i450T review

[Anthony Sera]

Ciao Lenny. I did the same. Have an AL 550 and a i450t. The i450t works great as an air integrated watch dive computer. But the DiverLog software is a dog! You'll need to probably stay with a manual logbook. I tried to just use an electronic logbook with DiverLog but no deal. The software does not work with a Mac. Might be better on a Windows computer. I would recommend you do a test with your computer and a i450t from the dive shop before you commit. If you are interested in the download and electronic log book function.

Also, a certain number of the i450t will have problems with battery life. But the warranty should cover the repair or replacement. My original i450t would use up a battery in less than one month. Just ensure your warranty info is up to date. Really a lot of problems with the i450t. Might be useful to look into something else.

 

[DawgFan]

An update from beautiful Malta! Doing to some great wreck diving here. Regarding my AL i450t battery life post. Once AL replaced the guts of the computer, the battery is holding up fine, now problems with dive synch with the DiverLog program on a Mac. Seems the free Light version worked OK, bought the paid version and now at a roadblock. It just does not work. Connecting the watch after a dive it is not functional. Might synch to about 85% but then freezes up and times out before a complete data upload. Had this problem after dives in Hawaii, and I tried about 10 uploads. Computer restarts, Diver Log program restarts. Connecting and re-connecting the watch. But it it finally worked. Now in Malta, it seems either the watch or the Diver Log software is a lemon. Anybody know a good dive watch that actually communicates with a good dive log software program? About to pitch my AL i450t in the trash and start over. (For techies who may know, I'm on a Mac Book Air, running Diver Log on Mac High Sierra software).

I have an i450T. I read a lot of bad reviews about Diver Log so I never tried it. I use Subsurface and I've been happy with it. I have a windows machine but Subsurface works with Mac and Linux as well.

 

[Anthony Sera]

I love my i450T.

My impressions thus far:

• For software, I switched to Subsurface which has the correct driver to grab dives via USB. Much better features than the Aqualung software and it's free. With the gas integration, subsurface can plot your instantaneous SAC rate over the entire dive which I've found to be really interesting.
• I'm pushing 70 dives on mine - batteries still full on both the transmitter and watch
• No AI drop-out issues
• Agree the compass is a bit hard to use and warrants surface practice. I bring an analog compass if I expect a dive will require extensive navigation
• Love that all of the Aqualung i-series computers use the same algorithm. My 'buddy' loaner computer is an i300 and it's nice knowing my buddy is on the same algorithm. Times always track very close. I also use my i300 as a backup computer when solo diving.
• I dove a Suunto Zoop against the i300 for 5 sets of 2-tank nitrox dives. Dive 1 the two computers would be within a couple minutes. Dive 2 after a ~1 hour surface interval the Zoop would consistently give 11 - 12 minutes less NDL. I think PZ+ is a good middle-road algorithm for recreational diving.
• Did a 3 day to the Flower Gardens with 5 dives a day and never had any issues with unreasonable bottom times for the depths encountered.
• pO2 likes to start to alarm about 0.2 before the set point. I've taken to setting mine at 1.5 or 1.6 so that I don't get alarms when diving EAN32 in the 90' range.

Only con, I wish the light had an option to run longer during night dives or had a mode to keep the face illuminated until you pressed the light button again.

Many thanks for the note about using Subsurface. It works. Diverlog is not with my Mac with the High Sierra operating system. Really makes it better. Cheers.

 

[Anthony Sera]

I have an i450T. I read a lot of bad reviews about Diver Log so I never tried it. I use Subsurface and I've been happy with it. I have a windows machine but Subsurface works with Mac and Linux as well.

Many thanks, Just downloaded Subsurface and it works well so far.

 

[gassed]

I have had much better results with the lite version on my Mac. Still weak but at least reliable for backup data.

 

[ijdod]

the console when gearing up and down. But my wife and I got over it. The new Two hose system is just wonderful. Speaking of hoses, I lost my LP reg hose on my third dive. Slow leak turned to big leak. No serious safety issues.Got me thinking, if a transmitter dies mid dive, you end the dive. If a hp hose lets go, you hope to surface safely. Less hoses, less connections, less risk?

Technically yes, less hoses means less risk. However, some (most?) brands have a flow restriction in the HP port, which severly limits the flow. It will look quite spectacular, but will not actually drain your tank that fast. Unlike a LP hose, which will empty your tank very very quickly indeed.

Scubatoys did a funny movie a decade back, in potatoe quality:

 

[Alexx007]

Hey guys, looking to buy the i450 now, but trying to find info on whether you can check your dive profiles on the actual dive computer? I know you can download it to your computer but can you see it on the dive computer itself?

 

[JackD342]

Quick note on battery life-
Previous posts sound like there was a true quality issue, but do check for firmware updates too. Latest version 1C06 dated May 2018 says power management was one of the updates. These updates can often fix annoying quirks they find in the software. Initially there was a time drift issue in the i550, and it was easily fixed with an update. I have learned to check software versions before a unit leaves the store.

 

[DawgFan]

Hey guys, looking to buy the i450 now, but trying to find info on whether you can check your dive profiles on the actual dive computer? I know you can download it to your computer but can you see it on the dive computer itself?

You can get some information from the wrist dive computer but not everything. If you google i450T owner's manual, you can find download a PDF of the manual from the Aqualung website. Page 29 of the manual shows you the screenshots of the log information that's available on the dive computer. There's 4 screens of data to scroll through. Information like date of the dive, time of day, max depth, dive time, PSI start and end (if you have transmitter), water temp, etc.

One thing you'll see is that a graph of the actual dive from the sampling data is not available on the wrist computer. You have to download it to get that data.

 

[BuckyP5]

Hi all, I'm a new member on ScubaBoard. So sad that my first post is about battery issues on my i450T.

I'd love to get some advice from you all.... I bought my i450T in early April of 2018, so far my level of usage and problems have been:

1. Two dives in NorCal cold water in early June '18, then battery died. Took it to the shop I bought from and they said they replaced the circuit board for me.
2. 6 dives in warm water PDC/Cozumel/cenotes in mid July '18, then battery died again. This time the shop said it's perhaps a bad battery, replaced it and gave it back to me.
3. Just this past Christmas, did two cold water dives in SoCal. It says low battery again. I have yet to contact the shop.

Between these dives the computer is basically just sitting in the box. Based on such low usage, I'm convinced that my i450T definitely has problems and the shop should replace it for me. But last two times I believe the shop didn't contact AquaLung and just performed fixes in the shop. Do you guys think that my i450T is a lemon? And if so should I ask the shop to deal with AquaLung to get a replacement for me? I'm feeling rather anxious and would appreciate any advice from you all, thanks so much.