We are considering the possibility of increasing the transmit power in the L1, to increase the range (simple change in the internal software). However this will decrease the battery life. What would you consider acceptable battery life for a rechargeable and disposable battery in the L1?...
I wouldnt have any hesitation swapping rechargeable batteries every day. In fact, I am inclined to change them daily for reliability and simplicity as part of the pre-flight. It is easier for me to change batteries than remember how many hours are on the battery.
Consider a liveaboard, which is worst case. Even with 4 dives plus a night dive you are looking at maybe 15 hours or half normal battery life. It wouldnt bother me in the least if battery life was 6-8 hours to get a 200 meter or better homing range.
Is the boat (and diver transmitter for that matter) water activated or is a switch involved? I would vote for 2x (or even 5x) distance a diver can receive the boat homing signal over battery life any day.
Will diver tracking feature of the L1 location transmitter be part of the future boat messaging kit? It would be spectacular if the messaging kit were laptop-based and had constant cylinder pressure, heading, and distance recording data for each diver.
It would be even better if the application could read a USB GPS dongle and have time stamps. All the diver would have to do is remember the time (and maybe depth) to get GPS coordinates of a found object off the laptop. For me, that would be virtually as useful as an inertial nav system on the diver and not have to deal with the added user interface complications in the water.
How will the messaging unit work? Will you have to pull up the transmitter on a rope, transfer the message, and drop it back in the water?
