Need help choosing a new computer, read this

[dstahn236]

1. 100% agreed
2. agreed
3. agreed
4. agreed
5. agreed
6. agreed

The issue is outside of the Seabear H3 which doesn't have a transmitter yet, and the Suunto Eon Steel which is idiotically expensive, none of the computers are really suited for technical diving at a high level. The Cobalt is, but it's not particularly reliable, and it's enormous, and restricted to a single gas supply for the AI. Trust me, I would love to have AI for my technical diving, especially in a HUD where I could see both gas supplies, but the computer manufacturers haven't figured out how to make the transmitters cheap or small enough to make it worthwhile.

With avoiding ai at the moment and going with the petrel. Would you run another computer on a console or just a pressure gauge?

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[tbone1004]

I don't currently. I wear my watch with a bezel. Most of my diving is in caves where the depths are pretty much known so time is all that matters. You either have enough air or you don't and with sidemount as long as one SPG is working, you can approximate the other side by the balance of the two bottles *Accurate to about +_500psi on big steel tanks, probably 1k on an AL80*. With depth known by the cave there isn't a need for a backup depth gauge for me and you did proper dive planning which shows your approximate deco time. I will also cheat and use my buddies computer if need be since we dive with the same conservatism settings. In the ocean it is the same deal, except my DSMB reel is knotted every 10ft for depth with 50ft increments using a bigger knot.

The petrel is really reliable enough for the vast majority of people diving and there isn't a need for a backup in my opinion. It has a battery gauge on it so you know about how much life it has left in it which the older computers didn't, it is much less likely to just die *haven't actually heard of one just crapping out yet*, so we just run one per diver and occasionally a backup for the team, but with a watch, tables, relatively known dive profiles, and knowing how to do ratio deco, I haven't found the justification to purchase a second petrel yet.

 

[Bali1]

Looks like DGX is selling the DG03 as an exclusive product. $250 for the DC with AI transmitters for $350.

Looking briefly at the manual it seems to be the same button/menu system the Oceanic Veo 3 uses. Makes sense for AUP product. There are some extra steps required for setting up EAN which have never made much sense.

 

[ffdiver]

I don't know if this was brought up before but I dive three Nitek trios, basically the same computer as the zeagle.

I have wanted to throw them out of my car window more times than I can count. The battery life on them is terrible and the only way to tell that the battery is going is by the computer doing stupid things while in dive mode.

The depth getting all wonky is usually the first sign to replace the battery. I now just change them out every three months. And I still have issues here and there.

They are very conservative, even for straight forward shallow dives. The PADI RDP will give you 55 mins at 60 feet and most computers will be in that range the trios max out at 44 mins in planning mode.

I personally wouldn't recommend them, but I do own three of them so what does that tell ya?