All my decompression diving has been based on either ratio deco or V-planner, so I have close to no experience with technical diving computers. I hope this is not too easy a question.
I recently did several technical dives with a buddy who was playing with a new computer. Our dives were planned using V-Planner, and we used bottom timers/watches for measuring devices. He had a new tech computer he wanted to play with, though, so he tried playing with the settings to see if he could come out reasonably close to what we had planned, and he wore it during the dive to see what would happen. Since he had no dives planned for a while after that, he did not care if it locked up.
As the dive progressed and we followed our ascent plan, the computer got increasingly cranky about our failure to follow its directions, even though our plan was really not all that different. During our 20 foot stop it got so angry it stopped advising us and went into error/gauge mode.
It got me wondering about something.
Are there any computers that have what I would call a reference mode or a backup mode? the idea of such a mode would be that the computer is a designated backup to the primary means of planning the dive. It could be the team wanted to use tables but liked the idea of having a computer backup, especially in case that unforeseen circumstances led to them having to deviate enough from their original plan that the tables they cut were too far off for comfort. It might be that the team is using computers but has designated one of the as the one to follow so that they can stay together on stops if the computer does not agree.
Maybe the only question I am really asking is if there are computers that won't lock up if you are not following them.
I recently did several technical dives with a buddy who was playing with a new computer. Our dives were planned using V-Planner, and we used bottom timers/watches for measuring devices. He had a new tech computer he wanted to play with, though, so he tried playing with the settings to see if he could come out reasonably close to what we had planned, and he wore it during the dive to see what would happen. Since he had no dives planned for a while after that, he did not care if it locked up.
As the dive progressed and we followed our ascent plan, the computer got increasingly cranky about our failure to follow its directions, even though our plan was really not all that different. During our 20 foot stop it got so angry it stopped advising us and went into error/gauge mode.
It got me wondering about something.
Are there any computers that have what I would call a reference mode or a backup mode? the idea of such a mode would be that the computer is a designated backup to the primary means of planning the dive. It could be the team wanted to use tables but liked the idea of having a computer backup, especially in case that unforeseen circumstances led to them having to deviate enough from their original plan that the tables they cut were too far off for comfort. It might be that the team is using computers but has designated one of the as the one to follow so that they can stay together on stops if the computer does not agree.
Maybe the only question I am really asking is if there are computers that won't lock up if you are not following them.