Nitrox and computers

[Doby45]

I saw this very thing with a Zoop this past Wednesday. My partner and I were diving for bugs at Pompano Beach and had gotten some 31% nitrox to lengthen our NDL. So I set my Petrel to a blend of 31 and went ahead setting up the rest of my gear. My dive buddy did NOT set the blend on the Zoop to 31. After a good 45min dive we start the ascent and the Zoop starts going crazy and beeping and so forth. Nice big Er on the screen and my buddies eyes are about as big as saucers. On the surface, I asked him if he set his computer to 31 or had he left it on 21. One guess what the answer was.. He relearned the valueable lesson that was taught in his Nitrox course.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Doby, it sounds like your buddy not only forgot to set his Nitrox mix on the Zoop but was as ignorant as the guy in Boulderjohn's story about his Zoop's deco stop feature for exceeding NDLs. I suppose another possibility is that he just didn't care what the Zoop said because he trusted YOUR computer. Either way, I hope he learned a lesson beyond just the need to remember to set his computer's Nitrox mix.

 

[boulderjohn]

Think how much worse it could have been if he had been diving air and had left his computer on EANx 31.

About 10 years ago, there was a story in ScubaBoard about a diver who got bent when he switched plans for a dive and went with air instead of nitrox but forgot to switch his computer. He got bent. After that, I wrote to PADI and said there should be a step in the standard pre-dive check which ensures that all needed instruments and gauges needed for the dive were ready to go, including computers being set to the proper gas mixture. I pointed out that for divers who wear these instruments on the wrist, they are usually the last step in gearing up, and it is easy to forget. I got an immediate enthusiastic response and a promise they would come up with a new mnemonic as soon as they could think of it. That obviously never happened.

When I teach, I add the letter "I" to the PADI BWRAF so they will remember to check this. I make it BWRAIF, with the mnemonic "Bruce WIllis Ruins Another Independent Film." Unfortunately, Bruce WIllis isn't doing a lot of films any more, and younger students have o idea what it means. I will have to come up with a new one.

 

[lermontov]

Doby, it sounds like your buddy not only forgot to set his Nitrox mix on the Zoop but was as ignorant as the guy in Boulderjohn's story about his Zoop's deco stop feature for exceeding NDLs. I suppose another possibility is that he just didn't care what the Zoop said because he trusted YOUR computer. Either way, I hope he learned a lesson beyond just the need to remember to set his computer's Nitrox mix.

one of the 'problems' with the Modern dive computer is that it allows a very wide range of user functions from beginner to vey experienced and can be an information overload for many beginner divers, i suspect that many just ignore the more complex settings waiting until they have more dives or more training -then one day they exceed NDl or other issues, get alarms going off and they don't know how to interpret the data.
Ive seen many OW or AOW who have only a very basic computer knowledge partly due to complacency partly due to the mistaken belief that they won't need to know anything about EAN or Deco ceilings etc

 

[stuartv]

one of the 'problems' with the Modern dive computer is that it allows a very wide range of user functions from beginner to vey experienced and can be an information overload for many beginner divers, i suspect that many just ignore the more complex settings waiting until they have more dives or more training -then one day they exceed NDl or other issues, get alarms going off and they don't know how to interpret the data.
Ive seen many OW or AOW who have only a very basic computer knowledge partly due to complacency partly due to the mistaken belief that they won't need to know anything about EAN or Deco ceilings etc

On top of that, I don't know about other OW classes, but when I took mine, and AGAIN when I took the Nitrox class, the instructors basically said "we're not going to teach you how to use any actual computer, because they're all different. So, when you rent or buy a computer, you need to make sure you read the manual or ask the person you're renting from to learn how to operate it." They just explained the general functions of a computer and what info would be available on the computer and that you need to set the FO2 (for the Nitrox class), but you need to read the manual to actually figure out how to do that.

 

[boulderjohn]

On top of that, I don't know about other OW classes, but when I took mine, and AGAIN when I took the Nitrox class, the instructors basically said "we're not going to teach you how to use any actual computer, because they're all different. So, when you rent or buy a computer, you need to make sure you read the manual or ask the person you're renting from to learn how to operate it." They just explained the general functions of a computer and what info would be available on the computer and that you need to set the FO2 (for the Nitrox class), but you need to read the manual to actually figure out how to do that.

What is supposed to happen in the PADI computer based course is that the student is taught what the key functions of the computer are, including, for example, emergency decompression. Students are given access to an online simulator that does dive simulations in which they use those various functions. They are then told that when they get a computer, they need to go into the manual, pick out those key functions, and learn how they work on that specific model.

If you try to read the entire manual, it is simply too much, you will go daft before you are done, and you won't know a thing. If instead you look at your short list of key functions and only seek to learn those specific items, it is all very doable.

I don't know how the other agencies do it.

 

[EFX]

When I teach, I add the letter "I" to the PADI BWRAF so they will remember to check this. I make it BWRAIF, with the mnemonic "Bruce WIllis Ruins Another Independent Film." Unfortunately, Bruce WIllis isn't doing a lot of films any more, and younger students have o idea what it means. I will have to come up with a new one.

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