... that has been popping up in different threads over time.
poseidan:
One of the features I've been looking at is the ability to switch set points mid dive. How often do you guys do this, or do you think this feature is not needed. I'm new to this board so any commentary or opinion is welcomed.
Generally, there are two sides to it, those who insist to have it, and those who couldn't care less because they can always manually override the electronics anyway.
The Inspiration and Megalodon allow you to change the setpoint.
The former needs the switch from shallow water setpoint to the chosen setpoint for the dive to be made manually, which also means it can be overlooked and make a serious difference in your deco obligations.
On the Meg I'm not sure, even less so as the electronics are still evolving from what I understand.
In contrast to that is the Prism Topaz, which has a shallow water default setpoint of .7, and pre-dive adjustable dive setpoints of .7, 1.0, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4. A pressure transducer is inside loop, automatically switching between the two at around 15-18ft. Early prototypes were made with dive adjustable setpoint controls, but with an eye on safety and user friendlyness discarded.
If you want to increase the pO2 during deco for example, you can just manually do so.
So in regards to the selectable setpoint during the dive you have safety vs. convinience (of not maintaining a raised set-point manually).
Some people claim that during a shallow water dive on the way to deeper waters the electronics will constantly switch setpoints and waste O2. And that the automatic switch to the high setpoint means you have to descent so slow that enormous amounts of deco will be accumulated on your way to the bottom.
As there are plenty of Prism divers diving deep it's less of an issue for them as for everyone else.
As with a lot of issues regarding any rebreather.
Add-ited:
LOL, see what I mean?
I started typing before Joe posted. Of course, if everybody would be watching their pO2 readouts as they're supposed to there would be fewer incidents and accidents. Problem is, not everyone does it all the time ... .