Teric as a daily and multi sport

[tursiops]

ANT+ is Garmin and Bluetooth is a standard so I do not feel that those are in the same ballpark. I really don't see them back stepping after the direction they chose....that is if their POD does as well as they say

But if it doesn't I dont think it would take until MK5 for PPS to look good enough to add support for.

Check out from 4:30

SubWave, cute name, totally proprietary. Big deal, I can already read my buddy's PPS transmitter.
Getting a little tired of people referring to the unreliability of current transmitters, when what they usually mean is the older generation of Suunto transmitters.
Good luck to them.

 

[waterone]

SubWave, cute name, totally proprietary.
.

Subwave would be the trademark name but yeah totally cute name!

Big deal, I can already read my buddy's PPS transmitter.
.

From a distances like Garmin states?

Getting a little tired of people referring to the unreliability of current transmitters, when what they usually mean is the older generation of Suunto transmitters.
Good luck to them.

Its marketing who cares what they say, its what it really offers you and how it works or doesn't for you

I'm still on the fence... i really want to hear more about actual use of the combo.

 

[Kevin Floyd]

The only reason I could think that you might want to watch someone else’s air is in a training situation. But if you are an instructor and you are trying to watch 3 other divers air wouldn’t you want a larger display?

 

[waterone]

The only reason I could think that you might want to watch someone else’s air is in a training situation. But if you are an instructor and you are trying to watch 3 other divers air wouldn’t you want a larger display?

I think since Garmin is just rolling out this tech there are far more interesting possibilities other than viewing someone's air such as location data. But viewing air is cool too and I could personally see using it for my kids.

Though I personally don't think any dive center would spend the money just to see just their customers air when fingers are free.

I guess as far as a larger screen that would depend on individual eyesight. With the tap function you can go through screens fast and i have had no issues reading the mk1 screens at any point during a dive.

 

[O-ring]

I am not qualified to comment on the multi-sport since I am still using a Forerunner 305 although my dedicated bike computer is newer. Anyway, from a daily wear perspective, IMHO, the Teric is big. Like way bigger than most mechanical watches that I already thought were pushing the "too big" envelope. I doubt I could get a dress shirt sleeve over it, but then again I haven't been wearing a lot of dress shirts lately either. I decided not to include it in a daily wear rotation and swapped the band out with a NATO band instead. Now it is guaranteed not to be daily wear since the band I put on it is blue camo.

 

[stuartv]

It looks to me like Garmin should have involved some actual divers in their design process. At least one diver that has been around for at least a little while. The Mk2i brings absolutely nothing new to the table, from a diver perspective, but Garmin doesn't seem to get that. Or, maybe they just want divers to not realize that...

Liquivision had "sonar" technology for their air integration transmitters. They even had (if I recall correctly) a module that you could mount on a boat, so that the boat crew could monitor the tank pressure of up to 10 divers in the water. I actually wonder if Garmin actually picked up the Liquivision tech to use as some basis for the Mk2i.

I think Liquivision also had a module that could be used as a boat locator. I.e. a sonar beacon that you could hang off the boat into the water, and Liquivision dive computers could orient on it in the water, so that you could find your way back to the boat, even if you were lost and/or in low viz.

And guess what? *gasp* Liquivision failed as a dive computer manufacturer. Even with all that superior tech. I have not been diving that long, so my personal anecdotes don't really mean much. But, I have only ever seen one of those Liquivision computers out in the wild - and that was one that a buddy of mine had and was trying to sell (after he got a Shearwater). I am highly skeptical that Liquivision sold very many of those (with AI), at all.

As for instructors jumping on a bandwagon for using these Garmins because of the 30' range... First, is an instructor going to buy a Descent Mk2i for him or herself, and then require all their students to buy at least a Garmin transmitter? No. Is an instructor (or shop) going to buy a fleet of the transmitters to put on rental reg sets, so that all their students can use them? Color me highly skeptical. HIGHLY skeptical. As in, VERY few will do that (my prediction).

And all of that really only applies to teaching Open Water. Once a student moves on to Continuing Education, they may still use rental gear. But, you hope they're going to buy their own gear and you certainly can't make them buy Garmin. And it's hard to imagine many shops/instructors insisting that ConEd students install a shop-provided transmitter on their personal reg, or requiring the student to use a shop reg set.

So, yeah. I don't see this feature of monitoring other divers' transmitters getting used much at all by instructors. Personally, I wouldn't really use it, even if I had it. I think it is important for my students to get in the habit of checking their own tank pressure. So, when I want to check what they have, I specifically want to ask them to tell me, not just look at my own computer and see what they have. I want them to have to look at their gauge, interpret it, and tell me what they have.

I guess a buddy pair/team might value that feature. Maybe a husband who wants to keep an eye on his wife's pressure (or vice versa). Or a parent who wants to keep an eye on their kid's pressure. But, I'd tell them the same thing I just said. Instead of monitoring behind their back, ask them. Make them check their gauge and tell you.

