What would you do if your computer died?

[scubadada]

Hypothetically...

You're at a dive resort for a week and you get 5 days of unlimited dives- for you, that's about 5 per day. It's the middle of the 2nd dive and your computer runs out of battery. You surface, slowly and safely with your buddy, with no incident. You're now back at the resort about to have lunch with 2 afternoon dives and a night dive planned...

What do you do? Call the rest of the dive day off? Dive shallow, short dives? Go off your buddy's computer- after all, he was right there with you for the first 2 dives? You have access to a rental computer or you can replace your computer's battery, but either way, the computer you'd wear for the rest of the day doesn't have your residual nitrogen figured in.

My husband and I were discussing this today. Try to be honest with yourself. Imagine you only get maybe one serious dive trip a year. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Sorry, did not have the patience to read the entire thread. My primary computer is an air integrated Oceanic VT3. My backup is an Oceanic Geo and a pressure guage. If my primary died, I would use the backup. If the backup died, I'd continue to use the primary. If both died, guess I would have to figure out what to do. In 2+ years and 225 dives on this combo, I've not had a single failure. In fact, in 12 years of using a variety of dive computers, Oceanic, Cochran, Dive Rite, I've never had a single computer failure, knock on wood.

Why would you ever have a computer failure due to the battery, this is entirely preventable and under your control?

Good diving, Craig

 

[dmoore19]

In my limited experience, I have not had a computer failure for any reason. I have had an operator error (left the primary in the room) but never has the equipment failed.

 

[lowviz]

You need a VR-3.

If you don't take the plastic covering off the 3.6V lithium battery it can hang up in the cylinder, momentarily losing contact and wiping out everything. Or if you hit it the right way, it goes blotto when the battery outruns the spring.

I was horrified when I first learned this, but I've since come to really like this feature of not totally trusting them. Seriously.

I always have a backup plan that only involves my estimated SAC, estimated depth, SPG, and a wrist slate. My VR3's never failed me underwater, but so what if they do...

 

[Stoo]

I'd look at the one on my other wrist...

Make no mistake, the odds of a computer dieing is high... In the situation you describe... no biggie, although the resort will lock you out of the pool for 24 hours. Not so, if you have a spare, and are wearing it. (no point leaving it in your room... it won't have any residual nitrogen in it).

Unlike others, I have had... maybe 4 computers die without warning while diving, over the past 8 or 10 years.

Also, you describe a situation that is completely avoidable. I ALWAYS change the batteries in all of my computers before I go on a trip. When I travel with Mrs. Stoo, we have four computers. The total cost to replace all four batteries is about $20. Cheap insurance.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Uwatec computers (older ones) cost upwards of $500 to replace both the battery in the computer and the transmitter. Who can afford to do this a couple of times a year, let alone once a year? The battery is supposed to last about 7 years and there is a battery level, but this is not accurate, with many going dead when showing 60% or more.

Kryssa, if your husband went on extra dives, it will not matter, all it would do if you used the computer it would make you more conservative (in reality it probably would not be much different if he does 4 dives and you did 3).

 

[denisegg]

I had my Shearwater Predator error out on me last year in Cozumel. Luckily I was also wearing a Dive Rite wrist watch as a back up. When I got home and contacted them it was a firmware glitch and an upload fixed the issue of having a gas mix in the 5 allowable mixes twice. The upgrade fixed the issue. If I hadn't had a cheap wrist watch back up I would have lost dives.

 

[rivers]

Signal to my buddy that my computer is dead and thumb the dive. Have buddy lead ascent and keep track of stops. Once on the surface, replace the battery. If it's still dead, rent one for the rest of the trip. Since I keep it in gauge mode anyway, it doesn't matter.

 

[Tigerman]

Uwatec computers (older ones) cost upwards of $500 to replace both the battery in the computer and the transmitter. Who can afford to do this a couple of times a year, let alone once a year? The battery is supposed to last about 7 years and there is a battery level, but this is not accurate, with many going dead when showing 60% or more.

Kryssa, if your husband went on extra dives, it will not matter, all it would do if you used the computer it would make you more conservative (in reality it probably would not be much different if he does 4 dives and you did 3).

If you ask me, that sounds like people are being had in a big way..
You can get new computers for that kind of money..

 

[denisegg]

I always have a backup plan that only involves my estimated SAC, estimated depth, SPG, and a wrist slate. My VR3's never failed me underwater, but so what if they do...

Learned this lesson the hard way. I was diving with my son and his newly certified g/f off the Ft Lauderale coast, doing easy 50 ft drift dives, and only one boat trip in a day. She didn't fully understand the computer and when we were doing our safety stop and I looked at her computer she had a 10ft ceiling on her suunto cobra of 10 minutes?? Crazy. I couldn't believe she had gone into deco on air in 50ft water on the first dive. She didn't have enough air left to do the air 15min stop so I passed off my 7ft hose and let her breathe off mine while we hung on a 15ft drift dive for 15 minutes. The DM hung with us for a while but had to surface because she was running low on gas. I was diving nitrox and had 1500psi left so plenty for both of us. When we got topside and I checked the tables on air at that depth sure enough she had gone into deco. The DM said she thought everyone was on nitrox.
I had not dove air in a while. It is unbelievable what a difference nitrox makes.

 

[Adam Grose]

Hypothetically...

You're at a dive resort for a week and you get 5 days of unlimited dives- for you, that's about 5 per day. It's the middle of the 2nd dive and your computer runs out of battery. You surface, slowly and safely with your buddy, with no incident. You're now back at the resort about to have lunch with 2 afternoon dives and a night dive planned...

What do you do? Call the rest of the dive day off? Dive shallow, short dives? Go off your buddy's computer- after all, he was right there with you for the first 2 dives? You have access to a rental computer or you can replace your computer's battery, but either way, the computer you'd wear for the rest of the day doesn't have your residual nitrogen figured in.

My husband and I were discussing this today. Try to be honest with yourself. Imagine you only get maybe one serious dive trip a year. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

This is why I keep a set of dive tables in the right pocket of my BCD. That way, If your computer craps out on you, you can still dive using the tables. I also use a slate to keep track of depth, bottom time, pressure groups, and air consumed...makes it very easy to do calculations while I am floating on the surface between dives and to transfer the data into my logbook. Of course, you would have to use the depths and times of the dives you have already completed (you could get this data from your dive buddy's computer) to calculate your OWN Nitrogen loading, using the tables.

Adam