Recommendations for dive log that calculates gas consumption.

[mcpowell]

My son and I have Zoop Novos. I transferred the dive computer data into DM5 (the Suunto software) for a few dives and while it gives some nice data, I’d like to be able to track our gas consumption. I don’t see how to do it with DM5.

I’ve found two digital logs that may work, but before I buy either Divelog for my iPhone and Diving Log 6.0 for my desktop (I think I would need both?) or invest the time in Subsurface, I thought I would ask...

Do both or either of those dive logs calculate SAC? I’d like to be able to see gas consumption rates for an individual dive as well as an average.

Do you have a better suggestion?

I know I could build a spreadsheet, but I’d rather have the simplicity of a “ready made program”. I enjoy journaling adventures like diving, and do keep a hard copy logbook. My 30 year old logbook doesn’t have a lot of room for notes, and I really prefer the details provided by the computer. I realize I’ll need to enter the values for beginning and ending tank pressure as well as tank size; that’s no problem. I’d also like room to type in some notes after the dive.

 

[Charles2]

You'll have to invest time in any of the 3 dive logs you talk about. Subsurface is the only free one and it gives you a SAC rate for each dive (assuming of course your computer monitors and stores that data).

It's great software especially with recent updates, why pay for what you can get for free?

+1 for Subsurface. You do not have to have an air integrated computer for Subsurface to calculate SAC. If you select the proper tank, and then enter beginning and ending pressure for each dive, SAC will be calculated automatically. My sons and grandsons have GEO2 computers and use Subsurface, that's what they do to get SAC calcs.

 

[Saniflush]

I use Divemate. They just updated their layout and I think did a really nice job of the retooling.

Also can download straight from Bluetooth connection

 

[Sean Walberg]

Another vote for Subsurface from a fellow Zoop Novo owner. It calculates SAC for a dive (with manual data entry as you said, or by download if you later get a computer that supports it)

It doesn't, to my knowledge, calculate an average SAC, but in the dive list you can right click on the heading and select SAC as a column so that you can eyeball the trend and pick out good/bad dives or sort by SAC.

Another thing I like about Subsurface is that you can sync your local data to a free cloud service and then point the mobile app at it so you can see the same data.

If you like annotating dives then Subsurface has a lot of features such as tagging, maps, sharing to Facebook, and some support for photos (which I don't use so can't tell you if it works or not)

 

[Fastmarc]

I did an excel logbook that does so and shared it here, if you're interested.

Simple excel dive log

 

[RVBldr]

DiveLog also provides SAC and can do that with either manual or AI entry. For manual, you'll just need to add tank type, size, working pressure, and start/stop pressures.

 

[mi000ke]

+1 for Subsurface. You do not have to have an air integrated computer for Subsurface to calculate SAC. If you select the proper tank, and then enter beginning and ending pressure for each dive, SAC will be calculated automatically. My sons and grandsons have GEO2 computers and use Subsurface, that's what they do to get SAC calcs.

This is what I use, also. You just have to remember to check (and record or remember) your gas-in and gas-out pressure on each dive (especially gas out, before the crew turns off your air and takes your gear, I check it on the ladder as I'm exiting the water).

 

[Neilwood]

Subsurface for me - worked great pre AI just taking a note of start and finish pressures (which I would have done for a paper log) but with AI it is even easier as it automatically works it out as soon as I enter the cylinder size.

It will also work on both the phone and PC as pretty much ever flavour of each is catered for - PC, Linux, Mac, Iphone, android (IIRC the only one that is missing is windows phone but who uses them anyway)

Add to that feature (which alone is a great help) the ability to sync to the cloud, the annotation functions (such as dive buddy, leader, temperature, weighting, GPS etc) and it is a program I would happily pay money for but it is FREE!!!!

 

[mcpowell]

Thanks for all the inputs. I downloaded subsurface last night and did a bit of fiddling. I had a little difficulty getting it to link with my dive computer, but once I figured that out all was well. it seems to do everything I want. I'll probably go back and enter my dives from my hard copy dive log.

On another note...why is this free? I'm not complaining, but I don't understand how the developer benefits. This has obviously taken many, many hours to build.

 

[kotik]

On another note...why is this free? I'm not complaining, but I don't understand how the developer benefits. This has obviously taken many, many hours to build.

There's a whole world of stuff out there built around the concept of open source software. Some examples that stand out off the top of my head might be LibreOffice, which is a fully working word processor/spreadsheet/presentation/etc. office suite, the Apache web server which powers the great majority of the internet, the Firefox web browser, and many many others.

The basic idea is that all source code is freely available for anyone interested to inspect, add to, change, and contribute to. The best examples are projects built on the foundation of community-built tools, and protecting the basic freedom of the code over time.

One of the very most prominent examples is the Linux operating system. It's a version of the renowned Unix operating system and is a small world in itself.

The creator of Linux is a guy named Linus Torvalds. He's a diver too, and as a side project he's one of the developers of Subsurface- too lazy to look up the history right now but he may have been the original creator of the application.