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SQUID – Submersible Quasi-Universal Input Device

This is a raspberry pi zero inside a waterproof pressure tolerant housing with a RS232 connection to outside and a dive watch as keyboard

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When performing ballasting on a Seaglider, I often need to use a computer connected to the glider using a long cable. Then I would go in the water with the glider and shout what I need the user to type on the serial port to perform various ballasting tests. I thought there should be an easier way of doing this so I decided to make this device, which could have other applications too but I can't think of any specific one just yet!

This is the simplest and fastest way I managed to do this with my abilities and it's absolutely not the best and cleanest way:

So I had bought this Garmin dive watch because I love freediving but also because I saw that they have an open SDK for their apps so I thought there must be a way to use this somehow.
The biggest help was when I found the following tutorial of someone creating almost exactly what I needed!
https://developer.garmin.com/downloads/connect-iq/tutorials/ciq-raspberry-pi/tutorial.pdf
This took care of the bluetooth to raspberry communication and I just needed to add a keyboard to the code so it would act as a keyboard. How hard can it be right? Well, I finally managed but in the least elegant way. After adding the keyboard and finding a way to transfer the characters, I had to find a way to input those as a keyboard stroke. I tried to use Linux USB HID gadget driver but didn't manage to get it working. So I decided to use a raspberry pi pico to emulate a keyboard. So I am transferring the characters to the pico which will then act as a keyboard and type those on a minicom terminal. For power, I am using a single 18650 cell connected to this DCDC/charger module. 

CIQpi.prg

Garmin app executable for side loading

prg - 23.98 kB - 07/30/2025 at 19:11

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SQUID v9.step

CAD model

step - 33.93 MB - 07/30/2025 at 19:10

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CIQpi_SQUID.zip

Garmin Watch App source code in Monkey C

x-zip-compressed - 203.44 kB - 07/30/2025 at 19:08

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  • 1 × Raspberry Pi Zero
  • 1 × Small USB hub
  • 1 × 18650 cell
  • 1 × Li-ion Battery Charge/Dischage module https://tinyurl.com/4sjxs425
  • 1 × Raspberry Pi Pico

View all 9 components

  • 1
    SD card image

    Download and burn this SD image on a 32G card

  • 2
    Side load the app

    Side load the .prg file on your Garmin watch

View all instructions

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