When you’re exploring the depths of the ocean, it’s essential to know how much oxygen is left in your scuba tank, how deep underwater you are, ocean conditions, and other parameters. A wrist-worn diving computer can serve as your guide. One of the market’s most prominent developers of innovative dive technologies is Mares, based in Rapallo, Italy. Collaborating with ROJ, an Italian electronics designer, developer, and manufacturer, Mares has created the Genius wrist dive computer.
Compact and low power, the Genius computer has a full-color, high-resolution display that provides a wide array of features, including depth display up to 150m; a logbook with multiple graphs; map viewing; timekeeping; a decompression dive planner; a full-tilt digital compass with bearing memory and stopwatch for underwater navigation procedures; and much more. Two characteristics that make the Genius computer unique are its many functions plus its long battery life: its rechargeable battery lasts for 40 hours of dive time on a full charge.
Developing this small, highly integrated device that runs for so many hours underwater was no simple feat. The engineering team needed underlying ICs that met strict size, power, and performance requirements. They also needed to reduce noise on the power supply and the analog signal.
The ROJ team has a long history of collaboration with Maxim, so Maxim components were their first choice. The Genius computer includes these ICs:
- MAX4257 low-noise, low-distortion operational amplifier with rail-to-rail outputs and single-supply operation down to 2.4V
- MAX17112 high-performance step-up DC-DC converter
- MAX4983 high-speed USB 2.0 switch with ±15kV electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection
- MAX77801 high-efficiency buck-boost regulator
- MAX6778 low-power, 1% accurate battery monitor
- Charger and fuel-gauge IC
Read the Mares and ROJ story to learn how the engineers met their technical targets with these ICs while also saving a year in their design cycle.
Mares and ROJ developed the wrist-worn Genius dive computer to help scuba divers track an array of important parameters while underwater.