I said when the OG Descent came out that if they made an AI version that would work with PPS transmitters, I would buy one. I still feel that way - but with the caveat now that Garmin would also have to unhandicap the Subsurface developers and allow them to add support to Subsurface to download via Bluetooth. This is 2020. Being required to use a cable to download sucks. And, right now, you can only download directly from a Descent to Subsurface via USB cable. That is just Garmin trying to force people to keep it in their ecosystem. Even if they added support for PPS transmitters, that would still keep me away.

 

[ATJ]

It looks to me like Garmin should have involved some actual divers in their design process. At least one diver that has been around for at least a little while. The Mk2i brings absolutely nothing new to the table, from a diver perspective, but Garmin doesn't seem to get that. Or, maybe they just want divers to not realize that...

This statement is equally true for the Mk1. So many dumb decisions were made with the Mk1. They have rectified some but it still could have been so much better.

One example from the Mk1. It tracks your tissue loading of N2 (a good thing) and gives you a nice graph on the side of watch showing wear you are (also a good thing). When the N2 hits 80% it displays an alert "Approaching NDL". I've got the alert 20 minutes into a dive with over 30 minutes of NDL. I have even got it on my safety stop with my NDL showing as 99+. Yes, my N2 was showing as 80% but the alert has nothing to do with NDL. Also, that alert only ever displays once on a dive. So when you do actually NDL, you get no alert at all.

Let me add another dumb thing. Every other dive computer I've had (even my Citizen dive watches) display Surface Interval right there on the main dive screen or even on the watch screen. You can see it easily while doing your SI and just before you get back into the water. On the Mk1 you have to press a button to see it and it only holds for about a minute so you'd have to keep pressing the button to check it

 

[waterone]

It looks to me like Garmin should have involved some actual divers in their design process. At least one diver that has been around for at least a little while. The Mk2i brings absolutely nothing new to the table, from a diver perspective, but Garmin doesn't seem to get that. Or, maybe they just want divers to not realize that...

Liquivision had "sonar" technology for their air integration transmitters. They even had (if I recall correctly) a module that you could mount on a boat, so that the boat crew could monitor the tank pressure of up to 10 divers in the water. I actually wonder if Garmin actually picked up the Liquivision tech to use as some basis for the Mk2i.

I think Liquivision also had a module that could be used as a boat locator. I.e. a sonar beacon that you could hang off the boat into the water, and Liquivision dive computers could orient on it in the water, so that you could find your way back to the boat, even if you were lost and/or in low viz.

And guess what? *gasp* Liquivision failed as a dive computer manufacturer. Even with all that superior tech. I have not been diving that long, so my personal anecdotes don't really mean much. But, I have only ever seen one of those Liquivision computers out in the wild - and that was one that a buddy of mine had and was trying to sell (after he got a Shearwater). I am highly skeptical that Liquivision sold very many of those (with AI), at all.

As for instructors jumping on a bandwagon for using these Garmins because of the 30' range... First, is an instructor going to buy a Descent Mk2i for him or herself, and then require all their students to buy at least a Garmin transmitter? No. Is an instructor (or shop) going to buy a fleet of the transmitters to put on rental reg sets, so that all their students can use them? Color me highly skeptical. HIGHLY skeptical. As in, VERY few will do that (my prediction).

And all of that really only applies to teaching Open Water. Once a student moves on to Continuing Education, they may still use rental gear. But, you hope they're going to buy their own gear and you certainly can't make them buy Garmin. And it's hard to imagine many shops/instructors insisting that ConEd students install a shop-provided transmitter on their personal reg, or requiring the student to use a shop reg set.

So, yeah. I don't see this feature of monitoring other divers' transmitters getting used much at all by instructors. Personally, I wouldn't really use it, even if I had it. I think it is important for my students to get in the habit of checking their own tank pressure. So, when I want to check what they have, I specifically want to ask them to tell me, not just look at my own computer and see what they have. I want them to have to look at their gauge, interpret it, and tell me what they have.

I guess a buddy pair/team might value that feature. Maybe a husband who wants to keep an eye on his wife's pressure (or vice versa). Or a parent who wants to keep an eye on their kid's pressure. But, I'd tell them the same thing I just said. Instead of monitoring behind their back, ask them. Make them check their gauge and tell you.

I said when the OG Descent came out that if they made an AI version that would work with PPS transmitters, I would buy one. I still feel that way - but with the caveat now that Garmin would also have to unhandicap the Subsurface developers and allow them to add support to Subsurface to download via Bluetooth. This is 2020. Being required to use a cable to download sucks. And, right now, you can only download directly from a Descent to Subsurface via USB cable. That is just Garmin trying to force people to keep it in their ecosystem. Even if they added support for PPS transmitters, that would still keep me away.

