Another Shearwater question.

[Manatee Diver]

And that's why I prefer my method to "remembering to check my DC the night before a dive, every day that I'm going to dive in the future, forever, no matter what I'm doing the night before, and charging it for 2 hours if it's below 50%". Hey, sometimes you get asked to go diving at the last minute, and you didn't plan to dive the night before. And not everyone here is a rebreather diver, so maybe they aren't quite that regimented about their diving.

In that case you can charge it on the drive to the dive site, 30 minutes of charge is enough for a day of diving.

I mean, I really don't understand the pushback to this simple concept. I'm not telling anyone not to use DCs with sealed, rechargeable batteries. I'm just saying why don't prefer them....But if people prefer carrying solar chargers, that's fine too...

And we are pointing out that a lot of your issues are easy to deal with or plan around. And the solar charging is for the dude that brought up the idea of non having power, like on some remote island. I was pointing out that there are cheap easy ways to plan around that. Though for me my dive computers would be a much smaller concern, the logistics of keeping everything else I need charged would be much more difficult than the tiny few hundred ma battery in my Terics.

 

[doctormike]

And we are pointing out that a lot of your issues are easy to deal with or plan around.

I'm not sure if you think that I am saying that there is no way to dive with a DC that has a sealed, rechargeable battery. I promise you, I'm not.

There is pretty much no problem in diving that can't be dealt with or planned around. That doesn't mean that it's not worth discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.

 

[Manatee Diver]

That doesn't mean that it's not worth discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.

Which is what I thought we were having? The only time I would see me having a dead dive computer is if I skip basic checks of the status a day or two before, and during gear setup the day of. While IME most Perdix/Petrel divers seem to instead rely on the fact that they can change the battery in moments and often skip checking on their battery status as proactively as rechargeable computer divers.

 

[doctormike]

Which is what I thought we were having? The only time I would see me having a dead dive computer is if I skip basic checks of the status a day or two before, and during gear setup the day of. While IME most Perdix/Petrel divers seem to instead rely on the fact that they can change the battery in moments and often skip checking on their battery status as proactively as rechargeable computer divers.

Right, exactly. Makes sense!

 

[davehicks]

I’m wondering if anyone has any insight on how often the computers see major updates. It seems like 6-12 months after a new computer comes out the AI version hits. I’m very interested in the perdix but for me I would like a computer with the internally rechargeable battery like the teric or peregrine. It would seem like that’s the way the industry and shearwater are moving and for me and how and where I dive there are more positives than negatives. But how long until we see a major update on these ?

There was a significant firmware update to the full line of Shearwater computers about two weeks ago, to Version 83. SW is great about updates. My original Predator from 2009 was getting updates for many years after they discontinued that particular model.

 

[Mike1967]

firmware

He's not talking firmware, he want a Perdix with a built in rechargeable battery.

 

[rjack321]

So the original question was about how often does shearwater update or release new models.

They have come out with "new" hardware maybe once a year for awhile now. Petrel, Petrel 2, NERD, Teric, Peregrine. That's the last ~6 years of hardware releases. That may taper off now or there may only be products or updates that are irrelevant for you. The Canbus options for instance, are not relevant for OC divers

 

[Mike1967]

+ Perdix

 

[doctormike]

He's not talking firmware, he want a Perdix with a built in rechargeable battery.

Exactly. And I doubt that Shearwater would do that. Basically, they would be banking a lot of R&D money on the fact that there are people out there who like the Perdix but are really worried about the battery compartment flooding and are willing to make the tradeoff of losing the ability to throw in a fresh AA on the fly.

I guess that could happen, but it doesn't seem to be a common complaint - Shearwater does hardware pretty well...

 

[KenGordon]

Exactly. And I doubt that Shearwater would do that. Basically, they would be banking a lot of R&D money on the fact that there are people out there who like the Perdix but are really worried about the battery compartment flooding and are willing to make the tradeoff of losing the ability to throw in a fresh AA on the fly.

I guess that could happen, but it doesn't seem to be a common complaint - Shearwater does hardware pretty well...

I disagree, really a Peregrine is capable of doing what a Perdix does and just limited for market segment reasons. They could do a CCR and trimix one in days, it would require a build and some testing. AI would, I guess, require extra hardware. They might have an issue there with taking sales from their higher priced units, while those still sell well I would not expect AI at a much lower price point. Someone will be having a good play with a spreadsheet I think.