Diver Dude:
Does anyone have a XIOS EyeSea Sonar manual?
I just purchased a used unit that didn't have instructions with it.
I did get some initial instruction with the purchase but a manual would be nice as I have some questions. The only thing I could find on the internet was a manual published in French.
Hey Brian.... Yes, mine has the recall mode. In the recall mode, someone at the transmitter can push a button on the transmitter and all the receivers listening to it will suddenly get a message to return. Since nobody ever runs my transmitter except myself, I've never seen the recall mode in actual operation. The problems I've had with the unit are: #1 -- It eats batteries up; #2 -- In shallow water (less than 30 feet) or near shore (especially near bluffs or a rocky bottom) it is inaccurate; #3 -- It's physically in the way during a dive;
Let me elaborate a bit. As for battery usage, the transmitter can go several dives on the same set of AA's. The receiving unit can go one reasonably long dive reliably on a fresh set of batteries -- about an hour. After that, it runs on luck alone. If you try a second dive on the same set of AA's, my unit usually dies during the dive. If you're really lucky, and get thru a 2nd dive, there is no chance at all to make a 3rd dive. So, 4 new double A's have to get dropped into the unit for each dive. Typically I do a 3 dive day, and I dive almost every week -- sometimes twice per week. The cost really mounts up. Rechargeables just don't cut it -- not enough output. So, that's a real limiting factor. Secondly, since I live in the mid-west and therefore most of my diving is in lakes, I often anchor in the most shallow water I am able. So typically the depth under my boat at anchor is about 15 feet. Also, I tend to anchor off islands or shore bluffs, so the bottom drops away rapidly down to as deep as 250 feet. When the transmitter (i.e., sonar unit) is in these circumstances, the beacon sound waves bounce off of the rocks, the bottom, the surface, and maybe even the boat, and gives me bad data on the receiver. Often times the receiver will tell me that I've arrived back at the boat, but when I surface I may be 100 feet or more from the boat. Once in a while it will bring me right back to the the beacon, but that's rare. I dive in water that seldom is clearer than 15 feet of viz -- often times it's only 3 to 4 feet. So, unless it brings me right back to the transmitter, I end up surfacing and facing a substantial surface swim, or have to take a compass reading and submerge again. I often do decompression dives, so when I surface, I don't like to resubmerge, and when I've finished my deco stops I don't like any hard physical activity (like long swims) for fear of the effort causing a nitrogen hit. On the other hand, when I can hang the unit in open water with the bottom at least 50 feet deep, it will work like a charm -- usually. Occasionally it will still be a bit inaccurate on the return -- although the direction is always right on, i.e., it has never led me away from the boat. Lastly, the whole wrist-mount feature is just about useless to me. I usually have a dry suit on, and with the suit being so bulky, the wrist unit won't stay in place. It rolls around, and bumps just about everything I'm near. I also am 57 years old and have trouble focusing my vision up close -- even with magnifyers in my mask. So, with the unit on my wrist, I have trouble at times reading the faceplate. I rolled up the wrist band, and forced some zip-ties under the wrist band posts. Then I lashed these to the back side of my console (computer, SPG, and compass). That made the console understandably heavy and bulky, but I connected that to a heavy duty retractor hooked to my BC, and that whole affair keeps it close to me and out of trouble. I put my console on a long (42") HP hose, so I can get the unit far enough away from my face to read it now.
In the last year or so, the novelty of the unit has worn off for me, so I haven't used it in recent history. I'd love to sell it while it's working, but haven't bothered. When all is working and the unit is 'in the groove' it's like magic -- in water with only arm's length viz, and after an hour's dive (even to 180 feet) it will lead me right back to the boat. When it works like that it's beautiful.
I don't know much about the TX unit -- i.e., the wreck model. I would worry that if you position the beacon close to the bottom or near a big steel hull at depth that the sound waves would bounce off everything and that the receiver would have trouble getting you back with precision to the transmitter. If you only end up within a hundred feet of the surface line on wreck dive and can't find the line to the boat, you could be in a real nasty situation -- especailly if you have manditory deco stops and have a current. When I dive the Atlantic wrecks (especially the NJ coast) I always carry a Jersey Up-Reel, just for those 'can't find anchor line' situations. When I dive my lakes and quarries I carry a 250' dive reel and a 6 foot sausage. In worst case situations I send up the sausage or the bag on the reel or Up-Line, and ascend the line, doing my stops or hangs on it. Trying to do a direct ascent with manditory stops from more than 100 feet in a dry suit is almost suicidal in my opinion -- and in my experience.
I corresponded with another diver in the San Diego area who was using an EyeSea Xios unit. I saw that she bought one on E-Bay, so I contacted her and we kept up (on and off) for a couple of years. She had exactly the same problems that I did, and then finally she wrote and told me that her unit simply stopped working. She sold it back on E-Bay as a non-functioning unit at a great loss. She was the only other diver I have known with one of these units -- she also had the sport version like mine. The sport version has the same receiver as the wreck model, the difference is only the transmitter. Mine can't be suspended deeper than 30 feet, and the wreck version has a bottom limit around 200 feet (as I remember).
Well, let me know how you do. Bring lots of batteries. Don't turn your receiving unit on until you are just about to jump into the water -- or your surface 'on-time' will shorten the life of your batteries during your dive. And always take a good compass reading and depth reading under your boat so that you have an alternative source of navigation on your dive -- if you haven't already, you should take a diving navigation course. Let me kow how you do. Happy diving, and safe diving..... Doc
