New Shearwater AI transmitter - the Swift

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I think most people are like that, BUT Shearwater obvious decided there was a problem worth suggesting users have different
colour transmitters

Shearwater's primary market is technical divers, as such they are overly conservative. Due to a screw up by PPS the yellow transmitters had the same timing chip as the grey transmitters for a while, no one really noticed.

Even without the listening function these news transmitters will fix any timing sync as they have a psudeo-random transmit interval.
 
They've got the problem where they conflict with each other when multiples are in use. Scubapro supports 8 with no special anything. Ratio supports 10 at a time. In both cases there's no special green or yellow or whatever. You just use up to 8 or 10 of the appropriate brand transmitter. A tech diver could concievably use one of these computers and have pressure data for every single bottle he brought for the dive. Not that a tech diver should be using a Scubapro (for other reasons) but as far as transmitters go, Scubapro is good. Ratio is a solid tech computer, although there are things I dislike about it.

The fact that the PPS transmitter transmits when pressurized regardless of change in pressure. I.e. when you put your reg on a tank, test everything, and sit down for an hour long boat ride. With other brands you don't have to turn things back off in order to conserve battery.

I think there's something hokey about the pairing system with PPS as well but I can't remember and don't want to look it up at the moment. I'm sure users of PPS transmitters are used to it. With scubapro or ratio, you pair the tx when you buy it. You could also connect them to other computers simultaneously (i.e. for buddy or sidemount doubles). Once and done. Forever. Even if you change batteries on the computer and the transmitter. All you do to pair the transmitter is touch the computer to the transmitter for a few seconds. The computer will pop up with a "do you want to pair to this tx" type screen on its own.

Now, for a long time I did have battery life issues with my scubapro transmitters. That turned out to be a tech at my local shop putting the wrong battery in there. Once I started doing it myself, things went well. Not sure if that's Scubapro's fault with their documentation or the shop guy. I haven't had a low battery warning since I started doing it myself but I still replace the battery every couple years out of an abundance of caution.

I'm not sure when Ratio released their transmitters but the scubapro was released around 2005, so it's not exactly cutting edge newness.

That's why I think PPS Sucks compared to the other options, and why I think it's so great that Shearwater rolled their own.

On paper they have issues with conflicting when multiple are in use. In the real world, it is virtually never a problem. And it it were, it is an easy one to detect before splashing and fix (by turning off one transmitter then turning it back on). An "on paper", not-real-world, problem does not mean the PPS transmitters are awful (to ME, anyway).

With the Shearwater Swift, Shearwater has posted in the manufacturer's forum that it transmits every 5 seconds - until it detects no pressure change for some time. Then it changes to transmitting every 15 seconds. Just like other brands. With the PPS, it is true that it transmits every 5 seconds while it is on. I have no problem with that.

Transmitting every 15 instead of every 5 just reduces battery consumption. It doesn't stop it. None of the schemes anybody uses would have saved the transmitter battery when my CCR's dil valve got rolled on a little bit in transport and then sat for 2 months over Christmas. Even transmitting every 15 seconds, it still would have been dead when I went to use it. I'm not at all worried about the battery used during even a 3 hour boat ride. The difference between amount used every 5 seconds versus 15 seconds is inconsequential (to me) compared to the overall battery life the PPS transmitters get.

The PPS transmitters have an ID. You program it into your computer and it stays there forever. If your computer loses the "pairing", then that is an issue with the computer, not the transmitter. The transmitter's ID never changes. If the computer can only store 2 (or 4 or however many) transmitter IDs, again, that is an issue with the computer, not the PPS transmitter.

The PPS transmitter is stone simple and I like that. It doesn't implement less-than-stone-simple power management and I like that. The battery lasts PLENTY long enough as is and simpler is better when complexity is not necessary.

That's not how transmitters work. Sleep doesn't mean sleep.

