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.