Air integration

[Liam79]

Looking to replace an old computer. As a recreational diver mainly shallower than 30m, is air integration worth the money or is it most effective for tech divers? Any advice, please.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Looking to replace an old computer. As a recreational diver mainly shallower than 30m, is air integration worth the money or is it most effective for tech divers? Any advice, please.

I'm a recreational diver. I do not use air intergration and bought a Shearwater Perdix AI that has no air intergration. I know how to look at my SPG. I know how to look at my start and ending pressures should I want to know my gas consumption rate on a dive. I have a Cressi digital console that let's me know how much time I have left to 50 bar from any point of the dive. In many places dive ops limit dive times to 60 - 65 minutes and I end up surfacing with 100 bar. Sometimes I just switch to nitrox and stay around 20m plus for the whole dive until I need to do the safety stop.

For me it's not worth the money. For others it is.

 

[Bill Jones]

Looking to replace an old computer. As a recreational diver mainly shallower than 30m, is air integration worth the money or is it most effective for tech divers? Any advice, please.

Air integration is all about convenience. It is not necessary and many divers that have air integrated systems also have a backup pressure gauge. Having your tank pressure added to your computer data display, you may find you are checking your air supply more often because it is right with your depth and no stop times - not a bad thing.

 

[lexvil]

Won’t dive without it, it makes the computer more than a glorified set of laminated tables, in my opinion it’s the most “worth it” thing in diving in the last 30 years but not necessary.

 

[pdwh]

The big thing to look at would be the features you gain and if they're worth it to you. These are the obvious ones to me (and for me, worth it).

• I never have to try and remember what my start and end pressure was when I log my dives.
• I can have the GTR (gas time remaining) on display (and in sidemount mode it includes both tanks on the Peregrine TX I dive with).
• I keep an eye on my pressure but if I got distracted due to some emergency, having the vibrating, audible, or visual alarm for air levels is a nice possible backup (not that I want to depend on it).
• My biggest convenience is not having to grab for the console to look - it's all right there on one screen.

 

[Maolli]

An air integrated wrist computer puts all relevant dive information in one convenient spot, usually on the wrist but sometimes inside a virtual reality type mask, and sometimes in a gauge boot which isn't nearly as convenient. The first two locations eliminate ever having to reach for a gauge during the dive.

All air integrated computers calculate the important factors for each dive (tank pressure, Nitrogen load, O2 exposure) and provide a constant digital readout of remaining dive time based on the most limiting factor.

All guesswork is thus removed and maximum dive times are ensured.

As the precise start and end pressures are recorded automatically if the dives are subsequently uploaded into a digital logbook, a diver's SAC rate can be calculated and displayed with no effort on the part of the diver other than inputting the correct cylinder volume.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I have had spg fail, haven't had AI fail (yet). AI is less work = more efficient.

Both work. One works better overall.

 

[tursiops]

All air integrated computers calculate the important factors for each dive (tank pressure, Nitrogen load, O2 exposure) and provide a constant digital readout of remaining dive time based on the most limiting factor.

Actually, the Shearwater display of Gas Time Remaining is of just the gas time remaining, and does not take into account the NDL or display just "the most limiting factor." The Shearwater simply displays both GTR and NDL.