Oceanic Datamax Pro Plus Way Too Conservative

[tursiops]

Clint, run a Plan for us at several depths and let's get some NDL data to talk about instead of vague memories and comparisons.

 

[scubadada]

Clint, the Pro Plus runs only DSAT, the second most liberal commercial deco algorithm after Cochran. It is old, a faulty altitude sensor has already been suggested to you. Go into the dive planner and compare the NDLs to those in the back of the manual. If the times are shorter than the manual, the sensor is probably bad. Oceanic might give you a deal on an upgrade or at least you can do the trade in deal. You do not seem very knowledgeable with regard to your computer. Good luck

 

[eelnoraa]

I have had two Oceanic competers. I dont' think they are overly conservative. On deeper dive, say 80ft-100ft bottom, they are definitely not conservative. In fact, I think they match the padi table pretty well using average depth instead of max depth. This to me is liberal. On shallow dives, say max depth < 60ft (average depth ~40ft), they are more conservative than padi table. Being conservative is not necessary a bad thing to.

If you think Oceanic is conservative, don't go to Sunnto. You will regret it.

 

[BRT]

That was tongue in cheek.

My wife has a Suunto Vyper. She likes it except the conservative part. We are doing some "non-approved, completely unsanctioned, potentially dangerous" tweaking to see if we can deal with that.....safely, if you can deal with that dichotomy.

OLD Oceanic computers may have been conservative. I think a lot of the newer ones are not. Not an Oceanic owner so can't comment with any authority.

I've dove old Oceanics since 1990 and they are liberal! Now diving Veo 250's and they appear to be exactly the same. I don't remember ever hearing an Oceanic described as conservative.

 

[scubadada]

Hi Clint, you should also run through the setup and make sure the conservative setting is not on

 

[tursiops]

Hi Clint, you should also run through the setup and make sure the conservative setting is not on

I don't think there is a conservatism setting on that computer.

 

[Coztick]

All air and my computer is set for air.

I'm guessing this is your limiting factor.
Get yourself a nitrox card and enjoy longer NDL 's...

 

[scubadada]

I don't think there is a conservatism setting on that computer.

You are correct, I owned Pro Pluses and Pro Plus 2s, only the latter had a conservative factor.

Here is the NDL table out of the Pro Plus manual for @cleung to use to check his NDLs using the dive planner. This is from 2002, DSAT has not changed, the USN table was modestly revised in 2008.

 

[DustyC]

I've dove old Oceanics since 1990 and they are liberal! Now diving Veo 250's and they appear to be exactly the same. I don't remember ever hearing an Oceanic described as conservative.

my first computer was a veo 1, I've never thought it was any more conservative than my Luna.

 

[cleung]

Okay, I put in the battery back into my computer and I've been home from my trip for a couple of days. I reread the manual and went through the entire setup again just to see if there were any changes due to me taking out the battery for flights (I still do this in case the airport security folks make me turn it on just to prove it's not dangerous - then once it's been turned on, it will beep during flight).

So on with the setup and everything looks normal. I especially checked if it was still set to air or a nitrox setting and it is indeed still set to air as the default.

Then I went into the part called Pre Dive Planning Sequence where it displays a bunch of depths and dive times. I'm assuming that this was the main thing you all wanted me to check on. Here is the results;

30 feet = 2:28 (hr/min)
40 feet = 1:16
50 feet = :48
60 feet = :33
70 feet = :24
80 feet = :18
90 feet = :13
100 feet = :10
110 feet = :08

There were more figures going all the way to 160 feet but I did not bother to record these. I also went into the dive log to pull out whatever data was useful for possible analysis. I did four days of diving down in Baja (terrific diving by the way) and this was what I got;

Day 1 Dive 1

85 feet max depth, 57 minutes dive, Tissue Loading Bar Graph (TLBG) left at green zone (no deco)

Dive 2 after 1:44 surface interval

48 feet max depth, 1:06 dive, green zone


Day 2 Dive 1

55 feet max depth, 1:20 dive, green zone

Dive 2 after 1:39 surface interval

71 feet max depth, 52 min dive, YELLOW zone TLBG (caution zone)


Day 3 Dive 1

62 feet max depth, 55 min dive, green zone

Dive 2 after 2:04 surface interval

69 feet max depth, 1:18 dive, green zone


Day 4 Dive 1

59 feet max depth, 44 min dive, green zone

Dive 2 after 44 in surface interval

64 feet max depth, 46 min dive, YELLOW zone

I cannot exactly recall which dive my computer locked out and went into red zone for awhile but it might have been Day 2, Dive 2 which ended up in yellow zone. I know for sure that in Day 4, which was in a different location with a different scuba operator, I did not get a lockout but the end of the second dive did venture into the yellow zone. I showed this to the divemaster/instructor and he said with the two dives we did at average 60 feet max, the computer should have stayed in the no deco zone the entire time.

So that's all the data I pulled out of my Oceanic Datamax Pro Plus computer. If the table at the back of the manual on one of the previous posts is suppose to look like the figures I pulled from my Pre Dive Planning Sequence, then something is off. By the way, I think the computer is also high when it reads water temperatures. It read temps in 84 to 86 degrees F for all my dives in Baja last week.

Any thoughts?