Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Disclaimer
While every effort has been made to ensure that information, reports and charts generated and/or presented on this site are accurate, up-to-date and safe, diving is a inherently dangerous and unpredictable sport. ExtremeProfile.com takes no responsibility whatsoever for injuries, damage or death that may occur as a result of following dive profiles, locations, gas mixes and/or any other information presented on this site. Dont sue us if you get hurt. Dont blindly trust anything you read on the Internet including this site.. - How's depth chart calculated?
All Suunto computers keeps track of current depth at specified sample rate interval (usually between 10 and 30 seconds, default 20 seconds). This information available in the SDM export file you're uploading to extremeprofile and used to plot a depth chart. This chart should match profile chart you see in SDM very closely. - What are the different 'flags' shown in depth profile means?
In addition to depth information Suunto computers can also attach number of so called 'flags' to any interval of the dive when some significant events are recorded by computer or initiated by diver. Examples of such events includes but not limited to:- The diver ascended above the minimum diving depth during this interval
- Decompression ceiling first appeared during this interval - The dive computer's 'ASC' indicator appeared
- The diver ascended above the decompression ceiling during this interval
- The diver ascended above dive depth limit. This flag marks every interval in which the 'SLOW' indicator appeared
- The diver ascended above a mandatory safety stop ceiling during this interval
- Bookmark. The diver pressed the PLAN button during this interval
- Dive Attention Mark as described in the dive computer user manual
- The diver changed the gas mix during this interval
- How's vertical speed chart calculated?
Suunto computers doesn't store information about vertical speed of the diver in the water column. This information is calculated by the dive computer during the dive and usually presented to the diver as a bar graph where different segments corresponds to 'safe' and 'not safe' ascend speed. In addition, when safe ascend speed is exceeded in any given time interval dive computer display 'SLOW' indicator and record corresponding flag to the dive profile log.
Extremeprofile calculates vertical speed for all sample intervals as difference between depth recorded on previous interval divided to the sample rate interval used by computer for that particular dive. Obviously shorter settings for time interval will allow for greater accuracy in such calculation. Generally recognized in diving industry maximum ascend speed of 30 ft/min is shown on the chart with speeds exceeding that marked as 'Ascend speed too fast zone'. Whenever you see vertical speed chart crossing the maximum speed threshold that means that diver was ascending too fast at this point in dive. Usually but not always you will see corresponding 'SLOW' flag at the same point.
This chart is aligned vertically with depth chart so you can tell what depth diver was during that time. - How's tank pressure chart calculated?
For the dives where there are tanks capacity, tank rated pressure as well as starting and ending pressure entered SDM can calculate average Respiratory Minute Volume (RVM) (also known as Surface Air Consumption or SAC) rate for the dive. Given this information and knowing absolute pressure during any interval in the dive (calculated from the depth in the current interval) it's possible to build tank pressure chart showing (approximately) what was tank pressure during any point of the dive. It's important to understand that this is approximation as Suunto only provides average RVM rate for the whole dive so it doesn't take into account if during some portions of the dive RVM was higher or lower than average. Still it could be a useful tool when analyzing dive, especially from gas planning prospective. - What is a Rock Bottom pressure on a pressure chart and how it's calculated?
Rock Bottom set of rules for gas planning originated in DIR community and consist of idea that you should immediately begin ascending when you hit the point where if your buddy had an OOA that you could get both of you back to the surface while doing all your stops. For the dives where there diver's RVM (SAC) rate is known it's possible to determine Rock Bottom pressure for that dive. The following algorithm is currently used to calculate Rock Bottom pressure:- Adding 50% to the calculated RVM (SAC) rate. If the resulting value is less than 1.0 cfm, then using 1.0 cfm
- Multiplying value calculated on step (1) by 2 (two divers)
- Calculating amount of gas needed to deal with emergency for 1 minute at maximum depth (multiply combined RVM rate by ATA at maximum depth)
- Calculating depth for the first stop as 50% of maximum depth for the dive rounded to the nearest shallower 10 feet (e.g. if the maximum depth of the the dive was 95 feet, than 50% of it will give 47.5 feet -> rounding to 40 feet )
- Calculating time needed to ascend from maximum depth to first stop depth at 30 fpm ascend rate (e.g. 95 ft - 40 ft = 55 ft / 30 fpm = 1.8 min)
- Calculating amount of gas needed for ascent from maximum depth to the first stop by multiplying time calculated at step (5) to the average depth during ascend and by combined RVM rate (e.g. 1.8 min * (95 ft - 40 ft) / 2 * RVM rate)
- applying the same calculation for the subsequent stops starting from first stop to the surface on 10 ft interval for 1 minute
- summary of the gas needed for all steps described above is our Rock Bottom Gas, which can be translated to the tank pressure given that we know rated pressure and capacity of the tank used for the dive
Rock Bottom rules being very useful tool for gas planning and dive analysis obviously cannot be used blindly for all types of diving - for example if on particular dive divers can't ascend to the surface from the point of failure but rather have to swim back (to return to the ascend line, or to the shore, or have a decompression obligations etc.) more conservative gas planning rules should be used (Rule of Third etc.). More info about Rock Bottom and it's calculation available here. - How to specify location for the dive?
