Suunto Vyper?

[leadweight]

Suunto computers have the shortest no-stop times of any popular dive computer. Personally, I don't think there is any good reason for this, and it makes it look like the lawyers are designing the product.

Perhaps it may be OK to say I have the air so I can do the hang, but some boat operators have a no mandatory deco stop policy. One asked to see my computer once after he asked me for my profile.

With respect to the Vytec, a recent test by Diver magazine found that RGBM 50 was only a few minutes less conservative than the standard Suunto setup.

The conservatism is such that it will often have its users out of the water before they (or buddies with other brands of computers) are ready. Quite a few of the nitrox-all-the-time crowd got there by using Suunto computers in search of more bottom time. Its kind of a shame because Suunto has the best feature set out there.

 

[jamiei]

I just checked out the downloaded profiles from a guy's cobra (same as vyper) that was doing 5 spearfishing dives a day for a few days in the Keys recently and he never had the cobra get fussy on him. He also had some sawtooth profiles due to hooking up with fish. This person is probably an average diver and since he was spearfishing for the first time, he was making a lot of the "errors" that the suunto's will penalize you so hard for. The fact is, the vyper/cobra are darn good computers and do exactly what a good computer is supposed to do... they give you much more BT than you will get using tables and they do an excellent job of keeping you from becoming a statistic. We are humans... we can screw anything up including our dive computers that are supposed to be dummy proof.


also... I personally usually have a sac rate of between .45 and .50 which is pretty good... I dive with a single al 80 usually and don't carry a pony bottle... and I can't remember my cobra ever sending me up before the amount of air in my tank sent me up on the first or even the 4th dive of the day. In short... I don't really see why anyone would complain... The fastest car on the road won't necessarily win you the race and that sure doesn't make it the best either. Sayings like "you can't have your cake and eat it too" didn't stick for nothing...

 

[diverbrian]

I am a relatively light breather. If my dive computer wants to make me stop for a few minutes to be on the safe side, that is all for the better.

I was diving in Florida last fall. There was a lot of pushing of limits on the parts of most of the divers down there. I dive a Vytec with a Cobra as a backup. Using EAN36, I don't think that I even came close to a deco limit. Many of the the people diving tables weren't comparing letters for some mysterious reason. :54:

So, I would prefer something a little more conservative to something that figures that I am in top notch shape and willing to run more risk of a trip to the chamber. I know some people that set the "conservative" modifiers for that reason.

 

[sapphire]

I was diving in Florida last fall. There was a lot of pushing of limits on the parts of most of the divers down there. ...Many of the the people diving tables weren't comparing letters for some mysterious reason. :54:

Yeah, I remember that Brian. My Vyper insisted I sit out the last dive that day. Well, I could have gone to 40 feet for 30 minutes or something like that... must have had something to do with my buddy that day :biggrin:, or the buried ray at 80 feet that demanded lots of pictures be taken of him...

 

[diverbrian]

Yeah, I remember that Brian. My Vyper insisted I sit out the last dive that day. Well, I could have gone to 40 feet for 30 minutes or something like that... must have had something to do with my buddy that day :biggrin:, or the buried ray at 80 feet that demanded lots of pictures be taken of him...

That ray seemed to think that we didn't know he was there. There were also a couple of huge Morays that made a home in the shipwreck.

If I recall, a couple of the divers there were diving EAN40 too. That made a pretty good difference in bottom time.

 

[diverbrian]

There are two other issues that I just picked up on where the Suunto computers will penalize you fairly heavily.

One of them is surface intervals less than one hour and the other many repetitive dives. When I was in Provo, I ran into the repetitive dives issue (especially after our night dive in the middle of the week). I have run into it more than once on the short S.I.'s. Most of the dive boats that I have been on will not allow an SI less than an hour unless the next dive is in the neighborhood of 30 ft. (In the "not a dive, but extended safety stop" category.)

 

[Laser]

There are two other issues that I just picked up on where the Suunto computers will penalize you fairly heavily.

One of them is surface intervals less than one hour and the other many repetitive dives. When I was in Provo, I ran into the repetitive dives issue (especially after our night dive in the middle of the week). I have run into it more than once on the short S.I.'s. Most of the dive boats that I have been on will not allow an SI less than an hour unless the next dive is in the neighborhood of 30 ft. (In the "not a dive, but extended safety stop" category.)

I've had to ignore my Vyper on several occasions.

 

[sapphire]

There are two other issues ...where the Suunto computers will penalize you fairly heavily.

One of them is surface intervals less than one hour and the other many repetitive dives.

That was the problem, remember we had to get back to the dock early so the SI was about 40 minutes, I think...

 

[diverbrian]

That was the problem, remember we had to get back to the dock early so the SI was about 40 minutes, I think...

We were diving for three days. The Suunto's like it when you take a break from diving after a couple of days. On the third and fourth days, they really penalize you. I learned that in Provo, LOL.

 

[LUBOLD8431]

Well, Ive been to Bonaire three times with my Suunto computers (Cobra, Stinger) and have done 25, 20, and 30 dives in one week. No issues, no penalties, etc. You have to be slow on ascent, and do a nice safety stop (usually 10 minutes or more in the shallow zone). I have never had any issues with Suunto computers on a week long trip with lots of dives (5 or 6 per day with one hour surface interval). All of my dives were over an hour, and most were multi level dives with the deepest point being around 60-80 ft. Very few dives to 100-125, but made early in the day.