Dive computer????

[Ice Mike]

If you don't need to have air intergration and/or an user replaceable battery, IMO the suunto D6 is a good choice.

It has all the options of the D9, except for the air intergration and three gas mixes (only two with D6).

I believe the actual computer in the D6 is exactly the same computer as in the D9.
So any childhood diseases have been taken care off through the experiences with the D9.

So if you decide to go for a wrist unit, the price differences needs to be compensated by the air intergration and additional gas mix.

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If am diving and am not back in 5 minutes....................wait a bit longer

 

[immersed]

Suunto has 3 levels of user settable conservativism: P0, P1, P2.
NDL at 60 feet is 50, 38, and 29 minutes, respectively.
P0 for 70, 80, 90 feet is 36,28,22 mins, so it's pretty close.

 

[DandyDon]

Suunto has 3 levels of user settable conservativism: P0, P1, P2.
NDL at 60 feet is 50, 38, and 29 minutes, respectively.
P0 for 70, 80, 90 feet is 36,28,22 mins, so it's pretty close.

Okay, didn't realize that, thanks.

But their most liberal setting is about 10% less than the Padi chart, I see - on all 4 examples. That's just strikes me as excessive.

 

[PerroneFord]

I am aware of the three conservatism settings. The 50 minutes at 60ft is 5 minutes shorter than the tables. That seems awfully conservative to me. I've not compared it at other depths.

How does it compare on repetive dives?

 

[DandyDon]

I am aware of the three conservatism settings. The 50 minutes at 60ft is 5 minutes shorter than the tables. That seems awfully conservative to me. I've not compared it at other depths.

How does it compare on repetive dives?

It's pretty close to 10% less on the 4 examples given.

 

[TheRedHead]

Perrone, I found the Cobra very conservative compared to the Aeris. I dived with a guy wearing a Nitek and it was more conservative than the Nitek. There may be a more conservative computer out there, but nothing comes to mind.

 

[TheRedHead]

When I set the mix to EAN24 (when diving air), it behaves much like the Aeris. I've worn both computers on the same dive for comparison.

 

[DandyDon]

When I set the mix to EAN24 (when diving air), it behaves much like the Aeris. I've worn both computers on the same dive for comparison.

Again, about a 10% penalty. I can imagine the research beind that. "What to you think boys - 10% penalty sound like a nice margin to you?"

 

[PerroneFord]

Actually from what I can tell, the RGBM algorithm is fairly conservative in general. However, though SUUNTO claims this is an RGBM computer, I have my doubts. But, these kinds of difficulties are why I just put it in gauge mode, and dive the tables or custom tables.

 

[halocline]

I'd wait and dive with a wrist computer before you buy a console. What's the suunto wrist air integrated, vytec? You might like that one...personally, if I was going to buy a suunto it would be the gekko. I don't care so much about the download function (I use a mac, so most of the software won't work anyway) and I'm perfectly happy with an SPG, which I would suggest using even though you have air integration. As a new diver, not being able to monitor your gas supply in the event of a computer/battery failure would be pretty stressful. Anyhow, LP has the gekko for $249; man that's cheap. If that was the price when I was looking, I might not have ended up with the atmos 2, so maybe it's better that it was more expensive back then.

The other thing I would recommend everyone to do before buying a computer is to take a good look at the studies that compare how the computers react to a couple of simmulated dives...I think it's an old article in scubadiving mag. It's pretty interesting, and then there's the unavoidable fact that no computer has been shown to prevent DCS in recreatonal diving any better than it's competitors. More conservative does not mean safer in terms of statistics. Of course, there are not that many cases of DCS in single tank rec diving so there's not alot of data.