Thinking about options to upgrade my divecomputer

[Nick_Radov]

However, looking through the Garmin manual, ascent rate doesn't appear to be one to trigger a lockout. Only violating a decompression ceiling for more than 3 minutes will trigger a 24 hour lockout, and that will be after the dive disabling the Single gas, Multi gas, and CCR dive modes.

Garmin allows you to disable deco lockout both before and after a dive. I leave it turned off.

Descent Mk2/Mk2s Owners Manual - Dive Setup

www8.garmin.com

 

[Belzelbub]

Garmin allows you to disable deco lockout both before and after a dive. I leave it turned off.

Yep. Same here. That was probably the first thing I did. I like Garmin’s approach. Leave it to the diver if they want to disable this or not.

 

[bradlw]

which computer has teh easiest or most intuitive user interface?
I mean doesn't require you to remember that this button is like 'select' and that button is like 'scroll left', and if you hold 'scroll right'+'scroll up' at the same time it takes you straight into that mode, etc....
or that has tons of abbreviations in the menu and display

Something with plain english and a very easy to navigate menu?

 

[Cheizz]

Both Shearwater and the newest generation of Ratio computers have clear indicators of what each button does, on every screen. I'm not sure about other computers.

 

[Joneill]

Any computer that has a free diving option will not allow scuba diving for a period afterwards.

Wrong - the Teric will just clear your deco/ tissues when switched to Freedive mode and again when switched back to dive mode - so you would need to be cognizant of and account for that if planning to scuba dive - freedive - scuba dive.

Shearwater doesn't have a free diving options

Also wrong (maybe do a little research before you post incorrect info?):

Yes a low batt will get a lockout if it dies because the computer can't track what you've done. I sure if you lost batt live during a dive on a Shearwater it wouldn't be happy

But a SW would not lock you out for subsequent dives if it went dead during a dive! You might lose deco/tissues info so, for subsequent dive planning, it would be on you to account for the lost history.

In reality, it’s really a non-issue though as you’d have to be an idiot and be ignoring low battery warnings as, on a typical 60 min recreational dive, a SW won’t go from OK charge to low battery to dead!

 

[Belzelbub]

Something with plain english and a very easy to navigate menu?

I haven't used the Ratio, but the Shearwater line are very easy to use.

My buddy once asked me how easy/difficult it was to change the gas mix on my Perdix. Rather than show him, I handed him the computer and told him how to turn it on. He figured it out in about 30 seconds. He'd never used any Shearwater computers, nor read the manual. His only exposure was seeing mine on my wrist.

 

[Joneill]

which computer has teh easiest or most intuitive user interface?
I mean doesn't require you to remember that this button is like 'select' and that button is like 'scroll left', and if you hold 'scroll right'+'scroll up' at the same time it takes you straight into that mode, etc....
or that has tons of abbreviations in the menu and display

Something with plain english and a very easy to navigate menu?

SW Teric has prompts for all 4 buttons on every screen:

 

[Dana23]

Suunto will also lock you out for fast ascents and for yo-yo profiles.

Which Suuntos do this? The D models will advise a few seconds extra on your safety stop, which you are allowed to ignore and nothing bad will happen to the DC. It will just recalculate a shorter no-deco time for your next dive, unless you prolong your surface interval.