My rate will change over various portions of the dive.... Manual entry will just be a straight line calculation between manual points... With AI the rate is calculated based on sample rate. Likely then averaged to a single value.
Question Track my air consumption with dive computer
- Thread starter elZub
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Belzelbub
Contributor
The rate over the entire dive will be the same. What will be different is that your air pressure line will vary more with the AI computer. Subsurface will plot a smoother line if using a non-AI computer.
With AI, you will also be able to see portions of the dive with higher or lower consumption rates.
Thanks I don't really care, at least for now, about the portion of the dive is enough the overall
This is assuming you do correctly keep track of the gas data manually. I've been recording (manually so far) my gas data from practically all my dives. Several factors don't help with accuracy. First of all, SPG's are not so accurate (+- 10 bar min resolution and occasionally big differences among different gauges) and if you do several dives, you'd better have a way to record these soon after each dive, if not things do get mixed up (was the 40 bars at the end of the first dive or the third??).
Today I did my first ever dive with AI. Things were so much simpler.
My 2c? Is AI really necessary?? Not really (keep in mind that the vast majority of divers don't bother with such "details" ). Does it help having AI?? Of course. Does it worth it? If you can afford it and you plan to dive a lot, why not?
Belzelbub
Contributor
This is a good point. Whenever I dive with my own gear, I use an AI computer, and have for many years. I do also do some dives using other gear, so no AI on those dives.
A couple recent examples from my log.
Dive with AI: Start pressure = 3226 psi, End pressure = 848 psi. (I did a couple other dives that day, and didn't need to write anything down until I downloaded my log.
Dive without AI: Start pressure = 3300 psi, End pressure = 2000 psi.
Agreed. Another point that is probably especially useful for new divers, as they may not have a real good grasp on their air consumption. Every AI computer that I've used had a gas time remaining calculation. Once it has enough data to get a feel for how quickly the psi is dropping, it will let you know how much longer you can stay at that depth before it's time to head up.
This is the biggest issue I'm having. I put the numbers into Subsurface and get the SAC rate, but I think I'm going to need a big sample size before I'm comfortable trusting a number. Reading an SPG, even assuming it's accurate, you'd be lucky to be within 50-75 PSI of your start and end numbers, and then remembering them is another issue. I've started using the bezel on my dive watch to record the start number - if it's 3100 psi, I turn the dial to 31 minutes past the hour.
That's a good trick. For me remembering start and end pressures for one dive is usually ok(-ish). Two or more dives and it gets tricky. On dive trips I keep a paper logbook just for this (and nitrox % if used) and I write them down as soon as possible.
Keep in mind though, for long term, so high accuracy is not needed. Over time and after several dives a clear trend in your gas consumption will form.
You dont need an Air Integrated Computer to track you SAC rate, just a good online Log Book. With that being said, I use the Shearwater Perdix 2 https://amzn.to/3GwjhEt with Air Integration. It is one of the least expensive air integration computers but IMO it is one of the best. Large screen, lots of features including multiple gases, Bluetooth, removable battery, compass and more. The computer will run you about $1100 and the Transmitter is another $400. I have also tried the Aqua Lung i770r but returned it because it has a lot of issues. Personally, I will never dive without Air Integration because its so convienent to look on your wrist and see you NDL and Pressure in one quick glance. I do have a backup SPG just in caseHello divers!
I wish to track my air consumption,
I wish to see my improvement and my weakness based on a well know(or not know) dive site, to use as "gym" increasing/decreasing stress, activities and so on.
I see many computer with transmitter.
But I would like a suggestion form you.
I don't see me in the next 5 years doing tech courses.
So I don't need a computer to handle many gases
Since 2014 I'm using a simply cressi Leonardo, and it brought me in amazing dive around the world, I never asked more from a computer..maybe a bit of more readably on nigh dive and less conservative compared to other brands.
Now I wish to buy something to track accurate my air consumption.
Lete know
Now, if you dont want a new computer with Air Integration, simply use the SSI logbook. It is completely free and you dont need to be certified through SSI to use it. You can enter all the details about your dive and it even has locations and popular dive spots in the system. It has a place for type of gas you were using, depth, average depth, cylinder size and type. You just enter in your starting and ending pressure and it will calculate and log your SAC Rate
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