Lars599
Registered
Been diving one since this summer (son of scubapro dealer) - pretty awesome, more functions than you can imagine, but it is pricey.
Anybody diving a Uwatec Galileo SOL?
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I dive with the Galileo Sol every day 
Alberto (aka eDiver)
Alberto (aka eDiver)
A three gas computer will go a long way in tech diving - basically anything at depths shallower than your comfort level on non He mixes. In North FL and Mexican caves for example, the majority of the diving can be done without trimix.
The Terra is in my opinion a better computer for technical diving as I don't know any self respecting tech divers who actually use and rely on air integration.
SP only listed the Terra in US catalogs for about a year, but it still shows up in the UK catalog, so I am unsure if it has been discontinued or is just noit currently bneing sold in the US. Sp downplays the Mk 17 here and does not sell the Mk 19 as it would compete directly with the more expensive Mk 25, and the same is potentially true with the Terra compared to the more expensive Luna and Sol.
Offgassing
Registered
This thread started a couple of years ago. I’ve had mine for a little over a year now. Long story short, I love it and think that it was a great purchase. I’ve done quite a few dives with it and think I can give anyone thinking about this computer some things to think about and hopefully help them with any choice they might have to make.
Cost:
It is expensive. You can pick these up new for around $1,500 US. This puts the cost firmly in the range of Tri-mix computers. This is not a tri-mix computer. There has been talk on the web about a tri-mix software upgrade, but I haven’t seen anything from UWATEC about this yet. I believe the cost is related to the two transmitters, and the receiver(s) in the unit itself for tank pressure and heart rate, and the predictive multi gas function (I’m thinking increased liability = increased price?) For a comparison the UWATEC Terra is the exact same computer minus tank pressure, heart rate and PMG function and you can get this computer at around $600. This is almost a third as cheap. You can add PMG and heart rate functions to the terra later if you want. There is a cost to do this, but I do not know what they are charging for the upgrades. Maybe someone else can weigh in. The new Luna is identical to the Sol, but lacks PMG and heart rate, however those functions are available through upgrade as well. I have no information as to the costs yet, it is a new product and I haven’t found anything at the LDS or online. Cost conscious divers who don’t ever want the air integration could opt for the terra. Divers who want to save some money up front can get the Luna, and two upgrades later will have in every aspect the equivalent of the sol.
Algorithm/bottom times:
The biggest concern I had before purchase was how conservative the algorithm was going to be. For a little background, I was an Orca edge user for many, many years; and for well after the company went belly up. I really enjoyed the aggressive 12-tissue algorithm and corresponding generous bottom times. I also took advantage of the decompression feature as well. This is one reason I held off on nitrox diving; there were no nitrox edges and until relatively recently there were no nitrox decompression meters that I was aware. For a long time, the edge was the only computer that would allow decompression dives. I logged thousands of dives on the edge, including hundreds of serial decompression dives and never had a single incident. I had looked at other computers, especially after orca went away, but every time I dove with one, or dove with a buddy that had one, the algorithms were, in my opinion, needlessly over conservative. I know diving habits and divers are highly individualized and this information may not be important to you, but I thought I would pass it on.
Long story short, I am happy to report that the sol gives reasonably generous bottom times even on air. I’ve got about two hundred dives on it now, and it has given great service. If you want a more conservative algorithm, you can set it to be more conservative. It has six levels, L0 is the most generous and L5 is the most conservative. On L5 you will find this computer to be extremely conservative in bottom times. Customization is one of the most powerful features about this computer.
Size:
Lots of folks think it’s too big. Lots of folks think the large screen is awesome. If you like the large screen it has to be big. I think that it’s big, but it’s not too big. Speaking of screen size, it can be customized somewhat to show light data with big text and numbers, normal or classic data with a good character size/information ratio, and full which has the most information but the smallest character size. I have flipped back and forth between classic and full. Once again I find the ability to choose extremely handy.
Complication:
I have read several evaluations where people say this unit is too complicated and the book is very thick etc. This unit is so customizable and so powerful that complication is a natural by-product. However out of the box on default settings (air) if you read nothing, put it on your wrist and went diving with the intention of doing a no stop dive, it would turn itself on, show you the information you need to know clearly labeled, and most people would not need a book to figure it out. As you advance in diving, you may want to take advantage of more of it’s features. I found the book to be very well done. It is thick because it has lots of pictures. Pictures are good .
