and want some way of having any positional awareness, this might be handy..






I've logged all the schematics/code on my blog.. enjoy...

JohnohUK's Ramblings

 

[fjpatrum]

Cool idea. I think I'd want to integrate it directly into the mask frame, along the top edge of the lens or something. Thanks for sharing.

 

[johnohuk]

What would be really cool would be a OLED moving compass edge just below your line of sight on the mask frame.... arrows point left/right for navigation and a N.....E.....S.....W line moving with ur head... Few things to overcome to make that work! But worth a try...I've ordered the long rectangular OLED display ...just need to rewrite the software and construct a new housing... but its still rough round the edges in terms of user experience so will play with the existing format for a bit longer to sort the software out...not convinced its quite right yet...

 

[miketsp]

It's extremely rare that I navigate with a compass using absolute bearings - this would require too much thinking underwater. Almost 100% of the time I preset the bezel before entering the water and that's all I ever need. I don't need to remember any numbers. The relative position of the N compared to the bezel tells me instantly and simply everything I need to know whether I need to know which way back to the coast if I'm out in the blue or if I want an idea where I am inside a bay or if I'm leaving the boat to circumnavigate an island and be able to come back exactly to the boat without having to surface to check my position.
So do you intend to incorporate a relative mode against a preset bearing in addition to an absolute mode?