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I am fairly new to diving and on the advice of my open water instructor purchased a wrist computer and analog gauges. He said the wireless AI computers have too many problems and that in his opinion an analog pressure gauge is a necessary piece of diving gear. I am happy with my arrangement but have been wondering about the AI computer. My question is: would it be possible to make a 2 puck console that has an air integrated computer and an analog pressure gauge back up, using the same high pressure hose? Without understanding the engineering required to make such a tool it seems like it would make a diving gauge with the extra AI information and analog safety redundancy built in.
I think you and your instructor are talking about two different things. Or at least that's what I can infer from the bolded sentences above.
If you are running a wireless AI computer, the transmitter goes directly on one of the high pressure ports on your regulator (although some people run the transmitter on a 6" hp hose) and the spg would go on a separate hp port.
If you are running an air integrated (AI) console computer, it does not use a transmitter and connects to the high pressure port of your regulator via a hose. Connecting an spg to that same hose, if you were able to achieve this, would not provide you with redundancy should the hose burst or otherwise become compromised.
FWIW, I've used wireless AI for many years with a few different computers all on the same transmitter and the only failure I have experienced was when I failed to change the battery after 2 years of using the transmitter causing me to lose the air pressure information on my wrist. I continued the dive with my spg.
Diving locally I could get away without using a back up spg as I know my consumption, the typical profiles and always dive with a lot more gas than I need . Worse case scenario I miss a dive or two go home fix the problem and I'm ready to dive the next weekend. Diving elsewhere, I would not want to miss any dives due to a failure and the extra hose of a back up spg has never been and issue to me.