Suunto Mosquito records series of shallow dives?

[rab]

In a few dives in pools (8ft and 10ft), my Suunto Mosquito dive computer has "ended" the dive before I left the water. I've now had two open water dives that were shallow or at least began somewhat shallow that have displayed the same behavior.

The Mosquito "starts" a dive when the depth exceeds 4ft (1.4m? not looking at the manual right now). This is normally a good thing. HOWEVER, it also "ends" the dive when the depth falls above ~4ft/1.4m. On these shallow (staring) dives, the computer records a series of dive/SI/dive/SI/etc. Some of the "dives" are recorded as 0min, when the SI is less than 5min the "dive" is continued. I've had two separate ~40min dives record as a 3 or 4 dive series. I'd assumed that the pool dives with an average depth of not much more than 4ft were just too close to call. During the OW dives, I did go deeper (one 3-dive series recorded the middle dive as max 69ft), but I know that the Mosquito was in SI mode well below the typical 4ft level.

Does anyone have a similar experience? I don't know if I should be taking this back to the LDS or if this is "normal". I've done "regular" dives (directly from surface to >10ft and stay down) and there's no problem. (I haven't pulled out all the profile data for the shallow dive series because I don't have an interface cable and would have to manually record the values displayed from the Log mode.)

-Rob

 

[miketsp]

It is normal for the Suunto (mine is Vyper) to separate dives if you stay at or near the surface for more than some minutes. I don't remember exactly how many.
I remember once searching for a wreck in about 15m with poor vis and to save air we did a series of short dives with a lot of surface swimming time with snorkel and I think at the end we had about 8 dives logged.

 

[rab]

Except that these aren't STAYING at or near the surface. The Mosquito (mine at least) seems to do what I'll describe as "recalibrate" and fails to notice that the pressure has increased (much) beyond 4ft. I'll be 15ft under and see that I'm 2min into a surface interval!

-Rob

 

[miketsp]

Except that these aren't STAYING at or near the surface. The Mosquito (mine at least) seems to do what I'll describe as "recalibrate" and fails to notice that the pressure has increased (much) beyond 4ft. I'll be 15ft under and see that I'm 2min into a surface interval!

-Rob

That's really crazy. I've never seen anything like that.
Try to plot your profiles manually. Just the parts near the start and end of the dives. Just step through the log looking for sudden jumps in depth.
It should only consider you're at the surface if you're above 1.2m / 4ft.

 

[ReefGuy]

Sounds like your mosquito may have a problem. Several times I've surfaced to get a fix on my location, stayed a few minutes to look around, then continued the dive (sometimes more than once a dive). All recorded as one dive. I do a lot of diving at 15' with my mosquito and it's NEVER been recording SI at depth. Take it back to where you bought it, Suunto's service is excellent.

BTW, the minimum is 10 minutes, I think, before the mosquito considers it another dive.

 

[miketsp]

BTW, the minimum is 10 minutes, I think, before the mosquito considers it another dive.

Vyper is 5mins. I thought all the Suuntos were similar in this respect.

 

[Charlie99]

The Mosquito (mine at least) seems to do what I'll describe as "recalibrate" and fails to notice that the pressure has increased (much) beyond 4ft. I'll be 15ft under and see that I'm 2min into a surface interval!

Doesn't this answer your question? Clearly this is NOT normal and you should take it back to the LDS.

 

[rab]

Here's the profiles for the single "dive" that was recorded as a series of 4. The 0 in Dive 1 at 1:00 was when I did surface to try to "reset" the Mosquito and get it to realize that it was out of the water (contacts) and therefore at 0 depth. It had been a couple minutes into the dive -- not 40 sec! We had stopped at a platform and I returned to it before we continued so the depth before I surfaced was definitely more than 1.2m (all these depths are meters).

I'll probably ask at the LDS (yes, I did buy from the shop!), but I also would rather not worry about it and avoid these ultra-shallow dives that "cause" the problem to surface (pun intended).

-Rob


Dive 1
0:00 0
0:20 3
0:40 2.7
1:00 0 ==
1:20 3.9
1:40 4.5
2:00 5.2
2:20 5.2
2:40 5.2
3:00 5.2
3:20 5.2
3:40 4.9
4:00 4.9
4:20 4.9
4:40 4.5
5:00 4.2
5:20 3.9
5:40 3.9
6:00 4.2
6:20 3.9
6:40 0 ==
7:00 1.5
7:20 2.4
7:40 2.7
8:00 1.8
8:20 1.8
8:40 1.8
9:00 2.1
9:20 2.4
9:40 0
10:00

Dive 2
SI 0:05
0:00 0
0:20 4.9
0:40 3.6
1:00 3.6
1:20 0

Dive 3
SI 0:06
0:00 0
0:20 2.1
0:40 1.8
1:00 1.8
1:20 1.8
1:40 1.8
2:00 2.1
2:20 1.5
2:40 0

Dive 4
SI 0:10
0:00 0
0:20 1.5
0:40 0

 

[scubachris]

Rab,
If your what you described in your second post and referrenced by other members,
The Mosquito (mine at least) seems to do what I'll describe as "recalibrate" and fails to notice that the pressure has increased (much) beyond 4ft. I'll be 15ft under and see that I'm 2min into a surface interval!
Then definitely get to your LDS and get it replaced.

If that's not the case I think you need to look at a couple of things.
1) Your actual dive and the information reported in the mosquito MEM/downloaded profile.
A couple of things are happening in the profile. The mosquito only saves to memory every 20 seconds so your actual dive may be slighly different than what you see in the history. This is especially the case if you are doing rapid ascents or decents.

Example
Dive 10
9:20 2.4
9:40 0
10:00
Looks like you went to the surface from 2.4M in 20 seconds or less so it shows the big jump.

If you start a new dive with less than 5 of SI the computer interprets this as a continuation of the previous dive and the dives are considered to be the same. The diving display will return and the dive number will remain unchanged. And the dive time will begin where it left off.

After 5 min on the surface, subsequent dives are by definition repetitive. The dive counter displayed in the planning mode will increment to the next higher number if another dive is made.

Other answers. The mosquito will turn on when deeper than .6m or 2ft. this happens automatically but if you don't have the computer in dive mode it goes through it check prior to starting recording. For example I can be on the surface, with mosquito in watch mode. I quickly dive, I can be at 20 feet before the mosquito is done running through the check. This is the same check as if you were on the surface and set the computer into dive mode. The one where the battery bars appear, the screen goes blank for second than goes into dive mode. This check shows your battery life as an aside.

Lastly the mosquito remain in surface mode at depths less than 1.2M or 4 feet, at depths greater than 1.2m or 4feet it will go into dive mode. So yes it can turn on at shallower depths, as I said earlier and stated in the manual at .6m or 2ft. But moving your arms, etc. can easily make changes at the 1-3 feet depths.

Hope this helps..

But again if your mosquito is staying in surface mode on the dive get it replaced.

One more thing. Even though it will auto activate in water I like to turn mine on before jumping in. Just a quick battery check, make sure everything is go, etc. Just like I check my other gear.

Chris

 

[widebody50]

Just a thought...

I just bought Mosquitos for my wife and I. Finished reading through the book Saturday night, but have not had them in the water yet.

One thing I remember reading, you should be careful to not wear it too tight, leaving enough room to fit a finger under the band when wearing the Mosquito. Perhaps you have over-tightened the band, and the available space for the auto-on feature to activate is restricted.

Rich