Dive Computer Alarms: should we even have them?

[formernuke]

I’m going to ask the question - why are the alarms even necessary?

Why do bleach containers have warning labels not to drink it. Why did Rob Gronkowski have to do a TV commercial telling kids not to eat tide pods..... some people are just that stupid.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

As far as disabling, my Galileo Sol allows either audio, visual, both, or no alarms, for a variety of different situations. You can pick as you wish. If you want to be absolutely sure, there is a special setting, requiring entry of a code (found in the manual) that will disable all alarms completely. To me this is the ideal way to handle alarms. I set mine to visually alert (I hate audio) when I am within 3 minutes of NDL, or within 4 minutes of gas time remaining, or below my MOD, and also for a too fast ascent rate. These are the key life/safety items where having a back up alert is at worst harmless and at best an extra safety factor if I am "busy" during a dive (ie photographing in the middle of sharks). Everything else is disabled.

The only thing it lacks is a vibrating alert. I would love to have a vibrating alert to get my attention on these critical factors if I ever lapsed enough to need a prompt.

And before I get the "you are a bad diver with no situational awareness" stuff, I have about 2500 dives, with no incidents whatsoever, during 40+ years of diving. The fact that I have never been caught in a bad situation is because I pay attention to my dive, all the time.

But, having a safety back-up is still a good thing, to me.

 

[scubadada]

One of my computers is a 10 1/2 year old Oceanic AI VT3. The audio alarms are shut off, it does not have haptic alarms. The max depth, max dive time, and turn pressure are all off. I get a visual alarm when my dive time remaining is 0. This based on (1) an air time remaining of 0 based on an end pressure of 500 psi (Oceanic ATR of 0 means you have the gas to make your ascent and either safety stop or deco stops), or (2) entering deco, an NDL of 0. My pO2 is set at 1.6, I get a visual warning at 1.4 and the visual alarm at 1.6. There is a visual warning of ascent rate violation. I would also get an alarm for conditional violation, missed deco stop. If I did not satisfy the deco stop I would get a delayed violation and be put into violation gauge mode for 24 hours. I've never seen a conditional violation, delayed violation or VGM

That's it, pretty unobtrusive, and it never bothers anyone else.

Especially when drift diving or tooling around the shallows, I often dive my computer below an ATR of 0, my ascent and safety stop take about 100 psi. About 5% of my dives are light deco. I've been diving an Oceanic computer for 18 years/2000 dives. Like @guyharrisonphoto I've never run out of gas or had an incident, I also pay attention.

My other computer is a Teric, using the same transmitter as my VT3. Audible and haptic alarms are off, silent mode. I get the same visual alarms the rest of you are familiar with.

And...I have a SPG

 

[doctormike]

Yes. That's why I gave my Atomic Cobalt to my son. It beeps a set amount of time upon reaching your safety stop. You cannot disable it. It beeps even longer (maybe continuously, I can't remember) when you go below min gas (?300-400 psi).

So there I am, noodling along a shallow reef in Bonaire, regularly transiting between 30 feet and 18 feet. And the alarm goes off, over and over and over. I can't acknowledge it quickly after one beep. It has to go through its 10 sec of madness.
Then, I'm at the end of my dive, looking up at the boat hull with 120' vis at 15 feet. Lots of pretty stuff around. I've got <400 psi and I want to just dive some more, finishing with 150-200, say, on a no stop dive AFTER my safety stop. But NOOOO, the computer alarms continuously, and everyone is looking, and I'm trying to pretend it's not me. Finally, screw it. I give up. And I end my lovely dive 10 min earlier than I had to. Grrrr!

That's when you send your computer up on a lift bag....

 

[hedonist222]

I have had a few dives completely ruined by alarms.
Really, I was at harmony with the element and then suddenly alarms.

When people ask me about diving and comment it must be amazing to see underwater life and feel weightlessness - I agree and mention that paramount to these two things is the lack of sound pollution.
No honking cars, engines, people's excessively loud phone calls..

So an alarm is a crime.

Are manufacturer's too cheap to replace an audible alarm with a vibration one?
Do they not care about the sanctity of diving?

 

[Centrals]

We all have different ideas or preferences!
Switchable alarm same as most modern electronic equipment.

 

[doctormike]

I have had a few dives completely ruined by alarms.
Really, I was at harmony with the element and then suddenly alarms.

When people ask me about diving and comment it must be amazing to see underwater life and feel weightlessness - I agree and mention that paramount to these two things is the lack of sound pollution.
No honking cars, engines, people's excessively loud phone calls..

So an alarm is a crime.

Are manufacturer's too cheap to replace an audible alarm with a vibration one?
Do they not care about the sanctity of diving?

I spend a lot of time on one of our regular local dive boats during the season, diving the wrecks off the New Jersey shore.

The captain has a submersible speaker hooked up to a phone playing his Spotify playlist. We enjoy our dives listening to classic rock, perfectly clear on the bottom at 100 feet, all the way to the end of the wreck. At one point, the captain announced through the system "Hey, guys, Steve lost a pole spear near the stern. Can someone pick it up for me? Thanks!"

I suspect that you might not enjoy diving with us!

 

[hedonist222]

particularly because I am not very fond of rock..

 

[doctormike]

particularly because I am not very fond of rock..

If you come dive with us, I'll see if he can do classical, jazz, hip-hop, or EDM!