Alarms/warnings:
This thing has tons of alarms and warnings that you can set. On almost all the alarms, you can set them to audible only, visual only, both or off. You can set the whole unit to no audible if you want. It is truly customizable. I love it.
Compass:
The compass feature has been mentioned in this thread. To echo previous posts, it is simply the best compass I have ever used while diving. I admit I haven’t used all of them, and I’m not saying that there isn’t a better one out there somewhere. It is almost impervious to tilt, and the bearing function is phenomenal. You can point at a direction you want to travel, hit the bearing marker, and the compass will put a large dot on your desired bearing. Navigating via compass, if you turn away from the bearing, the compass will prompt you to correct to the left or right to get back on your heading. This makes holding a bearing a little easier than a standard compass, and I love the feature. It is really great for setting a bearing from the anchor line and navigating back. It’s great for setting the bearing from the dive boat to the wreck or wreck marker on the surface and heading to it once you are down etc. It does not navigate for you, it does not correct for current drift, and it does not have a GPS or inertial guidance system. It is simply a very solid electronic compass that is almost impervious to tilt and even allows you to correct for declination by inputting it into the compass set up. I was very surprised by this nice feature. I didn’t even consider it when I bought the unit, but now I would find it difficult to give up. I love it when that happens.
Heart rate monitor and air integration:
I wanted to get wireless air integration for one reason: it eliminates the need for an hp hose and analog pressure gauge. That was my only reason. It was a personal preference only; I understand and even agree with people who prefer to have the analog pressure gauge, or to use air integration as a backup. I have only two hoses coming from my reg; one LP hose for my BC inflator/octo, and one for my primary second stage. It is a nice, clean uncluttered set up and I love it. It does add considerable cost to the unit; the sensors are $400 alone from LP. As stated before you can buy a terra for $600, which is essentially a sol without the hose-less air integration. The Sol can be set to give you pressure displays on up to three tanks if you are doing multi-gas diving, and even display the tank pressure on your buddy’s rig, but you need 3 additional sensors. At $400 a pop this is very expensive.
That being said, the Sol uses the air integration for two additional functions. It will calculate and display real bottom time, which is the time you have left at that depth based on your current gas consumption rate, and what it believes you will consume during your ascent including any stops both safety and decompression, to put you back on the boat with your tank reserve. I have my reserve set to 300psi, you can set your own. Once again there is that customization ability. I seldom look at the RBT number; because of the dynamics of gas consumptions at different depths I have found it to have great error on the conservative side. This is not an important feature to me but may be to someone else.
The second function it uses air integration for is to calculate workload. It also has the ability to use the heart rate monitor to calculate workload. The idea is this: if your heart rate or air consumption go up, you are working harder, you are consuming more gas, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, and exposing your tissues to more nitrogen loading etc. There are some really smart people that believe this is an issue, and they have developed additional algorithms to increase conservatism during periods of increased workload. Once again, the Sol’s true power lies in it’s ability to be customized. You can set the unit to increase nitrogen loading in it’s algorithm (decrease no stop bottom times, or increase deco times etc) if it detects increased heart rates over baseline. You can set it to do it in response to increased breathing rates. You can set it to do it in response to the greater workload number (either breathing or heart rate) or you can set it to use the lower workload number (either breathing or heart rate). If you believe that nitrogen loading is only a function of time at depth and % nitrogen; or if you believe that there is enough wiggle room in the present algorithm; you can turn it off completely. Customization is indeed powerful. Right now I have mine turned off, and I don’t wear or use the heart rate monitor.
PMG:
I have found this to be a very powerful function.
