OSTC over BLE experiences and questions

[Richard Houser]

I have a later Aeris A300CS (purchased just after the VTX launch) with about 30 dives on it and really like it *now*.  Some things did change, and it's important to have an updated firmware.  I use the VTX compression mount on my lower arm, for what it's worth.

Never had the mirror issues underwater, but it came with a plastic screen protector which I promptly applied before the first dive. Perhaps that was taking out much of the glare?  Can you confirm if yours is bare glass?  I did experience the wash out effect and needing to keep brightness above 50% mid-day.  The OLED was amazing for a series of night/twilight dives, btw. Small text is not a big issue for me personally.  I can easily read that in clear water, but don't recall really needing to leave the main screen or compass during a dive (more curious about temperature).

*now* ----- Four major snags along the way:

I ran into a defect where the computer silently added a bunch of nitrogen during a surface interval at the end of a 6 dive series while I was prepping to go back in and went into a deco condition 30 sec underwater. I submitted the dive logs, etc., and Oceanic published a specific firmware update to patch it.

The main UI was also updated more similar to the VTX in the later firmwares. When they did that, they switched the low battery indicator to a green battery indicator. I managed to miss that detail, thought it was good, and had it completely die on me at Bonne Terre. Stupid UI decision on that indicator color, but can be worked around easy enough. They were discontinuing further features on the A300CS in favor of the VTX, so the interfaces will likely start to diverge again.  The new interface is much better, though overall.

The PO2 warning is crazy annoying, and you can't really turn it off if you have audible alerts on.  It's hard coded at .2 below your PO2 limit, so for 1.4 constantly trips at 1.2.  When diving EAN36, that's basically right into the middle of the ideal depth range I tend to want to be at for the reef, and it sounds off each and every time you cross that threshold descending a foot of so.  You have to set it to 1.6 to avoid having the warning going off constantly, and that messes things up a bit in planning mode.  If I recall, you could not set it higher, so tech divers would likely need to do without audible alarms.  I find those audible alerts particularly handy for things like ascent rate, just really wish the PO2 alert matched the set limit.

Initially no transmitted pressure readings.  Support had me remove the battery and short two contacts inside the device.  After that, the transmitter has worked fine.

On July 11, 2017 1:18:55 PM EDT, Linus Torvalds <torvalds at linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 6:57 AM, Matt Thompson <mathomp at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>>
>> The Aeros 300CS, the Oceanic VTX, and the Aqua lung i750TC are all
>basically
>> the same computer, all manufactured by Pelagic Pressure Systems, all
>> suitable for grooming ;). They also all do BLE, hopefully the same
>flavor.
>>
>> I have screenshots of my i750 from nRF Connect that I can send to the
>list
>> tonight when I get to my hotel.
>
>I actually have an Aeris A300CS, and hated it with a passion. The
>screen turns into a mirror underwater, and it doesn't have all the
>data I want on it, and the "secondary screen" (which you get to with a
>button press) ends up having such a small font that together with the
>mirror-effect, it was completely unreadable.
>
>Plus the battery only lasted for a couple of days of diving in my
>experience (admittedly, that may have been a "five hours underwater
>each day" trip). And that was with the default screen brightness
>(60%?). If I had been forced to actually rely on it, I would have had
>to up the brightness to 100% and probably thus lose even more battery.
>
>So I was singularly unimpressed. I had it with me for one dive trip
>and never touched it again.
>
>Maybe I had a dud. Maybe they fixed the shaving mirror effect in the
>VTX. Or maybe there's just something wrong with me, but I really
>didn't like the A300CS even though I really wanted to.
>
>Annoyingly, it seems like I have lost the tank sensor for it. And I'm
>annoyed mainly because I think that tank sensor would work with my
>Perdix AI.
>
>ANYWAY.
>
>After that rant, I can report that I did take a quick look at the
>A300CS BLE, and it should be something we can support.
>
>The thing uses a Blue Radios "nBLUE" bluetooth chip that implements
>serial over BLE GATT (yet another "the standard didn't make a standard
>serial protocol, so we made our own". Damn to hell all the f*cking
>incompetent morons on the bluetooth committee).
>
>Oops, I'm ranting again.
>
>ANYWAY #2.
>
>The good news is like the OSTC3 chip, that nBLUE chip is actually
>documented, because it's used in various random IoT projects. For
>example
>
>http://www.byteworks.us/Byte_Works/Blog/Entries/2012/12/28_Build_Your_Own_Bluetooth_low_energy_based_circuits_using_the_Blue_Radios_BR-XB-LE4.0-S2.html
>
>and anybody with a bit of time and the lack of good sense to avoid BLE
>programming could probably implement that in subsurface.
>
>Can you verify that the nRF information from your i750TC matches the
>UUID's on that web page? Because that's what my A300CS had - if they
>are different, we're not going to have exactly the same BLE code..
>
>I currently lack the time, but in another week or two I *might* be
>able to look at it more if somebody else hasn't beaten me to it.
>Because I clearly lack the good sense to stay away from BLE.
>
>                      Linus
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>subsurface at subsurface-divelog.org
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-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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