hwOS Tech: 2.99 beta 5 released!

[heinrichsweikamp]

Hi everyone,

Today we finally release the next TECH version. It's an almost 100% ready 3.00 stable but still called 2.99 Beta 5. It's attached in a version in English and German to this post. Some translation help for French and Italian is needed, again.

Again a lot of work and rigorous testing went into this. Please read the changelog for details and have fun testing! It can be installed on every OSTC which is hwOS TECH compatible (Even the now 7 year old OSTC3 USB ).

Regards,
Matthias

Changes/Notes:
[2.99]
- Beta Version -
NEW: 2.99Beta 5 as "99,5% ready 3.00 Stable"
CHANGE: Improved detection of charging-completed.
CHANGE: Gases whose ppO2 at current depth is between ppO2 max "normal" and ppO2 max deco are now color-coded in yellow while not in deco yet (they were colored red before).
CHANGE: Faster display response when changing deco-related parameters.
CHANGE: Further improvements in code quality, formatting and commenting as follows:

- Changed color coding of current GF (supersaturation) value:

+ GF factors enabled:
- attention (yellow) if current GF value >= GF-high value
- warning (red ) if current GF value >= 100%

+ none-GF mode:
- attention (yellow) if current GF value >= 90%
- warning (red ) if current GF value >= 100%

=> Resulting overall indications when violating a stop depth (in none-GF mode, 90% is used for GF_high):

1) When shallower than indicated stop depth but still deeper than ceiling *): Attention on stop depth (yellow)

2) When shallower than indicated stop depth and shallower than ceiling: Warning on stop depth (red)
As the current GF will be >= GF-high in this situation, additionally: Attention on current GF factor (yellow)
Attention on depth (yellow, blinking)

3) When shallower than indicated stop depth and ceiling, and outside ZHL-model: Warning on stop depth (red)
Warning on current GF factor (red)
Warning on depth (red, blinking)

*) In GF mode, the ceiling depth is calculated at GF-high, in none-GF mode at 100% supersaturation.


- Updated calculation of ascent time:

+ When there is a ceiling but not yet a stop obligation (deco will vanish during ascent):

ascent time = current depth / ascent speed rounded up to next full minute

+ When in deco with indicated stops:

ascent time = (current depth - depth of last stop) / ascent speed rounded up to next full minute
+ 1 minute for each meter from depth of last stop to surface
+ sum of all stop times

+ when in deco with indicated stop(s) and shallower than the last stop:

ascent time = 1 minute for each meter from current depth to surface
+ time of the pending stop(s)

- De-cluttered and ordered dive mode custom views by topics:

1 average depth and stopwatch - all modes
2 compass - all modes
3 ppO2 sensors - CCR & pSCR only
4 sensor check - CCR mode only
5 pSCR data - pSCR mode only
6 tank pressure and SAC rate - OSTC TR only
7 gas needs for ascent - deco modes only
8 gas needs for return - cave mode only, not yet available
9 deco plan - deco modes only
10 ceiling, current GF and tissues - deco modes only
11 CNS values - deco modes only
12 ppO2, END/EAD and CNS - deco modes only
13 GF factors - deco modes only
14 clock, battery and surface pressure - all modes

deco modes = OC, CCR and pSCR

- Eliminated a use of the GF-high parameter in none-GF mode.

- Improved rounding of first stop depth.

- Improved calculation of NDL time.

- Improved and streamlined calculation of CNS values at end of dive.

- Improved switch-over from being within NDL to being in deco, and vice-versa. A stop time of ".." minutes will be shown
when there is already a ceiling obligation but deco calculation reveals that it will vanish during the ascent, given
the ascent speed limit is obeyed.

- Fixed a bug in the calculation of the initial ascent.

- Made overall deco calculations once more a little bit faster.

- Stabilized timebase for blinking of setpoint display.

- Improved handling of the condition when a bailout plan can not be computed due to no breathable bailout gas available.

