Unfamiliarity with your dive computer

[Rick Inman]

I guess what really scares me is I have been using the same model computer for so long now (Delta VR3) that if I was diving with someone with a different kind, I might not know what to look for, let alone help them figure it out. Just a thought.

I'm not thinking you should need to. If a diver can't read his/her own time, depth and psi, and communicate it easily to their buddy, then the failure happened before anyone got in the water.

 

[charlesml3]

I see this all the time. Just last week I was with a group diving the Blue Hole in Belize and one of the divers there didn't really understand his computer. As we entered the stalagtites, his computer started beeping and blinking 130 where his pressure was normally displayed. He started to freak out thinking he was almost OOA. At some point, he realized he'd exceeded the set max depth setting and the computer was warning him.

Later, we got on the boat and he was all about "Thank God I had my backup pressure guage to really tell me what was going on." I was thinking : "Too bad you didn't spend that two hours on the plane reading the manual for your computer."

There's just no excuse for this kind of nonsense. This is your DIVE gear. The stuff that keeps you alive. Read and understand the manual. It's not that difficult.

-Charles

 

[Twistedarts]

Being rather a noob myself, I can sorta understand. Even being a computer engineer I have been flustered with all the "bells and whistles" on these "easy" dive computers. I would like to purchase one to make my diving safer however, I'm lost as to which puter and what info is really needed. At least with tables and guages I know where I stand.
Flame away or help.
Jackson

 

[alexp206]

I love my Dive Rite Nitek Duo, it's not air integrated, but to me that's just another thing to worry about working. It has three buttons so there's none of this, "hold the button till it blinks" crap which to me just makes things even more confusing, and time consuming if you make a mistake. If you're really minimalist all you have to set is the fresh/salt setting and the EANx and go.

If you want you can set max depth and max time alarms (I set them to correspond with what the tables tell me, yes I always back my computer against the tables).

 

[spacemanspiff1974]

I can relate. I have a VR3, which is a fairly complicated computer. On my first dive with it to 150 ft for 20 minutes, I did my deep stop about 8 feet above where I was supposed to be. The computer was not happy for the rest of the day and I had to rely on vplanner .


I did spend the evening reading and re-reading my manual however.

 

[Teamcasa]

It is amazing how much better you understand your computer once you begin the grasp the nomenclature employed by different manufacturers. Many new divers play with their computer on the surface but the computer is designed to operate at depth. This causes new divers to get confused. It’s much easier to play with it and learn what all the buttons do sitting on the bottom of a pool. Sadly, few take the time to do it.

 

[sskasser]

A little off topic, but just goes to show, even when one thinks one is familiar with the gear, one can get surprised!

I had a funny problem with my VR3 recently. My first dive of the day, it worked normally. However, the remaining five dives of the weekend, it was either not coming on in dive mode at all, or registering very shallow depths. I dive with two computers, so no biggie at the time, other than fear of now owning a very expensive paperweight.

After doing some research, I decided to soak it in fresh water for twelve hours. First dive out afterwards, same problem...until...I took the comptuer off underwater (yeah, I was considering hurling it)...and suddenly it was reading correctly. It was then that I noticed a small "pimple" on my arm...voila! Mystery solved!

I'm normally either in a dry suit or 5mm wetsuit. The first dive I experienced problems was a "swimsuit only" dive, as were the following dives. Apparently, in making sure I was tightening the strap enough, I allowed it create a suction on my bare arm at the depth sensor hole as I descended. Thankfully, I caught this before sending it back for service!

 

[SlowRain]

I can relate. I have a VR3, which is a fairly complicated computer. On my first dive with it to 150 ft for 20 minutes, I did my deep stop about 8 feet above where I was supposed to be. The computer was not happy for the rest of the day and I had to rely on vplanner .


I did spend the evening reading and re-reading my manual however.

Yeah...no doubt about it, the VR3 is a fairly complicated unit...but once you get the hang of using it, I have found it to be pretty good. Having said that I always have dive tables cut from the VR3 for backup.

Funny how the algorithms work...I was diving off of a V-Planner profile a couple of weeks ago as the guy I was diving with wanted to use tables, on a dive to about 150', and the VR3 is very empathic about letting you know it was bent. On the plus side at least you aren't locked out.

 

[Oki Dirt Diver]

It is amazing how much better you understand your computer once you begin the grasp the nomenclature employed by different manufacturers. Many new divers play with their computer on the surface but the computer is designed to operate at depth. This causes new divers to get confused. It’s much easier to play with it and learn what all the buttons do sitting on the bottom of a pool. Sadly, few take the time to do it.

This is what I'll be doing tommorow(sitting on the bottom of a pool), I'm hoping it will help me get me a little more familiar with it

 

[sea nmf]

Had an instabuddy once who responded "3200" the first time I signaled for his pressure about 5min into the dive. I thought "Oh thank god he's not an air hog!"

About 10min later I asked again. He checked his computer and then signaled "3200" again.

Uh oh.

With a sneaky suspicion as to what he was reporting I motioned that I would like to see his computer, only to confirm that he was indeed dutifully reporting his EANx percentage, which happened to be the largest number on the display.

The smile that was not visible behind my regulator quickly disappeared when my eyes wandered down to the flashing 500psi right below!

I switched him over to my sling bottle and signaled "ascend" and we made our way to 15ft where we did 3min and surfaced.

On the debrief he was glad to have me help him understand how to read his computer. "I wasn't sure whether that number was how many PSI I had left or how many minutes I had left." When I explained what the 32% meant he was pleasantly surprised to discover that his computer "had an analyzer built in - SWEET!"

We then discussed how it was that he ended up at 500psi less than fifteen minutes into a 50ft dive. "Yeah, that's really strange since my SAC has really improved lately. In fact just yesterday I still had almost a full tank after a 30min dive."

ME: "Full tank?"

HE: "Yeah - didn't even need to get it refilled since I still had 3200psi."

Ughhhhh!

OMG! That is hilarious (after you take away the scary part)!