Life expectancy of dive computers?

[Doctor Rig]

@kelemvor ....... I assumed he meant fatal to the computer, not fatal to the diver.

reply.... that was exactly what I intended to communicate.

 

[kelemvor]

So back to normal, but teh real point of this post is that why has no-one else had this issue before and posted about it? And why doesn't Suunto tell you about lockdown in its manual?

There's loads of posts about that sort of thing happening with Suunto, scubapro, and other brands of dive computers.

I believe the intent is to punish you by not letting you make any more dives for a day or two. The reality is that most people would just dive without a computer or dive with a different computer for the remainder of their dive trip.

There are only a handful of dive computer brands that will continue to help you dive safely by providing data even after making a mistake. Ratio and Shearwater are the only two brands that come to mind right now. I'm not sure about Ratio, but shearwater will even let you correct that mistake (change dive settings) while you're still underwater.

 

[Jiminy]

I have the SEAC guru which is the old ratio idive it will lock you out for 12 hours if you comit a signifigant violation unless you change the default setting. The only thing is it does not specify what significant is

DECO CTRL: (ON/OFF): If enabled (ON), GURU will not permit any new dives in the 12 hours following a dive in which any significant deco violations occurred. Disabling (OFF) the DECO CTRL is not recommended, and will be permanently recorded in the GURU Logbook.

 

[Alekseolsen]

There's loads of posts about that sort of thing happening with Suunto, scubapro, and other brands of dive computers.

I believe the intent is to punish you by not letting you make any more dives for a day or two. The reality is that most people would just dive without a computer or dive with a different computer for the remainder of their dive trip.

There are only a handful of dive computer brands that will continue to help you dive safely by providing data even after making a mistake. Ratio and Shearwater are the only two brands that come to mind right now. I'm not sure about Ratio, but shearwater will even let you correct that mistake (change dive settings) while you're still underwater.

Heinrich Weikamp / OSTC can be added

 

[kelemvor]

I have the SEAC guru which is the old ratio idive it will lock you out for 12 hours if you comit a signifigant violation unless you change the default setting. The only thing is it does not specify what significant is

There is also a setting in Ratio iX3M to enable/disable lockouts. I can't imagine why anyone would want to enable them. My guess is that it didn't take any extra programming, so they included the feature just to have another feature.

 

[Jiminy]

There is also a setting in Ratio iX3M to enable/disable lockouts. I can't imagine why anyone would want to enable them. My guess is that it didn't take any extra programming, so they included the feature just to have another feature.

I would prefer to have the option and even if I never use it. I like having options. With that being said lockouts are not such a big deal on Ratios since they are only 12 hrs not a ridiculous time like 48 hours

 

[dmaziuk]

I would prefer to have the option and even if I never use it. I like having options. With that being said lockouts are not such a big deal on Ratios since they are only 12 hrs not a ridiculous time like 48 hours

Wienke wrote somewhere that "repetitive dives" window should be 36 hours. If that's how it's implemented in RGBM computers, the lockout should be that or longer.

Other models don't really care. DSAT has 6 hours (with the "take every 6th day off" caveat), and the basic formula is symmetrical. You sleep for 8 hours at night, you off-gassed enough. Except in the slowest tisue compartments that never on-gassed in the first pace, unless you're doing commercial saturation diving.

 

[Subcooled]

I had a Suunto Cobra that died the first time with less than 50 dives - still under warranty so I got it replaced. It died it's final death with less than 100 dives. My husband's also has died once and he no longer trusts it even as a backup. I have a Datamask that has a little under 200 dives and the transmitter died (got it replaced for $120 and I'm back in business). So I'm wondering just how many dives (approx. 50 minutes each) or how much dive time should we expect to get out of a dive computer and/or transmitter? For reference if we were told that our laptops would only be good for 200 hours of use I don't think we'd be willing to spend much money on them. But maybe this is an unfair comparison because our laptops don't have to function under a couple of atmospheres of pressure - maybe that pressure wears out the components much more quickly? So I'm wondering what is "reasonable" for life expectancy?

I had a Suunto Vyper that lasted for 8 years or 350+ dives. It did not break, I just lost it in a cave ( please don't ask ). Then I got another one, and it failed after 20 dives. Bad pressure sensor. I got that repaired (for free as it was under warranty) and now I am assuming the device will work for a decade at least.

You could always get an Apeks Dive Watch and an Oceanic analog depth gauge (with nonlinear scale to make the low depths count) and dive with tables. If you are not doing multilevel-deco-dives then this is a viable old school option. (note though: analog gauges must be calibrated too.)

 

[Kimela]

I read - maybe here or somewhere on Scubaboard - that Suunto settled a lawsuit and were found to be replacing faulty Cobras with brand new (but also faulty) Cobras. I've been thinking about sending in my paperweight Cobra to see what I might get out of the lawsuit.

 

[scubadada]

I read - maybe here or somewhere on Scubaboard - that Suunto settled a lawsuit and were found to be replacing faulty Cobras with brand new (but also faulty) Cobras. I've been thinking about sending in my paperweight Cobra to see what I might get out of the lawsuit.

Best of luck, and what will you get in return, a Suunto?