Any Oceanic Pro Plus X owner feedback?

[JohnTX]

Hi, I’m new to the board and I haven’t been diving for the last 10 years. As I’m planning to get back into diving again, I’m looking to upgrade my equipment. My eyes aren’t what they use to be 17 years ago when I got certified and I like the large color display of the Pro Plus X. Expensive, yes, but if it makes my recreational diving easier, I don’t mind. Lots of LDS reviews, but does anyone have any actual experience good or bad using the Pro Plus X? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[ATCnelly]

Hi, I’m new to the board and I haven’t been diving for the last 10 years. As I’m planning to get back into diving again, I’m looking to upgrade my equipment. My eyes aren’t what they use to be 17 years ago when I got certified and I like the large color display of the Pro Plus X. Expensive, yes, but if it makes my recreational diving easier, I don’t mind. Lots of LDS reviews, but does anyone have any actual experience good or bad using the Pro Plus X? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Hi John
I own a PPX which I loved until it failed at depth on only its 5th dive. Sent it in for warranty service and it took nearly a month to hear back. I should be getting it back next week (fingers crossed) The computer is very nice other than the compass. I find it quite difficult to set and really get annoyed when it times out.

While the PPX has been in for repair, I have been using an old fashioned mechanical console compass (its like an old friend) and recently purchased a Shearwater Teric. Egads what a difference!!!!! the Shearwater is incredibly easy to use! All I can say is WOW! Had I known, I would not have purchased the PPX. And now Im also worried about the PPX reliability.

For what its worth; Had to study and practice using the PPX extensively before diving it. Spent quite a bit of time learning the interface, menu’s, compass etc. In contrast, I learned the Shearwater within an hour or so playing with it. I would honestly get a Shearwater. Not sure, but I may sell the PPX when I get it back. I simply no longer trust it.

 

[JohnTX]

Hi ATCnelly,
Thank you for the response. I knew about the Teric, but it was a little hard to get back in July/Aug and I also knew that even if I had a hoseless air integrated computer like the Teric, I would still want an SPG attached to my first stage. So I went ahead and bought the PPX. I have 7 dives on it now and no real problems with the PPX. The display is big and bright and while the interface isn't spectacular, show me any other computer that compares to the eloquence of the Teric? That said, I haven't used a Teric so I can't compare the user interfaces but I will admit that the interface on the Teric looks fantastic. The one issue that I have observed is that the PPX software support is absolutely terrible and their Mac and IOS applications simply don't work. I did reach out to the developer of MacDive who is currently working on adding support for the PPX to his app (it's in beta now). I am a software developer myself and I have actually been able to export the PPX logs in raw data format and convert them using another application called Subsurface. It's hardly a seamless integrated solution, but it's a temporary work around until it's supported in MacDive. I only have one more dive trip planned later this year and then it will go into storage until next Spring. I hope I fare better than a few others who have had issues with their PPX within the first few dives. I too will probably buy a Teric next year and relegate my PPX to a backup dive computer so long as it doesn't give me any issues.

 

[ATCnelly]

John,

I finally got my PPX back from Oceanic. They provided no explanation and what I received back looks new and is factory sealed. Not sure what to do now...sell it??

How has your PPX performed? Any issues?

Happy Diving!

 

[JohnTX]

Hi ATCnelly,

I haven't used my PPX beyond my initial 7 dives, but it has performed fine thus far. I'll be using it again in Puerto Vallarta later this year. As I said, my initial complaint wasn't with the PPX itself, it was that Oceanic's own dive software for Mac and iPhone didn't work at all for accessing the PPX dive log data.

A third party application, MacDive for Mac OSX now supports the PPX via USB connection and it's an awesome program for managing my dive log data from the PPX. The iPhone iOS version of MacDive still doesn't support the PPX via Bluetooth, but as long as I load my PPX dive log data via Mac USB, both versions of MacDive for Mac and iPhone stay synced via iCloud. Hopefully MacDive will eventually support the PPX via iOS Bluetooth.

I think I will eventually purchase the Shearwater Teric as a primary and use the PPX as a console and backup dive computer.

I don't know what to tell you as far as selling your PPX. I like my PPX, but I'm sure I would like Teric even more.