Air integrated or no?

[bradlw]

I'm talking wrist mount not console....so wireless.
And at my age I seriously doubt if I'll ever get back into trimix diving.... so recreational Nitrox....+ MAYBE just a little light technical deco diving but that's unlikely too....

So I posted a different thread about my old dead battery Aladin Pro Nitrox.
I'll still plan on giving the battery change a try.....
but still daydreaming that IF any of my family takes to diving and I therefore get active again, I very well will probably splurge on something more modern. Looks like the bigger displays of some of the newer ones might be easier to see and I'm guessing that the user interfaces of many are more intuitive too.

I've never really considered air integrated before. Back in the day they were outside of my budget + even though I have always been a "gadget" guy it seemed like necessary and too complicated stuff...more failure prone for no real advantage, especially the wireless wrist mounted ones

But now I'm wondering...what real advantages do you see with diving your air integrated computer.
Much easier and obvious display of your SAC/RMV rate...which I suppose is a little interesting knowledge for future planning...but not really necessary.
What else?

and how reliable are they? Are they sometimes a hassle to get the sensor to sync up when on the boat scrambling to gear up before the dive?

Do most folks still also rig a SPG as a backup?

 

[Marie13]

The tech diving community poo-pooed AI until Shearwater came out with the Perdix AI in 2016. That changed their attitude big time. The reliability of the Shearwater computers and associated transmitters is great. It is not uncommon for cave divers to use transmitters only for long dives. I use transmitters only for sidemount (2 transmitters) and have done 90 min cave dives without issue. I don’t use SPGs. I also use transmitters with my new rebreather. No SPG at all for this configuration.

I always get a good chuckle out of recreational dives fretting over AI reliability when tech divers are using them for long dives without issue.

I will only dive Shearwater. No clue about Suunto.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

how reliable are they? Are they sometimes a hassle to get the sensor to sync up when on the boat scrambling to gear up before the dive?

Do most folks still also rig a SPG as a backup?

Today’s transmitters are incredibly reliable. As long as you make sure the battery doesn’t die in them, I’ve never had a single issue. Change the battery in them regularly, and I find that they are rocksolid.

I have not had a single issue getting the transmitter to sync to my Shearwater computer. I change the transmitter numbers regularly because I have different reg sets with different transmitters, I’ve never had a syncing issue.

I used to have an SPG as a back up and dove that way for the first several years since moving to AI. Given how incredibly reliable AI has been for me, I have since dropped the SPG and have had zero issues since.

 

[CuzzA]

more failure prone

I doubt this. Plus an SPG can fail in a way that could lead a diver to believe they have more gas than they actually do. A WAIG failure simply stops transmitting data. A sure sign you no longer have gas monitoring.

Advantage is one less hose, more accurate gas reading and data logging.

Old SPG sits in the spare gear box on the boat.

 

[lexvil]

AI is great, I’ve had one transmitter fail, an SP, never an issue with the PPS type, I keep the SPG in the car.

 

[Cheizz]

I love AI. I have never had any issues connecting transmitters to computers (Suunto, Ratio). I am getting rid of my SPG in the near future. So, one less hose to manage, maintain, drag around.

One other advantage: AI on a wrist-mounted computer allows you to glance at your air supply much more often than on a SPG on your left hip somewhere. It saves handling and makes you more aware of your air supply/consumption.

 

[bradlw]

great!
so any other advantages or benefits of AI?
- quick glance awareness on wrist
- RMV data
- eliminated HP hose
- anything else? other interesting data or usefulness from having the digital/electronic pressure data

 

[Hoag]

I had one of the early wireless AI computers and connectivity was lets just say sporadic at best, and I went back to a hosed system (Oceanic ProPlus series) after a single trip. That was several years ago and things have changed (a lot)!

I just did a dive trip in late Nov/early Dec to Cayman Brac. I had traded in my console mounted AI computers for a PERDIX AI (that I wore on my left wrist) and a Teric (that I wore on my right wrist). My transmitter was attached to a 6inch hose on a High Pressure port on the right side of my 1st stage. My Teric (on the same side as my transmitter) never lost contact with the transmitter. My PERDIX AI, on the other side lost connectivity a couple times, but the drop outs were brief and connectivity was restored after a few seconds.

IMHO, that tells me that as long as you have your transmitter and your computer on the same side, you should have no problems. If you have them on opposite sides, you might lose connectivity once in a while, but it will likely be easily and quickly restored. I also think that fresh batteries are your friend and their cost at home will be insignificant compared to the cost of the trip (ie there is no reason not to put in fresh batteries before you go on a trip).

 

[Cheizz]

Air consumption is tracked throughout the dive on most computer logs. For learning/analysis purposes this is quite nice.

 

[Hoag]

@bradlw, you ask about any advantages to AI. IMHO (and I expect that some will disagree) I like that with an AI computer, it will typically do the number crunching for both NDL and Dive Time Remaining (based on your air consumption at your current depth). This will give you near real time feedback on whether you need to go a little shallower or take other steps to increase your dive time (or conversely, it will give you feedback that your consumption is OK for a given dive). Personally, I found this little nugget of information very useful, but others might not.

Edited to add:
The other advantage to your dive computer calculating both NDL and Dive Time Remaining is that at any given moment in the dive, you will know which of the two is your Limiting Factor or "LIMFAC".