Warning about Garmin Descent!

[Belzelbub]

Gauge mode is a little bit different. There is legitimate reason to use it, and it would be downright annoying for someone who uses it regularly and consciously to have to acknowledge a warning every time they use it.

This has always been a question of mine. I can sort of see your point with some computers, but in the case of a tech capable computer, why would a diver actively choose gauge mode when a fully functional computer is available?

As I said, I get it for a rec only computer that might not really be up to the dive, but the Garmin supports air, Nitrox, trimix, CCR dives. There is also a Pool Mode for all of them. Pool mode monitors and tracks tissue loading, it just doesn’t save the dive to the log.

 

[L13]

Very unsafe is probably a bit of an exaggeration

I'll grant you that it is a bit exaggerated in many cases.

But it could be unsafe, and your example is far from aggressive for a multi-day multi-dive per day vacation dive trip. Especially since we (and he) don't know that he didn't exceed NDL on some or all of his gauge mode dives.

Depending on the dive history, it would definitely be dangerous to use the NDL on a surface interval of less than an hour for a dive that was close to NDL, for an aggressive multi-dive NDL schedule it would be dangerous for several hours. If the diver just completed a big deco dive with hours of deco it could well be unsafe for 24 hours. Once the DC dumps the tissue tracking history, it has no idea how aggressive your dive history has been, it is reasonable for it to assume the worst if it is going to have a lock out at all.

Using a DC with reset tissue history is ignorant if you have a recent dive history that leaves meaningful amounts of gas in your tissues.

Personally, I wish Gauge Mode did not stop tracking tissues. There is no valid reason not to track tissues just because you aren't using it to determine NDL/deco. There are reasons to reset the tissue history, but they are independent from at least some of the reasons to use Gauge Mode. DC's should make Tissue Reset and Gauge Mode separate decisions/settings. That would prevent the need for a lockout.

Also, all modern DC's have a detailed enough log that the tissue history can be regenerated at any time, which would also eliminate the need for a lockout.

But given the decision to reset the tissue history, a 24 hour lockout is reasonable, and using a DC without a lockout in less than that time needs to be an informed decision because there is risk.

 

[crofrog]

Personally, I wish Gauge Mode did not stop tracking tissues. There is no valid reason not to track tissues just because you aren't using it to determine NDL/deco. There are reasons to reset the tissue history, but they are independent from at least some of the reasons to use Gauge Mode. DC's should make Tissue Reset and Gauge Mode separate decisions/settings. That would prevent the need for a lockout.

That we agree on.

 

[samsamsam]

Gauge mode isn’t exactly useless, and you had the option of resetting it. If you’ve been syncing your log to garmin dive or subsurface you wouldn’t lose your log either.

How do I sync Garmin to subsurface?

 

[crofrog]

How do I sync Garmin to subsurface?

Subsurface Divelog

Subsurface Homepage

subsurface-divelog.org

 

[Belzelbub]

How do I sync Garmin to subsurface?

Two different ways to sync a dive from a Garmin to Subsurface. Bluetooth is not one of them per Garmin restrictions.

One of the following may work better depending on your particular configuration. You need to do this on the desktop version, which should sync to mobile after.

1. You can use the charge cable connected to USB on your computer and download from the DC. I’ve found this to be not working for me as something seems to initiate COMMS with my DC before Subsurface can, and that locks it out.
2. You can use Garmin Connect. If you have Garmin Dive on your phone and the two are connected by Bluetooth, the dive should automatically sync. Then, on your home computer, go to Garmin Connect on web, or via Garmin Express. Then go to Activities —> All Activities and Select the dive. Click the “gear” and “Export File.” Save this somewhere. If it’s zipped, you will need to unzip. Save the Unzipped files to a location on you computer. I use a folder called Garmin/Activity. In Subsurface, choose the dive computer and in Device or Mount Point, choose the folder omitting the /Activity.

Note: In option 2, the file name includes _ACTIVITY, or something like that. Possibly dependent on the version of Subsurface, this makes the file name too long. Just delete that from the file name and it should work.

 

[Nick_Radov]

This has always been a question of mine. I can sort of see your point with some computers, but in the case of a tech capable computer, why would a diver actively choose gauge mode when a fully functional computer is available?

I use Gauge mode for all of my hydrogen dives.

 

[Belzelbub]

I use Gauge mode for all of my hydrogen dives.

Hopefully, you don’t smoke afterwards.

 

[ChrisMBC]

That we agree on.

Only issue with that is that the computer doesn't know what gas you're diving. I suppose there's a fairly easy workaround for that with single-gas mode, and I support the idea that you should be able to 'convert' a logged Gauge mode dive to Single Gas by specifying the gas used. Wouldn't work for multi-gas dives, though.

On a related note, it would be really nice if Garmin could add Average Depth as an optional field for single-gas/multi-gas dives. The only reason I (sometimes) do tech dives in Gauge mode is if we've agreed to a profile based on average depth, and I want to know my average depth so that I'm on the same page as the rest of my team.

 

[stiebs]

Personally, I wish Gauge Mode did not stop tracking tissues. There is no valid reason not to track tissues just because you aren't using it to determine NDL/deco. There are reasons to reset the tissue history, but they are independent from at least some of the reasons to use Gauge Mode. DC's should make Tissue Reset and Gauge Mode separate decisions/settings. That would prevent the need for a lockout.

There is an extremely good reason not to track tissue loading in gauge mode - because the dive computer doesn't know what gases you are diving through out the dive. Especially if you're diving multiple gases, if you expect the computer to track gas loading, you'll need to do the gas switches on the computer, while it's in gauge mode. Sort of defeats the purpose of gauge mode.