Turns out, there is no native way to show real-time swim distance (but you can for running, walking and cycling?)
Now integrating a bespoke solution, but one with greater control and accuracy which I am excited about.
I don't get on here often, but CTDs seems to always catch my eye!
meh, that didn't work. But the tweens in my backyard giggled then joined me in my "Air Swim"
Image of an apple watch ultra with the swim app showing. There are two buttons to choose a swim workout, open water at the top in salmon and pool at the bottom in magenta.
Image of an apple watch ultra with the live swim metrics. Water temperature of 81F at the top left in blue. Elapsed time at 7 seconds in yellow below. Below that zero yards swum, leading to a pace of 0 minutes and 0 seconds per 100 yard. And finally heartrate at the bottom.
The open water swim app I'm building will only show live distance and pace when moving my arms.
I'm about to go in my backyard and "Air Swim"....
#SwiftUI
ha ha ha so true
When you pack consumer electronics with lots of sensors and powerful software, it can be so much more than a phone and weird little computer.
DopFone app tracks fetal heart rates with your smartphone.
www.washington.edu/news/2026/02...
Attention Physical Oceanographers....NOAA is hiring?!
5 positions, closing date is 3/25 so hurry.
🌊🧪 #oceanography
www.usajobs.gov/job/861651700
Attention Physical Oceanographers....NOAA is hiring?!
5 positions, closing date is 3/25 so hurry.
🌊🧪 #oceanography
www.usajobs.gov/job/861651700
But who got into their gumby suit the fastest?
Image of a the low cost buoy and the tools o am using to modify it on a table. The pool noodle is stuffed inside a floating pool chlorinator with the watch on top. Next to it are some pool noodle slices as I adjusted the pool noodle size and the bread knife I used to cut it. Also on the table a sharpie and measuring tape.
Took a much needed break from doing taxes to do some backyard wave buoy upgrades. A pool noodle was sacrificed for the cause.
#lowcost #oceantechnology #oceanexploration
Screenshot of logbook on phone. Show a list of sample records, each with a location and time stamp. For data taken with the phone, it shows an icon of a phone. For data taken with a watch, it shows an icon of a watch. Overlain at the bottom is a play button to go to sampling.
Screen shot of the sampling screen on my phone. Elapsed time is 35 hours, 40 minutes and 58 seconds. Below is the location with the elevation in meters (98). Below is the a table with acceleration, rotational velocity and magnetic field split into north, east and up components. Below that is the barometer at 1007.50 mb. Then at the bottom is a round pink stop button.
Live data taken from my phone that shows huge spikes in the magnetic field when it's on an inductive charger. There is also altimetry and air pressure data which shows spikes when I headed out to a caregiver/teacher meeting at 7:30 am this morning.
Bob 2.0 is out on the app store! Now you don't even need a watch, just log data with your phone!
Also, I forgot to stop sampling yesterday and have logged 35+ continuous hours of my location, my motion and air pressure.
apps.apple.com/us/app/bob-e...
Screenshot of logbook on phone. Show a list of sample records, each with a location and time stamp. For data taken with the phone, it shows an icon of a phone. For data taken with a watch, it shows an icon of a watch. Overlain at the bottom is a play button to go to sampling.
Screen shot of the sampling screen on my phone. Elapsed time is 35 hours, 40 minutes and 58 seconds. Below is the location with the elevation in meters (98). Below is the a table with acceleration, rotational velocity and magnetic field split into north, east and up components. Below that is the barometer at 1007.50 mb. Then at the bottom is a round pink stop button.
Live data taken from my phone that shows huge spikes in the magnetic field when it's on an inductive charger. There is also altimetry and air pressure data which shows spikes when I headed out to a caregiver/teacher meeting at 7:30 am this morning.
Bob 2.0 is out on the app store! Now you don't even need a watch, just log data with your phone!
Also, I forgot to stop sampling yesterday and have logged 35+ continuous hours of my location, my motion and air pressure.
apps.apple.com/us/app/bob-e...
Definitely on our family list. The teenager has watched the entire animated series
yeah! It's coming along. I am excited for other people to try it.
Turns out I can actually view the data on the phone app while sampling on the watch with each batch save to CoreData, it's just delayed because I am batch sampling every half hour. I was going to shorten batching, but now I have another reason to.
My buoy design principle: what can I do with $20, a quick trip to the hardware store, limited technical knowledge and a smartwatch?
This is so cool!
My buoy design principle: what can I do with $20, a quick trip to the hardware store, limited technical knowledge and a smartwatch?
I save everything to coredata then use iCloud to share between the phone and the watch. I can also export saved data from the watch directly to files as a JSON using a WCSession, but that’s just a backup in case iCloud is slow.
I do this with library books! And it worked, both kids would graze the ottoman for new reading material.
There is a bit of analysis and deployment refinement that needs to be done here, but I think its really promising for something that I cobbled together for <$20 over the course of an afternoon with limited access to tools and hardware.
Two panel plot of data from the barometer when it was submerged. The top is the absolute air pressure, and the second is the water depth estimated from the air pressure. You can see the water depth go up and down with the tidal cycle.
I put a second watch inside the concrete block I used as an anchor to measure water depth as the tide came in. Unfortunately it the pressure sensor didn't fire, but the barometer did and I was able to see the tidal cycle in that!
Vertical acceleration frequency spectrum from 0.1 Hz to 1.0 Hz. There is a distinct peak at 2 seconds which is noted with an arrow
The vertical acceleration spectrum shows a peak at ~2.0 seconds, which matches the waves I saw in the water. There's contributions from higher frequencies which I think is the result of having a tiny buoy and being next to a seawall.
Image of a concrete block as an anchor tied to a pool chlorine dispenser as a buoy.
First test of using a smartwatch as combo Wave and Tidal inundation buoy is a success!
Motion data showing a large 30 second gap in acceleration, angular velocity and magnetic field.
And found my first bug. The phone app stops sampling when the screen turns off or I navigate to another app.
Any one want to be a Beta Tester? The process is simple, you can play around with the app for free, and then give me feedback. Good or bad, it helps me build something better.
Screen shot of the start screen with Bob Environmental. Shows a list with Logbook entries and at the bottom is a Play button where you can start taking data.
Screen shot of the log data screen for bob environmental. Actively taking data so the elapsed time is 00:00:11 (11 seconds). Location section has latitude, longitude and elevation (99m). Motion section shows the phone acceleration, rotational velocity and magnetic field in the X, Y, and Z directions. Barometer shows air pressure at 1015.71 mb
Done! Finished the code that Bob Environmental that turns your iPhone and your Apple Watch into a smart sensor for science.
Now to update the App store version 😀
#SwiftUI
Ha ha I just noticed the giant shackle!
Tide predictions in Puget Sound for this Saturday and Sunday. Low tide is at 1 pm, high tide is at 8 pm. Noted on with arrows on the plot are my intended deployment and recovery times at 4 pm and 10 pm.
I have an unexpected opportunity to do a quick field test for a wave buoy/tidal inundation mooring with the watch, so planning and taking advantage of it this weekend.