The predictive multi gas function allows you to have up to three different air or nitrox mixes programmed into the unit. It is slightly limiting in that it is fixed to have you go down on your bottom mix only (tank 1), and switch to the higher oxygen mixes on ascent or shallower level. The unit suggests switches to the higher Oxygen percentages once you ascend above the MOD for the new gas. You set your own MOD by setting ppo2 from 1 to 1.6bar. You can only set one ppo2 that will apply to all gas mixes. You can’t set ppo2 individually on the separate tanks. It’s not a big deal by any means, but if you could it would allow the user to engineer the switch alerts by manipulating the ppo2 levels on the individual tank and therefore changing the calculated MOD. This unit will use gas one (tank 1) until you ascend from your dive and go above the MOD of gas 2. It will then suggest you switch. Once you confirm the switch, further nitrogen loading calculations will use the gas in tank 2. Once you go above the MOD of gas 3 (tank three or TD) it will again prompt you to switch. If at any time you do not confirm the switch it will use the current gas, not the switch gas, for its calculations. You can switch manually as well. This function has allowed me extended time on multi level dives such as walls and wrecks with big vertical relief. For example the Oriskany is on the bottom at 212ft, the deck is at around 130 ft, and the island is at 75-85ft. Being able to switch gasses and have the computer switch algorithms to correspond is extremely powerful on this kind of dive. Once again, if you don’t do this kind of diving, you can turn this feature off.
Buddy tank feature:
You can set the unit to be paired with the gas pressure sensor on one buddy’s tank, providing s/he has a compatible sensor and you pair it to the buddy tank slot on your sol. If you are within around 5 ft of your buddy’s sensor, you can see his/her pressure. I think for most people they’ll never use this feature. For me it is really nice when I’m diving with my nephew; I can keep track of where he is on his air consumption. Otherwise I usually never use it either. This is the only buddy information you get. One buddy air pressure reading. It will not give you deco information on your buddy even if he has another sol.
Upgradability:
Nice feature. It is great to be able to download the latest software and install it yourself rather than have it sit at your LDS or worse, have it shipped off to the factory. It works really well; I’ve done three upgrades now, the PDIS software, the 1.5 version, and the apnea function software. It did lock up one time during transfer and I thought “oh crap, this is going to be bad”. It wasn’t; I simply removed and replaced the battery, and it fired back up. I then proceeded with a successful upgrade.
Cons:
My unit will occasionally lose it’s connection with the wireless tank pressure sending unit. When this happens, I move my sol closer to the sending unit and it always fixes itself in a minute or so. It’s a regular irritation. It’s not un-nerving or scary, just an irritation. I’ve had feedback from other divers that tell me this never happens to them, so maybe I’ve just got a finicky unit.
No tri-mix support. This unit begs to be set up as a full up tech diving unit. They really should; I fear they will not. Tri-mix is my next stop, and it would be great if I didn’t have to plunk down another 1.5k for a computer.
Bottom line:
It’s a great unit, better than I expected. It has all the bells and whistles of a nitrox computer and then some. I would recommend this as a buy to anyone. Personally if I had to do it all again, or if I was in the market today, I’d by a Terra or perhaps a Luna (once I find out the cost) and upgrade it to support PMG. If you know you are going tri-mix, you may want to go ahead and get a full up tech tri-mix unit.
Sorry this post was so long, I wanted to be as thorough as possible.
-Scott
Cost:
It is expensive. You can pick these up new for around $1,500 US. This puts the cost firmly in the range of Tri-mix computers. This is not a tri-mix computer. There has been talk on the web about a tri-mix software upgrade, but I haven’t seen anything from UWATEC about this yet. I believe the cost is related to the two transmitters, and the receiver(s) in the unit itself for tank pressure and heart rate, and the predictive multi gas function (I’m thinking increased liability = increased price?) For a comparison the UWATEC Terra is the exact same computer minus tank pressure, heart rate and PMG function and you can get this computer at around $600. This is almost a third as cheap. You can add PMG and heart rate functions to the terra later if you want. There is a cost to do this, but I do not know what they are charging for the upgrades. Maybe someone else can weigh in. The new Luna is identical to the Sol, but lacks PMG and heart rate, however those functions are available through upgrade as well. I have no information as to the costs yet, it is a new product and I haven’t found anything at the LDS or online. Cost conscious divers who don’t ever want the air integration could opt for the terra. Divers who want to save some money up front can get the Luna, and two upgrades later will have in every aspect the equivalent of the sol.