All transmitters work in roughly the same way (despite weasel words in the marketing). When the the sensor sees zero pressure, the radio transmitter turns off. When it's off and the sensor sees some pressure, it turns the transmitter on. You know this.

For "Sleep" when the Sensor sees no change of pressure over a time, it'll reduce the frequency the transmitter sends data (or might turn it off)

The computer just displays the last received pressure value from that transmitter changing only when it receives an update or goes into surface mode (however they've programmed the software)

So diving if multiple cylinders and transmitters you always know the current pressure of that cylinder.

See above. The additional complexity of that power management is simply not necessary. And when it's not necessary, simpler is better.

My Eon supports 10, but as you rightly point out during a dive you'll rarely use more than 2 or 3.

I have all the transmitters in my household registered on my computer (7) While the transmitters are generally kept with the gear, having them all registered on the computer just makes life easier if I pick up the "wrong one"

The S/W Fan club always assume that reason for limited transmitters and/or needing different colour transmitters to prevent the chance of interference on teh Shearwater lies with the PBS transmitter.

But transmitters are pretty dumb, and as you highlighted you've never seen and issue on yoru Oceanic, as I haven't in over 1000hrs underwater on my Eon with multiple transmitters

I believe the "issue" lies with how SW have implemented AI on their computers. Upto this latest update they've also only made gas consumption calculations from 1 transmitter rather than both (as every other manufacturer does)

So you could suggest that its the SW computers that are the limiting factor NOT the transmitter

Shearwater haven't done anything different with their AI implementation than any of the numerous other computers that work with PPS transmitters - as far as handling transmitter interference goes. Limitation on # of transmitters programmed into the computer is definitely down to who makes the computer. But, limitations on # you can use at once - due to transmitter interference - is purely the PPS transmitter design.
 
Shearwater's primary market is technical divers
That used to be the case. Now its an aspirational brand. The majority of Teric divers I see have never been below 30m nor encountered planned deco. when SW added AI (and remember before that the SW fanclub was heavily against AI as a technology) it opened them up to the Rec market with the Perdix AI

And well done to them. Smart move. The Peregrin is a fine machine, I've sold a few to my friends who wanted to replace their aging Gallello's but had not desire or interest in AI

When I was looking to upgrade and Ended up with teh Eon which was just about to launch, SW didn't have AI - I was very close to buying a Liquivision Lynx, but a user on here messaged me and gave me the lowdown of their issues
 
That used to be the case. Now its an aspirational brand. The majority of Teric divers I see have never been below 30m nor encountered planned deco.

How would you know that I have tech certs and dozens of tech dives when all I present is my AOW and if asked about max depth I say 40m?
 
How would you know that I have tech certs and dozens of tech dives when all I present is my AOW and if asked about max depth I say 40m?
Because I know most divers in this region or know someone who does. It’s a pretty small area and I work for the only shop that sells SW

And really when you’re around divers their skills and knowledge become apparent very quickly

as for you personally iit’s a non question since you’re unlikely to be in this area and if you were you probably wouldn’t be choosing to come on the sort of dives I do
 
None of the schemes anybody uses would have saved the transmitter battery when my CCR's dil valve got rolled on a little bit in transport and then sat for 2 months over Christmas.
I'm not sure about Ratio, but the scubapro definitely does not transmit at all in this scenerio. Once it's gone to sleep, you have to take a breath and wait a few seconds for it to "wake up" and resume transmitting. That might get slightly annoying with independent doubles, actually - so I guess it's a bit of a double edged sword. Not that anyone in their right mind would use a scubapro Galileo for technical diving anyway. I suspect the many transmitter capability is just something to put on the advertisement and would be surprised if 5 people in the world actually used the feature.

