stiebs
Contributor
Any hand on experiences on the gen 2?
I just came back from a week of rec diving using my iXM2 Pro. Had used it on two shallow shore dives before the trip. and then 2 dives per day for 5 days.
Most dives between 20m and 30m, with one to 40m, and all dives around 50-70 mins duration. Overall very happy with it.
I started the trip with both it and the transmitter charged to 100%. I only had the iX3M 2 plugged into USB to download my dives each evening, and that kept the charge above 90% for the trip. I never recharged the transmitter, and the startup light sequence still shows the battery at >50%.
I had the iX3M 2 set to "P2", and my Garmin Descent Mk2i set to GF 80/80 to match.
On algorithms, they ran very close, as expected, with a couple of slight differences, especially when I exceeded NDLs. As expected, both tracked very close to NDL, but on a couple of dives after I triggered a small deco obligation, the Garmin washed it off pretty quickly during ascent. The Ratio also washed it off, but at a slightly slower rate.
On 3 of the 10 dives I exceeded NDL, but deco obligation was washed off by the time I had ascended to around 10-12m. The Garmin still asked for a safety stop, but the Ratio only started a safety stop time if I did not exceed NDL at all. This is possibly due to the "DECO CTRL" setting, which is worded very poorly with a triple negative in the manual:
So DO NOT deactivate the DECO CTRL if you don’t want to carry out the Safety Stop.
The display is excellent, and the buttons very easy to use. I like the way that the screen shows what the buttons are, without having to memorise what each button does in which context. Although not all screens have it - not sure if that's an omission or by design.
I love my Garmin Descent, but my eyes love the Ratio.
I had a couple of queries that I sent to Ratio support, and I found them very engaging and helpful.