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User Guide
Main Screen
Using the Dive Assistant is very easy. Start the application by clicking on
the icon labelled "Dive Assistant - Desktop Edition" in the Dive Assisant folder
on your program bar. The first thing you will see is a splash screen, which is followed
by a login screen. If it is your first time using the application the login screen
will appear once you have created one or more divers. In the login screen select
the diver who's log you want to access and click OK. This will load the application
with that user's dive details. Dive Assistant - Desktop Edition is an MDI application
which means that you can have multiple windows open within the application window
at the same time. To access any parts of the application click on the appropriate
item on the menu bar. In the lower left part of the screen are 2 permanent windows
which provide statistical and notification details.
Diagram 1
Dive Log
Clicking on "Dive Log" opens the dive log window. The dive log window lists all
your dives. The dives are ordered numerically based on the No. column. Each dive
log entry you shows the date, location and site of the dive. At the bottom of the
window you will see some basic statistics for your dives. There are 5 buttons on
the Dive Log Windows. Clone, Print, New, Edit and Delete. The clone button will
clone the selected dive. This feature saves you having to reenter the same dive
details for dives which are similar or the same. The print button will print the
selected dive/dives. To select multiple dives hold the CTRL key down will clicking
on the dives or click a dive and press the shift button when clicking the next dive
and all dives in between are selected. Clicking on the new or edit buttons will
open a new Dive Log Entry window which will allow you to modify or add a new dive
respectively. The delete button will delete the currently selected entry. You can
also access all of these features from a context menu which appears if you right
click anywhere in the list. Right clicking on the list will bring up a popup menu.
The menu contains the buttons in the dive log window, as well as Clone to Diver.
Clone to Diver allows you to clone the selected dive to another diver stored in
the application.
Diagram 2
When you create a new dive log entry, or edit an existing one you will see a window
that looks like diagram 3. In the window you enter any of the details you would
like to record or modify pertaining to that dive. The window contains a tab with
8 different sections. The Main section contains the most important details of the
dive including the date, location, time and depth of the dive. If you have specified
autocalculation in your settings the Dive Log Entry will automatically calculate
the post dive pressure group and the time out based on the other data you have entered.
Extra concentrates on the conditions of the dive and the equipment used. The buddy
section contains buddy related information and the notes section allows you to note
down the description of the dive. The profile section displays your dive profile.
You can either download dive computer profile data, or add your own data. The data
is displayed in a graph as well as being listed. GPS displays teh GPS coordinates
of the dive, with comments. Retrieving GPS locations, opens the GPS window which
displays all the GPS coordinate and satellite details. The multimedia section allows
you to add images to the dive. This feature is not available in the Pocket PC application.
It is now possible to specify the unit used for each dive. This is set in the setting
section.
From the Dive Log Entry you can plan the dive by clicking on the Plan button or
print the dive by clicking on the print button. Once you have completed a dive entry
click on the OK button. This saves the dive. You can have any number of Dive Log
Entry screens open simultaneously.
Diagram 3
Dive Planner
The Dive Planner can only be accessed from an open Dive Log Entry window. The planner
consists of 4 parts: Plan, Nitrox, Calculator and Nitrox Wizard. Plan is the basic
dive planner. It imports the dive data from your last dive. By entering details
for your next dive the planner can calculate the surface interval and pressure group
for the next dive. When you set a depth for your dive the planner will calculate
the maximum dive time for that depth given the pressure group. Entering a dive time
calculates the out pressure group. You can use any dive table you have stored in
the Dive Assistant, including Nitrox decompression tables. Clicking on the OK button
closes the Dive Planner and saves the data to the dive log you opened the planner
from.
Diagram 4
There are three Nitrox features in the Dive Planner. The Nitrox tab contains the
first of these. Nitrox allows you to specify a minimum and maximum depth, as well
as PPO2, Max FO2, PG and Deco and will calculate the max dive time and optimal O2
mix for each depth in between. This feature requires the IANTD Air tables to be
installed. The Calculator tab gives you basic Nitrox calculations like the Max O2
given depth and PPO2, and EAD given O2 and Depth. Nitrox wizard will help calculate
Air Mixes and Maximum dive times based on user input, but done using a Wizard.
Dive Tables
Dive Tables can be accessed by clicking Dive Tables on menu in the main window.
This will bring up the Dive Tables window, which lists all the currently installed
tables. You can import more dive tables clicking the import button. The application
imports dive tables which are stored in our proprietary xml format. We provide a
number of dive tables free on the www.blackwave.com website. Download the files
from the site, unzip them using a zip tool and then import them. We currenty have
dive tables for IANTD, NAUI NOAA as well as SSI. We do not support PADI dive tables
as PADI have requested that we do not include their tables.
You can open a table by double clicking on the table tables in the list or clicking
on the table and then clicking the Open Table button. Right clicking on the list
will bring up a context menu which will allow you to to delete a dive table or import
a dive table.
