Question What alarms do you want on your dive computer?

[scubadada]

I particularly like the alerts on my Teric. The alerts can be set to visual only, beep, vibrate, or beep and vibrate. The visual alerts are very clear and color coded. I choose to use visual only.

 

[OTF]

I want the option for audible and/or haptic alarms.

It's insane and unsafe that my rebreather doesn't have them. For OC diving - yeah whatever. But on rebreathers this missing feature very likely results in fatalities.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I do not want audible or haptic alarms on a standalone computer such a Shearwater computers.

I would be happy with haptics on a rebreather controller.

 

[Wibble]

Visual alarms give you context when you read the screen. High PPO2, low pressure, etc.

I want the option for audible and/or haptic alarms.

It's insane and unsafe that my rebreather doesn't have them. For OC diving - yeah whatever. But on rebreathers this missing feature very likely results in fatalities.

"It's insane" that the rebreather pilot isn't checking their computer regularly.

(Not picking a fight at all, just spinning the other side of the coin)

It's far better that you automatically check your dive computer than for it to start blurting our audible sounds (which you can't hear through a thick hood) or haptic rattles where you can't feel it through your drysuit and thick underclothes.


BTW use a Nerd; there's no excuse for not seeing your PPO2

 

[broncobowsher]

As for visual, I like Shearwater. Even if you don't read the screen, as long as it isn't red things are fine. Red, there is something to pay attention to.

Audio is pointless. Between a hood and open circuit bubbles the owner of the alarm won't hear it. Add in they are high enough frequency that whoever is having the alarm from can't hear anything that high. But everyone else will get to hear it.

Anyone who thinks audio is a good idea is a non-diver, maybe a resort diver, who works in a marketing department. Add bad features because they sound good to those that don't know how bad they really are.

 

[scubadada]

Full disclosure

Without my hearing aids in, I'm nearly deaf. It's been a long time since I've been able to hear audible alarms underwater. I rarely hear tank banging or shakers. I do hear my wife yelling sometimes, but I am particularly sensitive to that. I have not tried the lower frequency beeping on my Teric, but doubt that I could hear that either. So, one of the reasons I don't turn on my audible alarms is to protect other divers from them, as I would never know to turn them off .

My older computers have never had haptic alarms, I simply pay attention and am essentially never surprised. I'm tempted to turn on the haptic alarm on my Teric, just to see what it is like, doubt I would leave it on.

I find the results of this poll interesting. Only about 50 votes, but pretty equally split between visual only and some other alarm(s).

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I find the results of this poll interesting. Only about 50 votes, but pretty equally split between visual only and some other alarm(s).

I'm surprised that nearly 50% of divers are wrong.

 

[Centrals]

No right or wrong here.

 

[OTF]

Visual alarms give you context when you read the screen. High PPO2, low pressure, etc.

"It's insane" that the rebreather pilot isn't checking their computer regularly.

(Not picking a fight at all, just spinning the other side of the coin)

It's far better that you automatically check your dive computer than for it to start blurting our audible sounds (which you can't hear through a thick hood) or haptic rattles where you can't feel it through your drysuit and thick underclothes.


BTW use a Nerd; there's no excuse for not seeing your PPO2

I do use a Nerd and of course everyone still alive watches their damn PO2. It's likely that I would never need the alarm. But **** happens. Rebreathers are dangerous. Alarms add some small extra safety margin in some situations and are therefor worthwhile. I could make up any number of realistic scenarios where an alarm could come into play as a last line of defense. The unfortunate reality is that people still have PO2 accidents even if they're being as attentive as possible given the circumstances, and some of those accidents could be mitigated by an alarm.

The notion that some straw person would purposely wait until the alarms go off to address a problem instead of monitoring, or would treat alarms as a commonplace normal thing, is ridiculous at least among the serious divers I know. An alarm going off means you f---ed up BAD, the issue needs to be corrected immediately, the dive is probably over, and we're going to have a long talk about it in the debrief.

I think too many people are jaded by diving computers with the wrong alarms, which is ultimately an issue of configuring your equipment wrong for the dive. An alarm should be a big deal, not to be treated nonchalantly.

As for audio alarms - they SHOULD be loud enough for the diver and all their buddies to hear through their hoods. If it's not that's an inadequate design in my book. Nobody should have alarms going off, and if someone on the team does then the rest of the team should know about it. Although haptics are good too. Maybe with a buddy light.

 

[Wibble]

The damn useless Suunto D9tx put me off of alarms for life. They’re not alarms, they’re ar5e-covering information because of its lousy user interface and ridiculous conservatism designed by an idiot who probably doesn’t actually dive.

With interface design, an alarm must be for wholly exceptional and critical reasons; when you hear one you drop everything and deal with it. If it’s wrong or irrelevant, you soon learn to ignore it like website spam. Wolf. Wolf. Wolf. Sod it.

Shearwater Perdix, Petrel, Nerd doesn’t have the audible nor haptic alarms but they do share a superb user interface design.
Amber = hmmm. Inverted red = imminent danger. Clear and consistent. Quality design.