xDeep Black BT - anyone own one yet? post reviews & feedback here...

[ajduplessis]

The xdeep is an awesome product, you should buy 2 now before they run out of stock. Missing out on the opportunity to own high end technology like this shouldn't be missed. I wish I had one!!

 

[Long-John-Silver]

Troll's mother is always pregnant

Mods please throw me out of here

 

[ajduplessis]

You don't like the negative feedback, you don't like positive feedback. What exactly are you looking for and you call me a troll? WTF???

Dont wait for the mods, please through yourself out!

 

[scuba127]

Get the Shearwater Petrel. I had the XDeep on back order with DRIS for quite awhile before I finally gave up on it as a May trip to Bonaire approached. Bought the Shearwater Petrel and dove it for a week in recreational nitrox mode and plan to try it in technical mode next trip. The thing is awesome. It operated flawlessly and the display is heads and shoulders above anything I've had in the past. Amazingly simple to set up and operate for such an advanced dive computer. It takes AA batteries that can be found just about anywhere. Batteries are very quick to switch out. Now in the process of selling all our Sunnto dive computers in order to buy a second Petrel my wife will use on recreational dives and that I will use as backup on solo and decompression dives. X Deeps issues actually worked out in my favor based on what I've read in this thread. Shearwater Rocks......

 

[tridacna]

Nice to be right some times!

 

[jethrocramp]

My xDeep arrived about a month ago and I upgraded it to Trimix. I took it diving for 18 dives which were mainly tech dives and a few recreational dives. On the whole I like it but there are a few niggles.

In recreational mode it is uber conservative using by default a "GF for NDL" of 85% which resulted in me hitting NDL limits long before the dive guides got to theirs and usually resulted in about 6mins of deco at 6m.

In trimix mode when diving with multiple gases it has a feature where it prompts you to change gas at the appropriate depth on the ascent. When it does this the prompt appears where the clock was. This was a major problem for me as the first time I saw it was when I was running deco during a trimix class and I was trying to call time! On subsequent dives I turned this feature off so it didn't start prompting me before I hit the stop and either used my backup BT to call time, or quickly did the gas switch.

At deco stops in bright sunlight the colours are washed out. I'd been warned about this and recommended to get a polarising filter which I will do.

Whilst diving on a wreck I put a scratch on the casing, but not the face. I'm not sure if that is because the face is recessed and avoided being scratched or because it is resistant. My backup Suunto HelO2 also scratched nicely

The VSI (Visual Speed Indicator) is quite cool. You can set your own ascent / descent rates for any depths and then it gives you feedback on your ascent / descent speeds. At first it was hard to use, but once I turned down the sensitivity setting it became more useful.

Battery life in water is ok, but out of water when you fiddle with it you can almost see the battery percent indicator falling by the minute. I did about 10 dives and lot's of surface fiddling on 70-80% of the charge. Once the battery hits 20% you start getting a warning. This was mildly annoying in water, but no big deal.

When set with the same gradient factors the xDeep dive profiles were identical to a Shearwater Petrel being used by another diver.

xDeep support rocks. I had some issues with the Trimix upgrade (the divestore sent me the wrong code) and they got onto it right away. I have sent them several questions and feedback and sometimes received immediate responses, and always a response within same working day.

The Shearwater Petrel is a very nice computer. So is the xDeep. If I was buying again I think I'd be tempted to get an SP as my primary dive computer and an xDeep BT as my backup bottom timer and gauge.

 

[Nasser]

I just got back from a tech diving trip in the Egyptian Red Sea and pretty much EVERY diver on the boat with a rebreather or Trimix OC had a Shearwater. Some had the older Predator model and others the newer Petrel. All of them where extremely satisfied with the quality, ease of use, and reliability of their Shearwaters... as well as the support. What was interesting was that the divers where all from different parts of the world but the overall consensus was that these are excellent computers from a top notch company. During the tech dives over several days I had the opportunity to see these units in action up-close and came away thoroughly impressed.

Although I am still on the fence as to whether I really need a full blown Tx computer rather than a BT (with an OLED)... I am inching closer towards the former, and if that ends up being the route I do take, then it will most certainly be a Petrel. If I go for a BT only, the Xdeep still may be a contender, but with every day that passes and seemingly very little progress made over the past year, my confidence with the manufacturer and the product is gradually eroding

 

[Andy_HFC]

Thought this thread may benefit from how a user is getting on with it.

I just did a weeks diving in Norway using my xdeep in BT mode. Two 50m(ish) dives a day for a week, it performed perfectly. Battery life was better than I expected too. I have It turned up full brightness (defeats the propose otherwise for me) and i was diving 3 hours a day roughly. It lasted the week finishing at 30%, which in cold water is very good.

The new update is very useful too. The button lock feature is excellent, however it's a bit redundant for me personally as I just have it set to gauge only - I don't use compass or profile view. Good job.

It's a great piece of kit for the cash, purely as a bt; I still maintain id pay more if I wanted a tx computer and buy an OSTC/LQ, purely for the viewing angle.

 

[Long-John-Silver]

It's a great piece of kit for the cash, purely as a bt; I still maintain id pay more if I wanted a tx computer and buy an OSTC/LQ, purely for the viewing angle.

It's what I was trying to explain but people it's so angry that continue to compare apples to eggs.

Bye

 

[similanaddict]

Got mine after a very long wait (15 months) and already after 2 dives, despite it's sexy looks I am very dissapointed and left with the feeling I bought a piece of crap.
I ordered the Black BT but had to go for the EANX as BT's were unavailable. My Xdeep Black EANX has software revision 02.04.01 hardware version 02

Some issues:
- screen is very vulnerable. Use a screen protector, or it will end up scratched.
- Difficult to read in plain light
- The strap provided by the manufacturer is a no nothing thing and comes loose very easy. This happened a few times during the first dive. So make sure you use the bungees.

These were still minor flaws, but now look here:
- No dive planner, in my opinion an essential feature of any decent dive computer
- Compass: deviation of 60° !!! Whereas Suunto or DaSilva point to North 0°, The Xdeep shows W-W-N 300°. Recalibrating the compass does not solve the problem. And yes, I have calibrated it half a dozen times and yes I have done this in the open on a decent distance from any metal object that might screw up the calibration or the readout.
- Then this is the worst part: going down on my second dive (2 weeks later, so no consecutive dive, 40 m 4 min at depth, air dive), we hit 40 m and Xdeep already shows 9 min of Deco. My Suunto D4 says I'm still 5 minutes from NDL, my buddy's Galileo also gives him another 4 minutes. So we hang around a little while longer and start our ascent still 2 minutes from NDL on the Suunto and the Galileo. Xdeep than showing 13 minutes of Deco. On our ascent Xdeep demands a 3 minutes stop at 6 m and a 13 min stop at 3 m! Suunto and Galileo just want the 3 min safety stop as they always do. I skipped the last 4 minutes of deco and Xdeep went in Blocked mode.

After the dive I checked out the computers and found these NDL times:
AT 15 m: Suunto D4: 70 min; Galileo: 71 min; Xd level 1: 64 min/ level 2: 50 min/ level 3: 37 min
AT 21 m: Suunto D4: 36 min; Galileo: 36 min; Xd level 1 (this at20m): 29 min/ level 2: 23 min/ level 3: 16 min
AT 30 m: Suunto D4: 17 min; Galileo: 17 min; Xd level 1: 10 min/ level 2: 7 min/ level 5: 16 min

and so this goes on (more complete comparisson at Microsoft services ). On Xdeep level 2 is default and the manual warns against using level 1, most definitely if there are any harmful circumstances. Good to know also that both Suunto and Galileo are thought to be conservative computers. No wonder Xdeep does not include a diveplanner, it would probably scare off a lot of divers. Even my grandma would refuse to dive with it. This is more a gadget for snorkelers.

Bottom line: stay away from the Black EANX, it may look sexy, but it is a very long wait for a computer that is worthless for any serious diving.
I hope I can still get rid of mine.

This said you may also want to check post # 105 and 101 by DuboisP and in another forum #573 by screech06 (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/redirect-to/?redirect=http://2sb.us/460745)
They seem to have experienced similar issues.