I guess in retrospect, to say the pps sucks is unfair. I still think it's the worst option for a currently manufactured transmitter, but that doesn't have to mean that it sucks. Luckily, you get to form your own opinion and vote with your wallet. Especially in the case of a shearwater - only DC I know of that supports multiple types of transmitters (by that I mean PPS and Swift). Everyone other computer only has one option.
 
as for you personally iit’s a non question since you’re unlikely to be in this area and if you were you probably wouldn’t be choosing to come on the sort of dives I do

Why it is true that it is highly unlikely I will be in the Middle East anytime soon, short of Iran becoming moderate, I do all sorts of diving.
 
None of the schemes anybody uses would have saved the transmitter battery when my CCR's dil valve got rolled on a little bit in transport and then sat for 2 months over Christmas.
I'm not sure about Ratio, but the scubapro definitely does not transmit at all in this scenerio. Once it's gone to sleep, you have to take a breath and wait a few seconds for it to "wake up" and resume transmitting. That might get slightly annoying with independent doubles, actually - so I guess it's a bit of a double edged sword.

Not that anyone in their right mind would use a scubapro Galileo for technical diving anyway. I suspect the many transmitter capability is just something to put on the advertisement. I would be surprised if 5 people in the world actually used the feature.

I think I'm going to move back to shearwater, with a couple perdix AI and 3 swift transmitters. That way my wife and I can use them in OC REC mode most of the time, and I can use 3 gas AI on both computers when I do the odd tech dive (sidemount doubles + 100%). I think I'll wait until next spring when international travel is likely to be more reasonable. A couple years ago I sold both my petrels. I've been using galileo for rec and Ratio ix3m for tech. I really miss the user friendly UI of the Shearwater vs Ratio for tech. At msrp that's almost $2200.00USD! Hopefully I can get some kind of package deal when the time comes.
 
That used to be the case. Now its an aspirational brand. The majority of Teric divers I see have never been below 30m nor encountered planned deco. when SW added AI (and remember before that the SW fanclub was heavily against AI as a technology) it opened them up to the Rec market with the Perdix AI

I don't dispute that SW is more of an aspirational brand than it was before the Perdix AI. But, what you see with Teric divers is certainly a function of where you are. I don't think it's fair to imply that your stats on that have any real relation to the world of diving at large. The majority of Teric divers that I see are legit tech divers. But, that is because I do a decent amount of tech diving, so I'm around tech divers a lot. And, most of the rec divers I see with Shearwater computers either have a Perdix (AI or not) or a Peregrine. And, really, most of them don't have SW at all.

Also, SW may now be an aspirational brand, but I think the Peregrine is a legitimate recreational computer that stands on its own merit. It does not need brand status to make it a consideration for any rec diver. I do expect it to have somewhat limited appeal, though, until they release a version with AI. AI seems to me to be much more popular in rec circles than tech. I still do not understand the thinking in releasing a computer that only has significant appeal to rec-only divers and does not support AI. I mean, it does support non-trimix technical diving, but I don't know any tech diver who would be likely to buy a Peregrine, instead of buying a Perdix.

The Perdix has a $95 premium to get AI. If they would offer a Peregrine AI for $590, I think my shop would sell a buttload more of them than of the $495 Peregrine.
 
One thing I just saw - apparently, the Swift requires a small screwdriver to remove the shell from the body to perform a battery change.

That definitely seems like a regression, to me. I've had to change the battery on a transmitter before as a kind of last-minute thing. Only needing something like a coin to open up the battery compartment is a great benefit, I think. Having to have a small screwdriver handy in order to do that seems a lot less convenient.

A few years ago, I made the mistake of overtightening the battery compartment cover on one of my transmitters. When I tried to open it with a quarter, I only succeeded in digging into the (relatively) soft cover material. Shearwater said to send it to them. Within a week they sent me back what was either a refurbished or brand new transmitter. No charge for what was clearly my error. (Shearwater fan for life!) The new battery replacement procedure may be due to manufacturing considerations, or there may well have been other users who also found the older covers to be too soft to stand up to overtightening.
 

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