Transmitter Reliability

[tursiops]

But why end a dive early? I kept my SPG as a backup (in the unlikely event of AI failure) and to check tank pressure when I first set up my gear (many times not wearing the computer yet or it's turned off) to make sure I have a full tank.

We're going in circles now. Stuartv and I use button gauges on our tanks (post #10 and #11) so we can tell if they are full.
Fine, carry your SPG. I have at least as much faith in my AI as I do in my SPG. In my experience, a dive is likely to be terminated early for reasons other than an SPG or AI failure, unless it is an (old) Suunto transmitter.

 

[runsongas]

the pps transmitters are perfectly reliable (never had them completely stop functioning in about 80 dives, they drop the signal maybe 2 or 3 times during a dive but recover in 10 to 15 sec), but i still prefer a spg. checking air pressure a few times per dive is trivial and i got tired of changing the batteries on the transmitters. i have the older transmitters and they seem to have a bit of parasitic drain.

 

[Hatul]

The Scubapro transmitter has gone through improvements and is now flawless. I've had no dropouts in my G2.

 

[Flashx45]

I have a Mares Icon HD with about 60 dives on it. Never had a transmitter failure (or any other kind of computer failure, so far). I change out the transmitter battery after about every 15 dives, which is when the computer shows about half power remaining on the transmitter battery. I use to go longer before the battery needed changing, but that forced a bad habit on my part that I had to stop doing. The unit is turned on when you open the tank valve, so to save batteries I would delay this until the last possible moment. On more than one occasion I missed turning on the air until the dive check just before jumping in. That’s too late for me, so now I open the valve earlier in the gear up process and don’t worry about saving battery life.

Despite the demonstrated reliability of the Mares Icon HD, I still carry an SPG which I clip to my BCD. I still carry this because 1) it’s totally unobtrusive, I forget it’s there most times, 2) I’m a redundancy freak, which probably comes from my aviation background. The advantage of the integrated air reading on my wrist is that I check my air, out of habit, every few minutes during a dive. Really easy glancing at the wrist, not so easy if I have to reach for a clipped-on console all the time.

To each their own, but this works for me.

 

[stuartv]

the pps transmitters are perfectly reliable (never had them completely stop functioning in about 80 dives, they drop the signal maybe 2 or 3 times during a dive but recover in 10 to 15 sec), but i still prefer a spg. checking air pressure a few times per dive is trivial and i got tired of changing the batteries on the transmitters. i have the older transmitters and they seem to have a bit of parasitic drain.

I bought my Atom 3.0 and transmitter in later 2014 and it was New Old Stock, so no idea when it was actually made (but the Atom 3.1 was already out). I have used both (computer and transmitter) regularly since I bought them. I used them both yesterday and used the transmitter again today, with my Perdix AI. The transmitter has something over 200 dives on it, I guess, counting all the times it has been in the pool.

The transmitter is still on its original battery. I actually checked the transmitter battery status yesterday, on the Atom and it said "Good". The Perdix doesn't (AFAIK) give me a way to check transmitter battery status. It just displays a message when the battery gets low - and it never has, with either of my transmitters.

I'm not sure how often you were changing batteries that it became tiresome. Maybe yours were even older than mine and had a problem?

 

[runsongas]

Yea I got my transmitter with a vt pro. I had to change the battery every six months or so.

 

[stuartv]

The transmitter turns on and stays on when it has pressure to it. I.e. when you put your reg on a tank and open the tank valve.

Just curious, did you make sure to turn your tank off AND purge the reg set in a reasonable time after finishing each dive? Just turning the tank valve off would not let the transmitter turn off unless you also purged the reg after closing the tank valve.

Not trying to sound like a jerk or anything. Just curious if there's an explanation for such short battery life, or if it was really just some kind of bug they had back then that they have since sorted out. It could be a reason to possibly shy away from buying a used/older PPS transmitter if it was one that was more than a couple of years old.

 

[runsongas]

i take my regs off and soak them after diving, the transmitter should have been shutting off.

 

[stuartv]

Do you put them on tanks at the start of a boat ride, put pressure on them, then leave them that way for the whole boat ride and dive?

When I dive NC, if I do that, it would mean having the transmitter on for, potentially, 4 or 5 hours when I only dived less than 2 hours. Would definitely chew up a lot more battery than necessary.

 

[runsongas]

I shore dive mostly, they get turned on maybe 10 min before I walk in