Is this true?

[tarponchik]

...firing a powerful underwater flash can break the radio connection between a dive computer and a separate pressure sensor. It can, concerningly, cause the dive computer to crash.

Has anyone experienced something like this?

 

[runsongas]

article gone already, probably didn't like the comments calling out the author for being clueless

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

I can’t say that I’ve heard of that one. Clipped below is the entire section you were quoting from.

An underwater photographer next to you
There are dive computers that measure the pressure in a diver’s air tank and include this in their calculations. There are two ways to transmit that pressure to the dive computer. Either the computer is built into a console that is connected to the tank via a hose, or there is a pressure sensor attached to the tank that transmits the pressure to the computer via a radio signal. Using a separate sensor is considered a far superior solution. Consoles attached to hoses tend to dangle from a diver. There is a reason that these are called reef anchors. But, firing a powerful underwater flash can break the radio connection between a dive computer and a separate pressure sensor. It can, concerningly, cause the dive computer to crash.

They’re just advocating for people to run out and spend thousands on a high end mechanical dive watch. Want a reliable backup time keeper/safety stop timer? Go get a Citizen EcoDrive for x < $200.

 

[tarponchik]

I can’t say that I’ve heard of that one. Clipped below is the entire section you were quoting from.



They’re just advocating for people to run out and spend thousands on a high end mechanical dive watch. Want a reliable backup time keeper/safety stop timer? Go get a Citizen EcoDrive for x < $200.

I'll stick to my Timex but now I am concerned that taking pictures next to other divers may cause troubles for some of them.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I've never experienced an issue and I've been next to photographers with powerful strobes plenty of times. Feels like another marketing misrepresentation.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

I'll stick to my Timex but now I am concerned that taking pictures next to other divers may cause troubles for some of them.

Given the overall angle of that piece and the fact that it now appears to be taken down...my guess is that the author made it up.

 

[arew+4]

The article reads like an ad for watches, could a discharging/ recharging capacitor release some RF noise, sure, could it interfere with communication between computer and pressure sensor, I don't know would suspect the answer is rarely if ever.

 

[rsingler]

If it disrupted the communication one time, you might get a signal drop. But there's no way that capacitor discharge will rewrite the setting on your computer, so it'll recognize the transmitter the next time it signals.
If we're positing that a capacitor discharge can fry a dive computer, I guess you'd have to have a short of the capacitor to the strobe case (in which case I doubt it would even fire), also have a metal case on your dive computer, and have the two touching each other the moment the strobe fires.
Sounds like conjectural BS, that might help sell a mechanical dive watch. Bwaahaha.

 

[tarponchik]

Looks like a false alarm, I get it.

 

[tursiops]

I think it is pretty well established that some strobes can briefly interrupt the transmissions of some brands of transmitters.....but crash a dive computer? No.