The wait is over: Suunto Eon Steel is here

[Omisson]

i disagree.

tec divers need reliable hardware
as gauge

plan your dive, dive your plan.
if you plan your dive, you know how much gas you need.
if you dive your plan, the gauge is only here to tell you didn't lost any gas
if you dive your plan, you know you have enough gas.
i have the deco's gauges under my eyes.

so, why lost money with transmitters ?
keep it for helium.

I've had this fight a dozen times. Tec diving is redundancy focused... So why the problem here? Redundancy vs Failure point. In contingency and emergency conditions I'd rather have the extra information.

I dive Sidemount for Cave and Wreck - so and rely on my mechanical SPGs but like the luxury of the air integration reporting my actual consumption rates, estimated OOA time, and as a true sac rate reporter. I connect them to a 6" hp hose to route them down the cylinder removing the bulk/entanglement issue of a bud on the first stage. It can think and adjust on the fly. It's out of the way. What's the downside? A minor failure point. Not much different then the spg itself or the dive itself.

I use a petrel and an Icon HD currently (redundancy) my back up was a Niteq Q till the Hollis TX 1 came out... Like the idea of transmitters... It's another tool.

---------- Post added October 23rd, 2014 at 07:15 PM ----------

Hi Omission. Thanks for the feedback. Noted.

What would you consider as a reasonable price range for 3 transmitters? Would it be worth offering 3 transmitters as a package?

Thanks,

-Jukka

It depends - is size improving? For example the mares icon transmitter is much bigger than the hollis tx1 transmitter. Makes streamlining (a tec concern) difficult unless mounted on a 6-9" hp hose and banded to the tanks like the longhose.

Is signal strength, function, and duration improving? The mares is bidirectional but it's limited range is a pain... And it drains batteries quick.

How about update capability for firmware as you figure out bugs? That would be huge the older mares transmitters need to be factory serviced to upgrade the firmware.

How about battery replacement... On a Hollis it's easy... The icon is a pain...

I got the Hollis transmitters on sale for 250 each (4) the Mares for 225 each on sale (3) but they retail for much more. I'd love to see the costs come down to the 200 each range especially if I'm forking over 1200 for a computer when I buy 3 or more.

How about a sidemount software configuration that permits the swapping of regulators for both sidemount tanks to be considered - suggesting time for the regulator swaps every 250-750 psi user programmable... using both tanks together in estimating consumption rates, time to surface, time to OOA etc? Really giving sidemounters a reliable yardstick?

Also Remember the petrel is now only 800 now - a workhorse trimix tec computer but no AI - it does do CC with a Fischer cable though...and the Hollis TX1 is 500 or so on sale and that's full trimix but digital -though it has AI. Mares claims the icon will have three gas trimix available soon, but it has AI and color maps... and a large screen with easy to read displays.

Competition requires knowing the needs of the market - what's out there now, and how to make it better. I think you guys make a solid product- just wish since you leaned into tec with this design that you followed through more,

 

[carlito35]

If you are listening, then take into future planning a true decompression tec function (you can set is as a mode like the Petrel is now doing with its recreational vs technical settings) so that TEC divers aren't locked out using your device.

Also consider reducing the price of transmitters into the relatively reasonable range as tec divers will need no less than three at all times.

Seems you had a great shot at a new market niche... But this isn't it.

It appears to me their marketing is to the much broader and more lucrative wealthy rec divers then some subset thereof. So the mares icon is priced about the same and has lousy reliability with its transmitters, lousy battery life and ease of replacement, a piss poor and unreliable charging system and it gets upgrades that do not address it's core failures. It is, when working, just a glorious display that trounces my predator or anything else on the market.

You may not like it for your very narrow desires but I for one would love to shed my icon and use this computer. Problem is suunto has pushed back roll out now till mid November and suunto is infamous for poor first run glitches. There is no holy grail in this market.

So given the eon steel cannot be bought now the wait is not over. . When will it be in dealer hands?

 

[lenscraft]

Hi guys - we here at Suunto are reading the comments and it's very valuable to get feedback. This also is the way to go forward since this release is really not the end of the EON story. Rather the beginning.