Liquidvision doesn't have the backing that Garmin has so i would expect it Garmin products to have longer shelf life. I also would expect them to be around for the long haul as they have a pretty cool watch line that they continually develop anyhow.

While I agree that there isn't much new on this watch it doesn't have enough and new options on the stuff I like on my mk1 to definitely entertain the idea of getting it.

I can understand peoples views of wanting PPS txs to function with it but at the same time Garmin isn't the first to go down this particular proprietary road.

I think the air viewing of others at this stage is a novelty and while I would ask my kids to pay attention to their air it is still something I would look at. From what I have read is it seems to go much farther for signal transmission which would be good for other things.

I don't see dive shops jumping on it unless it offered something like location and a way cheaper price tag than the normal shop discount. But really it's going to have to offer more than a view for someone's tank...

Other than that I do like competition and to me, the more out there to push the field the better.

Now on the Bluetooth and subsurface that is silly of Garmin but it is not something that would sway me from purchase.

 

[stuartv]

Now on the Bluetooth and subsurface that is silly of Garmin but it is not something that would sway me from purchase.

I have not been diving that long (6 years), but so far, my experience is that dive computers come and go, but my log is forever.

For that matter, computer operating systems also come and go. When I started using Subsurface, my daily driver computer ran Linux. After a couple of years of that, I decided Linux sucks (for me) as a daily driver desktop OS, so I switched to using a Macbook Pro I had. I used that and hated it for also about 2 years. Now, I have finally gotten a new laptop and am running Windows.

Subsurface ran/runs on all 3 of those operating systems. Each time I switched to a new OS, I just downloaded the version of Subsurface for that OS, ran the install, and entered my Cloud credentials and, voila, my dive log was there.

As dumb as it might sound at first blush, proper compatibility with my chosen dive log software actually IS a reason I would choose to not buy any given computer. There are plenty of good computers that are compatible, so why would I spend any money on one that isn't? My log will outlast the computer....

And talking about the benefits of having all your data in one place, I have every dive I have ever done, downloaded from at least 6 different computers, from 4 different brands (Oceanic, Hollis, Seabear, and Shearwater) all in my one dive log. That seems way more useful, to me, than having my dive data in the same app as my bike/hike/run data.

 

[waterone]

I have not been diving that long (6 years), but so far, my experience is that dive computers come and go, but my log is forever.

Absolutely! I had to start with paper back before we had such nice toys like these star trek type of devices that fit into our pockets. Now I am spoiled and have been using Subsurface and currently Garmin (both dive and connect) to track it all. I have also tried numerous other dive logs but I haven't found any that I feel could replace the three I currently use.

For that matter, computer operating systems also come and go. When I started using Subsurface, my daily driver computer ran Linux. After a couple of years of that, I decided Linux sucks (for me) as a daily driver desktop OS, so I switched to using a Macbook Pro I had. I used that and hated it for also about 2 years. Now, I have finally gotten a new laptop and am running Windows.

Subsurface ran/runs on all 3 of those operating systems. Each time I switched to a new OS, I just downloaded the version of Subsurface for that OS, ran the install, and entered my Cloud credentials and, voila, my dive log was there.

This is where subsurface is king of being open and accessible and why it will continue to be used by many.

I do enjoy subsurface though currently I find I use Garmin dive more simply because it holds enough info, exports into subsurface and while this might sound silly it is ascetically pleasing to me and it is getting more intuitive to use and built up as time goes on. BUT Subsurface is my do all backup for when I choose to go a different direction with my computer choices. Which is extremely likely because manufacturers don't always follow the new wants that I feel that I need.

As dumb as it might sound at first blush, proper compatibility with my chosen dive log software actually IS a reason I would choose to not buy any given computer. There are plenty of good computers that are compatible, so why would I spend any money on one that isn't? My log will outlast the computer....

Makes absolutely logical sense and it is all about what we personally look for in our computers that we purchase. They have to work for us and our wants and needs and what bothers some surely will not bother or hinder all.

And talking about the benefits of having all your data in one place, I have every dive I have ever done, downloaded from at least 6 different computers, from 4 different brands (Oceanic, Hollis, Seabear, and Shearwater) all in my one dive log. That seems way more useful, to me, than having my dive data in the same app as my bike/hike/run data.

That's the big win for Subsurface and why I still update it with my info. WHEN I choose to go in a new direction I can have all my data and go. There might be a way to currently import all my previous subsurface data into Garmin but I haven't looked into that and a continuous number to start from has been good enough for me. But Garmin does have two apps and you can use one or both depending on what your wants are for any given day. I find for a quick look/edit into dives I use the dive app and for more detailed insight into my days or months the connect has some great features that i never knew that i wanted. It is cool that when I edit one of the Garmin apps that it changes the data in the other.