XDEEP Black BT Review

[Dr. Lecter]

lol An xDeep Black Trimix is almost $100 more than a Petrel 2, and comes with customer service/support demonstrated to be inferior to Shearwater. Good luck with sales without the bare-bones BT as a selling point.

 

[ozzydamo]

For the EAN Xdeep its $300 cheaper then the petrel 2 in Australia, quite a significant saving. With a trimix upgrade it's still cheaper then the shearwater petrel 2 by $100, so I could buy a new SPG as well.

So luck, played little into the purchase of the Xdeep for me, it came down to price as both seem equivalent to each other build wise- It was hard to get hold of for quite awhile due to high demand.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

For the EAN Xdeep its $300 cheaper then the petrel 2 in Australia, quite a significant saving. With a trimix upgrade it's still cheaper then the shearwater petrel 2 by $100, so I could buy a new SPG as well.

So luck, played little into the purchase of the Xdeep for me, it came down to price as both seem equivalent to each other build wise- It was hard to get hold of for quite awhile due to high demand.

Viva la USD, I suppose.

I doubt you can support your claim they're "equivalent to each other build wise," so I won't ask you to. Care to assert that they're "equivalent to each other service/support reputation-wise"?

 

[tridacna]

Easy. For support and service, they are orthogonally equivalent. Happy now?

 

[SCU5]

Hi All,

I have about 30 hours of dive time on the XDEEP Black Bottom Timer now so I thought I would post an update with some thoughts and comments.

Usage update: So far the Bottom Timer has been rock solid for me - I haven't had a single issue with it. I've also been downloading all my dives to MacDive without any problems. A dive buddy of mine has around 50 dives on his XDEEP with no issues. I know many people who dive Petrels and really enjoy those computers as well; they are, if nothing else, simply much easier to purchase.

One feature that my buddies showed me: You can off-set the compass readings up to 45 degrees. My buddies have it offset so that it is easy to read while scootering or swimming; a line shows on the compass display giving the direction that the heading reading is showing, removing the need to always place your arm perpendicular to the direction you are going to get an easy reading. I haven't tried it yet but it's a cool feature that I look forward to using. Also, the ability to lock heading, say at the surface of the dive, to a landmark is cool, and should be useful when swimming towards pinnacles or other spots.

Feedback: I really like the Black Bottom Timer. It's performed flawlessly and was a great price for the feature-set; OLED Display, rechargeable battery, nice dive-log functions. Hopefully they keep the BT as part of the line up or adjust the price down for the nitrox version. $629 for a Nitrox Black is getting into Shearwater Petrel territory and I'd be hard-pressed to not spend the extra for the full-trimix Petrel.

Display: I think it would be useful to make the run-time, average depth and max depth a little larger for readability reasons. Decreasing the size of the VSI or having the option to remove it entirely would be nice; personally, I haven't spent much time looking at the VSI. Also, this is very minor, I think the battery indicator would be better as simply a percentage (number) or visual (battery bar) - admittedly a small stylistic point but sometimes less is more.

Logbook: An option to batch-create UDDF files for export would be very nice. A minor point but one that would make life a little easier.

Overall: Like I said above, I've been very happy with my Black Bottom Timer and don't hesitate to recommend it to divers looking to replace their dying, unsupported Liquivisions. Thus far it has proven to be a simple, reliable, and good looking Bottom Timer that is extremely good at doing what it says on the box. I like the fact that the battery is a built-in rechargeable and I don't need to ever open the case. I also like the fact that the Black is not filled with oil and thus, according the XDEEP, easily serviceable should a problem arise. The form factor is very comfortable with nice built-in bungee strap slots, similar in size to my Uwatec BT.

I've regularly compared the depth, time, average calculations to my old Uwatec BT and it has been spot-on in every respect. The compass is really nice and I'm often tempted to leave my analog compass on the boat as the Black is easier to read and more precise. I've even thought of having an XDEEP on both arms and ditching the analog compass and Uwatec BT and having full computer and compass redundancy with two devices; but that would be just self-indulgent, wouldn't it.

 

[scubatechie]

Hey there SCU5, I was recently in Florida and lost an xDeep Black nitrox computer. I contacted Sebastian at xDeep a few days ago and he just notified me today that you posted that one of your buddies found one. Please call me to discuss this and figure out if it is mine. I PMd you with my number

Dene

 

[ozzydamo]

Viva la USD, I suppose.