-Jukka, Product mgr at Suunto Diving

Jukka,

I have an Eon Steel pre-ordered, set to deliver in November. My biggest concern is lock-out. If it's possible, please offer a software update that allows me more control over this. I'd hate to be on a long dive trip and have my computer lock me out mid-dive.

Ron

 

[Lorenzoid]

Jukka,

I have an Eon Steel pre-ordered, set to deliver in November. My biggest concern is lock-out. If it's possible, please offer a software update that allows me more control over this. I'd hate to be on a long dive trip and have my computer lock me out mid-dive.

Ron

I've always owned Suunto computers, and I'm not really familiar with other brands, but I have long been curious whether the "48-hour lock out" is an, uh, feature, peculiar to Suunto or is common among the various brands of recreational computers? Can anyone shed light on this?

I've never been locked out, as it's easy enough to avoid by properly following the computer's ascent plan, but I am curious. One would think that if consumers had a choice between a computer with this "feature" and the same computer without it, the choice would be obvious.

 

[fire_diver]

I've never been locked out, as it's easy enough to avoid by properly following the computer's ascent plan, but I am curious. One would think that if consumers had a choice between a computer with this "feature" and the same computer without it, the choice would be obvious.

Are you using your computer to follow a decompression schedule? There is a huge difference between an NDL ascent plan and a deco ascent plan.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Are you using your computer to follow a decompression schedule? There is a huge difference between an NDL ascent plan and a deco ascent plan.

Yes, there is a huge difference, but it's irrelevant to my question. (If a Suunto computer exceeds an NDL, then it displays a schedule that includes stops, or more precisely, an ascent ceiling and floor, and it's easy enough to comply with that.)

So my question is still as above: Is the lockout feature a Suunto idiosyncrasy or do many other brands of recreational computers have it?

 

[oszillodrom]

So my question is still as above: Is the lockout feature a Suunto idiosyncrasy or do many other brands of recreational computers have it?

According to the manual, my Mares Puck would lock me out (already during the dive) if I violated a deco stop. I'm not happy about it, but I don't do deco dives. The 48h lockout is resettable with a code btw.

 

[carlito35]

Yes, there is a huge difference, but it's irrelevant to my question. (If a Suunto computer exceeds an NDL, then it displays a schedule that includes stops, or more precisely, an ascent ceiling and floor, and it's easy enough to comply with that.)

So my question is still as above: Is the lockout feature a Suunto idiosyncrasy or do many other brands of recreational computers have it?

Mares icon which I have owned both versions for three years now locks you out for 24 hours for certain violations but you can clear or bypass that lockout by a simple menu bypass.

 

[oreocookie]

Yes, there is a huge difference, but it's irrelevant to my question. (If a Suunto computer exceeds an NDL, then it displays a schedule that includes stops, or more precisely, an ascent ceiling and floor, and it's easy enough to comply with that.)

So my question is still as above: Is the lockout feature a Suunto idiosyncrasy or do many other brands of recreational computers have it?

I think pretty much all recreational computers have some version of a lockout... the issue is WHEN they lock out. Locking out while you're still in the water like the Eon (and possibly other Suuntos, honestly not sure) will, is dangerous in my mind, whereas locking out after getting you back to the surface (which, according to the manual, is what my Oceanic Veo 3.0 does) says "please refrain from being stupid for the next 24 hours". Oceanic's lockout period is only 24 hours.

On a rec dive where you accidentally go into deco, following the schedule should not be difficult and easy to avoid a lockout... but if you're doing planned deco and have to cut a stop short for some reason, I'd rather have a computer that will adjust my shallower stops but still give me deco info to get to the surface than a computer that stops giving me a deco schedule altogether.

(FWIW, the Veo is my Petrel's backup)

 

[Lorenzoid]

Interesting replies to my question--thanks. So it seems that including a lockout feature--something that is apparently characteristic of most recreational computers--is one more bit of evidence that Suunto is attempting to toe the line between recreational and technical. I get the impression that this sort of ambiguity on the part of Suunto irks some divers. I think some divers might prefer that Suunto take a clear position, the way some other manufacturers do: it's either a technical computer or it's a recreational computer (or it can be switched between clearly defined tec and rec modes).