Algorithm/bottom times:
The biggest concern I had before purchase was how conservative the algorithm was going to be. For a little background, I was an Orca edge user for many, many years; and for well after the company went belly up. I really enjoyed the aggressive 12-tissue algorithm and corresponding generous bottom times. I also took advantage of the decompression feature as well. This is one reason I held off on nitrox diving; there were no nitrox edges and until relatively recently there were no nitrox decompression meters that I was aware. For a long time, the edge was the only computer that would allow decompression dives. I logged thousands of dives on the edge, including hundreds of serial decompression dives and never had a single incident. I had looked at other computers, especially after orca went away, but every time I dove with one, or dove with a buddy that had one, the algorithms were, in my opinion, needlessly over conservative. I know diving habits and divers are highly individualized and this information may not be important to you, but I thought I would pass it on.
Long story short, I am happy to report that the sol gives reasonably generous bottom times even on air. I’ve got about two hundred dives on it now, and it has given great service. If you want a more conservative algorithm, you can set it to be more conservative. It has six levels, L0 is the most generous and L5 is the most conservative. On L5 you will find this computer to be extremely conservative in bottom times. Customization is one of the most powerful features about this computer.
Size:
Lots of folks think it’s too big. Lots of folks think the large screen is awesome. If you like the large screen it has to be big. I think that it’s big, but it’s not too big. Speaking of screen size, it can be customized somewhat to show light data with big text and numbers, normal or classic data with a good character size/information ratio, and full which has the most information but the smallest character size. I have flipped back and forth between classic and full. Once again I find the ability to choose extremely handy.
Complication:
I have read several evaluations where people say this unit is too complicated and the book is very thick etc. This unit is so customizable and so powerful that complication is a natural by-product. However out of the box on default settings (air) if you read nothing, put it on your wrist and went diving with the intention of doing a no stop dive, it would turn itself on, show you the information you need to know clearly labeled, and most people would not need a book to figure it out. As you advance in diving, you may want to take advantage of more of it’s features. I found the book to be very well done. It is thick because it has lots of pictures. Pictures are good .
Alarms/warnings:
This thing has tons of alarms and warnings that you can set. On almost all the alarms, you can set them to audible only, visual only, both or off. You can set the whole unit to no audible if you want. It is truly customizable. I love it.
Compass:
The compass feature has been mentioned in this thread. To echo previous posts, it is simply the best compass I have ever used while diving. I admit I haven’t used all of them, and I’m not saying that there isn’t a better one out there somewhere. It is almost impervious to tilt, and the bearing function is phenomenal. You can point at a direction you want to travel, hit the bearing marker, and the compass will put a large dot on your desired bearing. Navigating via compass, if you turn away from the bearing, the compass will prompt you to correct to the left or right to get back on your heading. This makes holding a bearing a little easier than a standard compass, and I love the feature. It is really great for setting a bearing from the anchor line and navigating back. It’s great for setting the bearing from the dive boat to the wreck or wreck marker on the surface and heading to it once you are down etc. It does not navigate for you, it does not correct for current drift, and it does not have a GPS or inertial guidance system. It is simply a very solid electronic compass that is almost impervious to tilt and even allows you to correct for declination by inputting it into the compass set up. I was very surprised by this nice feature. I didn’t even consider it when I bought the unit, but now I would find it difficult to give up. I love it when that happens.
Heart rate monitor and air integration:
I wanted to get wireless air integration for one reason: it eliminates the need for an hp hose and analog pressure gauge. That was my only reason. It was a personal preference only; I understand and even agree with people who prefer to have the analog pressure gauge, or to use air integration as a backup. I have only two hoses coming from my reg; one LP hose for my BC inflator/octo, and one for my primary second stage. It is a nice, clean uncluttered set up and I love it. It does add considerable cost to the unit; the sensors are $400 alone from LP. As stated before you can buy a terra for $600, which is essentially a sol without the hose-less air integration. The Sol can be set to give you pressure displays on up to three tanks if you are doing multi-gas diving, and even display the tank pressure on your buddy’s rig, but you need 3 additional sensors. At $400 a pop this is very expensive.
That being said, the Sol uses the air integration for two additional functions. It will calculate and display real bottom time, which is the time you have left at that depth based on your current gas consumption rate, and what it believes you will consume during your ascent including any stops both safety and decompression, to put you back on the boat with your tank reserve. I have my reserve set to 300psi, you can set your own. Once again there is that customization ability. I seldom look at the RBT number; because of the dynamics of gas consumptions at different depths I have found it to have great error on the conservative side. This is not an important feature to me but may be to someone else.
