Silent computers?

[Dr. Lecter]

Unfortunately, there are those who think noise will convert those within 1) into 2). In practice, those who respond to minor beeps are those who'd respond equally well to non-auditory feedback BECAUSE THEY'RE INTERESTED IN WHAT THEIR INSTRUMENTS HAVE TO SAY...so they'd look at them. Regularly, especially when doing things like ascending, decending, or trying to stay at a constant depth. The others are already going to live or die based on random chance, whether they're listening to their computers wail the whole time or not. So it's not really about making momentarily inattentive divers marginally safer.

Now, if I was a lazy, inconsiderate SOB, perhaps I'd choose a computer that beeped at me (and everyone else around me) when I ascended a bit faster than ideal so I wouldn't have to look at my wrist to see that information. But nobody wants to be that guy when one could just look at the instruments one has right in front of them and see how fast one is ascending. Right?

 

[KeithG]

Other peoples dive computers should not beep.

Mine is okay to beep.

 

[mathauck0814]

I've never heard a computer squawk continually, but I have had little experience diving in the tropics.

I did a full two+ hour deco listening to the handset on a friends' AP Inspiration chirping away. I think he was able to silence it, but he was unable to squelch the continued readvisement that his cell had failed (I think we all got the point after the first eleventeen warnings).

Not sure what being in the tropics has to do with anything.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I did a full two+ hour deco listening to the handset on a friends' AP Inspiration chirping away. I think he was able to silence it, but he was unable to squelch the continued readvisement that his cell had failed (I think we all got the point after the first eleventeen warnings)

Gaahhhhh I had an hour or so on a local recreational wreck last year where some AP diver was toddling around the whole time, beeping away. Even from inside the wreck, plus the sound of my bubbles and the Atlantis subs whirring away outside, he was the most audible thing around. Silent diving my .

 

[String]

Guiding in warm waters you could tell if your Uwatec-wearing group were still with you without turning round by simply ascending 1/2m over a rock and listening to all of their massively over-sensitive ascent rate warnings go off.

 

[Bob DBF]

Expect more of it, since the Dive Industry is more interested in selling pretty dive adventures instead of training divers to take care of themselves. If you can't keep track of your air, buddy, depth, and time take OW over 'till you get it right, dive enough to realize your life is in your hands, or find another hobby. A beep you are not even aware of is not going to save you.

I'm with Dr Lecter, silent world my a**.


Bob
-----------------
I've got a better line, but I'm on an iPad.

 

[fnfalman]

I vote for shock collars when the stupidity level is too high.

Or a nice prod from a big dive knife.

If you're too stupid to monitor your gauges/computers then you're too stupid to dive. Or to survive underwater.

 

[Qasar]

Well if I can try to sum up the arguments in this thread I started (i evacuated the earing pbs):
1. Against: world of silence=silent computers, continuous noise is annoying for other divers, if you are a good diver you don't need alarms, alarms are not really related to safety points but more information points, you cannot acknowledge alarms on most computers, or select only some of them depending of your dive profile/usage...
2. Pro: as if you are a good diver you can make mistakes and the audible alarms bring your attention to it, it's another safety device and in any challenging profesional environment (aircraft pilots, operation centers...) audible alarms are there because men/women are not perfect machines.

What is the mitigation?
1. I would like to have audible alarms, but of course with a silent mode allowing the selection and parameters of the alarms
2. We should be able to acknowledge any alarm and not having the computer beeping all way up (and sometime still on the boat)
3. Most of the anoying alarms described in this thread are always linked to bad behavior underwater of some divers (not us of course, always the others...), so like for everything else education is the basis of the solution.
4. I started this thread because I'm looking for a new computer and I'm hesitating between Lynx and Petrel (I'm not a tec diver) for the quality of their screens, but both of them are silent...

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Qasar,

Get the Petrel and get on with diving. Audible alarms, like air integration, are a sales gimmick…one that happens to have the side effect of annoying the Hell out of the rest of the boat's complement. The Lynx has an interesting feature in the locator technology, but it's not there yet; the battery situation is looking like a nightmare over in the Liquivision forum (compare to the Petrel's ability to happily eat any AA battery you can find), and you'd have to deal with Liquivision's spotty at best, terrible at worst customer service (compare to Shearwater, which may actually be better than Atomic).

/thread

 

[chillyinCanada]

Qasar, reread the last sentence in your post. Tech computers = silent. Ask yourself this, if audible alarms are all about safety and fallibility, why don't tech divers want/need same. Aren't they all about redundacy?