It's good to have different perspectives. You should still be able to do it your way, I'm not saying to get rid of the menu at all. In fact, that's exactly how the Deep 6 Excursion is, you can do either or (but not both at the same time).Hmmm. Not sure I'm keen on settings being done remotely.
On my rebreather I may need to configure 3 Shearwater devices: Petrel, Nerd, Perdix (backup).
Going through each one to set the gas up is an important part of my checklist. It's pretty damn easy: left click all the way to the System Settings, then select the Diluent & Bailout screens and twiddle.
This means I can 'check' off ☑︎☑︎☑︎︎ each computer as I go through my checklist. BTW setting the computers up is done during the bailout gas check and whilst waiting on the negative pressure check.
If I didn't do this, I'd have to ensure that I bugger about with the phone, connecting it to each device and still have to faff around ensuring that those settings are correct.
(Only an alternative take on this)
No, me neither. God forbid I forgot my phone or something. It should be in addition to the current menu.This would be very nice as an option to have, but I wouldn’t want to be forced to change settings on my phone.
SW is already a pain to get working with a PC / MAC. For me connecting to a PC is hit or miss. It seems to be universally easier for people to link and download through their phones. Windows 7 bluetooth stack doesn't even support SW bt-lte or whatever.Forget the phone. laptop setup. Mouse and keyboard inputs. A phone you are now trying to do everything with a touchscreen. Don't see a big enough benefit in using a small touch screen over using the basic buttons. But a full size screen, drop down menus, keyboard input. I could like those.
I did an aftermarket fuel injection on an old truck a few years back. Came with a little hand held controller. It would do everything you asked. But was a pain to go through all the menus and screens. It was even touch screen like a phone. Got the laptop cable and software. So much easier doing this stuff on a laptop.
Just little things like programming gasses. keyboard presses are so much nicer than scrolling through numbers.
If you need a bigger screen there's always iPad's and tablets. The majority of people (at least I think) get along with their phones pretty well.
Edit: and manipulating values in the eeprom of a vehicle is worlds more involved than "name, address, gas defined, etc." I think for most people it would be an easier setup in the beginning, and not to mention much easier gas switches in the long run.