forum.heinrichsweikamp.com

Hi,

Finally, the new public beta version is ready. Attached to this post is the latest 3.04 beta 3 for the hwOS tech enabled OSTC's.

304_beta3_DE_2_tr_ostc3_firmware.hex: German Language including code and RX Firmware 1.39 for OSTC 2 TR
304_beta3_EN_2_tr_ostc3_firmware.hex: English Language including code and RX Firmware 1.39 for OSTC 2 TR
304_beta3_DE_EN_3_cr_ostc3_firmware.hex: German and English Language including code for external O2 Monitoring (OSTC cR, OSTC3)
304_beta3_FR_IT_3_cr_ostc3_firmware.hex: French and Italian Language including code for external O2 Monitoring (OSTC cR, OSTC3)

Updating from 3.01? Please read the thread for the last beta here: https://forum.heinrichsweikamp.com/read.php?6,21147 (But you can, of course, install this new beta directly)

Matthias


From the release notes:

- New implementation of the gas needs calculation.
ATTENTION: The previous code tended to over-estimate the gas needs for a particular dive. This new implementation delivers lower, but thus tighter figures. If the previous calculation results fitted with your practical gas consumptions, then your SAC (usage rates) were probably set lower on the OSTC than they actually are. In this case it is strongly advised to set the usage rates to a higher value until matching between calculated forecasts and actual use has been established again.

- The TTS does not include any extra minutes for a slowed final ascent from last stop to surface any more. Still it is recommended to do this final ascent at a much slower rate than the standard 10 meters per minute. One meter per minute would be good. Remember: tissue saturation peaks in the moment of reaching the surface.

- The behavior and the naming of the "extended stops" option has been slightly modified since the first implementation with firmware version 3.03.3.

- On a deco dive, once the last stop has cleared and the NDL time comes on again, a "slow" reminder will be shown to remind on doing the final ascent >>slow<<.

- On firmwares enabled for helium, the current gas density will be shown in one of the custom views now. The gas density is computed by current mix and depth.
When in CCR or pSCR mode, it also figures in the current ppO2 / setpoint value. The unit is grams per volume of one liter at current pressure.

- All "stops" that are scheduled for gas changing only, but not require a real stopping, are now displayed with a duration reading ".." (double dots). Like in writing ... means "and so on", the double-dots shall symbol that you can go on with your ascent.

- While charging, charging progress is shown on the screen now.

- Renamed OC gas type 'normal' to 'work' (gas for the working phase of the dive). Along with this, it received a down-arrow symbol to depict it as a gas for use at depth, similar to the '=' symbol that was introduced some time ago to visually depict deco gases (imagine the horizontal lines as deco stops).

Set up gases as follows:

Single gas dive:
set gas to use as 'first' and all other gases to 'disabled'.

Gas-change, extended no-stop dive:
set gas to start with to 'first', all other gases to be used later in the dive to 'work' and the unused gases to 'disabled'.

Deco-dive with one gas for descent & bottom phase, and deco gases:
set bottom gas to 'first', deco gases to 'deco' and the unused to 'disabled'.

Deco-dive with a deco gas used as travel gas on ascent, bottom, and deco gases:
configure the deco gas twice: once as travel gas and once as deco dive. Set the same change depths for both instances and put the travel gas before the deco gas in the gas list (i.e: gas 1: travel, gas 2: work (bottom) gas, gases 3-5: deco gases). Set the travel gas to 'first', the bottom gas to 'work', and the deco gases to 'deco'. Take care to adjust the pressure available on the deco gas which is used for travel gas, too, to the amount of gas that is planned to remain after having drawn the travel portion from it!

- When ppO2 is above normal threshold, but still inside the deco max threshold, and the dive has not yet progressed to doing the deco stops, the ppO2 warning has been degraded to an attention, i.e. associated messages appear in yellow now instead of red as before.

- In the simulator, the +5 minutes function can now be triggered in succession without needing to reopen the options menu each time.

- The French and Italian language package has been upgraded.

- Setting the change depth of the first gas to zero caused some unintended behavior. This is captured now. Anyhow, since firmware 3.2 it is required to set proper change depths for gases and diluents, including the ones set as 'first'!

- The deco calculator now automatically picks the best gas suitable for the set bottom depth. If no suitable gas is found (i.e. configured), calculation will be aborted with an error message. By this change it is possible to calculate dives that use a travel gas (set as 'first') and a bottom gas (set as 'work'), as the deco calculator will now pick the proper bottom gas for calculating the bottom segment. Note: the deco calculator does not calculate the descent phase but actually spends all of the set bottom time at bottom depth. While this puts the deco calculation results on the safe side, beware that the needs on the travel gas will not show up in the gas needs calculation results.

- OSTC TR: The timeouts for attentions and warnings in connection with discontinued reception of transmitter data have been relaxed a bit:
- For up to 2 minutes without updating the last value received will be retained.
- After 2 minutes without reception of any updates the pressure value will be marked as outdated.
- After 4 minutes without reception of any updates a transmitter will be declared lost.

