Why is SSI so unresponsive to diver wants?

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Your earthquake dive, that is an AWESOME and unique experience. If that was me, I would have journaled a page or so of what happened. To that end, I've discovered that each diver is different and has different viewpoints to logging dives. To each their own.

Thanks - Had an interesting side discussion re: that experience and underwater acoustics/audio phenomenon with Doctor @Angelo Farina

Cool to get a better understanding of the audio physics involved.

 

[TravisD]

The other answer is that due to the Mares/SSI partnership, SSI has access to the programing source code. I had sent in an email to SSI asking about the same thing. I must have spent an hour trying to connect my Shearwaters to their app. The last sentence of the e-mail said that if other computer companies were to share their source code they would add it. Of course no company is going to share their source code so that's mute.

Sounds like BS to me, considering that 3rd party logs like MacDive support the Shearwaters - which means that either Shearwater is willing to share, or Mares/SSI app folks aren't willing to figure it out. I seriously doubt that they need access to the source code in any case - they would need the download interface documentation (how to talk to the computer thru bluetooth)

 

[Manatee Diver]

The last sentence of the e-mail said that if other computer companies were to share their source code they would add it. Of course no company is going to share their source code so that's mute.

Most companies have SDK packages available, they just need to ask for it. Garmin is the only major company that I know of that doesn't provide an SDK.

 

[Tigerpaw]

Sounds like BS to me, considering that 3rd party logs like MacDive support the Shearwaters - which means that either Shearwater is willing to share, or Mares/SSI app folks aren't willing to figure it out. I seriously doubt that they need access to the source code in any case - they would need the download interface documentation (how to talk to the computer thru bluetooth)

That's disappointing to hear. But yeah that was their reply to me.

 

[Nick_Radov]

Most companies have SDK packages available, they just need to ask for it. Garmin is the only major company that I know of that doesn't provide an SDK.

Garmin provides a free SDK that you can use to read and write dive log files.

FIT SDK | Garmin Developers

Flexible and Interoperable Data Transfer (FIT) SDK

developer.garmin.com

 

[Angelo Farina]

Sounds like BS to me, considering that 3rd party logs like MacDive support the Shearwaters - which means that either Shearwater is willing to share, or Mares/SSI app folks aren't willing to figure it out. I seriously doubt that they need access to the source code in any case - they would need the download interface documentation (how to talk to the computer thru bluetooth)

Something which can be easily "sniffed", doing proper reverse engineering.
You do not need help from the manufacturer for doing that .

 

[icyz_]

Sounds like BS to me, considering that 3rd party logs like MacDive support the Shearwaters - which means that either Shearwater is willing to share, or Mares/SSI app folks aren't willing to figure it out. I seriously doubt that they need access to the source code in any case - they would need the download interface documentation (how to talk to the computer thru bluetooth)

As someone who has been dabbling with these kind of things, let me clear this out for you all.

It is very unlikely for SSI to support other dive computers, because the app itself is owned by SSI and Mares. This same idea also applies with Garmin, Suunto, etc.

As my app is a part of Suunto and Garmin partner program; they do have SDK to do so, where Suunto basically just import your dives from their Suunto app (not dive computer). And for Garmin, they do have FIT SDK, but their API does not allow. Since these both uses FIT SDK to import, you can't really import the gas and decompression info, it is so limited.

The dive computer bluetooth connection is actually the hardest part, not everyone have the balls to get into libdivecomputer repo (the documentation is pretty outdated, and Jef noticed this but there are examples that if you want to use it, you have to dig in), all these time the ones who are maintaining are probably Jef, Sven, Greg, and sometimes Nick because they all have their own third-party apps. It took me 2+ months to create a swift framework (for iOS applications) for libdivecomputer integration [it is called libdc-swift, if you want to check].

Yes, these things can be quite time consuming to maintain. I bet SSI doesn't have full-time app developers and uses a vendor. So it can be "MORE" slow if they did consider this. Same goes for PADI app.

 

[Belzelbub]

It is very unlikely for SSI to support other dive computers, because the app itself is owned by SSI and Mares. This same idea also applies with Garmin, Suunto, etc.

They did for a while though. There was a time not long ago that SSI had a Beta live for Garmin computers. The link is still there, but it now has a message saying it’s been switched off by Garmin. Wording of the message seems odd to me, and I don’t really believe it. SSI states that Garmin decided to focus on their core business. Not diving. Yet, since it was disabled, Garmin has released the Descent MK3 line, Fenix 8, and the X50. Seems like they are still focused on diving to me. I am still able to import my dives from my Garmin into Subsurface. I only used the SSI app to try it out. It was severely limited compared to other dive log apps.

As my app is a part of Suunto and Garmin partner program; they do have SDK to do so, where Suunto basically just import your dives from their Suunto app (not dive computer). And for Garmin, they do have FIT SDK, but their API does not allow. Since these both uses FIT SDK to import, you can't really import the gas and decompression info, it is so limited.

This doesn’t make sense to me. At least not for the Garmin. I use BT to import dives from my Shearwater, then use the Garmin FIT to import the Garmin data into Subsurface.

Gas info is definitely included, and decompression info appears to be included. At least I haven’t noticed it to be missing. Gas info is definitely included as I noticed that on one dive I didn’t update the gas on my Garmin, so I was diving one set to 31, and the other set to 32. I noticed when I imported the Garmin dive that my SAC was not making sense. Subsurface was assuming I was using two different tanks, so the gas info definitely transferred over.

 

[Nick_Radov]

As my app is a part of Suunto and Garmin partner program; they do have SDK to do so, where Suunto basically just import your dives from their Suunto app (not dive computer). And for Garmin, they do have FIT SDK, but their API does not allow. Since these both uses FIT SDK to import, you can't really import the gas and decompression info, it is so limited.

Garmin FIT files do contain gas and decompression info. Look at the dive_gas, next_stop_depth, and next_stop_time fields.

 

[icyz_]

The link is still there, but it now has a message saying it’s been switched off by Garmin. Wording of the message seems odd to me, and I don’t really believe it. SSI states that Garmin decided to focus on their core business. Not diving. Yet, since it was disabled, Garmin has released the Descent MK3 line, Fenix 8, and the X50.

I think this can be answered by how Garmin does not allow libdivecomputer to access their bluetooth as well.

This doesn’t make sense to me. At least not for the Garmin. I use BT to import dives from my Shearwater, then use the Garmin FIT to import the Garmin data into Subsurface.

And for FIT SDK, I am referring to it's API counterparts, they literally have all sports supported, but not for diving. When I asked, they simply said "not yet". Which makes me don't understand why Garmin has been a bit slow in terms of diving stuffs. However, for Suunto (uses the same API concept as Garmin) you are still able to simply connect through BLE (thanks to libdivecomputer), so it's not a hassle having to sync with the Suunto app.