Underwater GPS

[tfohl]

Novatel makes a combo GPS and inertial nav system. (www.novatel.com)

It possibly could be packaged for underwater use and looks like it would be useful in most dive scenarios.

Best,
Tim Fohl

 

[StingRob]

You may want to consider the marine units (even fish finder) which have both GPS (installed on the boat or wireless) and sonar. Bunch of products on the market, serarch the internet you'll find something.

Stingrob

Does anybody know why they dont make an underwater GPS, I figured this would be something really kool, you would never have to worry about not finding a wreck, or the dive boat again.

Anyway just a thought.

Thanks

 

[divebear49]

My research shows a GPS navigational system is available for divers. The recreational package price starts at $450. The system works off of an umbilical connection with the diver. Otherwise the GPS would not work. The umbilical standard length is 50 feet. See website http://www.longbeachdive.com/price-list.htm

Good luck.

DiveBear49

Does anybody know why they dont make an underwater GPS, I figured this would be something really kool, you would never have to worry about not finding a wreck, or the dive boat again.

Anyway just a thought.

Thanks

 

[Bill51]

With the price of solidstate laser ring gyros dropping the way they have been, it shouldn’t be too long before we get something that works well underwater, doesn’t require a link to the surface, isn’t depth limited by antenna feed, and will provide full 3 axis accuracy underwater. Furthermore a gyro based INS would provide instantaneous feedback of very small changes in position including depth, surge, and other factors that couldn’t be tracked by a GPS with the antenna on the surface.

 

[ScubaSteve_FS]

Here is a poorman's underwater GPS. You would want to use one of the small Garmin's these days as the Magellan in the original article is no longer around.

http://florida.scubasteve.biz/diving/diversgps.htm

 

[Nemrod]

I have placed a Magellon GPS in a water proof bag. It does not recieve signals in the water. That is what I have found. I did not expect it to but was just curious.
Submarines, spacecraft etc use an Inertial Guidence system. This sytem does not rely upon exterior signals to navigate. Once coordinates are fed in for it's location it uses gyros and accelorometers etc to track it's position from the starting point. Something like that anyways.

 

[Florabama]

If you want to find the boat, then you are talking about a "Neverlost" or "Eye Sea" beacon device.

Do you know a source for these? I would be interested in one of these.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Folks,

The "Eye Sea" company collapsed financially, probably due to an insufficient capital base, and is no longer producing the equipment, which is too bad, because it was a great idea.

 

[Don Burke]

Do you know a source for these? I would be interested in one of these.

http://www.scubamarket.com/eng/stuw0001.php

http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/DTSC.html

http://scuba-newengland.com/EquipmentDetail.asp?ID=342

 

[The Kraken]

All that is required is an external antenna with an extended cable which can be connected to a waterproof housing and amplified to a sufficient level to transmit the signal to the depth required to a compatible hand-held GPS unit.

The antenna would stay at the surface with the diver-down buoy and transmit the signal to the diver's GPS unit housed in the housing. There would be, of course, a miniscule difference between the GPS antenna location and the actual location of the diver.

the K