Hollis tx1 computer

[ddmattos]

Would you take the petral in a tropical warm water non deco dive? I almost would feel it is too much computer?

Absolutely! There is really no such thing as too much computer. You want to keep you gear consistent. Unless your set on AI, you can't beat a petrel with it's price point courtesy of the strong US dollar.

Run it in OC Rec mode to keep you out of trouble. As you learn about GF's switch to OC Tech.

The OC Rec mode gives clear instruction with a color tissue loading bar just like other Rec computers.

Check out this video. It the first Shearwater video explaining OC Recreational Mode.

 

[victorzamora]

I dive my Petrel exclusively. I have another computer as a backup for cave and tech dives, but that's only until I can get another Petrel

 

[Octopusprime]

How many of you with the petrel dive it with a transmitter on each tank/stage bottle and if so on twins do you do one or two in case of shutting down one?

 

[tbone1004]

petrel doesn't have AI and according to Shearwater never will.

I have yet to see someone sidemounting with AI, not to say it can't be done there are plenty of computers that handle multiple transmitters, but the transmitters are VERY large and because of that not particularly conducive to sidemount. You can't run them down with the 1st stage flat because there isn't room so you now have to cock it sideways, and then you are restricted to SPG's run lollipop style which means the first stage is down and the transmitter is fully exposed, especially in cave diving, or you run the transmitter up, and then you still have to run the first stages down and the SPG's sag, so no Razor style hose routing. If you ran the 1st stage up with SPG's down then the transmitter would likely break either from use or you breaking it because it would be digging into your armpit.

Don't see them often in doubles, though I have seen them, but never on stage bottles for the reason mentioned above, and on deco bottles it's pointless. On doubles putting it on both would be dumb because once you shut a post off the dive is over and you're coming out so it doesn't actually matter how much gas you have left, you either have enough to get out, or you don't, and you need an analog SPG on there which takes up the left post.

In the wonderful words of Chris Richardson, AI is an equipment solution to a skills problem. Though realistically it's a marketing solution to a nonexistent problem. In technical diving reading your air on the computer really doesn't give you anything because you should be able to roughly calculate your gas time remaining based on known SAC rates and current depth, hell I did it a few times this past weekend while we were quite a ways back in a cave, the other issue is how the computers would handle dropping bottles off where they would go out of range and then come back, so that is another issue to contend with.

 

[Lorenzoid]

How many of you with the petrel dive it with a transmitter on each tank/stage bottle and if so on twins do you do one or two in case of shutting down one?

My take on the Petrel is that it's a bare-bones computer, and the money you pay for it goes into making sure each bone works just as it should. Nothing more. No air-integration (AI), for example. As the old engineering adage goes, parts left off a device don't cause trouble.

 

[tomfcrist]

My take on the Petrel is that it's a bare-bones computer, and the money you pay for it goes into making sure each bone works just as it should. Nothing more. No air-integration (AI), for example. As the old engineering adage goes, parts left off a device don't cause trouble.

I would disagree that it is a "bare bones" computer.... I would classify it as a top of the line computer, with a midrange price and no AI.

 

[tbone1004]

if you look at it, it is actually pretty bare bones. Depth sensor, temp sensor, bluetooth module, and the new ones have a digital compass unit, and that's about it. Two piezo buttons, and some kick ass software. Far cry from 3 or 4 push buttons with temp+depth sensor, plus water contacts. No gimmicks on it, nothing you don't need, it is about as bare bones as you can get.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I would disagree that it is a "bare bones" computer.... I would classify it as a top of the line computer, with a midrange price and no AI.

Shearwater's motto is: "Powerful. Simple. Reliable."

On one of their website videos, they explain what they mean by that. Admittedly, my use of the term "bare-bones" does not do the Petrel justice, but it's one way I might quickly distill "Powerful. Simple. Reliable."

 

[victorzamora]

Though realistically it's a marketing solution to a nonexistent problem

Bingo.

---------- Post added February 10th, 2015 at 11:39 AM ----------

Shearwater's motto is: "Powerful. Simple. Reliable."

On one of their website videos, they explain what they mean by that. Admittedly, my use of the term "bare-bones" does not do the Petrel justice, but it's one way I might quickly distill "Powerful. Simple. Reliable."

"Perfection is achieved not when nothing else can be added, but when nothing else can be stripped away."

The Shearwater team clearly took that one to heart.

 

[Hatul]

The Petrel tissue loading bar graph does a drastically different job than on recreational computers. On rec computers, they don't quite translate to anything mathematically other than consumed portions of NDLs and the graphs don't change with depth.

I don't agree with this. Maybe you're referring to the Suunto Vyper in air mode. Other computers I've had like the Oceanic Prodigy and my current Galileo do show the controlling tissue loading graph. One hint is the graph during the surface interval tracking tissue unloading.