- Upfixed alternative divemode screen layout handling, fixed message suppression and automatic custom view switching in
combination with alternative layout.

- Added an option for selecting if the max. depth or the average depth shall be shown in the main divemode screen.

- Improved stability of the timebases used for calculating the average depths.

- Removed erratic NDL outputs in gauge mode.

- Fixed display of resettable dive time when it exceeds 99 minutes, 59 seconds:
+ up to 99 mins, 59 sec display shows minutes:seconds
+ after 100 mins display shows hours:minutes

- Improved energy saving by shutting down compass and accelerometer circuitry whenever compass is not shown.

- For those that like underwater navigation with compass: when the compass is shown, the temperature display will
be replaced by a display of the resettable dive timer.

- When configuring a manually set gas while the dive ("gas 6"), it's display will be color-coded according to the
set O2 ratio, the current depth and the ppO2 max thresholds, the latter automatically switching between normal
and deco ppO2 max on dive condition. After adjustment of O2 and He ratios, the gas can be finally taken by
selecting the "gas: xxx" item from the menu.

- The better gas cue is now also given when switching while the dive to the manually set gas ("gas 6"). As long as
there is a regularly configured gas or diluent that fits for the current depth, a cue will be given towards this
regular gas/diluent. This cue can be suppressed by setting the cued gas/dil as lost.

- The tissue graphics in dive mode now also displays the number of the leading tissue whenever the current gradient
factor is > 0% or when in deco. (remaining todo: there is a light flicker in the output)

- Reworked the way the current firmware version and status (beta, release) is displayed, removed the "SP" notation.

- Known limitation: after 18 hours, 12 minutes and 16 seconds of dive time:
+ The average depths will show erroneous values.
+ The resettable dive time will wrap around to 0.

[DennisA]

That is a lot of great fixes and improvements.. Love it allready...

[DrFosterGloucester]

I would guess that the known limitations are due to OSTC's being 16 bit and therefore causing an integer overflow?

[Clownfish]

Thanks Matthias

Is the time when compass showing meant to be min:1/6 min?

aGF Value in that screen does not fully show high value.

Other than the above, looks fantastic! Will test it out on Saturday, but only a shallower dive.

[Live2dive]

Thanks for the update...looks great looking to the change notes, with some expected improvements, i'll test it soon on my OSTC 2!

Especially love that one: '- Added an option for selecting if the max. depth or the average depth shall be shown in the main divemode screen.'... thank you very much!

Not seen it in the release notes: does it include the fix for the lost gas bug in OC?

Thank you for your great work!

Regards,
Llorenç

[Ralph]

Yes, it does!

[Live2dive]

Great!

Thanks, Ralph.

[ijdod]

Nice work!

Does beta 5 already fix the TR issues in combination with screen brightness settings as mentioned in the discussion a few days ago?

[edhowarth]

That looks fantastic!:)-D

[Live2dive]

Hello!

I've installed it yesterday on my OSTC 2, and i've been playing a little bit with it in the simulator.

Here some appreciations:

1- New time-counter in compass personal view: it doesn't display the final digit of the seconds (see two images atacched)

2- Exceded MOD warnings for first gas not working properly. They doesn't seem to take into account the configured 'max ppo2 settings'... it seems that it uses a fixed 1.6 or use the 'max deco ppo2 setting' instead of the 'max ppo2 setting'. See imatges attatched: max ppo2 = 1.4, max deco ppo2 = 1.6.... and the warning starts showing at 1.6, not at 1.4

3-In some cases, Gas needs goes to 999 value. It doesn't occur always, but i've seen a couple of times during the ascent while going shallower than the first scheduled stop.

4- Minor comentaries: pressures readings/configurations related with the TR versions enabled by default, units of the surface pressure in hPa instead of mBar of previous versions.

Apart of this, quite happy with the update. Tested the lost gas function in OC, and i confirm that seems to work properly now. And now i can see the average deep always in the main screen, great!

