Subsurface-mobile est une extension de Subsurface qui fonctionne sur les smartphones Android et iOS et sur les tablettes. C’est un outil pour visualiser et partager des informations de plongées sur des sites de plongées où un ordinateur n’est pas utile. Subsurface-mobile permet également de collecter des positions GPS où sont effectuées les plongées. (Subsurface-mobile pour iOS ne supporte pas toutes les fonctions pour le moment).

Subsurface-mobile allows you to enter and save dive information using a mobile device. Users of Subsurface-mobile typically use the mobile app as an extension to the laptop/desktop version of Subsurface that allows the storage of dive logs on the Internet and sharing them between the mobile and the desktop versions. But Subsurface-mobile can also be used independently of Subsurface and does not require the use of cloud storage. While the desktop version of Subsurface shows much more detailed information for each dive, the mobile version allows a more accessible dive log on a dive trip, useful for proving dive experience to dive shops or to review previous dives.

Subsurface-mobile allows you to:

These items are discussed in greater detail in the following text. Subsurface-mobile does not yet support download of dive data from all the dive computers that the desktop/laptop version can: that still needs to be done using Subsurface on a desktop or laptop computer. Only a subset of dive computers that use a FTDI USB interface or a Bluetooth/BTLE interface are accessible by Subsurface-mobile.

Find Subsurface-mobile in the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store and install it.

Upon starting Subsurface-mobile for the first time, a Subsurface splash screen is shown while the program loads. On some devices this may take several seconds. After loading, the Cloud Credentials screen appears (see image below on left).

Select whether Subsurface-mobile should access the Internet for dive log information as follows:

At the bottom of many Subsurface-mobile screens is a round button that provides for several actions and which allows the selection of the main affirmative action (see image above and image below). On Android devices, use the Android Back button for "cancel", "discard" or "back" actions. For example, when editing dive information, tapping the action button saves the changes while the Android back button can be used to cancel the edit without saving changes.

On iOS devices, on screens where a "back" action is enabled, a back arrow is shown in the top left corner of the screen.

In order to have a consistent experience between iOS and Android, Subsurface-mobile on Android does not use the traditional "hamburger" menu button in the top left or right corner of the screen to open menus. Instead, Subsurface-mobile uses a different user interaction philosophy based on the Kirigami framework developed by the Plasma developers. There are three ways to open the main menu:

The images above indicate some of the important features of the menu system. On the left is the main menu, activated as described above. On the right, above, is a representation of the menu items of all the submenus accessible from the main menu: the main menu items are shown on the left while the submenu contents are shown on a blue background on the right.

All screenshots in this user manual are currently from the Android version. As indicated earlier, the iOS version currently doesn’t support GPS features.

Most of the actions of Subsurface-mobile center around the dives on the dive list. While the dive list is loading from the cloud, a message appears at the bottom of the screen, indicating that the cloud is being accessed. Once the list is loaded you can scroll up and down. Tapping a dive on the list brings up a display of Details View for that dive (see image on right below). This includes the dive profile as well as additional information and notes.

You can view other dives by swiping the Details view to the right (for the previous dive) or to the left (following dive). Using the Action Bar, it is also possible to delete the dive (tap the dustbin on the Action Bar) or to view the dive location on a map viewer (Google Maps on Android, the Google Maps web site on iOS; tap the GPS icon on the Action Bar.).

At the bottom of the dive details screen the Action Button contains a pencil (image on right, above). Tapping the pencil button brings up a panel with edit boxes that allows you to change the existing dive information, e.g. adding text to the dive notes or changing the names or values of some of the information (see image below). It may be necessary to scroll the window to access all the information. At the bottom of the edit screen is a Save action button. Tap this to save the new information. Having saved the data, the dive list screen is updated and shown. To cancel any edits, tap the Android Back Button or swipe the edit screen up (fling it away).

