Software Limitations of Suunto Nautic vs Garmin X50i
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After carefully comparing Nautic and X50i, and seems like Nautic has some interesting software limitations.
1) No tank pressure when looking at compass:
When I am navigating underwater, Nautic hides the current tank pressure stats. Garmin X50i allows me to see both compass heading and pressure at the same time, despite having a smaller screen. Is Suunto planning to fix this in an upcoming software release?
2) No live dive depth chart:
X50i shows a live dive depth chart on screen, which I find quite helpful. Suunto Nautic can generate a 3D dive map AFTER the dive, but does not show a live depth chart during the dive. Also wondering if this is something Suunto might fix in next software release.
3) No dive topography maps:
I am not going to hold my breath for this feature, because it is a major feature that seems hard to fix with a quick software update. But it would be a miracle if Suunto somehow pulls this off.
It will be super if a representative like @Brad_Olwin or @pavel.samokha can chime in and clarify the plan for software updates.
- Aquario
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@Aquario regarding the maps you cannot see them during your driver am I right?
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AFAIK the Nautic only shows the land surface map, not the underwater topographic map.
Plus, the surface map also disappears when the dive starts.
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A Aquario referenced this topic
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Thanks to @Niels-Søren-Bøgh we have two more items for the software wishlist.
4) Missing Tide Widget
Tide widget is mentioned in the manual, but it is not included with the current firmware.
The manual says that “The tide widget provides information about the current tide state. It shows the tide height (m), upcoming high and low tides with height and time, wave height, moon phase, and a 24-hour forecast.”When the tide widget is actually released, I hope it can download data for upcoming 3-5 days. Some remote SCUBA locations don’t have wifi connectivity, so it will be important to have the tide widget not go blank without Wifi. Instead the widget should fall back to 3-5 days offline cached data.
5) Underwater Waypoint Navigation
As suggested by Niels in the following post: color coded waypoints displayed on the compass dial.
Niels’ mock up of the waypoint system:
https://forum.suunto.com/topic/14403/considerations-on-simple-underwater-navigation
An implementation of waypoint system on Apple Watch compass app:
This will require sensor fusion, but if implemented this feature will be a godsend for underwater navigation.