Oceanic Veo 3.0 question

[The_Ghost]

So for my Bday I finally bit the bullet and got me some regulators and a dive computer.

I have never used a dive computer so hopefully these question(s) don't sound too dumb. I plan on taking the new gear out for it's first dive next week.

After setting up the date and time and tinkering through all the menus I thought it would be nice to setup my 2nd gas ean 32.
So if I decide to dive EAN32 I just need to do a simple switch at the beginning of my dive from one gas to another. From what the manual shows is that I just need to hold down 1 button to switch gases. It looks like though on the surface it won't let me change it, like I have to be at least 5ft uner water before I can switch gases.

Is there a reason why I can't switch it to my other gas before I start my dive? Hows that going to show up when I transfer my data from the PDC to my computer?

PS. Sorry if this is in the wrong place, wasn't sure to post this here or in the oceanic topic. :?

 

[300bar]

Just one question, do you have a second transmitter hooked up?
AFAIK it only works with multiple transmitters.

 

[The_Ghost]

no I have the navcom? Its a console combo, with pressure gauge n compass.(http://www.oceanicww.com/img/p_computers_veo3.0_navcon1.jpg) There is no transmitter for this computer.

 

[300bar]

Sorry wrong PDC.Best give Oceanictech support a call.

 

[The_Ghost]

I emailed them, but no reply... Been about 3 days now.

 

[300bar]

Email does seem to take a lot of time, but I guess they get a lot of them.

toll-free: (800) 435-3483
phone: (510) 562-0500 (Mon - Fri: 8am - 5pm, Pacific Time)
Maybe this might help.

 

[The_Ghost]

called.

If I want to dive with a specific nitrox mix from the start the techy said I should change my first tank gas mix to reflect what ean im useing. I guess it's setup so that the second tank on the computer is if I go diving with an extra tank with another gas mix.

 

[oreocookie]

After setting up the date and time and tinkering through all the menus I thought it would be nice to setup my 2nd gas ean 32.
So if I decide to dive EAN32 I just need to do a simple switch at the beginning of my dive from one gas to another. From what the manual shows is that I just need to hold down 1 button to switch gases.

This sounds like a good idea in principle, but don't bother trying to set a mix in advance (such as the night before) or as a just in case, because both gas mixes will reset to air when the computer turns off (which will occur in an hour if you don't get it wet or push any buttons).

 

[The_Ghost]

thanks for the heads up oreo.

I'm sure theres some kinda of safety reason they have the computer do these things, but still I wish it could be changed. Maybe like if a person hooks the dive computer up to the PC they would allow them to make changes to it?

 

[oreocookie]

The reason is so that you can't just set it to something and forget about it and then use it with a different mix than it's set for. If you have to set the mix at least every time you turn it on, there's no possibility that you'll forget to change the mix if you use something different from what you normally use because setting the mix will be part of your pre-dive routine along with setting up gear.

If you haven't seen it already, you may also want to take note that the Veo 3.0 (and probably most Oceanics) have a 50% default setting, which will reset your mix to an impossible 50% oxygen, 79% nitrogen (which will definitely limit your dive profile) after I think 10 minutes following a nitrox dive, forcing you to set your mix before every dive. I can't remember if this setting is turned on when you first take it out of the box or not, so you might want to check that. I turned it off, so the mix will only reset when the computer turns off.