Trident stuff is, in general, crap. As you're seeing, you don't get enough play on tilting it without screwing it up. Also, however, could be an issue with how you're holding it. Holding a slate-mounted compass by the near end of the slate other than perfectly aligned with your midline and direction of swim will multiply any error you're encountering.
How are you holding it? The best way is cupping the compass itself in BOTH hands out in front of you; this will essentially force you to keep the compass aligned with your body... unless one of your arms is longer than the other. Can you pop the compass out of the slate and try it that way?
My students have good experiences with Suunto SK7 or the Oceanic SWIV compasses - both of these are very forgiving in terms of tilting without getting hung. I use an Oceanic personally; the SWIV's predecessor.
Where in NJ are you located? You're welcome to borrow one from me to try out if you like.
Thanks man. I am from North Jersey, right near the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne. I actually picked up the Oceanic SWIV and it is miles ahead of that other piece of junk. I can now effectively land navigate with it, and it is much closer (although still not quite as capable) as my lensatic. I appreciate the offer, but I am all set for now. I'm trying to get in the water before my RI ocean dives, so hopefully I get a chance to try it out.
---------- Post added October 6th, 2014 at 09:17 PM ----------
I've never done this but it looks good on paper. Get 2 line levels. These are small one bubble levels masons use to hang on a string to give themselves a level reference. Attach them to that slate 90degs from each other so that pitch or yaw you'll see one of them change. Use them to get a feel for keeping the compass level. Sounds good huh? Finding a way to keep them on while diving would be ideal.
There are no large amounts of iron in RI and a compass is basic gear especially at night when even at the surface direction is tough to determine.
You'll want to be able to use a compass to enjoy diving here in RI. I have used my compass to find my way back to a steel hull ship in NC but you need to watch it to know when it starts moving off the earth magnetic field and onto the ship. Contact me when you get certified we'll do some diving when you're in RI.
Thanks man. I'm just working on my AOW right now; I have my OW. I'll be up there the weekend of the 17th-19th, but if I can swing it, I might try to come up a day early and/or stay a day late to do some more diving. We shall see how the work/school schedule goes.
---------- Post added October 6th, 2014 at 09:19 PM ----------
View attachment 194355
build one of these, piece of plexiglass from home depot, sand it down so you can write on it. Drill a hole in one corner, and zip tie a bolt snap to it. drill two small holes at the top and put a small piece of bungee on the top to hold a pencil. Superglue a $10 wally world compass to the bottom left corner and voila, cheap very easy to use compass, much better than the floating crap compasses that are barely good enough for cardinal ish directions. I have used the slate in this picture to do a 500yd blue water kick *40ft depth quarry with 15ft of vis and was diving at 10ft depth the whole way* was accurate within 5ft by the time I got to the other end, hit the buoy I was aiming for. It will deviate somewhat when you are close to heavy metallic objects, but you have to be decently close when you're underwater.
Thanks. That thing is really cool. What sold me was the slate/compass combo, which gave me the option to keep data very handy, and write up whatever I needed underwater. I really like your board, and I will be making up one of these for sure.
---------- Post added October 6th, 2014 at 09:20 PM ----------
View attachment 194356
If you can find one of these in good shape on Ebay, buy it. It is probably the best and most forgiving compass ever made. Someone at Scubapro that probably didn't know crap about diving or compasses decided to stop making them. I use one mounted on a console. In 44 years of diving I'm on my second one, they last too! It is a Scubapro LS-1 compass.
My instructor told me the exact same thing. I trolled around for a while and couldn't find a single one. Apparently they are THE compass, and if anyone has one, they are not likely to part with it.
---------- Post added October 6th, 2014 at 09:22 PM ----------
Most problems using a compass originate in the user staring at it while swimming. Just point your compass to a point as far away as possible and swim to it. Repeat. It's that easy.
If you stare at your compass, you will veer off in one direction.
What you are saying compares quite nicely to land nav, which I am pretty familiar. Basically, you just go from point to point which is pretty easy. Where I am diving, visibility may be 6-10 feet sometimes, and that style of nav just won't work. Unfortunately, in certain conditions, following the compass and swimming along are the only ways to go.
---------- Post added October 6th, 2014 at 09:27 PM ----------
Lastly, I picked up the Oceanic SWIV, as it came recommended by members here as well as a few others. It is substantially taller than my trident, and although it is not mounted on a board, it easily could be. I have a small slate, and after my AOW dive, I was thinking about stealing the retractor from the POS compass board and mounting it to my small slate, and then adding either my SWIV or a new/different compass to create something as depicted above.
As far as the comparison goes, I'm almost ashamed of myself for not noticing before my AOW quarry dives. The Oceanic SWIV is wolds ahead. If I take a heading with it, then tip it in any of the four primary directions up to 20 or even 30 degrees, it is still WELL inside a usable margin of error. The Trident heading will skew up to 30 degrees off course.
Thank you all for the tips, and I am looking forward to putting a functional compass to work within the next few weeks.
-BC
PS: Please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, I have been responding entirely from my ipad and keyboard...