Air integration for tech dives

[Centrals]

Personal preference and there is NO right or wrong answer.
SPG for me.

 

[Adobo]

Extreme (and Not So Extreme) Multistage Sidemount Cave Diving with AI

Photo courtesy of Natalie Gibb | Under the Jungle. Soft flakes of microbial goo slapped my face as I scootered through them at high speed on my DPV. My exploration partner Vincent Rouquette-Cathala and I were back on our DPVs at our massive exploration project, Pandora, returning from an end of...

www.shearwater.com

I don't have any side mount experience at all so I am a fish out of water on this specific topic. Some comments though

• Less interested in what a manufacturer posts about the topic since they have a financial motivation to push their solution. More interested in real people who do the dives. Their opinions are more interesting to me.
• I was trying to understand how a computer could present the diver the pressure information to a diver in a way that the diver would understand. Apparently in side mount, you can organize the information on the computer such that tanks on the right are on the right side of the computer. The example is with 4 tanks. Not sure what happens with 5 tanks though. Also, spg on stage and deco bottles, its easy to check the pressure. Grab the tank valve and look at the spg. How do you do that when there is no spg on the tank?
• How do they manage on backmount tech configuration?

 

[Adobo]

I'm BM and sticking with the ol' SPG, but few downsides to AI have been mentioned.

The SM people apparently need to be checking pressure more frequently, so I guess they find AI more useful.

This article by Natalie Gibb in Shearwater's blog also makes a case for AI in SM and scootering: Extreme (and Not So Extreme) Multistage Sidemount Cave Diving with AI - Shearwater Research

Edit: @JonG1 beat me to it.

What do you expect shearwater to say? One of our features/selling points is actually fairly useless in tech diving?

 

[Marie13]

I use AI for OC SM both open water and cave. I started AI with a Perdix when I was still a single tank diver with one Perdix and one transmitter. Now, two transmitters. Two Perdix.

 

[Lorenzoid]

What do you expect shearwater to say? One of our features/selling points is actually fairly useless in tech diving?

The article is on Shearwater's blog, but Natalie Gibb is the author.

 

[Adobo]

I use AI for OC SM both open water and cave. I started AI with a Perdix when I was still a single tank diver with one Perdix and one transmitter. Now, two transmitters. Two Perdix.

What's the computer look like when you have something like 5 tanks with you?

 

[Marie13]

What's the computer look like when you have something like 5 tanks with you?

I’m at intro level so only two tanks so far. For my AN/Helitrox class (in progress), all I add is a deco bottle. No transmitter for that. I’m likely going CCR next year, so I doubt I will be doing OC stage cave dives.

 

[Adobo]

Ew.

So I take it the DIR folk are still not into air integration for the garden variety divers, correct?

 

[Marie13]

So I take it the DIR folk are still not into air integration for the garden variety divers, correct?

You’ll probably be forced to wash your mouth out with soap for even suggesting AI for them.

 

[Adobo]

I’m at intro level so only two tanks so far. For my AN/Helitrox class (in progress), all I add is a deco bottle. No transmitter for that. I’m likely going CCR next year, so I doubt I will be doing OC stage cave dives.

Are you full cave?