Sherwood Wisdom vs Suunto cobra

[restor5]

Looking to buy first computer looking between the cobra and the wisdom have seen alot of info on the cobra not much talk about the wisdow what are your thoughts Thanks Bob

[Charlie99]

Both are good

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A search here on AI or air integrated should show quite a few threads discussing the pros and cons of AI computers in general.

Both computers are good choices for AI computers. A couple significant differences between them are 1) the Wisdom nitrogen loading bargraph is much more useful than the NDL bargraph of the Cobra, and 2) the Cobra uses a deco model which monitors your underwater profile and reduces future NDL dive times in response to bubble-prone behaviors such as rapid ascents and sawtooth/yo-yo profiles.


Bargraph Like other computers built by Pelagic and sold under many brand names, the Wisdom has a nitrogen loading bargraph, sometimes called a tissue loading bargraph. It is kind of like a graphical display of the pressure groups from a table, except that the computer looks at the compartments of all the different halftimes and displays the highest loading.
The Cobra just displays a graphical version of the NDL time. Since your NDL below 30' is going to be very long, even if your tissues are rather heavily loaded, the Cobra will bargraph will show "all clear" as long as you are not in deco. OTOH, if you have heavy N2 load, the Wisdom will show this on the bargraph, and you can extend the shallow portion of your dive until you run the bargraph down to your desired safety margin.

Deco model The Wisdom runs the same deco model as used for the PADI RDP. It has no fudge factors for things like reverse profiles, too rapid of an ascent, or repeated large up and down excursion in depth. You are responsible for adding the extra conservatism required to account for these sorts of dive profiles.

The Suunto has more conservative NDLs, and will further adjust them downward in response to problems in the profile of your previous dives, such as a too rapid ascent. Suunto uses the term "Suunto RGBM" to describe this, although it is really just an attempt to emulate RGBM algorithms by adjusting the limits on a classic dissolved gas model.

Manual for both computers are online at www.sherwoodscuba.com and www.suunto.com .

You can find the rest of the old Suunto Cobra vs Sherwood Wisdom thread by clicking here. (http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=32178)

[Dive-aholic]

On a recent trip I was diving the Wisdom and a friend was diving the Cobra. We didn't have identical profiles, but pretty close. In fact, I was deeper than he was more often. The Cobra locked him out after the 3rd dive. The Wisdom said I could do a 4th dive.

As you can see in other threads, Suunto's are extremely conservative. Too conservative for my taste. But that may be what you want. Nothing wrong with that.

The Wisdom has had some problems. I've heard of computers just shutting down completely. Mine started having display problems before that happened. Sherwood just replaces the computer, no questions asked.

I believe they're both comparitively priced. When I chose the Wisdom, it was more an issue of the display than the NDL model it uses. Now that I'm more knowledgeable in these things, I'm glad I liked the display on the Wisdom better.

BTW I'm changing over to a multigas computer in the next couple of weeks and will be selling my Wisdom. PM if interested.