Operating the Suunto D4i

[Friis]

Hello people,

Im about to take the OW certificate in 2 weeks. Im thinking about buying myself a Suunto D4i already before i do the certificate so i have the opportunity to get to know it really well. Im a curious person and i have read A LOT about the D4i lately, but somehow there is still something i dont quiet get.

Lets say im on vacation and going on a boat to make 2 dives. We sail out to the first location and dive (While in normal dive-air mode). After this we are going to stay there for a while (So that people on the boat can go swimming, sun tanning, eating etc.) and i wanna go for a little swim and i find myself doing a little freedive (We are not talking real freediving, just me holding my breath and diving down a couple of meters) Now the watch will start calculating this as another dive right ? So it will start logging it and so on. Normally i would just set the watch to Free mode for swimming, but if i do that after a Dive, does it forget my current pressure group and such ?? Would i be able to trust the data from the watch on my second dive ?? Does anybody know the expected (and real) way to do this?? Maybe i should leave the watch on the boat for the swim ?

I Really hope you guys understand my question and that somebody can sort this out for me. There is probably more "Operating the D4i"-questions comming in this thread

Thanks in advance

 

[Arturo]

In my opinion, it is not relevant if your D4 will start calculating another dive while you free dive between scuba dives. Free diving and scuba diving simply don´t mix. You either do one or the other. If you free dive between two scuba dives, you will increase the chances of getting bend. There is ample literature about this topic on the web. Now, to answer your question, if your D4 has the wet contacts activated it´ll register your free dive as a new dive once you descend below 1.5 meters.

 

[Friis]

Hey Arturo, i understand that freediving and scubadiving dont mix. And i actually dont mean like "real" freediving. Lets just say that i want to go swimming between the dives, and i jump in the water from the side of the boat .. that jump will probably result in me getting more than 1,5 m. under the water and that will trigger the sensor right ?? So say i do that 4-5 times, then i will have a lot of short and useless logs on the watch right ?

By the way, thank you very much for answering ..

 

[NCadiver]

It will keep track of your no deco time. But the best place to ask this question is the Suunto forum under the manufactures forum.

 

[Arturo]

Friis:

I checked with the D4i User Manual (my answer was based on the D4 booklet). It says the D4i will register the dive as soon as you go below 0.5 mts, rather than when you go below 1.5 mts, which is the case for the old D4.

I concur with NCadiver. Post this question directly in the Suunto (Aqualung) forum and see what the manufacturer has to say.

At any rate, I would advise you to refrain from free diving between SCUBA dives.

 

[Scuba.com]

Hi Friis,

If you are just swimming for fun and not making deep free dives, then I wouldn't let it be a concern.

The Suunto D4i is a nice choice in dive computers. One of the things I like about Suunto's is all the models work just about the same way. So, if down the road you wanted to upgrade to a D9tx, you will already be familiar with it.

Have a great vacation!

 

[DiveNav]

Freediving after scuba diving is a very BAD idea.
if you set the sample rate big enough, the D4i will not log jumping from the boat as a dive.

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[superded]

I have the D4i. The D4i coming out of the box will definitely log the dive but a free firmware upgrade is available from Suuto (takes 2 minutes) and it adds the dive off mode which will enable you to go in the water with your computer and it won't log it. You have to go to a suunto repair center to update it. I did it in Thailand at a service center, it took two minutes, was free and it didn't erase my dive history and logged dives.

If you go on the Suunto site and download the manual for it you will see that it has been updated with the dive off mode that was added with the firmware upgrade. The new ones coming out of the factory must have that firmware.