Shearwater fans.....question?

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manni-yunk

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Location
Quakertown,PA and Cape May, NJ
# of dives
500 - 999
I know there are a lot of Shearwater people on here. How many are diving on the included Buhlman model - and how many are diving on the VPM-B?

I have unlocked the VPM - and Im playing with the dive planner now. Im just curious to see which direction most of you guys have gone.


For instance - if it WASNT about the extra cost or hassle of adding the VPM-B - which one would you be diving.
 
I've found you can plan with V-Planner VPM+1 and then let the ZHL16-C with 20/80GF do it's thing on the SW. You'll end up well within the margin of error of one to three minutes of expected deco assuming you stick to your scheduled RT/depth on your schedule.

BUT as with all things Tec - YMMV
 
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I dive bulhman. They match my tables identically.
 
I have both. I originally purchased the VPM model because I thought I needed it to plan dives with V-Planner. After a few dives with that model, I did not like it for a few reasons. Main one is I have done so many dives on Buhlman, and have come to expect the deco stops that it provides. VPM throws me off slightly at times, and although it is close to Buhlman, it isnt. If I recall there were a lot more short deep stops. Since none of my buddies wanted to spring for the VPM upgrade, I kept ending up with a slightly different deco schedule from everyone else - Not a BIG issue, but I would rather my buddy and I's deco at least be at the same depth. that wasnt happening all the time. As others have pointed out, its still possible to do planning with V-Planner, and dive Buhlman saving the upgrade fee. YMMV but in the diving that I do here in South Florida, its rare that I plan a dive on the Hydro-Atlantic on sim software, for instance, and have my plan match my computers dive. It can come close, but so can Buhlman. So I say that is a moot point. Neither one will produce the exact numbers, because your dive depths will rarely match the software plan. At least mine dont. They are similar, but not the same. I own a Predator and a Petrel, and I dive them together when I do dives that have deco obligations, and dive the Petrel alone for standard NDL dives. For the record, if I dive the two computers together they match exactly. I would be concerned if they did not.
 
I'm a long time V-Planner fan so when I bought my Shearwater was a little concerned that it only ran Buhlmann. Very soon got used to it though and haven't been bent yet ! Don't see any need to spend $$ for the VPM upgrade. Typically do a sanity check with V-Planner before a "big" dive.
 
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I'm a long time V-Planner fan so when I bought my Shearwater was a little concerned that it only ran Buhlmann. Very soon got used to it though and haven't been bent yet ! Don't see any need to spend $$ for the Buhlmann upgrade. Typically do a sanity check with V-Planner before a "big" dive.

For the record it comes with Buhlman. The upgrade being discussed here is VPM. I'm sure you meant to say VPM.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Funny to read that most users who upgraded to VPM are still using the Buhlman. I did the same!
I upgraded to VPM in case students would prefer to use VPM on laptop decompression softwares so that the Shearwater would still have a close deco schedule... and hardly ever used it. Have done a few dives with Predator on Buhlman and Petrel on VPM for comparison purposes.
On top of having a lot more dives on Buhlman and understanding the algorithm better, i feel I can adapt it much more closely and easily to the specific need of a particular dive. GF is also the algorithm used by the onboard computer on my rebreather.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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