Dive Computer

[stevesteve]

Can anyone recommend a dive com? I only heard of suunto for now, but not sure which model is good.. is there any recommendation?

if there are any other brands, please do state your model too

hope to get some comments

i'm currently looking at suunto vyper, vytec ds, and stinger..

 

[antacid]

whats your budget?

got myself a galileo sol from uwatec. comes with tank pressure transmitter and heart rate monitor. big display is awesome. a little cumbersome due to the size, but you'll get used to it i suppose.

i'm also looking at the Uemis ZURICH which is damn cool.

 

[Knightfall]

really comes down to your diving requirements and your budget.

for example, if you don't need tank pressure transmitter, the price drops significantly.

 

[stevesteve]

whats your budget?

got myself a galileo sol from uwatec. comes with tank pressure transmitter and heart rate monitor. big display is awesome. a little cumbersome due to the size, but you'll get used to it i suppose.

i'm also looking at the Uemis ZURICH which is damn cool.

my budget is ard 700..

really comes down to your diving requirements and your budget.

for example, if you don't need tank pressure transmitter, the price drops significantly.

tank pressure does it refers to the amount of air left in my tank? sorry for my noob qns.. i am looking for a com that shows basic stuff like depths, temp, decompression stop, pressure grp, etc..

 

[howeikwok]

my budget is ard 700..


tank pressure does it refers to the amount of air left in my tank? sorry for my noob qns.. i am looking for a com that shows basic stuff like depths, temp, decompression stop, pressure grp, etc..

Erm don't think the dive computers will show you pressure groups. That belongs to a dive table.

Anyway there are various brands available in singapore, more if you go overseas. Major brands include suunto, mares, oceanic and uwatec.

Each brand has it's pros and cons depends on what kind of diving you want to do or envisioning yourself doing in the future.

I've used suunto before: Expensive, very nice looking, very conservative (good and bad thing)

I'm using oceanics now: Cheap, liberal (good and bad also)

 

[LeoDaddy]

U have cheap suuntos too! Zoop is cheap! ;p

I'm using zoop now, extremenly conservative. I suppose it gives user a very big safety margin. But I'm beginning to find it restrictive.:dunno:

 

[jeediver]

Get a sunnto Stinger, u can even wear it when not diving.

 

[howeikwok]

U have cheap suuntos too! Zoop is cheap! ;p

I'm using zoop now, extremenly conservative. I suppose it gives user a very big safety margin. But I'm beginning to find it restrictive.:dunno:

For a zoop, you can get a oceanic GEO which is a watch like dive computer ala suunto D4.

 

[Knightfall]

my budget is ard 700..


tank pressure does it refers to the amount of air left in my tank? sorry for my noob qns.. i am looking for a com that shows basic stuff like depths, temp, decompression stop, pressure grp, etc..

Well, from your diving needs and your budget. You pretty much only need a basics dive com.

Don't need to blow huge amounts on the uwatec sol, suunto D9s and all that.

Oceanic tends to offer good value for money. The other decision you need to consider is whether you want your dive com to double up as a wrist watch after the dive.

The trade off to this is that wrist watch size computers are smaller (obviously) and you get a smaller screen and generally higher prices.

Tank pressure transmitter allows the dive com to tell you the amount of air left in tank.

Dive coms will not show you pressure group of dive tables, they will instead tell you how much surface interval is required before your next dive and how deep and long your next dive can be.

My recommendation is to get a good affordable, easy to use entry level dive comp. These include (but not limited to) the Suunto Gekko, Oceanic VEO series, Uwatec Aladin One Dive. These range anyway from $300+ (Oceanic VEO 180 ) - $600 + (Uwatec Aladin One Dive)

Don't get the absolute bare basic as you will grow in dive experience and may decide to do nitrox.

 

[antacid]

actually to make things easier, here are some factors to consider when choosing a dive computer.

1. Price - for obvious reasons
2. Size - big ones are easier to see underwater, but it also means you are more like to lose/damage it as you have to take it off each time you put on your wetsuit, etc. And it is more likely that you will leave it somewhere and forget about it. Watch-sized ones are more convenient, and double up as a wrist watch for the non-diving portions of a dive trip too.
3. Nitrox capability - best to get one with nitrox up to 40% for recreational diving
4. Air integration - some dive computers come with a tank transmitter that tells you how much air you have left. some people use this to replace the SPG, some people say it shouldn't. that's another discussion altogether. more advanced dive computers also use the air integration to tell you how much bottom time you have left at that depth, taking into account the time to ascend, and also safety stop. other dive computers just tell you the NDL and it's up to you to figure out how long your air will last you. as an example you can have 10 min NDL at 40M, but 5 min of air left. Some dive computers allow you to sync with up to 4 transmitters, so you can use multiple tanks, or monitor your buddy's air as well.
5. digital compass - more advanced dive computers come with a built-in digital compass for navigation. you have to know how to use a compass for it to be useful.
6. Log memory - some dive computers store up to 9 dives in memory, some up to 999. how important is that to you?
7. Battery - is it user replaceable? or do you have to send it to a dedicated service center? how much does it cost to change the battery?
8. PC sync - does it allow you to download dive data to a PC? what interface does it use - infra-red (super obsolete. you can't even find an IR dongle these days), or USB? Or proprietary cable?
9, Algorithm used - this determines if it is "conservative" or liberal. again theres 2 different camps on which is better, or the right approach. liberal gives you more NDL, conservative gives a higher margin of safety. the most liberal is to dive without tables and dive computers. and the most conservative is to dive according to tables.

that's all i can think of now.. please feel free to add in anything i've missed out!

