Wireless transmitters and backup gauges

[Zieg]

+1 for the above comment.

Why would anyone pay a premium for AI is beyond me. Apart from reliability issues, what is wrong with looking at your SPG? One extra hose to worry about I hear you say? Who cares! As if you really notice it that extra hose underwater.

My wife got me a Datamask for my birthday. I love it. Premium? Even with the good buddy dive shop discount, yes. I still love it. Extra hoses? I hate extra hoses, goes back to the old days of not having an spg (I don't normally carry a safe 2nd). I find that I'm rarely using my spg at all. Just a slight roll of the eyes and there is everything. No reaching down or looking down to see the gauge. It's right there. For over 30 years now I have been working in the oceanographic world. I guess that we love innovations that make our lives and work easier. With our underwater equipment, if you maintain it, it tends to keep working. I never want to go back to the old bathythermograph or bathyconductograph with the slides.

 

[The Kraken]

I dive an Oceanic VT Pro with a redundant SPG. Also have a dive watch that gives me time and depth.

Why? Because it suits me to do so.

the K

 

[halocline]

follow your common sense, you should be using redundant gages regardless of whether or not you use a wireless transmitter, your life could depend on it

If a computer failure in recreational diving is life threatening to you, then I suggest you either stop diving immediately or get retrained to understand concepts like buddy diving, not ascending faster than your smallest bubbles, and staying out of mandatory deco during OW rec diving. Jeesh...

If I'm not mistaken, the main point to using a wireless AI is to not have to carry a SPG. Personally I think they're a solution to a non existent problem, but lots of people love them. If the wireless part fails, you only lose gas pressure info. If the whole thing goes south, then you also lose depth/time. This is where the buddy comes in handy; you can get approximate depth/time info from him, do a nice long safety stop, and surface. Unless you have some basic problems with gas management, you're going to have enough air to surface, and if you're really nervous about it, start breathing of your buddy's octo. Hardly life threatening.

For a brand-new diver, though, it can be pretty daunting if ALL of your dive data (gas, depth, time) disappears at once. For that reason, I think AI computers are not a good idea for new divers especially.

 

[Codiak]

I don't understand the concept of diving on equipment fundimentally you don't trust.
I love my SmartTec and use backup watch and am a minimalist wrt hoses

 

[Doc Intrepid]

If a technology has not matured to the point that you can take it on a week-long diving vacation without being concerned that it will quit working during that week, then why use it?

Why select a piece of gear that has a sufficiently high failure rate that you feel compelled to select a second piece of gear to provide functional redundancy?

Why not select gear that has significantly lower statistical rates of failure in the first place? Why invest in a computer that adds a potential failure point to your gear - to the degree that you are not certain your gear would make it through a ten day recreational diving vacation?

I've been diving SPGs since 1975, and to date I have never had an SPG fail. I'm not aware of any other divers who have had their SPG suddenly stop working during a dive. It may certainly have happened over the past thirty years, but not often enough that the industry is concerned about it.

Moreover, non-wireless computers are considered to be reasonably reliable equipment.

If you absolutely MUST have AI, why not select an AI computer at the end of your HP SPG hose?

To select a wireless AI computer which is so marginally reliable that you feel compelled to ALSO dive with an SPG in case it quits working makes little sense to me.

It is adding an item of gear that you, personally, believe is so likely to fail during a dive, that you plan for "SPG redundancy" in case it occurs. That constitutes a failure point which is easily avoidable, and one that might be worth reconsidering. After all, how many divers do you see who wear a second SPG because they are convinced that their "primary SPG" may fail during a week of diving??

FWIW. Your mileage may most definitely vary.

Doc

 

[Scared Silly]

I have a wireless transmitter and the only reason I use it so that it records my gas usage. When I switch gas (on a deco dive) it will shut off. Does the same when doing a valve drill. Oh well, the majority of the time I am recreationally diving so this is not an issue. On my last dive it would not sync up. First time for that. I just jumped in the water anyways cause I have a SPG. My SPG is not a backup it is my primary - the wireless thingy is for my lazyness.

 

[The Kraken]

My SPG can't plot all those neat little graphs and calculate my SAC rate.

the K

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Heh....

You're right, K, data is good. More data is more good.

(But a non-wireless computer can also fill out that logbook for you, and if you must have SAC calcs, an AI computer on the hose can also provide those...)

Scared Silly makes the point that he uses his wireless computer as a back-up to his SPG, to record his gas useage for his 'lazyness'.

But how much does a new AI computer with transmitters cost? $800? More?

How many divers want to invest $800 or more in a device to back-up their SPGs to record gas useage?

If Marc, (the OP,) is a newer diver, and if he just dropped some $800-$900 or so on a new AI wireless computer, and now if he dumps another $100 on an SPG and/or even more $$ on redundant gauges, then he's spent nearly $1000.00 to back up his SPG with an AI computer.

Because it might fail during a vacation.

Uhhh...for guys who have this kind of bucks to spend, fine. For a newer diver, I can think of other things to spend that $1000 on....such as advanced training, among other things.

For newer divers, AFAIC, this amounts to something along the lines of "predatory retailing".....

Marc asked for "thoughts". These are mine, such as they are.

YMMV.

 

[marcbs]

All very good points to consider; thank you. I've been out of diving for 10 years or so after logging 150+ dives. The new AI gear just caught my eye in the LDS. I absolutely agree that with one's buddy a safe return to the surface in the event of equipment failure is the preferred way to go. The AI stuff is just plain cool...

Marc

 

[vladimir]

After all, how many divers do you see who wear a second SPG because they are convinced that their "primary SPG" may fail during a week of diving??

I only know of one.

follow your common sense, you should be using redundant gages regardless of whether or not you use a wireless transmitter, your life could depend on it