- OSTC TR: pressure logging has been implemented. Logged pressure data can be retrieved by downloading the logbook data using external logbook software.

- Descent speed in the simulator has been increased from 19 to 24 meters per minute. This speed is not configurable, nor the simulator's ascent speed of 9 meters/min!

- In dive mode, the battery voltage will be shown when reaching 30%, and a warning will be issued when the percentage reaches 25% with 1.5 Volt batteries or 15% with LiIon batteries.

Hi,

French version : in the "Paramètres Déco" menu, there's an item "Stop élargir". I don't understand the meaning of this, could you explain and give the english text (to avoid me to load the english version on my OSTC ) ?

Best regard.

Wow, I think I need to read all this again a few times, but my first reaction would be:

It looks like now I need to bring a manual before every dive until I get the hang of when and how to use first gas, work gas and deco gas.
Also it looks like the pre-dive checklist needs to be extended with setting up change depths.

While reading this it looks like using the HWOS Tech software became more complicated just because of either:
* gas needs calculations
* helping inexperienced or untrained divers wanting to make deco dives (actually the same as first point of gas needs calc.)

Al I do now is make sure I have all gases that I have with me in the gaslist with either "first" or "deco" and whenever I decide to make a gas switch I tell the computer what I changed to.
Is that still possible with this new firmware? If not than I suggest adding an option to make it possible to use the computer this way again.

Only alternative for me would be to completely switch to gauge mode since the computer will only become more complicated and thus sooner a hazard than a possible helpful instrument indicating just another (and always up-to-date) contingency plan.

Hi Didier,

"Stop élargir" = "Extended Stops". If activated (default now), the OSTC does what the option with the same name in Multideco does: switch to a new gas once it becomes available by MOD. If disabled, all gas changes will be postponed until the next required deco stop.

Remark: the firmware 3.04 beta 1 isn't yet perfect on doing this, hope we'll ship an update soon.

BR
Ralph

Hi Arno,

to have change depths with all gases was required to enable the propper use of a travel gas. Before, it cound happen that you were e.g. prompted on decent at 21 meters to switch to the Nx50... Another nice merrit has it, that you can preset your 5 favoured gases with all data and then decide per each dive which ones you will disable, which ones shall be your deco or work gases and which one shall be the first gas the OSTC selects once submerged. It's pretty straight forward, and by switching gas roles their switch depth setting doesn't get lost any more.

You can also check your gas settings (execpt for travel gas) by a quick run of your planned dive in the deco calculator. Actually, that's the best quick-check possible to see if all settings are likely to be the way you want them.

The gas needs calculation is an option that can be turned on or off. Initially it was developed to provide CCR divers a cue when their deco is going to blow up their bailout capabilities, but it works in OC as well. Just remember to set the pressures to the turn pressure and not the initial pressure, elsewise the OSTC will assume you still have a full tank available when starting the ascent. But these gas planning considerations should be familiar to all well trained deco divers...

The OSTC always calculates with the gas that you have selected and switched by hand! All deco and gas needs calculations are "just" forecasts what will happen if you will do what you have told the OSTC you intend to do by all of the settings. That said, you can stay longer, deeper, shallower, switch gases, all on your free choice, and the OSTC will constantly take that as the new starting point for its next forecast calculation - as it always has been.

BR
Ralph

Arno Wrote:
> Al I do now is make sure I have all gases that I
> have with me in the gaslist with either "first" or
> "deco" and whenever I decide to make a gas switch
> I tell the computer what I changed to.
> Is that still possible with this new firmware?

This hasn't changed at all. You can still do straight-forward deco dives with one, or two (or 4...) deco gases the way you always did them. "First Gas" + x "Deco" gases with (or without) configured change depth and off you go. Many of the new features above are completely optional and most of them are OFF by default.

regards,
Matthias

Hi,

one question regarding the TTS with the "slow" hint for final ascend:
I understood that it should show up, once the last deco stop has cleared.

Yesterday it showed me the "slow" (plus arrow) right after NDL went to 0 min on depth and than all the time during ascend. Was that really the intention? I found this a little bit disturbing, because it looks like if i am too fast all time time up...

BR,
Alex

Hi Alex,

thanks for reporting your observation - that's why we shipped it as a beta... Doing an ascent "on the edge of deco" is indeed not really factored into the code yet.

BR
Ralph

heinrichsweikamp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Arno Wrote:
> > Al I do now is make sure I have all gases that
> I
> > have with me in the gaslist with either "first"
> or
> > "deco" and whenever I decide to make a gas
> switch
> > I tell the computer what I changed to.
> > Is that still possible with this new firmware?
>
> This hasn't changed at all. You can still do
> straight-forward deco dives with one, or two (or
> 4...) deco gases the way you always did them.
> "First Gas" + x "Deco" gases with (or without)
> configured change depth and off you go. Many of
> the new features above are completely optional and
> most of them are OFF by default.
>
> regards,
> Matthias


Thanks! Good to see that I can just continue use the OSTC as a contingency plan without the need to "study" a manual before.

