I had a strange experience with my Shearwater Petrel on Saturday. At about an hour and fifty minutes into my dive in 52F water, my shearwater started flashing a low battery warning. A few minutes later, it reset underwater and seemingly started a new dive. The battery was replaced just a few weeks earlier and had only been used for a couple of dives. I'm willing to chalk up the poor battery performance to user error: it is possible the Alkaline battery used wasn't "fresh".
The really disturbing part is the shearwater dive log shows no record of ANY dive on Saturday. Even with a battery loss, you'd think the log would be written for the last recorded depth/time prior to battery loss. I'm going to send a note to Shearwater to see what they recommend. Anyone had similar experiences?
On a related note, I've ordered SAFT batteries as the lifespan of Alkaline batteries in the Petrel is pretty short.
I was going to ask the very same question as I happened upon this thread. I too experirnced a low battery icon yesterday as I was diving Dutch Springs,Bethleham,Pa...normally I've been diving Fla's much warmer Springs where the temps are normally around 70F +/-. Where as Dutch Springs is known for their thermocline...60 or so at the top to around 40 at the bottom.
If I'm reading this further.. is this a glitch in the soft/firmware??
Clay
Kimberton,Pa.