Halcyon and SUEX: live DPV data on your dive computer

Time to get lazy: scooters out of the garage. When I was in Austria for the interview about the design of the Symbios, I was given beta-test hardware for something Halcyon is working on: the dive computer that talks to your DPV. Oxygen Scientific, Arne Sieber’s company, built it into both of my SUEX scooters.

What you see

The Symbios computer already talks to your rebreather and works out your decompression. Now it also talks to your scooter. What it shows: the battery charge in per cent and the remaining runtime while you drive. Depending on the model there is a bit more, and a speed transmitter is in the works. With speed, a GPS position before the dive and a compass heading you could build nice things, but that is my imagination; we will see what the big players bring.

In the video you see it on the table. Scooter on, and the handset shows the scooter’s charge, the distance travelled, and the remaining runtime: 600 minutes at rest, 400 at full power. Those numbers mean nothing on a table, because there is no water resistance. Underwater I tested it and worked it out afterwards, and it was surprisingly accurate.

How it gets into the scooter

On the big SUEX models it is harder. The body is metal, so the transmitter cannot go in the top and has to sit in the motor compartment. For that you need a SUEX service centre.

For the Quantum, the small SUEX, a board is coming soon that you simply connect to the battery. No service centre needed. I tested the Quantum a couple of years ago and wrote an article about it: do not underestimate that thing.

Mounted on the scooter

I dive with a HUD on my mask, so I do not look at my wrist anyway. So I put the handset on the scooter with bungees. For the XJ there is already a ready-made mount; on my Goldfinder it does not fit because of the frame that couples two of them, but something will surely come for that.

Position, angle and distance are exactly right. The screen does not reflect, and during the dive you have everything on the scooter: the oxygen partial pressure from the Symbios, depth, gases, and the scooter’s own data.

Where this is going

This is what Halcyon is working on: an ecosystem, one place for your information. The scooter now. A new dive light is coming, and if you look in the Halcyon app at what you can switch on and off, I am fairly sure that light will soon talk to the handset too. I am going to try to get it into my own app as well.

What it means for cave divers: today you check your batteries with a meter before the dive. Soon it is one computer that checks everything. You connect, read out, and know that everything is full for the next dive.

Questions? Put them under the video. If I do not know the answer, I find the right people.