 

[howeikwok]

Well, from your diving needs and your budget. You pretty much only need a basics dive com.

Don't need to blow huge amounts on the uwatec sol, suunto D9s and all that.

Oceanic tends to offer good value for money. The other decision you need to consider is whether you want your dive com to double up as a wrist watch after the dive.

The trade off to this is that wrist watch size computers are smaller (obviously) and you get a smaller screen and generally higher prices.

Tank pressure transmitter allows the dive com to tell you the amount of air left in tank.

Dive coms will not show you pressure group of dive tables, they will instead tell you how much surface interval is required before your next dive and how deep and long your next dive can be.

My recommendation is to get a good affordable, easy to use entry level dive comp. These include (but not limited to) the Suunto Gekko, Oceanic VEO series, Uwatec Aladin One Dive. These range anyway from $300+ (Oceanic VEO 180 ) - $600 + (Uwatec Aladin One Dive)

Don't get the absolute bare basic as you will grow in dive experience and may decide to do nitrox.

Just a small point. Dive coms don't show you how long your surface interval should be. Rather it shows you how long your surface interval has been. How long you want your surface interval to be is up to you. The computer just calculates the NDL for your next dive accordingly.

 

[glennyong]

Well, from your diving needs and your budget. You pretty much only need a basics dive com.

Don't need to blow huge amounts on the uwatec sol, suunto D9s and all that.

Oceanic tends to offer good value for money. The other decision you need to consider is whether you want your dive com to double up as a wrist watch after the dive.

The trade off to this is that wrist watch size computers are smaller (obviously) and you get a smaller screen and generally higher prices.

Tank pressure transmitter allows the dive com to tell you the amount of air left in tank.

Dive coms will not show you pressure group of dive tables, they will instead tell you how much surface interval is required before your next dive and how deep and long your next dive can be.

My recommendation is to get a good affordable, easy to use entry level dive comp. These include (but not limited to) the Suunto Gekko, Oceanic VEO series, Uwatec Aladin One Dive. These range anyway from $300+ (Oceanic VEO 180 ) - $600 + (Uwatec Aladin One Dive)

Don't get the absolute bare basic as you will grow in dive experience and may decide to do nitrox.

for the price of uwatec aladin one dive, u can get a D4 :bsmilie: ok. sounds vain, cause i was about to say D4 has white. :bsmilie:

 

[jeffyue]

I would recommend Suunto D4, which will fit your budget if you search few shops. Can be used as watch. Conservative (but we dive for leisure and not for trophy, right). Show all the relevant data, such as depth, water temp, Ascent Rate, Safety Stop, No Fly Time count down, etc. If you plan to go for Nitrox, D4 can cater for that too!

For the PC USB cable, it is quite expensive (~$180). Since the watch can log up to 999 dives, think you can give it a pass unless you really wanna log everything in your PC.

For record, I m also a newly certified diver. Glad that I have got my D4 for my diving trip.

 

[stevesteve]

im thinking of getting a suunto vyper.. is it recommended? my DM says its sufficient enough for us.. can transfer data to computer, and replace battery on our own which is cheaper than sending to the centres..

 

[LeoDaddy]

IMHO, if u r buying purely based on needs, the cheapest and most basic dive comp nowadays will have all the features most rec divers will ever need. The rest r just nce to have.

Changing batteries u dn do it very often, also better to have a professional change in case u did not do a proper job, flood the dive comp. Will be costly if that happens.

 

[glennyong]

IMHO, if u r buying purely based on needs, the cheapest and most basic dive comp nowadays will have all the features most rec divers will ever need. The rest r just nce to have.

Changing batteries u dn do it very often, also better to have a professional change in case u did not do a proper job, flood the dive comp. Will be costly if that happens.

to flood a dive comp is the last thing u wanna it to happen... can be very shitty.... :cry:

suunto vyper cheap meh... :dunno:

 

[Knightfall]

im thinking of getting a suunto vyper.. is it recommended? my DM says its sufficient enough for us.. can transfer data to computer, and replace battery on our own which is cheaper than sending to the centres..

Suunto vyper is a good computer but not the cheapest thing. I personally wouldn't recommend it to people on a budget looking for a basic computer

It's $500+ for the vyper 1, $800+ for the vyper 2.

 

[mod101]

Personally I prefer Uwatec Aladin - Tec 2G or Prime... Can afford go Tec 2G, if not Prime is good enough. They are about similar to the prices of Suunto Vyper or Vyper2. Change the battery your self too...

 

[howeikwok]

Me like cheap heh. Ocenic GEO 1 at adex earlier this year was $350. Atom 2.0 was $450. :bsmilie:

 

[neons]

Get a logger , sensus Ultra from www.reefnet.ca . I got the previous version Sensus Pro . I can download the dive log onto my Mac or PC, with a USB downloader.

The logger logs the date, time, depth, temperature. The free sensus manager software can work with Mac and PC, for US or metric system.

Go check it out .