Fwd: Re: [luau] Java question

Ben Beeson beesond001 at hawaii.rr.com
Sat Apr 19 09:47:01 PDT 2003


Sorry about that, I accidently hit the "wrong" address.  I meant this to go 
to the list.

Ben 

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: [luau] Java question
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 00:33:42 -1000
From: Ben Beeson <beesond001 at hawaii.rr.com>
To: "Roderick Gammon, Ph.D. (AEG, Inc)" <AEG-Inc at hawaii.rr.com>

Rod,

	I was surfing for a formula to calculate gas mixes the other day because I
didn't have my notes with me when I needed the formula and I stumbled across
the Scubatoolkit package.  I am currently writing (for personal use) a C
program that does a lot of this stuff already.  So far, I can calculate
maximum operating depths of a Nitrox mix, an optimum mix for a desired
operating depth, and gas blending pressures for partial pressure blending of
Nitrox mixes.

	My next attempt at improving my program will be to add Trimix calculations
and to get the program to figure out the result if you top up a mix with a
different gas.  (This can happen when you have half a tank of Nitrox leftover
from a previous dive lying around, and you just want to top it up with air
and then dive it instead of paying the cost to get a full tank on Nitrox if
you don't really need it.  (Dive shops typically charge the 'full' price to
fill tanks, even if you only need a half fill....) This can work out quite
economically if you start with half a tank of a 36% blend, the top up can get
you a tank in the ball park of about 28-30%--quite useable for a deeper first
dive. )

	A more cosmic idea would be to take two tanks of mix on a charter boat. One
would be your bottom mix of trimix, and the other would be a 20/80 Heliox
mix.  After the first dive, transfill Heliox into the leftover trimix and
then top off the final mix up with air from the boat's compressor.  This
could yield a very diveable bottom mix that has much more Helium than would
result from just topping up the original mix with boat air.  As a bonus, you
now also have half to two-thirds of a tank of 20/80 that can be topped up
with air for a third dive....   Of course, you'd be foolish to dive any of
these transfilled and topped up mixes without working all the math and then
analyzing the gas in the final mix -- failure to do this is a sure way to get
either very bent, or oxygen toxic, or both.  None of these options is a
desireable outcome.  But that said, a laptop or palm pilot with some software
would make expedient work of the math part.  I don't know if I'll ever get
there, but it's fun playing with the problem anyway.

	Since the Scubatoolkit advertised some capability my program didn't have,
and I am working on some stuff that Scubatoolkit was missing, I thought,
hey... maybe this can be mutually beneficial....  So I downloaded it and am
now trying to get it to work so I can see if there is anything I may be able
to offer.

Ben

> If you are actively looking for Java software for a specific purpose, a
> statement of context might allow us to help you better.  Are you looking to
> set up a Scuba rental place?  Looking to explore how underwater simulations
> are programmed?
>
> Good luck!
> Rod Gammon

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