Extremeprofile allows you to specify location for your dives which will be shown on a map on a dive details page. The easiest way to associate your dives with exact locations is to have a GPS receiver with you on a dive spot. Obviously you don't take a GPS receiver under water with you, just leave it running as close to the dive spot as possible (on the dive boat if it's a boat dive or in your car parked nearby if it's a shore dive). Make sure that time on your dive computer is reasonably synchronized with time on GPS receiver (once GPS receiver acquire 'fix' from a satellites it will have very precise time automatically). Then at home, when you're downloading new dives from your computer to SDM also download GPS track information in GPX or NMEA ($GPRMC & $GPGGA sequences) formats using any of the programs you're familiar with (for example WWMX GPS Track Downloader is free and extremely simple application that works with Garmin receivers). If your GPS device doesn't support exporting tracks in either GPX or NMEA standards you could most likely convert from it's proprietary format to GPX using free GPSBabel utility. Once you have your dive info and GPX or NMEA file with your track log ready, login into your Extremeprofile account and upload or update your logbook. On upload page you will see entry field where you can choose to upload your GPX or NMEA file. Make sure that you specify correct time zone your dive computer time is set to. When you upload your logbook together with GPX or NMEA file, extremeprofile will try to match date and time for each dive with position info from GPX file. If the match is found the location information will be automatically attached to the dive and you will see it on the map on Extremeprofile front page as well as on the dive details page. That's why it's important to have time on dive computer to be synchronized with GPS because match is done by the time (in other words, if there is a time mark in the GPX or NMEA log which is close enough (within 5 minutes) from the time of the dive they will be considered matching and location information attached to the dive). This is by far simples method if you have access to GPS receiver.
If you don't have GPS or want attach position information to some old dives or change locations for existing dives there is a way to do it using simple and intuitive Google map interface. This is how you do it. When you logged in to Extremeprofile click on one of your dives which you want to attach location information to. You should see 'This dive doesn't have location info defined yet' link on the dive details page. Clicking on that link will open a window with Google map. Navigate map using zoom tools and dragging a map pane with mouse to the area where that specific dive took place and then click mouse on the map to indicate exact dive location. Red marker should appear on the map. You can click again to the different spot on the map to move marker there or just drag and drop marker with your mouse. Take a note at the area on the right side from the map which will list other dive spots in approximately 50 km radius from your marker previously entered into the system. If you see your dive spot name there just click on the dive spot name and your marker will be placed to exactly same location. Please avoid adding duplicate locations for the same dive spots, use previously entered values whenever possible. Alternatively, if you know coordinates for your dive you can copy and paste them into the 'Latitude' and 'Longitude' fields at the bottom of the window. If you do that make sure you're using decimal format (NN.NNNNN) and not minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude. If you need help with converting your coordinates to decimal format click on the 'Coordinates Converter' link. Once you're satisfied with your dive location click 'Save Location' button. If you want to attach the same location to all your dives with the same name in the same logbook check 'Update all dives from the same location' checkbox. - How to attach pictures and photos to the dive?
Extremeprofile provides simple yet flexible integration with Flickr and Smugmug - online photo sharing communities.Once you uploaded your photos to Flickr or smugMug all you have to do is just tag them with special tag (keyword), recognized by extremeprofile. Tag has a form of constant string followed by extremeprofile's unique dive id. Dive id is visible on dive's details screen as well in the lower right corner of the dive chart image, in the brackets next to copyright string.
So if your dive has Dive id say '3628', than you should tag photos for that dive on Flickr with tag: extremeprofile:diveid=3628 or with keyword: "epdiveid3628" if photo is on Smugmug (note double quotes which should be part of the keyword as well).
Also, if you'currently logged in to your account on extremeprofile the above tags values are generated automatically for every dive in you logbook and visible just below charts image. Copying them from there is probably the easiest way to tag your photos.
Make sure your photos on Flickr or Smugmug are accessible by anyone ('public'), otherwise we won't be able to retrieve information about them. Note also that if you just created your free Flickr account it might take up to a week for that new account to be approved by Flickr. Until than your photos won't be available for the public and won't be shown on extremeprofile. Also note that after you added tag or keyword to your photo it might take a little while for it to become available at extremeprofile due to indexes refresh and caches expiration, but usually it should take no more than an hour. - How to attach videos to the dive?
Extremeprofile provides simple yet flexible integration with Youtube and Vimeo - online video sharing communities.If you uploaded your videos to Youtube you just need to tag them with special tag, recognized by extremeprofile. Tag has a form of constant string epdiveid followed by extremeprofile's unique dive id. Dive id is visible on dive's details screen as well in the lower right corner of the dive chart image, in the brackets next to copyright string.
So if your dive has Dive id say '3628', than you should tag photos for that dive with tags: epdiveid3628 and extremeprofile. Once you tagged your video please allow up to few hours for Youtube to refresh it's index - until then video won't show up on Extremeprofile.If you uploaded your videos to Vimeo you just need to tag them with special tag, recognized by extremeprofile. Tag has a form of constant string epdiveid followed by extremeprofile's unique dive id. Dive id is visible on dive's details screen as well in the lower right corner of the dive chart image, in the brackets next to copyright string.
So if your dive has Dive id say '3628', than you should tag photos for that dive with tag: epdiveid3628. Once you tagged your video please allow up to few hours for Vimeo to refresh it's index - until then video won't show up on Extremeprofile.Make sure your videos on Vimeo are accessible by anyone ('public'), otherwise we won't be able to retrieve information about them.