Dive Xtra Blacktip longevity vs. SUEX

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I bought a DiveX P1 in 2018. Have about 50 recreational dives on it, with a large camera mounted.

I have nothing but 100% positive things to say about this scooter. It is compact, lightweight, and easily packed to fly, the batteries are flight-legal, so it can go anywhere in the world with me. It is super powerful, built like a tank, has a vacuum checker and battery level indicator. Batteries charge in only 40 minutes on the DeWalt charger. I can get 4 rec dives per day from the batteries (on the trigger maybe 40-50% of the time). Suex does not offer anything even remotely similar to this.

I have several friends who bought Blacktips. This is an incredible value for the money. But yes, there are some quality issues on a few units in the first runs, but DiveX from everything I have heard has been superb in their customer support. I believe they are going to "own" the recreational scooter market in pretty short order.
 
Good day,
Looking at getting a DPV for recreational use only. I intend to use it to make some of the many dive sites more accessible from shore and to be able to explore more of some of our large sites (wall dives).

I am looking at the Dive-Xtras Blacktip Tech and a SUEX XJ-VR or SUEX XJoy 7.

I was about to pull the trigger on the Blacktip when a friend (GUE instructor) informed me that she has heard second hand that the Dive-Xtra models work great for a couple of years then begin to break down and there is little factory support. She recommended the SUEX.

Can anyone verify or refute this info? Personal experience with either brand in terms of longevity and customer support when things do break?

As others have said the blacktip is new so there is very little info on the longevity of this unit so I am not to sure what your friends basing this information off of. Also as others have said the battery is one of the most important aspects of a scooter so I will tell you about my two friends experiences. Both of them bought Suex's and both of them had battery issues with there units. They both had issues with the batteries not charging correctly and both had to pay full shipping amount to send them back to Italy for service and one of them had to send it back twice, took 8 months for the repair. They both had very very bad customer service experiences with Suex as well.

Like I said this was just my two friends experiences but seeing the poor customer service my friends went through from Suex makes me not want to buy one.
 
I am ready for a DPV, and going for a DiveX Blacktip Tech seems the option. Still waiting for the final push, like whatever discount. Was originally hoping to find some used one, but nothing on the market.
Any specific recommendations for the 12.0Ah DCB. I could only find one, the Dewalt DCB612. Are there alternatives?
 
I am ready for a DPV, and going for a DiveX Blacktip Tech seems the option. Still waiting for the final push, like whatever discount. Was originally hoping to find some used one, but nothing on the market.
Any specific recommendations for the 12.0Ah DCB. I could only find one, the Dewalt DCB612. Are there alternatives?
There are some new no-name 12 AH DCBs on Amazon, but haven't heard of anyone using them yet. When comparing Dewalts to other brands same AH DCB batteries, everything I've read makes it sound like the Dewalts pack more power. Kind of like buying a 5,000 lumen dive light on eBay for $30, you're probably not getting all the lumens advertised
 
I have a Cuda that was born around the same time as Rjack's Sierra. I've had the shaft serviced once, and the battery (Ni-Mh) gave up the ghost, so I run Power tool batteries now, but the thing is a beast. As far as service, dive X-tras still supports EVERY scooter they have made. And in some cases supports upgrades to them when they can. I've never had any issues getting support, there is a Dive-xtras FB group, and one of the reps from Dive X comments there often. I'm a little spoiled since I live near the factory, so I can just drop in to buy spares or service kits.

The Blacktips seem to be experiencing some growing pains, but Dive X seems to be pretty responsive with Firmware updates and design fixes as issues arise.

I think you friend is operating on limited information, with a little bias thrown in.

For grins ask her what she thinks about Andrew Georgitsis.

lol.. AG..
 
Regarding longevity, a number of the newer scooters have extensive firmware controlling the ESC. Recently, someone paid attention to Blacktips using open source firmware and the source code being publicly available. So he made a couple of modifications and extended several capabilities, including adding software based cruise control. In addition to looking at hardware longevity, you need to look at the firmware. This new firmware version, created by a Blacktip owner building upon the Dive-X source code, is really nice, because it opens up the ability of a much larger user community to actively support and enhance the firmware, instead of being tied to a manufacturer's limited staff resources
 
Regarding longevity, a number of the newer scooters have extensive firmware controlling the ESC. Recently, someone paid attention to Blacktips using open source firmware and the source code being publicly available. So he made a couple of modifications and extended several capabilities, including adding software based cruise control. In addition to looking at hardware longevity, you need to look at the firmware. This new firmware version, created by a Blacktip owner building upon the Dive-X source code, is really nice, because it opens up the ability of a much larger user community to actively support and enhance the firmware, instead of being tied to a manufacturer's limited staff resources

Smart DPV has been around for a while with similar capabilities. @Jona Silverstein is the US guy for Smart DPV which can be used on just about any DPV including the older Tekna/Mako's. It is based on the same hardware as the DiveX ESC in the Blacktip and can be used on any of theirs. The previous gen ESC that DiveX used was a Castle Creations controller but even that was much more restrictive than the current iteration which is open source.
 
Smart DPV has been around for a while with similar capabilities. @Jona Silverstein is the US guy for Smart DPV which can be used on just about any DPV including the older Tekna/Mako's. It is based on the same hardware as the DiveX ESC in the Blacktip and can be used on any of theirs. The previous gen ESC that DiveX used was a Castle Creations controller but even that was much more restrictive than the current iteration which is open source.
What does Smart DPV do?
 
What does Smart DPV do?

See https://www.facebook.com/smartdpv for some details. It's a replacement ESC (electronic speed control for motors) that provides a lot more flexibility than older stock DPV ESCs

Smart DPV has been around for a while with similar capabilities. @Jona Silverstein is the US guy for Smart DPV which can be used on just about any DPV including the older Tekna/Mako's. It is based on the same hardware as the DiveX ESC in the Blacktip and can be used on any of theirs. The previous gen ESC that DiveX used was a Castle Creations controller but even that was much more restrictive than the current iteration which is open source.

I didn't realize it's based on the same hardware as the vesc-based ESC in the Blacktip. Now if we could just have a common scooter firmware code base that everyone contributes to and improves...
 
See https://www.facebook.com/smartdpv for some details. It's a replacement ESC (electronic speed control for motors) that provides a lot more flexibility than older stock DPV ESCs



I didn't realize it's based on the same hardware as the vesc-based ESC in the Blacktip. Now if we could just have a common scooter firmware code base that everyone contributes to and improves...

Smart-DPV is designed to be able to be used on any dpv available. While we do have some premade setups for DX Scooters and a couple of others, we can make different options for different use cases. Heres the Product age for it, bottom of the page has install manual for DX units and the wiki page.
Smart-DPV ESC — ExplorerTechnology
 

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