Oceanic Datamax Pro Plus Way Too Conservative

[tursiops]

Clint, thanks for doing the Pre-dive planning check.
1. Yes, your pressure sensor is reading about 25% too high....it thinks you are deeper than you really are. You can adjust your planning numbers to match those in the manual by adding about 10 ft to the shallow depths, 15 ft to the somewhat deeper depths, 20 ft to the moderately deep depths, and 30 ft to the deepest readings.
2. Being in the Yellow does NOT mean you are in deco....you are still within NDL.
3. I'm curious if the depth display on your computer also shows deep. That is, if you are really at 60 ft, what does the display show?
4. All that battery in-and-out just before a flight is not good. The computer -- while on and dry -- samples pressure every 30 s to see what altitude it is at, and then uses that altitude as its reference. I've turned computers on while in the air and had them think I was diving, so when we landed it showed I was at 6 ft depth.....and stayed that way for 48 h until it cleared.

Suggestion. Get a new computer, yours is old and tired and not working right. Don't worry about it being an Oceanic; the problem is NOT related to that. All computers give up after a while.

 

[scubadada]

Your altitude sensor is kaput. All of your NDLs are far shorter than those listed on the table I provided.

Go to your Oceanic dealer and tell your story. They will not repair your computer. They may give you a deal on some kind of upgrade or a trade in on a new computer. As I , and many others have said, DSAT is a very liberal deco algorithm

 

[cleung]

Yes it is an old model for sure as I bought it shortly after I got my basic certification back in 1999. So I will either use the upgrade trade in deal with Oceanic and get their latest model or something else from good reviews of other units. I am assuming that if I had a new dive computer, I would not be having these issues during my dives.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Streydog]

I had similar issues with a Veo 2.0. It was my first trip on Nitrox but the setting were correct. On the 5th dive of the trip, second dive of the day my NDL time was unusually low, I began my accent and kept an close eye on it. Even after going up 10' the NDL was going down. I kept above the group and kept the computer out of deco that dive. That evening I changed the battery out and for the next couple days the Veo seemed to be back on track and NDL's were normal.

Day 6 of the trip I did 2 morning dives, plenty of NDL time. I decided to do another 2 tank afternoon dive. Had over a 2 hour SI and looked at the planning tool on the Veo, don't remember the exact numbers but the BT it was showing for 80' was plenty. After 20 minutes into the dive, max of 66', I went into deco. I knew this was some kind of computer error but that ended my diving on that trip, had one more diving day left.

I purchased a Geo 2.0 and the next trip used the Veo as a back up. I had no issues with either computer as far as unusually low NDLs. Not really sure what the problem was. The VEO was purchased second hand "never used". I had 25 dives on it within the prior 6 months.

 

[scubadada]

I had similar issues with a Veo 2.0. It was my first trip on Nitrox but the setting were correct. On the 5th dive of the trip, second dive of the day my NDL time was unusually low, I began my accent and kept an close eye on it. Even after going up 10' the NDL was going down. I kept above the group and kept the computer out of deco that dive. That evening I changed the battery out and for the next couple days the Veo seemed to be back on track and NDL's were normal.

Day 6 of the trip I did 2 morning dives, plenty of NDL time. I decided to do another 2 tank afternoon dive. Had over a 2 hour SI and looked at the planning tool on the Veo, don't remember the exact numbers but the BT it was showing for 80' was plenty. After 20 minutes into the dive, max of 66', I went into deco. I knew this was some kind of computer error but that ended my diving on that trip, had one more diving day left.

I purchased a Geo 2.0 and the next trip used the Veo as a back up. I had no issues with either computer as far as unusually low NDLs. Not really sure what the problem was. The VEO was purchased second hand "never used". I had 25 dives on it within the prior 6 months.

I had altitude sensors go bad on two old Pro Pluses, no problems with about 4 or 5 other Oceanic computers my family has had. The problem was intermittent for a while and then became permanent. At that time, even though they were out of warranty, Oceanic replaced them with refurbished Pro Plus 2s at no charge. Both of those computers are still in use. I thought highly of Oceanic service, not sure what they would do now.

 

[Bill_the_old_guy]

I had altitude sensors go bad on two old Pro Pluses, no problems with about 4 or 5 other Oceanic computers my family has had. The problem was intermittent for a while and then became permanent. At that time, even though they were out of warranty, Oceanic replaced them with refurbished Pro Plus 2s at no charge. Both of those computers are still in use. I thought highly of Oceanic service, not sure what they would do now.

I can tell you what they will do now. I bought a couple of pro plus 3's for my wife and myself (we've had other Oceanic computers in the past) and because of a cancelled trip due to a move and then Covid restrictions the first time we used the computers we had had them about one week beyond the two year warranty. Mine is still working fine after about 50 dives with it. My wife's computer worked fine for one dive and quit properly reporting tank pressure on the second dive. We were hoping they would cut us some slack because of the Covid problem but they have been unwilling to help other than to tell us that we can get a refurb for $175. Not our computer returned to us, some other PP3. After seeking other answers we sent the money in as they said the process takes about a month. They have now had the computer for two months and recently informed us that they hope to get the next shipment in around the end of the year. If we'd had any idea Oceanic would send us off to Huish (whoever that is) we'd have bought something else. Although I've only been certified for about 40 years I've been diving for over 60 years. Worst Customer Service I've ever had. If Oceanic was the only game in town I'd be going back to dive tables......

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Bill_the_old_guy

There has been a lot of water under the bridge. Oceanic was part of American Underwater Products, founded by Bob Hollis, in 1972. Aeris, another brand in AUP, was folded into Oceanic in 2014 and ceased to exist. Pelagic Pressure Systems, another division of AUP, and the manufacturer of Oceanic computers and transmitters, was acquired by Aqua Lung in 2015. Finally, Oceanic and Hollis were sold to Huish Outdoors in 2017.

I have always received good service from Oceanic, before and after the sale to Huish. I have taken advantage of refurbished products on a few occasions, Pro Plus 2 for $175, transmitter for $120, and a compass module for $25. All of these were quite far out of warranty.

Sorry that you are unhappy with the service from Oceanic/Huish. Perhaps you should consider switching to a Shearwater computer. Shearwater has excellent customer service. Unfortunately, I know this firsthand, as I have had 2 repairs and 2 replacements of my Teric computer since I bought it in May 2019.

 

[cleung]

When Oceanic made an offer to get some credit to trade in my Pro Plus for a new one some time ago, I had my dive shop send it in. Then the problem of getting new stock came in waiting for months. So my dive shop decided to just give me a big discount if I buy a new Atomic Cobalt 2 which I did and have been using it. I do like the Atomic except I cannot see some of the smaller numbers, fortunately not the crucial ones during a dive. For my next computer, I'm willing to try out Oceanic's latest Pro Plus which is somewhat modelled after the Atomic in the sense that it's now in colour and the numbers seem bigger. I know the Pro Plus 3 is also big but not in colour and does not have a digital compass which I really like on the Atomic. The new Pro Plus X does have a digital compass.