Details on Ginnie recovery 1/23/21

[kammel78]

I have never had a student diving with a NERD where it was not a considerable distraction. It’s hard to see around (no matter what anyone says, it’s just not possible to have that big of a chunk of plastic in your face and lose something in your field of vision), and it provides WAY too much information. Students get stuck staring at the thing instead of focusing on what is going on around them and using more subtle and immediate visual and tactile cues for what is happening around them.

a standard HUD does not have this effect, it’s easy to ignore until your brain notices a dramatic change (Color, intensity or frequency of flashes, etc.)

Agree with Jon, at least for me personally. Maybe it's ADHD but I found myself constantly watching the cells changing along with depth along with TTS and other info, it was just too distracting for me. I wasn't paying enough attention to the rest of the dive. My pO2 shouldn't change that dramatically that I can't periodically check and verify it's where it should be and I know if there's significant delta in depth, then I monitor more closely. And in proper trim, with the Petrel it takes almost no effort to glance at my wrist anyway.

 

[helodriver87]

Agree with Jon, at least for me personally. Maybe it's ADHD but I found myself constantly watching the cells changing along with depth along with TTS and other info, it was just too distracting for me. I wasn't paying enough attention to the rest of the dive. My pO2 shouldn't change that dramatically that I can't periodically check and verify it's where it should be and I know if there's significant delta in depth, then I monitor more closely. And in proper trim, with the Petrel it takes almost no effort to glance at my wrist anyway.

I'll defend the NERD here. It's more obtrusive than a HUD for sure. It's busier. I don't like those things about it. But on a no visual reference ascent, I can keep my left arm ready to vent the suit/wing, right hand on the O2 MAV, and nail ascent checkpoints/maintain PO2 with minimal effort and no repositioning. It's all right there. I also like truly redundant deco info. Is a backup computer going to differ dramatically? Probably not. But better info is still better. And it calibrates for altitude. Which most people don't need to worry about, but is an enormous pain in the ass with a HUD.

 

[stuartv]

because I refuse to support @Shearwater when they are restricting the sale of a vastly superior product to their dealer network. Sure I can go buy one from Fathom, KISS, or Revo, but they should allow it for sale to the general public. If they actually stand to provide the best products in the market, they should have abandoned the fischer cables years ago and shouldn't restrict the purchase of those products. It literally is the only reason I do not currently own any Shearwater products, I can't go buy the product I want because they refuse to sell it to any of their dealers.

To be clear (to everyone else - I know you know this), you CAN buy a NERD2 with Fischer connector and then send it to Dive-tronix and have the cable changed to a 4-pin one. I have done it.

My first rEvo had a Fischer cable already installed in the unit, so I bought a Fischer cable NERD. When I got my second rEvo, it had a Dream, but no Fischer or 4-pin cable. I replaced the Dream with the 4-pin-to-3 molex connector cable and then had Dive-tronix change my NERD cable from Fischer to 4-pin, and that is what I use now. I could have stuck with Fischer. I never had any trouble with mine. But, everyone keeps saying the 4-pin is so much better, so I decided to spend the money and make the change while I was changing over from my old rEvo to my newer one.

of important note to the lack of the HUD on the KISS units. I'm not aware of an analog HUD on the market anymore since Shearwater discontinued theirs. The only way to get any info on your face on those units are the NERDs

Narked@90 has several options.

Search results for: 'hud' | Narked at 90

However for the vast majority, that doesn't work. With my students and in my own personal NERD, it's mounted flush against the barrel of the DSV, so it is down and out of my primary field of view. I can still easily read it by glancing down. During normal diving, you're looking over the barrel of it, and your vision is unobstructed.

I made this video a while ago to help illustrate how I see it on my dives. I paid quite a bit of attention to the details to get the video as close as I could to how I actually see it.

Exactly what Tony said. It took me a while of messing around with the mount, but I eventually got my NERD tweaked so its right down against the body of my BOV and, in my field of view, it looks VERY much like it is shown in his video. There is definitely a small area of my vision that is blocked. But, I don't have to move my head much to see it. Turn a little bit to either side, or look down a little, and I can see whatever was blocked by the NERD. That is preferable (to ME) over having to (for example), take a hand off of what I'm doing (usually, holding my camera) to look at a wrist computer.

When I first got my first rEvo, I was diving with the old Shearwater HUD. Blinking LEDs. Green means the number of blinks is 1/10ths above 1.0. Red means the number of blinks is 1/10ths below 1.0.

To ME, it seems very easy to get used to looking for 3 green blinks and have them "fade into the background" to the point that 4 (or 5 or 6) green blinks might not catch my attention. Expecting my subconscious (for lack of a better word) to register the NUMBER of blinks does not seem like the best approach. On the other hand, if/when my ppO2 goes high (or low) and my sensor displays in my NERD all turn from white on black to RED, it is very attention-grabbing. Also, I can see if just one sensor goes out of range and turns red. That probably does not mean the loop is actually hyperoxic, but it is still a possible indication of a problem. So, it's good to know if that has happened, and I'm not sure the blinky-LED HUD would tell me about that particular situation. Especially if the HUD is only connected to 1 or 2 sensors.

 

[tbone1004]

@stuartv I know you can have them changed, and I know you can buy them direct from Revo, KISS, or N90. The point is that @Shearwater is intentionally holding back the sale of the superior connector for BS reasons per an interview with their marketing manager 2 weeks ago. TLDR, they are refusing to sell a cheaper, more reliable connector to the dealer network because they are concerned that people will try to DIY the install. This is utter BS because they do that with the Fischer cables anyway, and there is no restriction on KISS or Revo to sell them directly, whatever.
I am hoping that the open sale of this connector will coincide with a new revision of the NERD and Petrel which are both likely coming out in the next 12 months. Once I am able to purchase that cable directly from them, AND the NERD has haptic feedback, then I'll buy one that day, but until then, the Divesoft is better for my use case since it has haptic feedback and I am often in 0-viz exits in sidemount passages.