Oceanic+ iPhone Housing - Phone Battery Life

[Kryssa]

I really enjoyed taking photos with an iPhone on my last liveaboard trip.

The phone remained awake from the moment I closed the housing to when I opened it again and it was killing the battery life on the phone (not the housing, which has great battery life.)

I was able to charge between dives because it was a liveaboard, but on a two tank boat trip with a drive to the marina, I know it won’t last two dives in this condition.

Is there a setting or something I’m missing? Would love to solve this problem for an upcoming trip to Kona.

Edit: The phone is a brand new iPhone 15 Pro, so it’s not a battery age problem.

 

[Johnoly]

The app is constantly running once the phone is loaded in the housing, with no way to shut the app down once the housing is closed. Maybe future app updates will add this feature, but for now it will consume a large amount of battery. The best is to only load the phone in the housing right before your dive and unload it during your surface interval. Not the best solution but it's the only trick that users have been able to use. Clean the oring carefully each time with Q-tips & oring grease. Most dive computers won't let you 'turn them off' in the middle of a dive for safety reasons

 

[seattle_sailor]

I really enjoyed taking photos with an iPhone on my last liveaboard trip.

The phone remained awake from the moment I closed the housing to when I opened it again and it was killing the battery life on the phone (not the housing, which has great battery life.)

I was able to charge between dives because it was a liveaboard, but on a two tank boat trip with a drive to the marina, I know it won’t last two dives in this condition.

Is there a setting or something I’m missing? Would love to solve this problem for an upcoming trip to Kona.

Edit: The phone is a brand new iPhone 15 Pro, so it’s not a battery age problem.

I am currently in Cozumel, MX using an iPhone 15pro with a Divevolk housing.

I am using the following iOS settings
passcode off
face ID off
display auto brightness off
raise to wake on
last I enable airplane mode to reduce resources

Yesterday I was able to record video of two 21% tank boat dive at miderate depths on one battery.

Hope this helps

 

[Kryssa]

The app is constantly running once the phone is loaded in the housing, with no way to shut the app down once the housing is closed. Maybe future app updates will add this feature, but for now it will consume a large amount of battery. The best is to only load the phone in the housing right before your dive and unload it during your surface interval. Not the best solution but it's the only trick that users have been able to use. Clean the oring carefully each time with Q-tips & oring grease. Most dive computers won't let you 'turn them off' in the middle of a dive for safety reasons

Opening the housing does not seem reasonable on a surface interval on a 6 pack boat. How disappointing.

If I am not using the dive computer function I should be able to let the computer use battery-saving settings.

 

[Kryssa]

I am currently in Cozumel, MX using an iPhone 15pro with a Divevolk housing.

I am using the following iOS settings
passcode off
face ID off
display auto brightness off
raise to wake on
last I enable airplane mode to reduce resources

Yesterday I was able to record video of two 21% tank boat dive at miderate depths on one battery.

Hope this helps

Thanks. It doesn’t seem like your housing has the same issues mine does. Mine doesn’t ask for Face ID or a password because the phone never goes to sleep once in the housing .

 

[David Haas]

Had a friend using the Oceanic on my recent Maldives trip.

Same complaint the App doesn't allow you to shut off the iPhone making planning to close the housing, run dive and return with time to charge up before dive #2 or 3 or whatever. a pain.

Otherwise it seemed to work but she also wondered if they might fix the App somehow. I'm not sure if Apple will allow whatever is needed to control that though and I an an Apple devotee

I still have my DIveVolk housing for operating my iPhone 13 PRO Max as I do on the surface in addition to my compact Fantasea FG7X II for Canon G7X II camera and Inon S220 strobe

DH

 

[lexvil]

Not the same housing but this seems a common issue, I use the sealife, after about 3 1/2 to 4 hours total my 14 drops to about 60% charge. I set it up and vacuum about half way through the gearing up process and just leave it until the dives are done.

With the oceanic at least you have the vacuum pump built in so taking it out and shutting it off is an option even if not ideal, maybe try a quick wipe down pull it out and shut it off and put it back in for the SI??

The oceanic does a lot more than the sealife in use so I’m sure what you are seeing is normal, it would be nice if they added a real sleep mode, mine does a semi sleep where it dulls down but the screen stays partially lit.