New Garmin Dive Computer: Descent G1

[Scuba-Lad]

Just a follow up note for people looking at the G1:

The battery life indicator on the watch is somewhat misleading. For example, if it shows several days of battery life that only applies to surface activities, not diving. Dive mode (even a relatively few short dives) will kill the remaining battery. If you plan on relying on the watch for diving, you should make sure it has a good charge for the day.

I don't know if this applies to the G1 Solar (solar charging is pretty slow, I hear, so I don't think it will help much).

Solution: change the display to battery % instead of the horribly inaccurate "battery time remaining" estimation the G1 displays by default. I wear my G1 solar as a daily watch and dive regularly, it uses between 5-10% per dive, and my dives are long dives, around 1-1.5 hours (in comparison to the 35-45 min dives the tourists do round here with the dive shops).

I charge mine every couple of weeks, depending on how much I dive. The solar charge works at it's full capacity here in south east asia, but I've not really noticed how much I've charged it from the sun in one day, I'd guess at maybe 5% if I were to stab in the dark

 

[sprockjohnson]

Solution: change the display to battery % instead of the horribly inaccurate "battery time remaining" estimation the G1 displays by default. I wear my G1 solar as a daily watch and dive regularly, it uses between 5-10% per dive, and my dives are long dives, around 1-1.5 hours (in comparison to the 35-45 min dives the tourists do round here with the dive shops).

I charge mine every couple of weeks, depending on how much I dive. The solar charge works at it's full capacity here in south east asia, but I've not really noticed how much I've charged it from the sun in one day, I'd guess at maybe 5% if I were to stab in the dark

This has been my experience as well for the most part. I also have the Solar model and use it for daily wear and find that, depending on the notifications settings, I use about 2-3% per day of normal wear and 5-10% per dive. I find that the battery percentage drops faster on days where I didn't wear the watch and it sits in the house without the same sun intensity and yet still gets the notifications or searches for a bluetooth signal. I don't know what the non-solar G1 battery life is like but I charge mine about once per month.

All in all, I'm very happy with the G1 as an everyday smart watch/ workout logging device and it has been great as a backup dive computer.

 

[ckheng]

Not sure how many people have both. I looked very closely at both. I mainly looked at these because I wanted a Smartwatch/Activity tracker that could also serve as a backup to my Perdix AI.

Functionally, I don’t think you’ll find much difference between the two apart from the screen and battery life. Both can do the same types of diving, and use the same algorithm, etc.

There were a couple of things that pushed me to the MK2s over the G1. First, the Quickfit watch band system was available in the G1 Solar and MK2s, but not the standard G1. That cut the price difference a bit, as the G1 Solar was $100 more. Next, I wasn’t sure I was a big fan of the G1 screen and looks. Fine for casual wear, but occasionally I have needed to dress up a bit when meeting with customers. The MK2s looked a bit more at home in a fancier environment. What finally pushed me to the MK2s was the rebate offered. At the time I bought, there was a rebate offered on the MK2, MK2i, and MK2s, but not on the G1s.

I also was able to knock 20% off on either through a work discount. Between that and the rebate, the additional cost for the color screen was negligible.

I wear my MK2s daily, and the charge is good for about a week. While the G1 and G1 Solar offer longer battery life, a week is fine with me. Screen is great. Very easy to read. If I were to do it again, I’d make the same choice. The Quickfit watch bands also come in handy. I bought a stainless steel band that I use most of the time. For diving, I swap in the silicone band. Takes about 30 seconds to swap, and no tools required.

The G1 non solar can take a QuickFit22 strap.
Take off the band that comes with the non-solar G1 (use the tool that comes supplied in the box)
Push out the bars at the end of each band half
Replace the bars on the watch
QuickFit22 ready!

The instructions are in the G1 non solar manual, under Changing The Spring Bar Bands

 

[drakcheslav]

Did the G1 became compatible with Subsurface? Or is it still a dud?

 

[clownfishsydney]

Did the G1 became compatible with Subsurface? Or is it still a dud?

My G1 Solar works with Subsurface.

 

[gstrek]

Did the G1 became compatible with Subsurface? Or is it still a dud?

The G1 Solar is compatible with Subsurface, however, you have to use the usb charging cable to upload the dives. This is from another thread about a year ago. I use the first method to upload to Subsurface.

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There are two methods to upload into SubSurface (BlueTooth won't work with SubSurface)

1) connect the G1 to the USB cable and make sure your computer sees it as a drive/filesystem. Then use the Import from dive computer function (try using Garmin Mk1) and point to the watch as the mount point

2) After the BT upload to Garmin Dive, download the activity from Garmin Connect to a folder called Activity inside a folder called Garmin. Unzip it the file then use the Import from dive computer function (try using Garmin Mk1) and point to the parent folder of Garmin\Activity.


One difference between the 2 methods is the filenames of the FIT files are different. On the device itself they are basically the date/time of the activity. Obviously, this would not be unique in Garmin Cloud as lots of people could start activities at the same time. Once uploaded to Garmin Cloud the filename is changed to some unique number, which is also the activity identifier in Connect.

For example, my most recent dive is 8359862111. If I export that file, it comes down as 8359862111.zip. When I unzip it, it will be 8359862111_ACTIVITY.fit

While the contents of the files are identical, the difference in the filenames can confuse Subsurface. If you only ever use Method 1 or Method 2, you won't have any problems at all because the filenames will sort into the order of the activities. However, if you switch between the two methods, Subsurface can't track which dives have already been loaded and which haven't as it tracks the file names.

So, if you switch between both methods, you need to select "Force download of all dives" and then deselect the ones you already have.

 

[drakcheslav]

I'm guessing that the Libdive library still isn't compatible. I don't know if the USB method would work for the mobile subsurface version.

Here's hoping that in the future it will be usable via bluetooth. I'd love to change my coros with a watch that I can use as a backup depthgauge

 

[gstrek]

I'm guessing that the Libdive library still isn't compatible. I don't know if the USB method would work for the mobile subsurface version.

Here's hoping that in the future it will be usable via bluetooth. I'd love to change my coros with a watch that I can use as a backup depthgauge

Good point and I should have added that this was on the Mac version. I sync Subsurface to their cloud and have access to it from my mobile device. As I recall, and you can search the threads, the subsurface developer mentioned it is an issue with Garmin not allowing the BT interface to be used but go ahead and verify my recollection.

 

[Belzelbub]

I'm guessing that the Libdive library still isn't compatible. I don't know if the USB method would work for the mobile subsurface version.

Here's hoping that in the future it will be usable via bluetooth. I'd love to change my coros with a watch that I can use as a backup depthgauge

I don't believe that's the case. Dirk posted about this in the past. He indicated that Garmin was very supportive in allowing support in Subsurface, etc. However, they drew a firm line that this was to be wired only. Bluetooth transfer was reserved by Garmin to just Garmin apps.

 

[drakcheslav]

yeah, that sucks. I usually use my phone to sync from my OSTC to the cloud and then analyze on my laptop.

Well, hopefully someone will some day also come up with a smart watch/dive watch which is actually usable.

I'm a fan of coros watches, but I'd love to have a bottom timer on my sports watch.