Rec Dive Computer for Tech

[DeepBlueDreaming]

[disclaimer] I am not a tech diver and yes, I'm newly cert in OW. I love diving and love being in the water. [/disclaimer]

Now with that said. I have the Mares Icon HD net ready dive computer. The DC has a maximum display depth of 150 m (492ft)*. It also supports 3 different gas mixtures alone with being able to communicate with 3 different tank modules. The DC supports Deco and uses a version of RGBM.

Why would a tech diver use or not use this computer? I have read through a lot of posts before making this one to try and find an answer.



I want to become a tech diver. But don't read that sentence incorrectly. I want to do more, learn more, and have more knowledge than normal rec scuba diving. I have been in the process of gathering as much information on deco, deco algorithms, equipment and digging into the history of diving. I'm not caught up on some mystic of 'tech diving'. I understand that it encompasses so much more than breathing trimix and traveling to the abyss. We all have to start somewhere, so I'm starting here.





*That spec came from their website but there was no mention of maximum operating depth.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Short answer: because there are much better computers for such dives (or any dives). But if you already have it, don't worry about what its limits are and just go dive it. By the time you're ready to actually do any technical diving, you'll understand why you want something else; but for now, it's a functioning dive computer that you can and may as well use.

Could one use it for a three gas technical dive? Sure. I'd look at how it handles deco, gas switching, and implements RGBM before I did that, but there shouldn't be any reason I couldn't punch in mixes of 21%, 50% and 100% O2 and take it on a nice long deep air dive. But I'd take a couple backup methods of determining and following my ascent schedule.

 

[boulderjohn]

Let's start with the fact that it can handle 3 gas mixtures. I don't know the computer, but I am going to guess that none of those three gases includes a helium mixture. You probably have the capacity to load 3 nitrox mixtures. That would be tech diving, but it would be tech diving Lite. I know you have no idea why you would ever want to have 3 different gases at this point in your diving career, but trust me in saying that although there are occasions when 3 nitrox mixtures with no ability to do helium can be useful, it is not the usual thing. I have never been there myself. It is not a computer I would even think of using.

We frequently get threads like this one, in which recreational divers who are thinking of doing tech one day in the distant future want to purchase a computer that will serve them when they do. My advice always is this: don't do it.

When you eventually go tech, you should carefully choose both an instructor and an agency. They are very different in their beliefs regarding computers. Some want none whatsoever at any time in your life. Some will train you through the first stages with no computer and then make a change. Once the change is made, different instructors/agencies will approach their use in different ways. That nice computer you bought years before might be an expensive discard.

Next, think about how things will change before you are really a tech diver. There may be computers you never dreamed about on the market then, at a fraction of the price of inferior computers today.

I think recreational divers who are using computers should stick to a good, basic computer that will serve those basic needs. Don't worry about tech until you really know what you want.

 

[DiveNav]

.....Why would a tech diver ..... not use this computer?

Because this dive computer (being designed for recreational diving) does not have Trimix capabilities.
More specifically, with this dive computer you can not define a gas mixture that contains Oxygen, Nitrogen and Helium.
Tech divers use Trimix to go very very deep :shocked2:

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[DevonDiver]

You won't find many technical divers that would use a recreational computer for their technical dives. I often wonder why these computers offer gas-switch capability - it seems like a marketing gimmick to me. Recreational computers rarely offer the refinement in algorithm and ascent curve manipulation that technical divers demand. Gas switching is the least of the capability needed.

"Supporting deco" in a recreational computer is not the same as formal deco planning. Most recreational computers provide a very simplistic deco option - really nothing more than a "get to the surface safely" option for emergency deco only.

 

[Centrals]

Plenty of tec divers do not use dive computer at all. There are alternatives.
BTW, not all tec computers are trimix compatible!! But they can be up-graded if you purchase the respective soft ware.

 

[SandPhantom]

Depending on the instructor, you will more than likely be dive planning off of tables and carrying two bottom timers/computers in gauge mode. At least while you are training for tech.

 

[chrpai]

Easy:

DG03 Dive Computer and Digital Gauge by Hollis Gear - Dive Gear Express

This will do everything a recreational diver would ever need and a little bit of Tech Lite. If you need more, put it in gauge mode and cut your own tables. If you later decide to get a full helium tech computer you are only out $249 + $19 for bungee mount. And by "out" not really since you'll probably use this as a backup.

 

[Doc Harry]

You won't find many technical divers that would use a recreational computer for their technical dives.

True!

I also don't use any computer for tech dives.

 

[ianr33]

[disclaimer] It also supports 3 different gas mixtures alone

Because this dive computer (being designed for recreational diving)

Why would a recreational diver need a computer that supports 3 gases ?