Just curious: If you are diving with a Perdix AI and a transmitter, why would you keep the Teric in non-AI mode?
Isn't the point of diving with a backup computer for in case your primary computer dies? If your Perdix AI dies, wouldn't you want to still be able to see your tank pressure on your Teric?
Hi stuartv.
The vast majority of my diving is on CCR, thus the Teric has been used almost exclusively as a redundant back-up to my hard wired Petrel 2. I’ve yet to use AI technology for my current rebreather and bail out rigs, and have no immediate plans to do so. You are I believe a newly certified CCR diver. Congratulations! Thus, you are aware that you’re not nearly as concerned with monitoring your O2 and dil bottle volumes as frequently as you are on OC, and this, (coupled with the recent recall by Shearwater of the yellow transmitters), is more than reason enough for me to continue to monitor my rebreather cylinders and bail-out rigs with SPGs.
Regarding my OC dives, I’ve found that the Shearwater products that I’ve owned have proven to be almost exhaustively reliable, though not reliable enough to make me complacent. I’ve yet to experience ANY failures with my Perdix AI, and should the worst occur and the Perdix give up the ghost during a dive, I’m disciplined enough to monitor my gas frequently during all OC dives to know that at any time I’ll have more than enough gas volume to thumb the dive, slowly ascend, do a long safety stop, and end the dive with confidence. For my purposes thus far, I’ve been satisfied to allow the Perdix AI to monitor my gas volume for single cylinder OC dives.
Note though that I have not made any “big” dives on OC for many years. Should the highly unlikely circumstances arise where I had to revert to OC for such a dive, I would not wish to rely exclusively on AI to monitor tank volume; I’d attach SPGs to all regulator first stages.
One of the weaker aspects of the Teric is the decrease in battery life when accessing the AI feature. (This is stated in the manual, but I’ve yet to try it.) I’ll be working in the South Pacific for almost the entire month of February, and will not have support for my CCR. Thus I’ll be making multiple OC dives a day for a substantial stretch of time. As I’ll be on a live-aboard with a reliable power supply, I’ll most likely activate the AI capacity of the Teric and use it in conjunction with the Perdix. (I’ll still bring along a SPG and hope to leave it in my cabin for the duration of my stay.) Were I to be in a location where recharging was not readily available, then I’d most likely forego this feature of the Teric in order to maximize each charge. I’d never know when I’d be able to access sufficient power to re-charge the battery.
As to the part of this thread concerning O-ring issues: For as far back as I can recall the only failures/leaks that I’ve experienced with SPGs have been due to worn O-rings in the spools. These incidents have not been catastrophic failures, but rather resulted in a slow trickle of tiny bubbles, and were not drastic enough to end a dive. I’ve always got some spare spools on hand, and simply replace the faulty ones upon surfacing. It’s much faster and easier to replace the whole spool than to deal with the two tiny O-rings. You should be able to find these at your LDS. If not, Dive Gear Express sells them pre-loaded with Viton O-rings for about $1.50. Live large. Order more than one.
Life was simpler when I just wanted a mask, fins, snorkel, and camera.Those were the days, and they weren’t that long ago. I did just that last August when I was photographing Humpback Whales in Tonga.
