Backup computer for when your main fails while in diving trip ?

[berndo]

For NDL diving any computer will be fine. I also don't see the need to dive the same model.

One of the push buttons failed, fell off and the computer flooded.

On a Perdix? How did the button fall off? It looks like the piezo buttons are inside the housing.

 

[RobPNW]

If you carry an SPG anyway, there are inexpensive non AI options for a backup.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Blackdog017

Your backup computer should have the same or nearly the same deco algorithm as your primary computer. If it is more conservative, it will control your dives and unless you clear any deco you accumulate, you will lose it to violation gauge mode. You must dive your backup computer all along so that it will have your previous nitrogen exposure, particularly for the intense diving on a liveaboard.

I have been diving a computer running DSAT since 2002. I have been diving a second computer running Buhlmann ZH-L16C with GF since 2015. I recently returned from a rather intense 7 day, 21 dive trip to Malpelo, Colombia. My Oceanic VT3 had the same or a few minutes of additional NDL than my Shearwater Teric running a GF high of 95. These two computers work out nearly perfectly together.

A Peregrine would be an ideal backup for a Perdix, Perdix 2 as you could run identical GFs.

 

[Alekseolsen]

On a Perdix? How did the button fall off? It looks like the piezo buttons are inside the housing.

This happened to mine last summer - np idea how it happened, noticed before i jumped in the water.

They fixed it on warranty - but I'd assume that was only beeing nice.

 

[JohnN]

I always dive with 2 identical computers. My wife and a dive buddy who dives with us use the same model. If one of mine fails I'm good. If one of theirs fails, probably good enough to hand off one of mine. Don't bother telling me about non-identical profiles. I know that.

My primary computer is a Perdix AI, my backup is a Deep6 Excursion.

The Excursion exactly matches the Perdix dive profile (both are running a 85/85 setting), and they occasionally go on sale for $300 (normal retail is $350). FWIW I took the NATO band off the excursion, tied on a boltsnap and clip it to a chest D-Ring.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I second @BRT 's thinking: If you really like the Perdix, just get another Perdix. I have been meaning to do exactly that for my wife and me, as we love our Petrels (essentially same as Perdix). They are familiar and comfortable to us. But yeah, the cost

I've gone that route. I dive with a Perdix AI and Perdix 2 Ti on each and every dive. One is on my left wrist and the other is on my right. Rather than a primary and a backup, I treat both as primary. If I ever have a failure with one, I am all set for the rest of that trip using the other until I can send the dead one in for service. Given that I have just over 500 dives on multiple shearwaters without a single failure, I feel confident that my computer at least will not be a reason I miss a dive.

 

[scubadada]

I've gone that route. I dive with a Perdix AI and Perdix 2 Ti on each and every dive. One is on my left wrist and the other is on my right. Rather than a primary and a backup, I treat both as primary. If I ever have a failure with one, I am all set for the rest of that trip using the other until I can send the dead one in for service. Given that I have just over 500 dives on multiple shearwaters without a single failure, I feel confident that my computer at least will not be a reason I miss a dive.

Hi @Divin'Papaw

Do you dive one transmitter or 2? If one, do you dive a SPG?

I dive with a single transmitter and a SPG. In 13 years, 1850 dives, I have had 2 transmitters fail, one from an uncharacterized hardware failure and one from a failure of the overpressure valve. In each case, my AI on one or both my AI computers did not register tank pressure. I relied on my SPG for tank pressure and did not have to alter my dive plan. The same backup could be achieved with 2 transmitters. Both my transmitters were replaced by the Oceanic/Huish service plan for $120, a great service from Oceanic.

I have never missed a dive or a series of dives due to computer or transmitter dysfunction.

 

[berndo]

Your backup computer should have the same or nearly the same deco algorithm as your primary computer. If it is more conservative, it will control your dives and unless you clear any deco you accumulate, you will lose it to violation gauge mode. You must dive your backup computer all along so that it will have your previous nitrogen exposure, particularly for the intense diving on a liveaboard.

Really not necessary unless you're solo diving. Just follows the buddies computer on next dive of the day.

 

[scubadada]

Really not necessary unless you're solo diving. Just follows the buddies computer on next dive of the day.

Much of my diving is solo drift in SE Florida. Your buddy's computer is not exactly correct, better to have your own backup for the current and subsequent dives.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

My primary computer is a Perdix AI, my backup is a Deep6 Excursion.

The Excursion exactly matches the Perdix dive profile (both are running a 85/85 setting), and they occasionally go on sale for $300 (normal retail is $350). FWIW I took the NATO band off the excursion, tied on a boltsnap and clip it to a chest D-Ring.

Came here to 2nd this. Love my little Excursion to match my Perdix AI.

It is a no frills, easy to lend out backup dc that far exceeds what something for $300 can do. I take it on all my tech dives, never had an issue, holds charge forever. With the new firmware gas switches are just as easy as they are on the SW dc's.

Really not necessary unless you're solo diving. Just follows the buddies computer on next dive of the day.

This is 100% false. That is just about the most irresponsible thing you could say in a thread about backup computers.

Edit: I ride the line with a lot of scuba "rules".. following a buddy who may or may not have had the same dive profile leading up to said dive is fire I would never play with. You're just asking to get bent.