“It’s as easy as 01.10.11”

There are many technological advancements in skydiving these days. A lot of wingsuiters want more information on their real time glide path, speed, and distance, as well as GPS. Swoopers want detailed data on altitude and speed… Basically skydivers seem to be quite nerdy.

This doesn’t just apply to skydivers who have found their niche; many jumpers have a background in science, engineering, or are simply just a big geek before their groundschool.

The Product

SkyNerd Ltd have developed a binary altimeter, the ‘Byte’, to satisfy the inner dork. Inspiration for the Byte came from binary clocks and watches.

The Byte is easy to use with two buttons, on and off, and uses two CR2325 batteries. The estimated battery life is 01 years or 1111101000 jumps, whichever comes first. The reading is accurate to two ft, with easy to view 18 LEDs displaying the altitude in BCD, and will read altitudes up to 39,999 ft! However the LEDs are currently only available in blue.

This product has a hand or wrist mount option, is water resistant, and comes with a copy of a digital user manual detailing the company and product, set-up, how-to, and maintenance.

Past, Present, and Future

An early prototype of the Byte altimeter can be seen in the image on the left.

Liking the concept: binary readings for the "nerd" factor, the display ideal for skydiving in the day and for night jumps, appropriate for all disciplines, SkyNerd saw they needed to reduce the bulk, and the resulting product can now be purchased here.

Ideas for future designs are currently underway and one direction SkyNerd are likely to go can be seen in the image below; this design has more colour options, as looking good and colour coordination are high on the priority list for skydivers. The product size will also be similar to the that of a wristwatch.

Reviews

During beta testing, SkyNerd Ltd found there were 10 types of people who were able to get along with this new concept: those who understood the binary, and those who didn’t.

“Binary is gr1000!” - Nerdy skydiver.