Vintage Edge Dive Computer

[Caz_underwater]

Hi Walter, thanks, BBM (blind blonde moment) I was unable to see the paperclip icon previously! Hopefully it's now attached. (PS Actually it was me that said it was SS, and "Captain" who said AA. ).

 

[Walter]

Looks like a later model, got a photo of the back?

 

[scubadoguk]

ahhh I remember lusting after one in the UK I had a orca with the screw down battery door (Marathon?) but the edge was sexy back in the day.

 

[Walter]

You know, it really bugs me when I see this statement.

Why? The SOS Decompression Meter is very simple. It has two chambers, one constant volume and one variable volume (basically a balloon) conected to each other with a porous stone to restrict air flow. As pressure increases, air is forced from the variable volume chamber to the constant volume chamber. The stone slows down the process to mimic nitrogen absorbtion by the body. As pressure decreases, air is forced from the constant volume chamber to the variable volume chamber. The stone slows down the process to mimic off gassing by the body.

To truly mimic the body, it would need several such set ups with different stones, allowing different rates of air flow. It has only one set up. What can go wrong? A hole in either chamber. A crack in the stone. A leak in the connections. The SOS Decompression Meter is a clever concept that actually works quite well. It is not a device to which I'd trust my well being. I've dived with one in the past and I'll dive with one in the future (I own two), but I've never trusted my decopression status to one and I never will.

 

[captain]

Not to mention that the burdon tube gauge was reading a very very small pressure and hence was very delicate, a small shock could knock it out of calibration.

 

[Allison Finch]

possible scenarios if you treated it badly. But, how many people do you know who were bent on it? It was simple, yet strangely pretty effective. I certainly pushed it at the time. Never got bent.

By calling it the "bend-o-matic, you give the impression that everyone who used it got bent. Simply not true.

 

[Caz_underwater]

Hi Walter, here's a close up photo of the front and back. Didn't realise there were several versions, this was purchased direct from USA in 1988.

 

[captain]

possible scenarios if you treated it badly. But, how many people do you know who were bent on it? It was simple, yet strangely pretty effective. I certainly pushed it at the time. Never got bent.

By calling it the "bend-o-matic, you give the impression that everyone who used it got bent. Simply not true.

I had two of them. Neither lasted more than 20 dives before they went off zero. Just didn't trust them after that.

 

[Walter]

By calling it the "bend-o-matic, you give the impression that everyone who used it got bent. Simply not true.

You are right that everyone who used it got bent isn't true. On the other hand, I do not believe the nickname it's had for decades implies that at all. It implies there are many issues with it that can cause problems that can easily lead to getting bent. That is true. Besides, you are the one who assumed we were talking about the SOS Decompression Meter, no one else mentioned the name in any posts prior to you. Anything the nickname implies could only imply it to people who already knew the nickname until you told everyone it was the SOS.

Hi Walter, here's a close up photo of the front and back. Didn't realise there were several versions, this was purchased direct from USA in 1988.

Thanks. There were two that I know about. My first EDGE was stolen from a dive shop's storage facility around 1989. When I replaced it, it was with one like you have for sale. The original EDGE had (if memory serves) two posts/pins on the back (actually on the battery cover) for a strap to fit through.

 

[Hickdive]

You know, it really bugs me when I see this statement. I still have my SOS meter (not diving with it, of course). It was an early four digit model. I did years of pretty technical deco diving with it and I NEVER knew of any of my friends, who also did this kind of diving, to get bent. And I really pushed the limits.

Tim, did you ever use one or are you just parroting what you have heard others say? I would suggest that those who became ill using one did not keep it properly checked and calibrated. Calibration was something that needed to be checked.

SoS meters were, to my knowledge, universally known as Bend-O-Matics purely as an affectionate nickname in exactly the same way that many owners affectionately refer to their Inspiration rebreathers as a 'Yellow Box of Death (or Debt)' or YBOD for short.

'Bend' or 'Death' are just jokes, nothing more.