Smart Com are they dangerous

[Ted99]

I own a Uwatec Smart Com and a few months ago it decided to lock up on a deco dive whilst I was on my way back up.

The battery life before the dive was more than enough and no stops had been omitted. The computer has now been away for repair for 3 months. I actually only had it in my posession for 3 months and about 100 dives.

Having so far had no joy from Scubapro as to how this could of happened and whether or not there could be a problem with the Smart Com computers.

Has anyone else had a problem with the Smart Com computers?

Knowing Uwatecs previous reputation for Dive computer problems I thought this maybe of interest to all divers.

Ted

 

[Diversauras]

Ted99 once bubbled...
Knowing Uwatecs previous reputation for Dive computer problems I thought this maybe of interest to all divers.

Ted

I have been diving Uwatec for years and have never had a problem with deco dives or non deco dives. I have maybe a hundred dives on my smartcom and have necer seen any indication of it doing anything out of the ordinary. I have a Nitroxpro on my wrist as a back-up and except for maybe a foot difference in depth they are identical.

 

[Brules]

I don't think it is a defective problem per say, it is a known fact that if you go into deco with the smart com and violate stops, they WILL lock you out. Same as the Suuntos at least as far as I know, but i very well could be wrong.

The lock out on both the Uwatec & Suunto is one of the things that steered me away from them when I recently bought a new dive computer. I went with the Oceanic VT Pro, as it won't lock you out if you violate stops.

It does seem extremely odd that you haven't goten your computer back though.....maybe they are going to replace it with a new updated Smart Com that has the improved bubble supression display?

If you sent it in through your LDS, I would think they would be able to get someone on the line that could give you a straight answer.....if not, they must not be trying hard enough. But Uwatec is usually really good about fixing stuff.

Good luck and report back what the hold up is/was.

Justin

 

[pufferfish]

Brules I emailed SP about that update on the display and they said it doesn't exist and to 'let the bulletin boards know this'. Of course this could be just a marketing ploy to get rid of the old stock but have you actually seen a 'newer' one? I think it was in May that I received the reply from SP.

 

[ZoCrowes255]

pufferfish once bubbled...
Brules I emailed SP about that update on the display and they said it doesn't exist and to 'let the bulletin boards know this'. Of course this could be just a marketing ploy to get rid of the old stock but have you actually seen a 'newer' one? I think it was in May that I received the reply from SP.

I just bought a new Smart Com right out of the factory and it has the same display that I have seen on older models.

 

[Brules]

pufferfish once bubbled...
Brules I emailed SP about that update on the display and they said it doesn't exist and to 'let the bulletin boards know this'. Of course this could be just a marketing ploy to get rid of the old stock but have you actually seen a 'newer' one? I think it was in May that I received the reply from SP.

I am sure they did..... Why would they admit to it, when they hid the fact that their old Air X Nitrox could possibly kill you for 7-8 years?

1) A LDS (where I did NOT buy my comp from btw) told me that yes, the bubble supression if enabled would cover you NDT, and that it had been fixed, but they didnt have the new units yet and were still geting the old ones. This is a LDS that sells 90% Uwatec Dive computers, possibly 95+%. They had 1 other computer in the display, a very low level Aeries. So he was pushing the Uwatec HARD.

2) I guess this guy (Robert Delfs) made this all up:

Smart Com/Smart Pro Possible Problem

The problem is that Uwatec has chosen to remove no-decompression time limit information from the display when bubble suppression is activated, using this location to show the "advisory" no-stop time and level stop information.

The very uncertanty of the above statements is what steered me away from the Uwatecs. I REALLY liked them, their layout is nice, and they are so easy to read, but I just didn't trust the new bubble supression stuff enough to go with it. I know I could just disable it......but that kind of defeats the purpose of it doesn't it?

Brules

 

[ssra30]

I also have the Smartcom and this is definitely the most annoying aspect of it. After using the bubble suppression feature for awhile, I find that it is really rather useless. Once the bubble suppression warning things is activated, it goes away very quickly when I start to make the slow ascend and by the time I reach 30 ft depth, the warning always went away and I am left with the 99 minutes duration limit again.
After playing with it for awhile, essentially the bubble suppression does nothing much more than just a reduction in the total bottom time at depth a bit and if you do slow ascend, the Smartcom's advise to do an optional short shallow stop almost always disappear. I still like the Smartcom layout and other features enough but I think the bubble suppression is a total gimmick and eventually I just left it off all together.

 

[pufferfish]

Brules I found the email I received from Scubapro dated May 9th, 2003 on this matter. Here it is for your amusement. Richard is the SP representative for Canada and he said his answer came from Walt Willis the head of technical services for SP in California.

We will try to explain it like this....

If you set your dive to have level stops, this means you are planning for a conservative dive......when you get your level stop, it is time to ascend...this renders
irrelevant the need for a deco time - the deco time goes away...the level stop takes the place of the deco time...the dive is over and its time to go up.

If you ignore the level stop and you want to keep diving, the computer will cascade down from Level (example) 3 to 2, and if you further ignore that, it will keep
cascading down until you reach the base level which is level zero. At this time, the computer will give you an indicator for a deco stop....no longer optional now it
is mandatory.

RULE OF THUMB : If you set the level it means you plan to dive that level.

This is the easiest way Walt has advised me to explain it.

Most important, please let your bulletin boards know that UWATEC has no plans to get rid of this superior function. Our UWATEC users love it.

Best Regards,
Richard


I would tend to agree with ssra30 in that the bubble suppression is mainly a gimmick. I guess if you had a diagnosed PFO you might want to use this feature but other than that use of the feature unless your buddy wants his bottom time cut very short you'll be surfacing long before he does as Robert Delfs points out. That being said SP told me to just turn it off if I didn't like the feature which I think is what most people do. The computer does have a lot of other nice features like the infrared downloading of dive profile and the nice large display. I have kept on using my flawless Uwatec Aladin Pro and will wait to see next year if the Smartcom v2.0 magically appears on the market:mean:

 

[pufferfish]

I also find it interesting that Rodales Scubadiving magazine has left that negative but excellent review posted. I am sure it has caused Scubapro a lot of headaches especially the mention of potential liability problems. If SP was your best advertising customer you wouldn't want to offend them with a review like that.

I don't think I have seen a SP ad in Rodale's for a very long time,...I wonder if there is a connection here.

 

[Brules]

Well that explains why they did it that way, I just don't think I would have been comfortable with the NDT being removed from the display until the level stops were accomplished. With as much room as those big screens of theirs have, you would think they could have come up with a way to do both. I still really like the Uwatec, I just don't think the SmartCom was the right choice for me at this time.

I am REALLY loving my VTPro, it's display is nice, I just wish some other companies would take ScubaPros lead and make some wrist mounts in a shape OTHER than round!!! If they Smart Com wrist mount hoseless had been out, I would have really looked at it, as I LOVE the AirZ's display (I wish someone else would go that route for info diplay!!!).

Thanks for the info Puffer, it is a little clearer now.



Brules