Right now Diveduino will not replace your dive computer, but it can log your depth and temperature during your dive, saving it to a MicroSd Card in a TEXT file format so you can import it to excel and do your fancy dive profile graphics, no need of special $100 USD cables that all the diving equipment manufacturing companies sell. Plus it has a display for that information with a actual graph of your dive profile.How it came to my mind?
DiveDuino came to my mind since I am an active diver and I enjoy the sport. I am an electrical engineer and at work I came across with the Arduino platform. Dive computers are expensive, if you want all the fancy features, you can find some computers for about $150 USD and others for about $1500 USD. Every basic dive computer has this indicators: No Decompression Limit(NDL), depth, temperature and elapsed time. So why not create something with the help of the Arduino open source platform, I found a sensor that could interact with Arduino and the rest is the prototype that I am building.”
“My Z80 microcomputer is hand wired using the wire-wrap prototyping technique. This method uses thin 30 gauge wire, a special wire-wrap tool, and wire-wrap sockets. The sockets have 1/2 inch long square posts, which you use the tool to wrap (or twist) the wire onto the post. As long as you have 5 or more wraps on the post for a single wire, the connection is semi-perminant. This method was used because it’s easy to change connections and is faster than soldering each wire. Wire-wrapping was a popular method used in building early computers. In fact, the AGC computer used for the NASA Apollo missions were completely wire-wrapped! After I finished my computer, I went through more than 350 feet of wire!”
The picotux 100 is the world’s smallest Linux computer, only slightly larger (35mm×19mm×19mm) than an RJ45 connector. Inside, there is an ARM7 CPU at 55 MHz running uClinux kernel 2.4.27 and Busybox 1.0. Two communication interfaces are provided, 10/100 Mbit half/full duplex Ethernet and a serial port with up to 230.400 baud. Five additional lines can be used for either general input/output or serial handshaking.”