Perdix Compass--WOW

[triode12]

You might have just saved me around $300. Now if I can just forget the smaller form factor.

It is only a couple of mm shallower on one end. Not worth changing over the Petrel for.

 

[C Dub]

It is only a couple of mm shallower on one end. Not worth changing over the Petrel for.

That might be technically true, but if look at the side with the buttons, the Petrel profile is rectangular, while the Perdix is nearly triangular and almost 1/2 of the area of the Petrel. It seems a LOT smaller in your hand, and on your wrist.

 

[C Dub]

It is only a couple of mm shallower on one end. Not worth changing over the Petrel for.

That might be technically true, but if you look at the side with the buttons, the Petrel profile is rectangular, while the Perdix is nearly triangular and 1/2 of the area of the Petrel. It seems a LOT smaller in your hand, and on your wrist.

 

[stuartv]

As for navigating from the set bearing, Shearwater went even better, by showing how many degrees you are off! No need for mental addition or subtraction. So, turn till it shows you have moved 90, then set for a square course. Turn to 120, set for a triangular course. So easy! If you are navigating to landmarks that require different degree offsets, it is just as easy.

I'm pretty sure the petrel 2's have this feature as well - considering they are running the same firmware. I'm just pointing it out - all shearwater products are awesome ....also I doubt you'll ever see AI. See that other post for more on that lol...


EDIT: Yes they do - I just tested it on mine.

Your Petrel 2 shows the number of degrees you are off from the chosen heading?

I'm pretty sure my Petrel 2 only displays one number on the compass display and it's the current heading, not the number of degrees I'm off from the set heading. But, I don't have mine in front of me to confirm. However I am looking at the SW compass manual pages and they show it working as I just described.

I'm on firmware V29 (while the Perdix appears to be on V33). The SW website shows V29 as being the latest for the Petrel 2.

Looking at the Perdix manual pages for the compass, I can see that it does indeed show the current heading and the number of degrees you're off from the set heading.

Is there a newer firmware (than V29) for the Petrel 2 that you can only access by actually running the SW desktop software and having it do an upgrade?

As an aside, my BT dongle broke, so I can't do anything with my Petrel right now anyway. But I emailed SW to find out how I can get another one on Monday and they have not responded (yes, I checked my spam folder, to be sure).

 

[Macan]

Without the BT dongle, the only constraint is you can't upload your dives to your laptop. You can, however, upload it to your smartphone using Dive Log. The upload to Dive Log app is so seamless and fast, it makes dive logging a breeze.

It would be shame if V33 will not be made available to Petrel 2 owners.

 

[Reku]

I reinstalled my firmware because I was having restart problems and now when I switch to my compass I only have the one heading and it does not show the offby degree number anymore. You might as well disregard what I said above. Seems to have been a fluke. I don't know what firmware I was running before but now I am running v29. Needless to say the feature was awesome so if you want to be guaranteed to have it you might as well pick up a perdix. Lol looks like no one is saving $300 today - oh well it's worth it to keep the company alive and making products.

 

[tcoen]

These recent improvements to the Shearwater compass are only currently available on the Perdix (as of Jan 14, 2016).

We are currently testing v33 firmware for the Petrel 2 that adds these same features. We expect it to be released around the end of January 2016. Petrel 1 will also get v33 at the same time, but the Petrel 1 hardware does not include the compass.

The Perdix and Petrel 2 have an almost identical electronic architecture (same microcontroller) and so will stay in sync with all future firmware upgrades. The upgrades won't always be released at exactly the same time. The Petrel 2 has several more models (external Fischer, rebreather DiveCAN controllers, etc) and so takes longer to test and release.

Petrel 1 will continue to get these firmware updates as well, of course minus the compass and Bluetooth Smart/4.0 features, since the Petrel 1 does not have a compass and is Bluetooth 2.0 only. However, at some point in the future, the Petrel 1 may not get all the new features. The Petrel 1 has a different microcontroller with less memory. Fortunately, the memory is not yet full for the Petrel 1.

Best regards,
Tyler Coen
Shearwater Research

 

[stuartv]

I emailed SW again today via the form on the Contact Us page. I heard back promptly, they found my email from Monday, apologized that it slipped through the cracks, and they are sending me a new BT dongle. Awesome! I guess I should get it just about in time to be able to then upgrade to the V33 firmware when it is released.

 

[Macan]

These recent improvements to the Shearwater compass are only currently available on the Perdix (as of Jan 14, 2016).

We are currently testing v33 firmware for the Petrel 2 that adds these same features. We expect it to be released around the end of January 2016. Petrel 1 will also get v33 at the same time, but the Petrel 1 hardware does not include the compass.

The Perdix and Petrel 2 have an almost identical electronic architecture (same microcontroller) and so will stay in sync with all future firmware upgrades. The upgrades won't always be released at exactly the same time. The Petrel 2 has several more models (external Fischer, rebreather DiveCAN controllers, etc) and so takes longer to test and release.

Petrel 1 will continue to get these firmware updates as well, of course minus the compass and Bluetooth Smart/4.0 features, since the Petrel 1 does not have a compass and is Bluetooth 2.0 only. However, at some point in the future, the Petrel 1 may not get all the new features. The Petrel 1 has a different microcontroller with less memory. Fortunately, the memory is not yet full for the Petrel 1.

Best regards,
Tyler Coen
Shearwater Research

This is just another example on why SW is on top. The promptness, clarity and level of transparency to customers is just awesome. Suunto's corporate seniors should take cue from SW. But they're probably too busy attending to more important matters.

 

[Reku]

These recent improvements to the Shearwater compass are only currently available on the Perdix (as of Jan 14, 2016).

We are currently testing v33 firmware for the Petrel 2 that adds these same features. We expect it to be released around the end of January 2016. Petrel 1 will also get v33 at the same time, but the Petrel 1 hardware does not include the compass.

The Perdix and Petrel 2 have an almost identical electronic architecture (same microcontroller) and so will stay in sync with all future firmware upgrades. The upgrades won't always be released at exactly the same time. The Petrel 2 has several more models (external Fischer, rebreather DiveCAN controllers, etc) and so takes longer to test and release.

Petrel 1 will continue to get these firmware updates as well, of course minus the compass and Bluetooth Smart/4.0 features, since the Petrel 1 does not have a compass and is Bluetooth 2.0 only. However, at some point in the future, the Petrel 1 may not get all the new features. The Petrel 1 has a different microcontroller with less memory. Fortunately, the memory is not yet full for the Petrel 1.

Best regards,
Tyler Coen
Shearwater Research

Straight from the horses mouth - this is good news.