Llorenç

[Live2dive]

Three more images related to the previous entry.

[Live2dive]

And the last image.

Here in the personal view, at the same depth, is the only place where the ppo2 marked in red seems to detect that with this value it should be a 'warning'. But it's no consistent with the other views.

[Ralph]

Hi Llorenç,

thanks for the detailed observations, i'll have a close look at everything and may come back with some question when i'm back from EUROTEK this weekend.

best regards,
Ralph


PS: for the missing seconds digit of the stopped dive time in compass view i can already confirm it's a bug. It seems to get somehow overwritten by the compass graphics...

[Spacefish]

I love the performance improvements in the rendering / the overall performance.

I thing i don´t like: The different upper / lowercase variations in the menu (back is lowercase for example).. Would prefer matching cases and if "Back" is special, just draw a left arrow in front of it instead of making it lowercase.

[Enjo]

Hi Matthias and Ralph,

I'd like to come back to ijods question as it affects me as well:
Nice work!

Does beta 5 already fix the TR issues in combination with screen brightness settings as mentioned in the discussion a few days ago?

It would be highly appreciated to fix this issue as the TR is with this issue of no value at all.

Best regards
Enjo

[dadefay]

Hi Matthias and Ralph,

Thanks for your work.

If you need some french translations, don't hesitate to send it to me (Matthias has my email).

Kind regards.

[ClaudeDive]

Hi Matthias and Ralf,

Me too for French translation ...

Best regards

[Live2dive]

Hi all again!

I've been playing a little bit more with the new beta. I append another point to the 4 already commented that are being revised by Ralph:

5- Better gas change (OC): in previous version, if you have an active deco gas with change depth set, once you arrive to this change depth the OSTC automatically suggested the change to that appropiate gas. In the new beta version, if you don't have deco stops at that deep, the OSTC doesn't suggest the change anymore at that deep... now it suggests it once shallower that the change depth, when you arrive at the deep's first stop. For instance: nx50 deco gas with change depth of 21m... if the first deco stop is at 12m, OSTC won't suggest the change until you arive at 12m. Also seems that gas needs calculations are made taking into account the change at the first deco stop (not the configured gas change depth)... i'm not sure if it does the same with deco calculations.

And Ralph & Matthias... if you need some future Spanish translations, i can help in anaything you want.

Regards,

[ClaudeDive]

Matthias & Ralf,

By downloading hwOS Tech v. 2.99 beta 5, Do we keep the personal settings or like the previous v.2.99 beta it resets all the parameters,

I'm going to Asia on the 10th of january, will the stable version be available on that date ?

Regards,

[Live2dive]

ClaudeDive... i can confirm you that personal settings are reseted with the update.

[heinrichsweikamp]

Live2dive Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ClaudeDive... i can confirm you that personal
> settings are reseted with the update.

This is very annoying, I know. We got almost instantly 5 mails from angry customers about this. I should have warned in the release notes... But Logbook data is unaffected.

But it was necessary since there were internal changes to the settings. I hope this was the last time this is requires for a long period. Updating from 2.99 to 3.00 will not require a reset for sure.

regards,
Matthias

[dadefay]

Hi,

I updated from the previous beta to beta 5, I did not lose my personnal settings !

Regards.

[ClaudeDive]

No worries Matthias, I understand the need, it's the small inconvenience for the benefit of your big work on this new version!

Matthias the link of the file attached to your broadcast is noted 299_beta_FR_ostc3_firmware.hex
Pity ! When will the French version be available?

But the download is good in English 299_beta_EN_ostc3_firmware.hex
Regards
PS: Didier, Normal that there is no reset of personal settings from one Beta version to another!

[heinrichsweikamp]

The changes habe been introduced in the 2.99beta 1. So any further updates in the current beta versions won't require any resets of the settings.

regards,
Matthias

[Ralph]

Hi all,

this is to answer to the questions and remarks Llorenç put out some days ago:

1- New time-counter in compass personal view: it doesn't display the final digit of the seconds?