The second function it uses air integration for is to calculate workload. It also has the ability to use the heart rate monitor to calculate workload. The idea is this: if your heart rate or air consumption go up, you are working harder, you are consuming more gas, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, and exposing your tissues to more nitrogen loading etc. There are some really smart people that believe this is an issue, and they have developed additional algorithms to increase conservatism during periods of increased workload. Once again, the Sol’s true power lies in it’s ability to be customized. You can set the unit to increase nitrogen loading in it’s algorithm (decrease no stop bottom times, or increase deco times etc) if it detects increased heart rates over baseline. You can set it to do it in response to increased breathing rates. You can set it to do it in response to the greater workload number (either breathing or heart rate) or you can set it to use the lower workload number (either breathing or heart rate). If you believe that nitrogen loading is only a function of time at depth and % nitrogen; or if you believe that there is enough wiggle room in the present algorithm; you can turn it off completely. Customization is indeed powerful. Right now I have mine turned off, and I don’t wear or use the heart rate monitor.
PMG:
I have found this to be a very powerful function.
The predictive multi gas function allows you to have up to three different air or nitrox mixes programmed into the unit. It is slightly limiting in that it is fixed to have you go down on your bottom mix only (tank 1), and switch to the higher oxygen mixes on ascent or shallower level. The unit suggests switches to the higher Oxygen percentages once you ascend above the MOD for the new gas. You set your own MOD by setting ppo2 from 1 to 1.6bar. You can only set one ppo2 that will apply to all gas mixes. You can’t set ppo2 individually on the separate tanks. It’s not a big deal by any means, but if you could it would allow the user to engineer the switch alerts by manipulating the ppo2 levels on the individual tank and therefore changing the calculated MOD. This unit will use gas one (tank 1) until you ascend from your dive and go above the MOD of gas 2. It will then suggest you switch. Once you confirm the switch, further nitrogen loading calculations will use the gas in tank 2. Once you go above the MOD of gas 3 (tank three or TD) it will again prompt you to switch. If at any time you do not confirm the switch it will use the current gas, not the switch gas, for its calculations. You can switch manually as well. This function has allowed me extended time on multi level dives such as walls and wrecks with big vertical relief. For example the Oriskany is on the bottom at 212ft, the deck is at around 130 ft, and the island is at 75-85ft. Being able to switch gasses and have the computer switch algorithms to correspond is extremely powerful on this kind of dive. Once again, if you don’t do this kind of diving, you can turn this feature off.
Buddy tank feature:
You can set the unit to be paired with the gas pressure sensor on one buddy’s tank, providing s/he has a compatible sensor and you pair it to the buddy tank slot on your sol. If you are within around 5 ft of your buddy’s sensor, you can see his/her pressure. I think for most people they’ll never use this feature. For me it is really nice when I’m diving with my nephew; I can keep track of where he is on his air consumption. Otherwise I usually never use it either. This is the only buddy information you get. One buddy air pressure reading. It will not give you deco information on your buddy even if he has another sol.
Upgradability:
Nice feature. It is great to be able to download the latest software and install it yourself rather than have it sit at your LDS or worse, have it shipped off to the factory. It works really well; I’ve done three upgrades now, the PDIS software, the 1.5 version, and the apnea function software. It did lock up one time during transfer and I thought “oh crap, this is going to be bad”. It wasn’t; I simply removed and replaced the battery, and it fired back up. I then proceeded with a successful upgrade.
Cons:
My unit will occasionally lose it’s connection with the wireless tank pressure sending unit. When this happens, I move my sol closer to the sending unit and it always fixes itself in a minute or so. It’s a regular irritation. It’s not un-nerving or scary, just an irritation. I’ve had feedback from other divers that tell me this never happens to them, so maybe I’ve just got a finicky unit.
No tri-mix support. This unit begs to be set up as a full up tech diving unit. They really should; I fear they will not. Tri-mix is my next stop, and it would be great if I didn’t have to plunk down another 1.5k for a computer.