You can manually add a dive to the existing dive list. On the dive list tap the "plus" sign in the Action Button, or use the main menu and tap Manage dives → Add dive manually. This opens a screen that is identical to the editing screen discussed above. When a dive is added manually, you cannot directly add a dive profile from a dive computer. However, if you do not use a dive computer, the duration, depth and several other bits of information about the new dive can be entered. The Action button at the bottom of the screen contains a disk symbol. Tap this to save the new dive. To cancel any edits, tap the Android Back Button. The left-hand image below shows a screenshot of a dive being created and the right-hand image shows the same dive in Details View.

The Details View of a dive has an Action Bar, including a dustbin. If this is tapped, the dive shown in the Details View is deleted. You have a brief opportunity to undo the delete by tapping the grey Undo button in the message that appears at the bottom of the screen (see image below).

You can also delete a dive from the dive list by long-pressing a specific dive until a red dustbin appears on the right-hand side (see image below). Tap the dustbin. The dive is deleted without asking any confirmation because Subsurface-mobile assumes that the combination of a long tap on the dive with another tap on the red dustbin is an unambiguous instruction to delete the dive.

Download of dives is possible from dive computers with a FTDI USB interface, or with a Bluetooth interface.

First, establish a link between the dive computer and the mobile device.

For USB dive computers, USB cables "normally" used for uploading dives to a desktop/laptop computer do NOT work: these cables often have a full-sized male USB plug on one end which plugs into the USB port of a desktop/laptop computer. For downloads to a mobile device one needs a USB OTG (USB On-The-Go) cable. In most cases it is required to plug the USB cable "normally" used with the dive computer into a USB OTG cable which, in turn, plugs into the mini-USB receptacle of the mobile device. The OTG cable often has a full-size female receptacle at one end which accommodates the full-sized male plug of the USB cable "normally" used (see image below). This means that two cables are used to connect the dive computer to the mobile device.

For Bluetooth-equipped dive computers, establish a Bluetooth connection between the dive computer and the mobile device. Use the tools on the mobile device to achieve this. For of Android mobile devices, the Settings → Bluetooth tool is probably appropriate. Ensure pairing of the dive computer and mobile device. Subsurface-mobile performs communication using both Bluetooth and Bluetooth-low-energy (BTLE). The appropriate choice of Bluetooth communication is made by the software and the user need not be concerned with this.

With propper communication between dive computer and Subsurface-mobile having been set up, dive download is simple. From the main menu, tap Manage dives → Download from DC. A screen is shown requiring that the user specify the names of the vendor and model of the dive computer. For instance, when using a Shearwater Petrel 2 dive computer, the vendor is Shearwater and the Dive computer name is Petrel 2. From the two dropdown lists at the top of the screen, select the correct vendor and dive computer names (see image on the left, below). If using a dive computer using a Bluetooth connection, then tap the check box labelled Bluetooth download.

Now tap the button labled DOWNLOAD. The downloaded dives appear in the bottom part of the screen, the most recent dive at the top (see image on right, below). Be patient because the download can sometimes take a few mimnutes. Each dive has a check-box on the left hand side, used for selecting which dives need to be added to the Subsurface-mobile dive list: dives that are not checked are ignored. With the appropriate downloaded dives having been checked, tap the button at the bottom left labled ACCEPT. All the selected dives appear on the Subsurface-mobile dive list. The downloaded dive information can now be edited as described in the section above Edit a dive.

The site of a specific dive can be viewed in two ways using the Details View. The Action Bar at the bottom has a GPS pin on the left hand side. Tap that pin and the dive site is shown in Google Maps. Close Google Maps by using the Android Back button.

Alternatively, the Details View has a button at the top right hand marked Map it. Tap this button to open Google Maps showing the dive site.

A central part of Subsurface-mobile is the ability to store the dive log using the Subsurface cloud storage. This provides security against loss or damage to the dive information contained in a local copy of the dive log and allows the desktop version of Subsurface to access changes made using the mobile device. This ability is accessed through the main menu (by dragging the Action Button to the right, or alternatively tapping the "Hamburger" icon at the bottom left of the screen). Tap the option Manage dives, enabling a number of options:

The fact that most smartphones have GPS facilities allows Subsurface-mobile on Android to record the locations of dives. You can take the smartphone on the dive boat during a dive and locations will be automatically recorded at regular intervals. These locations can then be applied to dives in the dive list. Here is how it’s done: