As long as it has a SPG attached so you can hand it over to another diver in an emergency.
Air integration for tech dives
- Thread starter Adobo
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I would if I could find a way that works. The cost of the transmitters is a trivial expense in the grand scheme of tech diving. I get in the water with at least $10k in gear for an average dive, the training to get there is $3-4k. Right now my gas bills are around $30-40 a dive. My petrol bill to get to cave country is around $50.
Another $1,200 for three more transmitters (if Shearwater could support all five tanks) isn't that much. Heck I spent that much for another video light a few months ago.
Is it sacrilegious to add an HP splitter? I'm sure it is. (I've never used one, I don't know what failure points they have, I don't own more than 1 transmitter). It's more a question than an idea.
....and, here they come....
That doesn't get anywhere with the SW limit though.
Is it sacrilegious to add an HP splitter? I'm sure it is. (I've never used one, I don't know what failure points they have, I don't own more than 1 transmitter). It's more a question than an idea.
....and, here they come....
That doesn't get anywhere with the SW limit though.
There is a thread with photos where I tried that, it looked stupid, which violates rule 1. So I moved the third transmitter to my rarely used rec set, which does save wear and tear of not having to move the transmitter if I want to do a rec dive.
What I need is a Mk25 with two HP ports on a side. Like the Left/Right first stages for doubles.
Just for fun, I thought I'd give my thoughts no this question that was originally asked.
Air integration helps on a tech dive in the same way a SPG does - it lets you know how much gas you have. It's simply another tool to do the same job (though it does do so more precisely). That's it. That's all it needs to do. It doesn't have to "be better" or "do something more than a SPG" to be an acceptable alternative.
Having a SPG isn't objectively "better" than having a transmitter, and having a transmitter isn't objectively "better" than having a SPG. They're just two different tools for the same job. Some will tell you the transmitter is less likely to experience a failure during a dive as most of it's failure points would be discovered before the dive started. Some will tell you that they don't trust the electronics of a transmitter. Those are all opinions and I honestly don't believe there is objective data available to thoroughly compare the reliability of the two different options. People with thousands of dives on both methods have come to different conclusions, though I think today you'll find more people agreeing that the two are probably "as reliable" as each other overall.
At the end of the day, if your choice for how you monitor pressure works, doesn't negatively impact the dive team, etc., then there's no reason for anyone to tell you that you're choice in how to monitor your tank pressure is wrong. If diver 1 wants to unclip their SPG, hold their light to it briefly, bring it up in front of them to read it, then move it back and clip it off to their waist to check their tank pressure, that's fine. If diver 2 wants to just glance at the computer on their wrist to check their pressure, that's fine too. Both divers are getting a reasonably accurate indication of their tank pressure, and that's the point of that type of equipment on the dive, right?
A buddy of mine and I once carpooled to Diepolder 2. We used his car. When we got on-site I realized my shearwater battery was dead. My spare AA batteries were where I always keep them, in a ziplock bag in the center console of my car.
Sometimes things happen and your spare parts may not be with you. An HP spool I can keep in my wetnotes, AA batteries not so much.
So yeah, I actually carry a few spare regs in my gear box and could pull an spg if needed. And I have broken a glass face on an SPG while driving to the nest before.
My spare Perdix/transmitter batteries live in the bottom of my drysuit undies bag. Since I always dive dry, I always have them with me.
I stopped leaving stuff like that in the car for that reason. Get to a location via airplane or car pool and remember something important that you always pulled from you car.
But yeah I get that stuff happens, but the main argument shouldn't be based on a second or third level of failure. We don't talk about double or triple redundancy for anything else but lights.
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