Bottom line:
It’s a great unit, better than I expected. It has all the bells and whistles of a nitrox computer and then some. I would recommend this as a buy to anyone. Personally if I had to do it all again, or if I was in the market today, I’d by a Terra or perhaps a Luna (once I find out the cost) and upgrade it to support PMG. If you know you are going tri-mix, you may want to go ahead and get a full up tech tri-mix unit.
Sorry this post was so long, I wanted to be as thorough as possible.
-Scott
Last edited:
Great review Scott. I agree completely, and love my Sol as well. Other than cost, I really don't see many downsides to this computer.
(Mine loses wireless signal on occasion... I know others who have never lost signal. I think it varies wildly per unit. It's never bothered me beyond momentary annoyance, because it always comes back after a moment. Plus I have an analog SPG backup.)
(Mine loses wireless signal on occasion... I know others who have never lost signal. I think it varies wildly per unit. It's never bothered me beyond momentary annoyance, because it always comes back after a moment. Plus I have an analog SPG backup.)
Matt S.
Contributor
I continue to be happy with mine as well. I lose the pressure signal for a couple of seconds once in a while, but never once has it really failed and forced me to look at my backup SPG. (Yep, I do still have one. CUE ARGUMENT!!)
The buddy air feature is convenient. I'm perfectly capable of communicating with my buddy, but having the number right there is nice. The buddy signal gets lost quite a bit though, you really have to be in the sweet spot for it to work. (Unlike my own right arm, my buddy may be on my right or left side, or more than arm's reach away.)
I always use the heart rate monitor just because I am a data hound and I like seeing how HR changes with tasks. I switched off the HR and breathing rate inputs into the algorithm, though.
The PDIS feature is a convenient reminder to do a "deep stop" as an additional safety net. Not that I dive that deep--100 is about it, even 80 is a deep day for me. No deco, either. But following the PDIS cue is painless and can't hurt.
The compass is great, I have started to use it more than my SK7.
The Sol is definitely a luxury item, but it's one I really enjoy.
The buddy air feature is convenient. I'm perfectly capable of communicating with my buddy, but having the number right there is nice. The buddy signal gets lost quite a bit though, you really have to be in the sweet spot for it to work. (Unlike my own right arm, my buddy may be on my right or left side, or more than arm's reach away.)
I always use the heart rate monitor just because I am a data hound and I like seeing how HR changes with tasks. I switched off the HR and breathing rate inputs into the algorithm, though.
The PDIS feature is a convenient reminder to do a "deep stop" as an additional safety net. Not that I dive that deep--100 is about it, even 80 is a deep day for me. No deco, either. But following the PDIS cue is painless and can't hurt.
The compass is great, I have started to use it more than my SK7.
The Sol is definitely a luxury item, but it's one I really enjoy.
Guy Alcala
Contributor
Would you ever consider just relying on the computer, or are you like me and always want a non-electronic back-up even if you're normally using an electronic marvel? Personally I'm quite happy with my SK-7/DSS boot, but I've never used any of the computers with digital compasses for real, just played with them in the shop.
That said, I'd rate the Mares ICON HD's compass function as slightly superior to the Galileo's, because instead of giving you a segmented arrow showing roughly how far off course you are, it shows the actual degrees off (this is immediately below your current bearing). And it also gives you a full 180 deg. display, where the Galileo give you about 150 degrees. Either is far superior to Suunto's ca. 135 degree tape display, IMO, and the Oceanic/Aeris are both far too small and (to me) confusing.
Guy
keithdiver
Contributor
Would you say, the Luna is just as good minus the heart rate monitor or not? And the Luna can be used as a tech Computer with the mixes correct?
I've used the digital compass once, to see how it works. Yup. And now, back to my SK7. I don't like having to press buttons to get to a compass. I'd rather glace over and just see.
I like the PDIS deep stops. Sometimes I follow them on purpose, sometimes I follow them by accident, sometimes I ignore them. Works great every which way!
I've never bothered with the heartrate monitor. Never been out of the box. I have enough stuff to strap to my body without adding another thing.
I like the PDIS deep stops. Sometimes I follow them on purpose, sometimes I follow them by accident, sometimes I ignore them. Works great every which way!
I've never bothered with the heartrate monitor. Never been out of the box. I have enough stuff to strap to my body without adding another thing.
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