Gekko - 2 safety stops?

Hi,
I went diving recently with my shiny new gekko. It was following a 25m dive, and was pushing the limits of a no-deco dive - I reached 1 minute left of no deco time, but never quite reached the point at which I would need a decompression stop.
On the way up, I did a generous 3 minute safety stop at 5m, then carried on up to the surface. It was extremely wavey, which resulted in my gekko warning me about coming up too quickly, I glanced at it, and it was telling me to do another safety stop. For a few seconds, it showed '4' in the safety stop time, which seemed odd - I thought it would only suggest a 3 minute stop.

Any suggestions what happened there? Was the fast ascent responsible for the gekko telling me to do another stop?

(also, it fairly frequently seems to show the warning triangle, but I can't seem to find specifically what it's warning me about...)

-jonny

The triangle will come on if you bust the ascent speed limit, or do something else the computer doesn't like - it's not a specific warning, just letting you know that's it's detected an issue. You need to look at the ascent rate, nitrogen absorption and other info to see what the problem is

3 minutes is the standard safety stop, but if you go outside the box, it can give you a longer stop - it sounds to me like maybe you got an extended stop which you didn't complete, rather than 2 stops

But you say it only showed 4 minutes briefly; what happened then, did it go to "--" ?

You didn't exceed the NDL, otherwise it would have got "bent" and given you a 24 hour lock out

The safety stop depth is 3-6 metres, so if you go outside of that range (which is easy to do if there's a swell), the timer will pause or restart (if you go deeper) or add time (if you go shallower)

What I think may have happened to you is you exceeded the Ascent Rate:

From the Suunto Manual:
When the maximum allowed ascent rate is exceeded
continuously the dive computer highly recommends
an extra-prolonged Mandatory Safety Stop in the
range of 3 m - 6 m [10 ft - 20 ft] for the calculated
period. In this case the STOP sign will appear in the
display and when you reach the depth zone between 6
m to 3 m [20 ft to 10] also the CEILING label, depth
and the calculated Safety Stop time appear in the
display. You should wait until the Mandatory Safety
Stop warning disappears (Fig. 3.14).m

Click to expand...

Tortuga68:

You didn't exceed the NDL, otherwise it would have got "bent" and given you a 24 hour lock out

Click to expand...

Exceeding the NDL on a Geeko will not bend it or lock it out.

The computer will actually help you perform the required deco.

When your NO DEC TIME becomes zero, your dive becomes a decompression
dive, i.e. you must perform one or several decompression stops on your way to the
surface. The NO DEC TIME on your display will be replaced by an ASC TIME
notation and the maximum depth will be replaced by a CEILING notation and
an upward pointing arrow.

However, if through carelessness or emergency you are forced to exceed the no-
decompression limits on a dive, the dive computer will provide decompression
information required for ascent. After this, the instrument will continue to provide
subsequent interval and repetitive dive information.
Rather than requiring you to make stops at fixed depths, the dive computer lets
you to decompress within a range of depths (Continuous Decompression).

Click to expand...

Wiz

Maybe I didn't explain myself properly - it will get bent after you complete the dive, if you exceed the NDL, and you will get locked out

I dive my gekko on all my tech dives. I bent it more time than I can count. ( use it as a backup BT and ignore the computer). When the NDL goes to 0 it will show a up arrow in the middle right.
when you go up the arrow will go away and a time will show for the stop. when you complete that time the up arrow will show again till the next stop. if you pass the stop you will get a down arrow.

If you ignore the arrow and keep diving at the depth the gekko will continue to show 0. If you ascend to a new depth it will recalculate the NDL after you been there for a while while still showing you the up arrow. Sounds confusing, this is why I like to dive tables.

Catthish:

On the way up, I did a generous 3 minute safety stop at 5m, then carried on up to the surface.

Click to expand...

Maybe I'm nit-picking, but me I'm not sureI would call 3 minutes generous. 3 minutes is standard. Some people believe that if you're pushing things (exertion, close to NDL, deep, fast ascent, etc.) you should be extending this, in which case 5 or 6 minutes might be generous.

Catthish:

(also, it fairly frequently seems to show the warning triangle, but I can't seem to find specifically what it's warning me about...)

Click to expand...

It's the 'you did something during the dive the computer thinks is slightly problematic; a long-than-normal surface interval is recommended before diving again'. From my limited understanding of the way it's implementing the RGBM algorithm, this could be triggered by things like hitting or even getting too close to the NDL, exceeding the 'ceiling' at some point during the dive, ascending too fast at some point, or yo-yos (ascending and re-descending). Like other people have stated in this thread, I've found it's quite easy to come up from the safety stop too fast, particularly the last 2m/6', and especially if there are waves like you had. (Side note: I actually find Suunto's 'feature' of switching the Surface Interval mode at 1.2m/4' and not displaying depth a bit annoying.) Another possibility is that if you saw NDL=1, it might actually have momentarily hit 0 while you weren't watching.

Tortuga68:

Maybe I didn't explain myself properly - it will get bent after you complete the dive, if you exceed the NDL, and you will get locked out

Click to expand...

However, if through carelessness or emergency you are forced to exceed the no-
decompression limits on a dive, the dive computer will provide decompression
information required for ascent. After this, the instrument will continue to provide
subsequent interval and repetitive dive information.

Click to expand...

This seems to disagree with what you're saying.

Wiz

But you say it only showed 4 minutes briefly; what happened then, did it go to "--" ?

Click to expand...

Continued to 3 minutes, and gave me a normal (albeit second) 3 minute safety stop.

What I think may have happened to you is you exceeded the Ascent Rate:

Click to expand...

Ahh, that must've been it. Thanks, I missed that in the manual.

bleeb:

Maybe I'm nit-picking, but me I'm not sureI would call 3 minutes generous. 3 minutes is standard. Some people believe that if you're pushing things (exertion, close to NDL, deep, fast ascent, etc.) you should be extending this, in which case 5 or 6 minutes might be generous.

Click to expand...

Sorry, that was perhaps badly worded. I meant that I waited at the safety stop for my gekko to tell me 3 minutes was up, then hung around for another minute or two.

LowVizWiz:

This seems to disagree with what you're saying.

Wiz

Click to expand...

Yes and no

You will get locked out of the dive computer

You will still get gauge mode