New App to export dive data from the Apple Watch Ultra

[Ryebrye]

It's a very minor point for everyone who isn't diving at high elevation, but I'm assuming it's hardcoded to the pressure, not necessarily the depth?

At high elevation you could squeeze out a few more feet if your surface pressure was a few hundred mbars lower?

 

[mattfish]

I'm also curious if this is a hardware/firmware limit. For the sake of being thorough, I'd like to have someone use the Depth app rather than the Oceanic+ app on a deep dive and see if the max depth is captured any differently.

To be clear, I do suspect that this is a limitation on the pressure sensor or the firmware, but I'd like to see the data captured from different sources just to be absolutely certain it's not a software limitation with the app that's recording the data to the logs in Health app.

 

[Belzelbub]

I'm also curious if this is a hardware/firmware limit. For the sake of being thorough, I'd like to have someone use the Depth app rather than the Oceanic+ app on a deep dive and see if the max depth is captured any differently.

Check the profile that @OrcasC205 posted. This was pulled from HealthKit, not Oceanic+. It was mentioned that the Oceanic+ log didn’t resume again for 30 minutes or so, while HealthKit resumed again when depth was a bit shallower.

 

[mattfish]

Check the profile that @OrcasC205 posted. This was pulled from HealthKit, not Oceanic+. It was mentioned that the Oceanic+ log didn’t resume again for 30 minutes or so, while HealthKit resumed again when depth was a bit shallower.

Ah yeah, that’s a great point. I’d missed that there was a difference in the length of time the depth was pegged at 144’.

 

[Wibble]

What's the maximum depth rating of the Ultra? Ignore this 43m/144ft Healthkit floor.

Only ask as the earlier watches were rated to 50m/165ft which apparently meant only in a swimming pool.

With this absolute limit of the Oceanic (cr)app, it seems pretty damn pointless as your only depth monitoring device -- or even as a backup for that matter.
Oops, dropped my torch so went down to 50m/165ft to retrieve it and the app locked up. Meh.

 

[L13]

Oops, dropped my torch so went down to 50m/165ft to retrieve it and the app locked up. Meh.

The target market for the Apple watch/app needs to just let that torch go. Otherwise, they are likely to end up injured or dead no matter which computer they have.

 

[Belzelbub]

What's the maximum depth rating of the Ultra? Ignore this 43m/144ft Healthkit floor.

100M according to the specs.

With this absolute limit of the Oceanic (cr)app, it seems pretty damn pointless as your only depth monitoring device -- or even as a backup for that matter.

Agreed, mostly. The part I disagree with is the Oceanic part. Based on the log that was posted, it appears to be an Apple decision to stop recording any depth greater that 144’. So, if Apple doesn’t make 145’ available to app developers, as much as I hate to say it, locking out then is probably the right choice as tissue loading would be incorrect.

Though, I would say that this watch would be fine for most dives, as long as the bottom is no more than 144’ from the surface.

 

[undrwater]

Though, I would say that this watch would be fine for most dives, as long as the bottom is no more than 144’ from the surface.

Dive guide: "This is a wall dive, with a depth well beyond 500'. Those of you with the Apple watch as your only computer are asked to sit this dive out; for your safety, and so you can participate in today's later dives. Thank you."

 

[mattfish]

Personally, I think that since this has always been described as for recreational diving only, the limit is acceptable (not good, or ideal). However for those (hopefully very rare) cases where max depth is exceeded—by accident or negligence—the dive app should not just go into hard lockout. Given the target audience, a better option would be to guide them to a deep stop or extended safety stop, or both. Then lock-out for some period of time once the diver is back at the surface. Maybe even add in an alert an hour or two post dive about DCS symptoms and to be mindful of how the diver is feeling. But don’t lockout during the dive leaving the diver with nothing. Fortunately for all of us, the lockout behavior is fixable with an app update.

Even with the hardware pressure limit I’ll still be using the AWU as my backup computer to my Teric.

 

[Belzelbub]

Given the target audience, a better option would be to guide them to a deep stop or extended safety stop, or both. Then lock-out for some period of time once the diver is back at the surface. Maybe even add in an alert an hour or two post dive about DCS symptoms and to be mindful of how the diver is feeling. But don’t lockout during the dive leaving the diver with nothing.

While, I’m not a fan of lockouts at all, I’m really opposed to instant in-water lockouts. While I said above that the instant lockout seems to be the right choice, I don’t think this is ideal in any way. Rather, it seemed that Oceanic had to make a decision on what should happen when the app was no longer getting true depth data. At that point, it’s essentially blind, and has no idea if the max depth was 145’ or 200’. So, any ascent profile generated at that point would be erroneous.

I do agree that the better choice would be to guide the diver to the surface as safely as possible, then deal with it then.

Fortunately for all of us, the lockout behavior is fixable with an app update.

It does seem to be fixable, but I’m not sure an app update would fix it. Seems Apple would need to first open up 145’ and beyond to app developers.

It does seem strange to keep this hidden. This device is geared toward recreational, and occasional divers. While they probably shouldn’t be going anywhere near this limit, we know that it happens. The very divers that would need the most guidance after an unplanned depth deviation is left with a device that can advise them what they should now do.