New Shearwater AI transmitter - the Swift

[lexvil]

Stewart,
I think wetsuit improvements happened because of b/c’s, we just jackknifed and swam down and had to swim back up but my point is every improvement is met with skepticism and fear.

 

[lexvil]

In the old transmitters, where you had to pair each time - lot of manufacturers had issues

Suunto on the Eon when they moved to the Pod in 2014/15 switched to the paired for life, which PPS did soon after. The only transmitter problem I've ever had was a battery failure - all down to me.

I really can't get my head around the SW worship cult. Sure they're good computers, I have an Perdix AI as an alternative to my Eon - I prefer the Eon it has less annoying features..

I get Suunto had some historical issues but. Ford build the Pinto yet people have forgiven them...

The SW worship comes from their stuff being excellent and if there is an issue they respond with no nonsense or games, they just fix it or search for answers, this could all change in the future but for now they lead the industry it seems.

 

[tridacna]

I really can't get my head around the SW worship cult. Sure they're good computers, I have an Perdix AI as an alternative to my Eon - I prefer the Eon it has less annoying features..

I get Suunto had some historical issues but. Ford build the Pinto yet people have forgiven them...

In the US, SUUNTO service is abyssmal. I sold dozens each year. Every time that a customer brought one back with an issue, staff including me would run a million miles away to avoid having to call SUUNTO service. It’s a nightmare. If you were lucky enough to reach someone, getting status on the repair was even worse. Compare with Shearwater service? Night and day.

 

[stuartv]

In the old transmitters, where you had to pair each time - lot of manufacturers had issues

Suunto on the Eon when they moved to the Pod in 2014/15 switched to the paired for life, which PPS did soon after. The only transmitter problem I've ever had was a battery failure - all down to me.

I really can't get my head around the SW worship cult. Sure they're good computers, I have an Perdix AI as an alternative to my Eon - I prefer the Eon it has less annoying features..

I get Suunto had some historical issues but. Ford build the Pinto yet people have forgiven them...

I bought my first dive computer (an Oceanic Atom 3.0) at the end of 2014, with a transmitter. It was New Old Stock, so it had been out for a while, even then in 2014. I think the Atom 3.1 was already out by then.

It had the same type of pairing then as they do now. That transmitter still works - and works just fine with my Terics and NERD2.

I attribute the Cult of Shearwater to a few things.

One, they have offered the algorithms that tech divers want. In contrast, just for example, Suunto has not, historically speaking.

Two, the Mortons, aka Dive-Tronix. I don't know that Shearwater products are actually any more trouble-free than any other brand. I've had 4 battery replacements between my 2 Terics. I just had the pressure sensor in my NERD2 replaced. I had 2 Shearwater-branded AI transmitters replaced. That is all in the last 2-ish years. And in every case, I never missed a dive - because of how quickly Dive-Tronix took care of every issue.

And that is not to take away from actual Shearwater customer service/tech support, either. They are also great. How many posts have I seen that boiled down to "I emailed Shearwater about this problem and they sent me a replacement strap/pin/Bluetooth dongle/whatever immediately, at no charge."

I think that level of customer service has been the difference between loads of divers posting "my Shearwater broke and it ruined my trip" and (what actually happens) "my Shearwater had an issue but their customer service took care of it immediately, I didn't miss any dives, and I love Shearwater."

That is why I would pay more for a Swift transmitter before I would buy a non-Shearwater PPS transmitter. When my previous SW-branded transmitter broke, I emailed Dive-Tronix and had a replacement in my hands 2 days later. What other manufacturer supports their customers like that?

Three, this is ScubaBoard. It's a US-centric board with mostly US-based divers. I am skeptical that the CoSW is so strong in other countries - places that don't have the easy access to the fantastic service that we get here. In other words, when you're on here, the Force is STRONG with the CoSW. But, in the grand scheme of things, "here" is a pretty small population.

 

[scrane]

Is this a standard MH8A transmitter, ie will it function with other brand computers?

 

[Diving Dubai]

In the US, SUUNTO service is abyssmal. I sold dozens each year. Every time that a customer brought one back with an issue, staff including me would run a million miles away to avoid having to call SUUNTO service. It’s a nightmare. If you were lucky enough to reach someone, getting status on the repair was even worse. Compare with Shearwater service? Night and day.

