Uwatec Smart COM question - microbubbles and deco

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Alucard

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Location
Upstate New York, USA
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I have a question for all of your familiar with the Uwatec Smart COM. I am a beginning diver and want to make sure that I am as safe as I can while still enjoying my diving.

So I was pretty impressed with the Microbubble feature on the SmartCOM - essentially during a week of diving, you "up" the level of microbubble so that the system starts adding in deep safety stops to your profile (allowing time for them in the Remaining bottom Time - RBT calculation)

Here's what is confusing me, though - what I do NOT want to do is to go outside my No-Deco time. If I have the microbubble level set above 0, and I start to dive, at some point it starts telling me that I am going to need a deep safety stop because of the microbubbles and how long and at what depth. So far so good. What I do NOT see, once that has kicked in, is any information about how much no-deco dive time I have left.

(For the record, I usually add several minutes to safety stops and do not dive even close to no-deco limits - I am too paranoid to take risks at this stage in my diving)

Hope I have explained my question clearly enough. If not, please ask questions. Would appreciate any help anyone can give me on how to use this feature to be a safer diver.

Thanks
 
I use this computer currently and too am curious! I have used it in the past with L0 set, but after reading the documentation, I thought maybe I should set it to L1. I would like to have more information in my safety stops.
 
The folded in some deep stops into their algorithm to almost emulate RGBM. If you are going to be doing no stop diving it will have to get quite shallow to avoid the penalty, or take a day off.

I had written more but deleted it because some may feel I was bashing the competetion...
 
Hey, Im new to and I dont get that either. I love this computer but sometimes I just dont get the instructions. I was told that if the day before your dive you drank or just didnt feel good set the level higher then 0. Now I dont know if that is right. Mark
 
cerich:
I had written more but deleted it because some may feel I was bashing the competetion...

Why would that be? Do you work for Oceanic? You know, both SP and Oceanic make excellent products.
 
mdmbike to scuba:
Hey, Im new to and I dont get that either. I love this computer but sometimes I just dont get the instructions. I was told that if the day before your dive you drank or just didnt feel good set the level higher then 0. Now I dont know if that is right. Mark

If I drank heavily the night before and didn't feel good, it wouldn't matter what level I set the computer to! I just wouldn't dive at all. But then that is another thread. Better be safe than sorry, and the water will always be there.
 
Alucard:
I have a question for all of your familiar with the Uwatec Smart COM. I am a beginning diver and want to make sure that I am as safe as I can while still enjoying my diving.

Thanks

Before anyone else sees your question and bites your head off, I thought I would be a nice guy and ask, why are you using a computer if you are a beginning diver? Yes, computers are good, and I use one, but with probably less than 5 total dives, I would suggest maybe getting used to diving before entering into the equation of figuring out a new piece of equipment, especially a computer.
 
Alucard:
So I was pretty impressed with the Microbubble feature on the SmartCOM - essentially during a week of diving, you "up" the level of microbubble so that the system starts adding in deep safety stops to your profile (allowing time for them in the Remaining bottom Time - RBT calculation)
You have options: L0 (Normal) to L5 (Most conservative)
Basically it introduces 'Level Stops' very much like deco stops but not Mandatory they introduce a level of conservatism to your diving

Alucard:
Here's what is confusing me, though - what I do NOT want to do is to go outside my No-Deco time. If I have the microbubble level set above 0, and I start to dive, at some point it starts telling me that I am going to need a deep safety stop because of the microbubbles and how long and at what depth. So far so good. What I do NOT see, once that has kicked in, is any information about how much no-deco dive time I have left.

If you are using L1-L5 you have introduced conservatism to your computer, It will reduce your NDL for a given profile, Once you are out of NDL you enter 'Level stops'. You have no more NDL left and in order to comply with your requested conservatism you should be ascending and doing 'stops' If you choose to ignore the computer and continue diving, it will readjust the conservatism down a level L5,L4,L3 etc and recalculate Level stops.

Alucard:
(For the record, I usually add several minutes to safety stops and do not dive even close to no-deco limits - I am too paranoid to take risks at this stage in my diving)

In effect you are reducing your dive time with this conservatism, this is often done when doing multiday/liveaboard diving.

Alucard:
Hope I have explained my question clearly enough. If not, please ask questions. Would appreciate any help anyone can give me on how to use this feature to be a safer diver.

There are as many opinions as there are divers about what makes a safer diver
I dive my SmartTec on L0, I have had people advise using L3 on multiday diving.

Hope i've cleared it up a bit.
Simon
 
Interesting post Simon!

I was on a multi-dive, liveaboard experience a few weeks ago in the Bahamas and used L0 the whole time! This was the first time I had really put the computer to the test, although I had made several dives around here. I was really glad I had the quick-disconnect to download my dives to my computer!

I think I might try the L1 setting now, but want some more information on it. I wouldn't mind a little more safety added to the dive, although all my dives have safety in mind anyway!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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