Will Air Integration in dive computers replace the SPG?

[stuartv]

They also provide more information than a simple abstract number glowing on a screen. Watching that needle instantly snap back after taking a deep breath from the system just before rolling in is quite useful feedback.

WAI can do all that, too, plus allow your computer to give you more info that a mechanical SPG can give you. WAI (meaning, the computer that is receiving it) can show a dial with a needle that reacts just like a mechanical needle....

Actually, according to NetDoc, his computer display makes it WAY more obvious than a mechanical SPG needle does if you are breathing off a tank where the valve is not open all the way.

 

[dmaziuk]

Yes, except that mechanical SPGs are more reliable than battery powered wireless electric SPGs. They also provide more information than a simple abstract number glowing on a screen.

Both false. For the second one, needle position on its own is just as uninformative: you need to know the tank size to make sense out of it. The difference is that you can program the computer to show you a more useful number.

And I'm not even going to bother with the first one.

 

[undrwater]

Yes, except that mechanical SPGs are more reliable than battery powered wireless electric SPGs. They also provide more information than a simple abstract number glowing on a screen. Watching that needle instantly snap back after taking a deep breath from the system just before rolling in is quite useful feedback.

• Not as reliable
  • Can you provide evidence for that? I think it's one of the sticky points of the discussion, and some hard evidence could bring us back to reality.
• Needle as info
  • It's a great point, but invalid if the polling rate is fast enough on the transmitter and computer. It shouldn't be difficult to represent such info with a digital representation of an analog gauge. I also wonder if this is an old-timers effect more than an actual issue. In other words, can the younger generation interpret digital information as well as we can interpret analog info?

 

[Kevrumbo]

If I needed to have a back-up analog SPG to that unreliable Suunto WAI back in 2005, guess what became my primary pressure indicating instrument, and what got discarded?

You don't need to have a scientific study & data for a simple remove & replace solution --gee how much practical sense does that make???

 

[agilis]

Of course a mechanical direct connection SPG is more reliable than a battery powered transmitter, which is also more fragile. Don't be silly. Lack of evidence? There have been quite a few descriptions of failure in this discussion, and i've heard many others. Hard data does not exist because nobody keeps track. Don't expect people who make and sell the wireless transmitters to track this.

Wireless is expensive, too, and provides less information because they cannot show the same level of process.

At some point they will do everything better, I'm sure, and will sell for fifty or sixty dollars in today's money. They'll be tough enough to step on, and will be self powered from tidal surge.

Oh brave new world, that has such SPGs in it!

 

[dmaziuk]

Wireless is expensive, too, and provides less information because they cannot show the same level of process.

Expensive: agree 100%. What do you mean by "cannot show the same level of process", exactly?

 

[agilis]

Expensive: agree 100%. What do you mean by "cannot show the same level of process", exactly?

I just made that up. It sounded good, don't you think?

I like seeing a needle move, observe how it responds to variables like depth and activity level. It involves the observer in the same way that an analog watch or oil pressure gauge does.

 

[lowviz]

I'm not so sure that you did "just make that up". (Cliff Notes) http://www.shmoop.com/brave-new-world/summary.html

 

[agilis]

'same level of process', I meant. Anyway, Huxley wrote 'such people', not such SPGs. I doubt the guy was even certified.

 

[lowviz]

No you didn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokanovsky's_Process