That’s not Suunto though is it? Aren’t Huish their distributors. I’ve had nothing but excellent support from the factory directly when I was experiencing Transmitter pains in 2015 - over 18 months they authorised 12 unit replacements- even though when they got them back there was no fault found (3 years later the real problem was found and it wasn’t Suunto)

Their repair centre here in the UAE is superb, because now they’ve changed how shops qualify to be a service centre

it’s something Shearwater got right in the US, although for me I would need to international ship my unit to the UK which sucks

 

[tridacna]

That’s not Suunto though is it? Aren’t Huish their distributors. I’ve had nothing but excellent support from the factory directly when I was experiencing Transmitter pains in 2015 - over 18 months they authorised 12 unit replacements- even though when they got them back there was no fault found (3 years later the real problem was found and it wasn’t Suunto)

Their repair centre here in the UAE is superb, because now they’ve changed how shops qualify to be a service centre

it’s something Shearwater got right in the US, although for me I would need to international ship my unit to the UK which sucks

Yup, it’s Huish. Doesn’t make it any better for me. It’s just plain horrible.

 

[Diving Dubai]

One, they have offered the algorithms that tech divers want. In contrast, just for example, Suunto has not, historically speaking.

On that I agree. That said Fused RGBM on the Eon's and D5 pretty much mimicksa Buhlmann (on P-2) it's marginally less conservative than 45/95 (insignificantly so in the real world) My Perdix and Eon run almost the same (within 90 secs) where pure Rec, upto 15min Dec or after 44 repetitive dives. I've yet to have the inclination to upgrade my Eon's to Buhlmann ( I probably will since they do a deep service included in the price and mine are early Units)

I don't dive deep though. Max 50m. I do know some of the Tech divers here use them on 80m trimix dives as wall as S/W units. Certainly I've never had issues cross planning between them

Obv S/W are higher end units and for the most part users are more aware in that they;'ll check their equipment regularly and can spot iif something's going a bit south.

Lots of Suuntos are entry level sold to vacation divers - who can barely remember to change the battery (I didn't' know until I was told that part of a battery change include servicing of the buttons - how many shops don't do that I wonder?

Like I've said I'm not negative on SW I just find it funny that SB won't embrace something unless SW does it. SB was very forgiving over teh battery issue. had it been Suunto - even with the same customer service, the trolling would have been epic

 

[Diving Dubai]

Yup, it’s Huish. Doesn’t make it any better for me. It’s just plain horrible.

Even from 8000 miles away, I've not heard anything good about Huish I'm sure there are reasons Suunto persists with them - but there is a line where the damage to the brand becomes too much

However - I wonder for how much longer Suunto will stay with Dive computers. They must be highly expensive to develop and for a niche market, whereas their sport watches must be making the real money

 

[kelemvor]

In the old transmitters, where you had to pair each time - lot of manufacturers had issues

Suunto on the Eon when they moved to the Pod in 2014/15 switched to the paired for life, which PPS did soon after. The only transmitter problem I've ever had was a battery failure - all down to me.

I really can't get my head around the SW worship cult. Sure they're good computers, I have an Perdix AI as an alternative to my Eon - I prefer the Eon it has less annoying features..

I get Suunto had some historical issues but. Ford build the Pinto yet people have forgiven them...

Historical issues? The class action was in 2018. I think 2028 is a more reasonable timeframe for folks to forgive and forget... assuming they get their act together.

That said, I agree with you that the PPS transmitters are awful. The only benefit to them is that several dive computer brands will talk to a PPS tx. They lack in every other area compared to other transmitters. Luckily, Shearwater has made their own so Shearwater owners don't have to live with PPS anymore. PPS was a reasonable option at the time. They needed to get AI into their products without a long development cycle. Just because your DC has a radio on a particular frequency doesn't mean you can't implement additional protocols in software for improvements.

Once the price comes down to earth, I think they'll see some strong adoption. Most transmitters are in the mid $200 range, and are often included free during sales with a dive computer purchase. These are better than PPS, but they don't seem to offer any features not found on competing transmitters like Scubapro, Suunto, and Ratio.

That’s not Suunto though is it? Aren’t Huish their distributors. I’ve had nothing but excellent support from the factory directly when I was experiencing Transmitter pains in 2015 - over 18 months they authorised 12 unit replacements- even though when they got them back there was no fault found (3 years later the real problem was found and it wasn’t Suunto)

Their repair centre here in the UAE is superb, because now they’ve changed how shops qualify to be a service centre

it’s something Shearwater got right in the US, although for me I would need to international ship my unit to the UK which sucks

Suunto is entirely owned by a Chinese conglomerate; Anta. They may be using a US distributor, but they're still a Chinese company. Probably explains all the problems with product quality and complete absence of customer service recently exhibited by Suunto.