Used for two 40= metre dives last weekend. As with the previous beta, my shallow deco at 4 metres disappeared when there was still about 5 minutes left. That is, one moment I had 5 @ 4m to do, then it was clear. I was running 26% bottom gas, 59% deco gas.

Why?

Hi Michael,

Hmmmm.... Are you sure the OSTC calculated with the deco gas? If current gas (screen lower left corner) is the deco gas, but the deco calculation did not switch and is stil on the NX26, the calculated deco schedule incl. TTS will be behind reality. What are your gas type and change depth settings?

BR
Ralph

Hi Matthias & Ralf

These last two days I did 2 dives in the air without deco with v_3.04 beta1> -48 m & -44 m
For me everything was OK, except the consumption calculations of the simulator which are for me wrong and already reported to Ralph,
My settings below:

I give you back my complete setup:
OSTC3 # 2430 > v_3.04 B.1 latest version 2019.08.10
Depth 48 m - Time 18 mn
GF 81/83 - SD 100/100
SAC 15l / mn for both stocking and deco
Fixed ascent speed: 10 m / mn
Gas Change : +0'
Before 1.Stop: No
Last stop at 3m
without additional safety stop
PpO2 limits at 1.6 bar
Clean fabrics, no diving for more than 72 hours

Gas1:*Air >> Résult calculation déco : TTS 31'
Gas1:*Air > 810 Liter > > Impossible !!!

Kind regards

ClaudeDive bug report confirmed!

There is a programming error in the gas needs calculation in the deco calculator for OC mode: it does not account for the bottom segment.

CCR bailout gas needs and the real dive mode gas calculations are not affected.

It will be fixed in the next beta comming soon (probably less than a week from now).

Ralph

Ralph,

Yes, changed to deco gas as planned at 13 m at 28 mins and was then using 59% as planned. As you can see from the photo below, at 32 mins I had 7 mins @ 4 m deco (sorry, but screen grab shows 1 @ 6m, but it changed to 7 @ 4 within a few seconds), but by 34 mins it has cleared. Note that the calculated deco by Subsurface based on this profile is correct.

[img]http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/im ... roblem.jpg[/img]

Hi Michael,

can also copy me your gas settings, especially the types (work, deco) and change depths set for them? That'll probably help me understand whats going on.

Thanks,
Ralph

27% for first gas
59% for deco, change at 13 m

You didn't give a depth for the first gas - it's required now to set change depths for all gases. For the first, put in the MOD of the Nx27. Besides, i can not reproduce: with my computer, TTS on the last stop is always remaining minutes on the last stop plus 1 minute, clocking down until zero.

Your Nx59 may not get figured into the deco calculation for whatever reason. To diagnosticise, switch on gas calculation and watch the gas needs custom view: does it show a need on the Nx59?

Ralph

Change for first gas was MOD. Running simulator shows both 27 and 59 used but for a 45 m dive for 18 mins, only 147 litres/13 bar of bottom gas (12 litre tank at 12 l/min) used but 140 litres/36 bar of deco gas (3 litre tank at 9 l/min).

When I tried just now to replicate the dive above, it seemed to work okay but last week it came out as I stated above. Perhaps I have changed something when I checked the gases (eg bottom mix MOD).

However, the simulator certainly shows totally wrong gas use, reality would be bottom mix of at least 130 bar.

PS, like the new charging screen.

Hi Michael,

glad to hear it is working now. The OC gas calculation in the deco calculator has a known bug. It is fixed already and a new Beta will be shipped very soon!

Ralph

Hello,

I have updated the thread with the 3.04 beta 3 (See first post). This is, most likely, the last beta before the next stable is pushed. This is also the base for the next "hwOS sport", which is tested separately (not public).

It fixes the "gas needs" calculations, displays "Gas Density" on demand and has numerous fixes in the different languages.

Any comments are really appreciated, please post them here.

regards,
Matthias

Amy Suggestion when Beta ist over ?
So we could geht the Brand new Release Version of Tech?

Hi Matthias & Ralph,

Thank you both for the important work done on this new firmware,

I dive every day in the zone -50 / -60m with the firmware v_304_beta3 since 21.08.2019 as well as simulations Trimix Hypoxic ... For me everything is OK for the presentation on the screen as for the deco and for forecasting calculations of consumption ... long life to this new firmware ...

Bravo, (tu) -D

Tastenchef Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amy Suggestion when Beta ist over ?
> So we could geht the Brand new Release Version of
> f Tech?

I think 1-2 weeks is realistic. How should we call the new version 3.05? 3.10? 4?

regards,
Matthias

Hi Matthias,

As you want ...

But v_3.05 it's Ok !

Kind Regards

Hi Matthias and Ralph,

Thank you for your great job.

I have just installed the V3.04 and ran the simulator. The results are quite a bit confusing because I have some difference with the 3.01 (as you can see onto the attached picture). Can you explain the reason ?

Thank you per advance.

[img]https://nsa40.casimages.com/img/2019/08 ... 937950.png[/img]