Interesting...Elite T3 losing signal in fresh water dives

[fnfalman]

I have an Elite T3 since January 09 and had 25-dives with it in the California ocean and it functioned perfectly. Today I did two dives at the Blue Hole pond in New Mexico and I experienced several signal losses. Something in the fresh water doesn't quite help transmission of radio frequency?

[sladerer]

25 consecutive dives without losing signal is spectacular compared to my experience. Is this based on your in-water observation or post dive download? I've had dives where I lost signal but never realized it until I downloaded my dive. I average losing signal about every 2nd or 3rd dive, probably 2 to 3 times per dive when it happens. I've read where strobes (photography) firing have been observed to create a sync-loss, and other electronics (turning on a high discharge light) could also momentarily interfere, though I suspect in my case it's mostly wrist position, as most transmitters are fairly directional.

[TheScubaBOB]

I experienced signal loss on my brand new Vyper Air last weekend. It only happened on the second dive and appeared to be a very local thing. There was one spot about 10ft off a sunken cabin cruiser where it happened (both leaving that wreck and then returning).

I'm moving the computer to my right wrist as I have an I3 inflater and will also move the transmitter to the HP post on that side of my first stage.

[fnfalman]

I don't bother to download into the computer, so I don't know. But I do make it a habit to glance at the wrist fairly often just because of the signal loss issue and never experienced it in the ocean until now. I'll be doing some dives in Texas lake next week and we'll see if this persists and after that when I return to California, I'll hit the ocean again and see what's going on. Maybe the transmitter or computer is acting up or maybe the fresh water has something to do with disrupting transmission.

And yes, my transmitter is on the same side as my computer.

[fnfalman]

Update:

Did a dive at Lake Travis in Texas and did three dives in SoCal a few days ago. No problems at all, so it must be something in the water at the Blue Hole in New Mexico.

[mbwilliamn]

I have the lost signal occasionally, but most of the time it is short duration. If it loses for a longer period (not sure how long) it generates an alarm (beeps)....when it reconnects, if you are past one of your pressure related alarms, it will alarm again. You can tell if its' lost link for an extended period by looking at the pressure reading....if the last pressure it had is blinking, it's been a short gap. Once it goes over a minute or so, the pressure reads zero until it reconnects. Now for the really good news....I've had mine do the extended loss twice....following dives it was fine. Upon download, it would only shot the last dive....all previous were not present (although they were still available when looking at the LOG on the computer itself). During this process the computer shut down completely. Both times ended in a return for repair....once under warranty (6 months) the second last month outside of warranty at 2 years.

Recommend you keep an eye out if you lose link for more than a minute.

[tfsails]

I had this happen to my Aeris 750GT in 2002 or 2003 twice on the same day on wreck dives off Hatteras. Both times it reconnected at about 80-90 ft when I was seriously contemplating aborting the dive due to no pressure indications. After thinking about it for a while and falling back on my pilot training (redundancy is good...), I decided to add an SPG as a backup. No more problems until several years later when after servicing it wouldn't link up with the transmitter. By that time Aeris had identified a problem with 750GTs (and Oceanic with their version of it) and I traded my wrist unit in for a refurbished unit at a cost of $225. Haven't had a problem with it since. Of course, I still use the SPG and will always have one when I use a hoseless computer.