This is a bug, the second digit somehow gets lost while printing to the screen. It'll be fixed soon.


2- Exceeded MOD warnings for first gas not working properly. They doesn't seem to take into account the configured 'max ppo2 settings'... it seems that it uses a fixed 1.6 or use the 'max deco ppo2 setting' instead of the 'max ppo2 setting'. See images attached: max ppo2 = 1.4, max deco ppo2 = 1.6.... and the warning starts showing at 1.6, not at 1.4

While not in deco, an attention (color coding: yellow) will be given when the ppO2 of the current gas exceeds the ppO2 max threshold. In one of the pictures this happens with a Nitrox 32 at 38 meter yielding a ppO2 of 1,52 bar while in NDL, i.e. no deco. The color will change to red (warning level) when the ppO2 max deco threshold is reached (as seen in the other picture).

When in deco, the yellow attention will not be given - only the warning once ppO2 max deco is violated.

What actually still is a small bug or in-consequence is the fact, that the ppO2 values shown with the customs views omit the yellow color for the interval between ppO2 max and max deco and instead go directly from white (normal) to red. I'll align that with the color-coding as of above.


3-In some cases, Gas needs goes to 999 value. It doesn't occur always, but i've seen a couple of times during the ascent while going shallower than the first scheduled stop.

Argh, that seems to be a variant of a bug that was thought to be fixed already. In this particular case (current depth) - (depth of first stop) gives a negative number and that ruins the remainder of the calculation.


4- Minor commentaries: pressures readings/configurations related with the TR versions enabled by default

Yes, on purpose

... units of the surface pressure in hPa instead of mBar of previous versions.

Also on purpose, to give air pressures in Milli-Bar is officially revoked since quite a number of years, hPa (hecto Pascal) is to be used instead. The pressure number by itself is the same on both cases.


5- Better gas change (OC): in previous version, if you have an active deco gas with change depth set, once you arrive to this change depth the OSTC automatically suggested the change to that appropriate gas. In the new beta version, if you don't have deco stops at that depth, the OSTC doesn't suggest the change anymore at that depth... now it suggests it once shallower that the change depth, when you arrive at the first stop. For instance: nx50 deco gas with change depth of 21m... if the first deco stop is at 12m, OSTC won't suggest the change until you arrive at 12m. Also seems that gas needs calculations are made taking into account the change at the first deco stop (not the configured gas change depth)... i'm not sure if it does the same with deco calculations.

Well, two things: current diving situation and deco planning. As for the current diving situation, gas switch cues will be given as soon one is above the configured change depth of a gas and the ppO2 of the gas is not higher than the configured ppO2 max or max deco, dependent if in deco or not.

+++++++

UPDATE: the above Statement is incorrect, gas switch cues are indeed given when arriving at the stop depth and this depth is at or above (shallower) the change depth of another enabled gas and the ppO2 of that gas will be within the set limits.

+++++++

For the deco planning, the OSTC now assumes you won't stop your ascent just for the sake of switching your gas when you can also do that on the next "proper" stop some meters more up & just a minute or less later. It won't make a difference to the overall deco. You can make a switch on the fly if you want, on the other side if you're in a blue water ascent with buoy and reel, you'll probably do the switch once arrived at the stop, stabilized and the reel put on brake. The OSTC is just meant to be a tool to help you, it's not supposed to be a diving operations commander!

The gas needs are calculated from the data in the stops table, so there is a direct dependency.

The only case where gas switches are placed deeper than the first stop is when an OC bailout from a CCR or pSCR dive is calculated. In this special situation the OSTC assumes your bottom B/O gas is limited and when there is a change to go to the next gas it should be done as soon as possible. Opposite to that, when ascending in an OC dive, the reserves in the back gas should be big enough to supply all the way up to the first real deco stop.


best regards,
Ralph