Darwin VS. $martCom

[jnberke]

I'm a new diver and am weighing the options of dive computer. It's down to the Dacor Darwin and the UWATEC SmartCOM. Of course, the SmartCOM is twice as much (and twice as cool), but is it really necessary.

Can anyone reccomend the Darwin at all? Is it a fairly solid computer?

The two thing that concern me about the SmartCom are the price and the lack of user replaceable batteries. How long do the SmartCom batteries last? Is it rechargeable?

Thanks!

 

[nickjb]

I've never used either so I wont be of much helput: . I was just wondering why you have ruled out Suunto.

 

[Diversauras]

I have a SmartCom and love it, especially the PC interface.

Can't say yet for sure but my previous Uwatec has 4 years and counting on it's battery and it is still at 69% or something.

 

[emeyer36]

I can't be sure, but I am also looking at the SmartCom and I was told by someone I trust that they have extremely long life batteries. Something like 1000 hours of diving time. The person I talked to said usually well over 5 years of very active dive life. I also read that with less than 5% battery life left, you can still get 20 to 50 normal dives out of the battery. So I guess that means if you wanted to chance it you could probably get through a dive trip with the battery showing that low, not that I would ever want to be that close to losing use of my computer on a dive trip.

Since I don't dive year round (I really don't like cold) I would probably send my computer in between seasons, when the battery showed something below 15%. That way when the new season started I would be ready for anything.

emeyer36

 

[JDostal]

The SmartCOM rocks...no doubt about it. Now...I am a little biased, as I've only used Uwatec computers before, but I have used a lot of Uwatec computers so give me a little credit.

I love the display - big, easy to read numbers telling you the important stuff. The thing remembers a lot of dives. It stores 100 hours of COMPLETE dive profile info for you to download to a PC - that's tank pressure throughout the dive, breathing rates, on/off gassing, temperature. It's very nice.

It looks cool. Yeah, so that doesn't increase functionality...but dangit, it just looks shnazzy, and I like it.

The battery, I'm pretty sure, lasts next to forever. I've been diving with it all summer, and so far the battery has gone down about 2 or 3 percent. That's around 40 dives, average dive time around 40 minutes or so.

I know people that have had Uwatecs for 5 years and never changed the battery. It lasts a LONG time.

Hrm...what else. The backlight is nice. Just push the side of the case and it's lit up very nicely.

I like it...and would recommend it to someone that wouldn't mind paying the price tag. If you are inclined to buy on the net, there are some listed on eBay for the buy it now price of around $450.

Oh...the SmartCOM manual also says that even if the battery is down to 2%, it should be enough to last a typical dive vacation - kind of vague...but hey.