gauge with big digits + seconds

[rjack321]

I am in the market for a gauge which as big digits for old eyes, depth, and a stopwatch/seconds function. Nothing more is needed although I understand there may be another bell or whistle in there.
Oh and low cost is good.

So far know of these and their issues...
Uwatec timer - digits smallish, no seconds
Aladin Tech / 2G - digits smallish
Vyper - no seconds
D3 - digits too small

But I see Oceanic has new gauge and there may be others I don't know of.

 

[do it easy]

Don't forget the not so low cost LiquiVision F1

 

[ItsBruce]

I know its not DIR, but my Oceanic Pro Plus has big digits. So, too, does my Timex.

 

[dsteding]

Richard-

Think outside the box: for the price of that F1, you might as well get lasiks.

Let's dive soon, it's been too long.

 

[JasonH20]

Hopefully someone more DIR knowledgable can confirm and/or elaborate on this, but I don't think the seconds are really all that necessary when timing stops? (Assuming that's what you want the seconds for)

My DIRF class got postponed half way through, so we didn't really get into this too much, but I remember the instructor mentioning something along these lines. When timing stops, you don't start counting time after you reach the stop, but when you start from the previous stop. So for example, if doing 1 minute stops at 40, 30, 20, and 10 feet, you would start to the next level as each minute ticked off. You would ascend from 40 to 30 and then wait for the next minute, then ascend to 30 and wait for the next minute, etc, etc. Granted, you might end up at the 40 foot extra long (1:59 worst case), but then everything after that would work out fine.

Does that make sense? FWIW, I have the Vyper, and hope to eventually switch it over permanently to guage mode. Not quite there yet though.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[nadwidny]

Hopefully someone more DIR knowledgable can confirm and/or elaborate on this, but I don't think the seconds are really all that necessary when timing stops? (Assuming that's what you want the seconds for)

My DIRF class got postponed half way through, so we didn't really get into this too much, but I remember the instructor mentioning something along these lines. When timing stops, you don't start counting time after you reach the stop, but when you start from the previous stop. So for example, if doing 1 minute stops at 40, 30, 20, and 10 feet, you would start to the next level as each minute ticked off. You would ascend from 40 to 30 and then wait for the next minute, then ascend to 30 and wait for the next minute, etc, etc. Granted, you might end up at the 40 foot extra long (1:59 worst case), but then everything after that would work out fine.

Does that make sense? FWIW, I have the Vyper, and hope to eventually switch it over permanently to guage mode. Not quite there yet though.

Thanks,
Jason

Firstly, seconds aren't absolutely necessary but for the deeper stuff it's nice to have them. I used to use a Uwatec or a Vyper which do minutes only. For the last couple of years I've used a D3 and I've grown to like the seconds, mostly for helping time the deep stops.

Secondly, I include my ascent time in my stops which is pretty much in line with what your instructor said but, by going by your example, not what you are doing. So usually if I leave a stop at 49, then I leave the next one at 50 and the next one after that at 51. It may not be a big deal with the intermediate stops (70 to 30) to lengthen them out, but we've found that on deeper dives it is a big deal with the deep stops.

 

[TSandM]

Not low cost, but I absolutely LOVE my Vytec. HUGE numbers. Seconds. Total dive time in lower right-hand corner, resettable elapsed timer in the very center in BIG digits. I can read the time numbers even WITHOUT the bifocals in my mask

 

[rjack321]

I'll check the vytec out. I knew there was one I was forgetting.

I agree that the necessity of seconds is marginal, esp on min deco dives. However the resetable nature of a stopwatch is incredibly handy on deco. (This isn't for me, but I'm hoping my wife will grow into it).

E.g. If I reset the stopwatch part at the 70' deco stop on my aladin tec, I now have a total runtime and a time on deco. Very nice to avoid the... Its 52 now, but did we get here at 48 or 50 mins?

 

[wunat]

Yeap, Vytec will probably be what you are looking at. Hope it will work out for you.

 

[cmalinowski]

I like my aladin tec. nice size digits, seconds, resettable stop watch, avg depth.