The Shearwater Teric Announced

[Kent Cole]

A brightness sensor, like on phones, would be awesome. Particularly if it has access to even higher levels of brightness.

I kind of like that it allows manual control. There are computers like the scubapro g2 that, while having an auto bright features, loves to blind you on night dives. I do like having a button that let's me dim it myself. If that's what you're referring to!

 

[BoatingDave]

My only issue, and someone else may have encountered this, other than TTS. Is that on occasion I've found the compass to be about 10-20 degrees off from actual north, or at least what all my other compasses say. On top of that I ran into several moments where the compass seemed to lock into where it was and no longer position, while under water. I speculated it may have something to do with my diving with arms crossed and then flipping my wrist over to check it. But basically when this happened if I held my wrist up, and spun a full 360 under water, the north would stay locked all the way. I corrected it when I came back to the surface and recalibrated the compass, still wasnt the best experience though Haha. I am kind of curious if anyone else encountered it.

I haven’t had a compass issue underwater, but did have a similar issue to yours while on land playing with the teric. My compass seemed to be way off and required a recalibration, then another time it was locked thinking I was somewhere previously. Like it wasn’t updating its positioning. A recalibration easily fixed it, but I was thinking that wouldn’t be good if I were at depth relying on the compass!

 

[loosenit2]

I haven’t had a compass issue underwater, but did have a similar issue to yours while on land playing with the teric. My compass seemed to be way off and required a recalibration, then another time it was locked thinking I was somewhere previously. Like it wasn’t updating its positioning. A recalibration easily fixed it, but I was thinking that wouldn’t be good if I were at depth relying on the compass!

Interesting. I guess we will have to make it a standard practice to recalibrate Teric if you travel any distance, say more than 100 miles, since the Teric does not have an onboard GPS like the MK1.

 

[stuartv]

Calibration being off should only affect absolute accuracy. Being off should not have anything to do with it locking up. Nor should it be off by more than the difference in declination between where it was calibrated and where you are at the time.

To me, the main thing is to calibrate once. Calibrate all your electronic compasses once, at the same time, in the same place, so they all agree.

After that, it shouldn't matter very often, if the compass "true" North is off from real true North.

I have never used a compass underwater where the specific number of heading really mattered. I just need to be able to set a Mark and then have the Mark continue to indicate in the same direction the whole time. If it's off by the amount of a declination change, that would not really be a problem (for me, for any dive I've ever done).

If a Teric is getting off by some amount that is not just a declination change, or if it's locking up or losing its calibration, that seems to be a serious bug. The only way I could see that being acceptable is if it's because the Teric ran completely out of all charge on the battery. Even then, it seems like it would store the compass calibration in non-volatile memory. Locking up or losing calibration while you're actually using it is not good at all.

 

[Vicko]

In a lot of my compass diving I don't take a heading as i'm not going to be returning to the same spot I started at. If i think that the shore is north, and the compass is taking me south I would be really really screwed quite often as I'm doing a swiming deco and would not notice the problem untill way to late.

Never had any trouble with my Petrel or Suntoo in regards to compass direction (even if they always disagree by 10 degrees or so).

 

[stuartv]

In a lot of my compass diving I don't take a heading as i'm not going to be returning to the same spot I started at. If i think that the shore is north, and the compass is taking me south I would be really really screwed

Fortunately, that would never happen if the compass is only off by an incorrect declination setting. You might swim to the shore at a bit different angle than intended, but a declination error would only be, at most, something around 15 degrees, I think. Never anywhere near 180. Or even 90.

But, yeah, if the compass loses its calibration mid-dive, that could be bad. Really, for anyone in the water depending on their compass.

 

[Saniflush]

But, yeah, if the compass loses its calibration mid-dive, that could be bad. Really, for anyone in the water depending on their compass.

I bet I could follow my bubbles on their journey and figure it out on the surface.

 

[stuartv]

I bet I could follow my bubbles on their journey and figure it out on the surface.

That is not always a safe option. Surfacing in the shipping channel of the Saint Lawrence River to "fix" your compass could get you run over. Just for one example...

 

[MargaritaMike]

Sounds to me that along with you SPG to back up your available gas, you need another compass to back up your Teric. Hmmmm! Do you think another computer is necessary to back up the dive info?

Cheers -

 

[stuartv]

Sounds to me that along with you SPG to back up your available gas, you need another compass to back up your Teric. Hmmmm! Do you think another computer is necessary to back up the dive info?

Cheers -

LOL! You're so funny!

I don't feel a need for an SPG to backup my AI. I do always dive with 2 computers. And as nice as the Teric compass is (I haven't had an issue with mine, yet), if I dive where compass readings are really important for my safety, I carry a physical compass anyway.