Air integrated wrist computer or not?

[fnfalman]

You don't die if your computer fails. You don't die if your SPG fails, either. You are not trusting your life to either device.

That too.

 

[ianr33]

Huh?

Analog devices don't fail?

I've never had an spg fail on a dive or even heard of it happening. I have had computer failures.
Don't think there's any reasonable doubt that a brass/glass spg is more reliable than an air integrated computer

 

[HatchetJoe]

Once I went Hoseless I just cannot imagine going back.

 

[Rascally Rabbit]

I have not done a lot of diving but from personal experiences in other areas of my live I can't for the life of me understand why any one would consider "trusting" any electronic device with their live. I currently dive a Vyper2 and will be getting a D9 next, but will still have my SPG on my rig. my wife however has an AI computer and loves it. to each is their own.

If you fly on many of todays jumbo jetliners you trust your life to electronics.
They are fly by wire. In fact our military is considered the best armed because of the advanced electronic that control both defensive systems and advanced weapons. Even in daily living your life is entrusted to electronics in traffic controls systems, control systems in devices like elevators or even the controls of rides at amusement parks.
If you judge all electronics by the engineering of your cellphone or portable music player it is no wonder you have a lack of trust. You should be aware however that many devices are engineered to higher standards that consider the risk of life and limb.
Yes in any device there is a risk of failure. This includes purely mechanical devices no matter how over engineered. Devices that are properly engineered for the environments they are used in will tend to last and those that are not will tend to fail. This concept is standard whether we are considering a mechanical device or an electronic one. The difference in use however is vast the advanced electronic devices bring with them features that can in fact increase our safety margin or save us time to put to better use.
In the case of dive computers we can use them to safely extend our bottom time and better monitor the environment we are enjoying and the impact it has on our condition.
The debate about which is safer a SPG or a computer is nothing but trash neither is perfectly safe. A SPG is inherently inaccurate and grows more inaccurate with time and use. It's failure may often be hidden until realized at the worst of times OOA.
The electronic transducers used in AI computers are inherently stable and far more accurate than the best brass & glass SPG available the day it was manufatured and calibrated.
Electronic dive computers do fail due to many factors more often then any other reason is user error. Simply failing to change batteries or when doing so failure to properly clean the sealing surfaces and cleaning or replace the o-ring. Remove this statistic from it's failure rate and the rate drops in line with or below expected failure rates for SPG's.
Divers resistance to dive computers comes in multi levels. Those that stick with SPG and tables. Those that use Non-AI computers with SPG and timer backup, Those that have adopted AI computers but use a SPG and timer as backup. Finally AI computer users both connected and wireless.
The real difference in all this is the experience and education of the diver as related to the equipment. Hopefully each type diver is knowledgeable enough to keep themself safe with the gear they prefer. As I stated earlier there isn't really a safety difference based on which is chosen the difference is in knowing how to read your gear and knowing when to thumb the dive.

 

[fnfalman]

I've never had an spg fail on a dive or even heard of it happening. I have had computer failures.
Don't think there's any reasonable doubt that a brass/glass spg is more reliable than an air integrated computer

You may not have had an SPG failed, but I did. OMS brass & glass leaked full of water and died. I have two dive computers and none of them have died on me yet.

 

[ianr33]

You may not have had an SPG failed, but I did. OMS brass & glass leaked full of water and died. I have two dive computers and none of them have died on me yet.

Did it die on the dive it started leaking on? I've had several spgs that got water in them,they always lasted for that dive and a few more until I got around to replacing it.

Maybe you just have a talent?

 

[eh7738]

I think that having an analog spg with a hose isn't a big inconvenience. We are talking about your air here.....if your dive computer frizzes out on you at least you know how much longer you can actually breathe. Maybe I'm over cautious but breathing is rather important to me, so why chance it go with the air integrated and spend an extra fifty bucks for a analog, the only thing you have to lose is fifty bucks not your life. Just a thought! Best wishes!

 

[vladimir]

I think that having an analog spg with a hose isn't a big inconvenience. We are talking about your air here.....if your dive computer frizzes out on you at least you know how much longer you can actually breathe. Maybe I'm over cautious but breathing is rather important to me, so why chance it go with the air integrated and spend an extra fifty bucks for a analog, the only thing you have to lose is fifty bucks not your life. Just a thought! Best wishes!

You don't lose your air when your computer fails, so you can continue breathing all the way to the surface. You are not risking your life using AI. I hate to belabor the obvious, but it keeps coming up.

 

[Rascally Rabbit]

You don't lose your air when your computer fails, so you can continue breathing all the way to the surface. You are not risking your life using AI. I hate to belabor the obvious, but it keeps coming up.

It goes back to my final point. Not all divers have been re-educated on what considerations should be revised when diving an AI computer or if they have they don't completely understand it.
Those that include a B&G SPG as "cheap insurance" don't seem to understand the limited accuracy of a SPG and the difference between catastrophic failure and reduced accuracy failures and which failure type can lead to a more serious situation to deal with. They seem to think that a computer failure is a dangerous event when in fact it is not. In fact it is only a signal to collect your buddy and start your safe ascent. I'd hardly event call it an incident.
Now consider a SPG that seems to work. It reads a full tank but when it reads 500 psi the tank only has 200psi. A diver that starts their ascent at 1000 psi may never be aware of the discrepancy until the one dive that goes a little too long and the diver ends up OOA.
The problem is the way we learned the use of the computer is obvious because we know it's limitations and how to dive safely within them. Some divers that use SPG seem not to be so aware of it's limits and the steps needed to stay safe when using them. If they did maybe they would consider redundant gauges.

 

[hilljo88]

I have had the elite t-3 for a couple of years and its been great. no problems. apparently the signal is occasionally lost when the axis of the transmitter is at too steep an angle to the T3. but its relinks within 4 secs with normal movement. In fact, the only way i realize that it was delinked is to look at my dive profile on the computer graph when I download my dives. customer service was also great when I had a software conflict during inital install of the software on my PC.