suunto vyper and mosquito

[ivansie]

excuse the ignorant question but what exactly is the sample rate and how changing up or down will affect the measurements and information given by the computer. My understanding is that it will make the algorithm work in a more conservative or aggressive rate, am I correct?

thanks
ivan=-)

 

[GUEdiver]

The sampling rate (which you can control on the Vyper but not the Mosquito) determines the interval (in seconds) that the computer records dive data. The Mosquito samples every 20 seconds, and that is what you see replayed when you review the dive on the unit itself or using the interface and software. The Vyper, on the other hand and as mentioned above, can be adjusted as to how often it samples dive data (10s, 30s, etc).

The other control feature you mention is what Suunto calls the "Personal Setting." You can choose between three levels of conservativism depending on your personal preferences (health, age, diving conditions, etc.) But this setting does NOT effect the sampling rate, they are unrelated. You can also change the altitude settings. These effect the algorithm.

FWIW, I use a Mosquito with over 200 dives on it and love it, and my buddy dives a Vyper and loves it.

 

[GeekDiver]

Both dive computers work/display realtime data as your diving, the sample rate is how often it records the data. The only differance it makes is how detailed your profile is when you view it after the dive. There are personal settings that can be adjusted to use a more conservative algorithms for specific people/purposes and have nothing to do with sampling rates.

Say you had been sick, hungover, overweight or some other condition that could increase the risk of DCS. You could set a more conservative setting to account for the differance of your well being as oposed to just haveing a general setting that tries to work for all divers. Since divers differ in how fit they are Suunto has provided a way to account for it.

The sample rates only help to provide more or less details of you dive profile. The computer has a set amount of memory for storing detailed dive data. When you d/l the data you can view it and see just what your depth, Tissue loading, accent rate etc. etc at every point that was recorded per sample. Over time that level of detail is lost and you only get Date, Time, Max depth, BT etc. If you lower the sampling rates you could record more detail dive data over a longer period of time before dive data details are lost. Both do keep a life time history of your dives just not at the detail level you will see when you d/l and view the graph.


Hope that helps
Geek

 

[ivansie]

GUE and Geek,

great explanation, I have it pretty clear now I think both features sound very interesting to me.

One questions, when you download some of your dives into the computer does it free up memory for future dives in case you lower the sample rate lets say from 20 to 10? or on the other hand the way you set up the sample rate will affect the information you store regardless of how much of it you download for the lifetime of the computer?

bye
ivan

 

[GeekDiver]

You’re starting to get it.

Memory Logs last 36 hours by default (this is where you may be able to affect how much you can store while on your dive trip) after 36 hrs of data has been stored it begins to overwrite the detailed data.

It would be kind of like saying you have a bucket that can hold 5 Gal. If you let the water drip into the bucket it will take forever to fill the bucket. If you pour water into you bucket from your garden hose it will take a few mins to fill the bucket. If you fill the bucket with a fire hose it will be filled in a few seconds. The faster you set the sample rate the faster the memory is filled. Once it's filled it will overflow or in this case overwrite data.

You "lower" the sample rate by increasing the setting. I know this sounds backwards but what happens with default settings is that it records a snapshot of your dive data every 20 seconds. So what ever your depth, tissue loading, bt etc was at that one second of time is what’s recorded. This happens every 20 sec's or 3 times a min. Now if you set it to 10 then the interval is shortened so it records more often or 6 times a min. If you set it to say 60 then it only records once per min.

Now back to our trip. If you have a fast sample rate such as 10 sec then you could possibly overwrite the dive log data for the beginning of your trip with data that happened at the end of your trip. (Default Sample Rates record at 20 second intervals with ability to set at 10, 30, or 60 second intervals) If you have a long dive trip say a week long you may want to set the rate to say 60 seconds so it doesn't record as often and fill the memory as fast. If it only a one day dive and you only make one or two dive you can increase the rate and have more data recorded.

When you d/l the dive data then it makes a more permant record on your computer. Your dive computer doesn't get cleared out it only copies the data it stored. As you continue to dive your computer just overwrite the dive data with the new dive data.

As an example of this is when you delete a file on a PC it doesn't get deleted. What happens is that there is a table that says where this file is located and how big it is. When you delete the file what happens is you remove the info about the file from the table. When you save a new file it just writes over the old file with the new file because it no longer thinks the space is occupied with the old file. Kind of like painting over a wall. You have a blue wall but need the wall to be green. There not any space left on the wall that not painted blue. You don't remove the blue paint you just paint over it and forget that it was ever blue.

hope this helps
Geek

 

[rcohn]

bridgenet once bubbled...

I don't know the Vyper but Mosquito was just fine. It gave an Error warning but at the depths/times I'm diving at it will do that anyways. It locks out but that only effects changing its mode. Jump back in the water the next day and works fine.

Didn't try uploading information to the PC afterwards but seemed to track my Max/Average depth and times to the log properly also.
Kev

Doing a short dive, less than 5 minutes, should clear the lockout.

The Mosquito records the dive during freedive mode using the 2 second sampling interval, giving you high resolution over a much shorter time period compared to normal scuba modes.

Ralph

 

[leadweight]

Does anyone around find the Vyper et al to be too conservative, especially when diving on air with a buddy that has say, an Oceanic or Aeris computer?

Most of the people that I know who dive Vypers and Mosquitos use Nitrox all the time, so gas rather than no stop time tends to be the limiting factor.

I have met a few people who found the Vyper to be a bit too conservative for their tastes and they traded for other computers.

In the past I have been a fan of Oceanic and Aeris computers, but lukewarm reviews in Diver magazine have got me wondering.

 

[mars2u]

I've never had a problem with it being too conservative although I've heard the same thing. There are 3 "levels" of conservatism on the Vytec that I use. I tend to use the 2nd level.
I've heard that the difference between computer products is negligible from what I've heard.
It really depends on how you feel about it. I'd rather lose a few minutes diving on each dive especially when diving multiple dives per day and be more conservative. Of course using the dive tables is the most conservative way of diving and I still carry them with my computer.
I've heard that differences between computers can be off by a few minutes...but keep in mind that dive buddies do not dive the same depths at the same time and thus can cause the computers to be off.
The thing that I find a bit cumbersome is the ascent warning seems to be quite conservative...but again... slower ascent is better, so it doesn't really bother me.

Again, all these computers seem to work fine...it just depends on personal preference.

As far as lukewarm reviews for Aeris ...again, I would go with what you feel more comfortable with. I dive a Vytec with wireless and absolutely love it...my buddy dives a mosquito. Just depends on what you are looking for.

 

[ivansie]

thanks all for the explanations and comments, specially geekdiver, I have it pretty clear now. We are shopping for prices now since we decided to go with the vyper.

bye
ivan

 

[jamiei]

go for the vyper if you can afford it. I have a cobra and absolutely love it. I've never heard someone that actually owned one have anything bad to say about them.