I doubt you can support your claim they're "equivalent to each other build wise," so I won't ask you to. Care to assert that they're "equivalent to each other service/support reputation-wise"?

You suppose quite often.
I will have to tell you in a couple of years time how the battery swap goes, the sales distributor was fantastic- very quick and well communicated sale by Dave, thanks a lot!
Anybody in Australia this the best price for the xdeep $729aud for the EAN - wow with the USD being so overvalued it be worth shipping to the USA at that price! Deep Dive Gear - Dive your adventure!

---------- Post added March 24th, 2015 at 10:43 PM ----------

Easy. For support and service, they are orthogonally equivalent. Happy now?

Big slanderous words, from a sycophant.

 

[Long-John-Silver]

Hi All,

I have about 30 hours of dive time on the XDEEP Black Bottom Timer now so I thought I would post an update with some thoughts and comments.

Display: I think it would be useful to make the run-time, average depth and max depth a little larger for readability reasons. Decreasing the size of the VSI or having the option to remove it entirely would be nice; personally, I haven't spent much time looking at the VSI. Also, this is very minor, I think the battery indicator would be better as simply a percentage (number) or visual (battery bar) - admittedly a small stylistic point but sometimes less is more.

Logbook: An option to batch-create UDDF files for export would be very nice. A minor point but one that would make life a little easier.

I wrote basically the same few months ago in the same thread:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...-black-bt-review-post7218589.html#post7218589

Fonts are really too small. Even my young buddies have difficulties to see average and run-time in deep tech dives.
Unfortunately from their customer support records I do not know if we will ever see such improvements.

We are in 2015; a good company/brand communicates with their customers via their official web site, not through their dealers at local trade shows.

 

[tridacna]

Big slanderous words, from a sycophant.

Au contraire. I have one. Works great. No problems - over 100 dives now. Service and support is another story altogether. Perfectly orthogonal to device quality. They lied their way through their initial distribution (even now, it's a rara avis in these parts) and the marketing is worse than in the beginning if that was even possible. I like the device, it's just the service and customer attitude that is rotten. Sebastian seems to resent customer inquiries - his attitude on SB has killed off any real interest here. It's become a joke. A real opportunity missed because it's a nice computer.

Slander? Hilarious. You are quite funny. Take a look at all their lies about when the xDeep would be available. Textbook example of how to not roll out a product. Hint: Attacking and insulting potential customers is generally not a good idea. Stick to cricket - you're obviously better at that. (Let's see how you fare against India).

 

[ozzydamo]

Au contraire. I have one. Works great. No problems - over 100 dives now. Service and support is another story altogether. Perfectly orthogonal to device quality. They lied their way through their initial distribution (even now, it's a rara avis in these parts) and the marketing is worse than in the beginning if that was even possible. I like the device, it's just the service and customer attitude that is rotten. Sebastian seems to resent customer inquiries - his attitude on SB has killed off any real interest here. It's become a joke. A real opportunity missed because it's a nice computer.

Slander? Hilarious. You are quite funny. Take a look at all their lies about when the xDeep would be available. Textbook example of how to not roll out a product. Hint: Attacking and insulting potential customers is generally not a good idea. Stick to cricket - you're obviously better at that. (Let's see how you fare against India).

Cricket, I live in a country which is often over 33*c and some fools run around an oval in that heat chasing a leather skinned ball which weighs 1&3/4 lbs traveling over 100mile an hour.........This is why I scuba dive!

The way I've seen these guys being spoken too here, due to their lack English skills(I have similar issue as I have blue collar trade and don't use written English so often, I have been harassed for my poor English skills here many times)- frankly I'd do the same thing, if I was them.



Part the reason I bought it was I knew my money wouldn't be turned in to USD in the process- supporting a country of lying murderers like GW and Dick, who print money as they please- 19trillion dollars in debt and still calling other people evil!

As to the way they rolled out the Xdeep, I reckon they learned a trick or two of Nvidia- except price point

Me I have no problems at all with the unit, font size or hows its displayed.

The unit does everything the Petrel2 does and it's cheaper by $300

The only other unit I was looking at was Heinrik Meinkampf's thing-die OSTC sport loved how it uses AA batterys, but it has issues of software openness- trimix and ccr in case my diving decides to evolve further.