When you open one of the dive tables you will see the dive table window for your
selected table. Each table has between 3 and 4 tabs, each tab representing one of
the tables associated with that table. SSI have 3 and tabs while the IANTD and NAUI
and NOAA have 4. There is always one "no decompression" table, one "surface interval"
table and one "repetitive dive" table. If you are using the IANTD, NAUI or NOAA
tables the 4th tab is the decompression table. The tables are displayed in a similar
way to how the respective dive organizations display them, so they should be easy
to understand. On the decompression tab you get a drop down list at the top of the
screen. The drop down list allows you to select the depth you are diving to. When
you select a depth, the corresponding decompression table appears. When you are
finished with the dive table click on the OK button to close the window. You can
display multiple tables windows simultaneously.
Diagram 5
Dive Kit
Like most other sections with the application clicking on the "Dive Kit" menu item
opens a window with a list of all the dive kit items stored in the application.
Double clicking on a list item will open a new window which will allow you to modify
the selected kit item. Selecting a kit item and clicking the delete button or the
delete menu item from the context menu will delete the selected item and so on.
You can add new, modify and delete History Entries in much the same way as you can
add new dive kit items. Unlike the Dive Kit windows you can only have one Service
History window open at any one time. This is done to reduce the confusion which
would arise when you did not know which history belonged to which kit item.
The best feature of the Dive Kit Entry is the alerting mechanism which warns you
in advance of your dive kit needing servicing. The Alert uses the Service date and
compares it to today's date. Alerting is only activated if you set it to be active
in the "Settings" window which can be accessed from the Main window.
Diagram 6
Personal Details
The personal details section of the application consists of four sections. The
first section is Emergency Details. This section is designed to allow you to specify
import medical information which may be useful should you have an accident. There
is space for medical record details, next of contact and. The insurance section
stores all the information you should require to regarding dive insurance. .
Diagram 7
The third part the personal detail section is Qualifications. In this section you can specify what training you have had, and which organisation you had it with. There is room for organisation, qualification, date, qualification number and instructor details. In the qualification entry windows you find the organisation and qualification fields loading automatically. Changing the organisation will automatically change the list of available dive qualifications. Like the Dive Kit section you can set the alert to alert you when your qualification expires and needs renewal.
Diagram 8
The final section of the personal details section is settings. Settings allows you
to modify the settings which control the various parts of the application. The first
box you see is the Units box. You can use metric or imperial data in the Dive Assistant.
Changing the unit will reset the "Default Dive Table" list dive tables for
that unit. The default dive table is the table used when you automatically calculate
pressure groups in the dive log. The default table is also used in the Dive Planner.
The Dive Kit Service Alert box contains the various alert options. You can select
not to be alerted, to be alerted on the day or to be alerted in advance. If you
select the "in advance" option you can set the number of days in advance to be alerted,
as well as if you want daily alerts up to the service date.
The Dive Log box allows to set options related to the dive logs. Autocalc PGs will
automatically calculate end pressure group, based on the dive table, depth, times
and in pressure group.
Synchronization
One of the main feature of Desktop Edition is the automatic
synchronization of data between the Pocket PC Edition and the Desktop Edition. Synchronization
is initialised from the Pocket PC Edition, by clicking the synchronize button. A
window will then automatically appear showing the current state of the synchronization
process.
The synchronization process will synchronize divers, dives, profiles, dive kit and
dive kit history. Please note how the synchronization process works. It takes new
and modified entries from both devices and updates the other device with that data.
If a record is updated on both the PC and the Pocket PC between synchronizations
the last entry to be modified will be the one that is synchronized.
Dive Computer Import
One the main features of Desktop Edition is Dive Computer Import. Dive Assistant
support import from the following Dive Computer applications: Mares Iris, ReefNet
Sensus Pro Manager, Suunto Dive Manger 1.x, Suunto Dive Manager 2.x, Universal Dive
Computer Format and Uwatec SmartTrak. To access Dive Computer Import click on File
-> Dive Computer Import from the main menu. You will see a number of Wizards
appear in the sub menu. Click on the wizard you want to use and follow the instructions.
The Wizards will use the export files created by the Dive Computers' supporting
applications. For some formats the application will only import dive profile details,
while for formats more dive details may be imported as well.
If your dive computer is not supported please contact us and we will try to create a new wizard for your device.
Printing
One the main improvements to Dive Assistant - Edition Edition is the improved
printing service. With the Dive Assistant Template Builder you can now create your
own printing templates. The templates can be imported into the Dive Assistant allowing
you print the logs how you want them. Once you have created your own templates,
select Print Settings from the main menu, under the File option. Select the template
you want to use and click OK. Dive Assistant will use this template whenever you
print your logs. Free templates can be download from the Download page
Others
The other windows you will come across are the locations, dive sites and buddy windows.
These windows can be accessed from the main menu or from with the the dive log entry
windows. The locations, dive sites and buddy windows allow you to manage the locations,
dive sites and buddies you use in your dive log. The data from these windows are
provided in drop down controls within the Dive Log Entry window, saving you the
time required to re-enter the same data multiple times.
Diagram 9
Product | Install/Upgrade | User Guide | FAQ | Download | Pocket PC Edition