Suunto Vyper 2: Last request before purchase...

[fyrsout]

Okay, I've decided to upgrade the old US Divers Matrix Master for the Suunto Vyper 2. For the most part I've heard good things but there are a few negative threads. So please help me out. You guys have a much better idea on what works well and what doesn't. The negatives I've heard are: depth is way off and not very accurate, and suunto isn't very responsive with warranty work. Thanks for your help...

[divecon2k4]

I don't know much about the Vyper 2 but I dive the Cobra and a mosquito, as a back up and I have never had any problems with either. I used to sell suunto computers at a LDS and had very few problem with them, one maybe two with depth reading issues and D9 for compass issues which was resolved with the recall. I was dealing with Aqualung for service and it was a walk in the park for me they were very helpfull with the problems I presented them with. I have found them to very nice computer my only gripe with them is getting through the menu sometimes can be a pain if you don't do it alot, i forget where stuff is in the sub menus. All in all I have been happy with them.

[DivingPanda]

I've had the Vyper 2 for about one year and like it a lot. It's easy to read and operate. Along with the usual features, it has 2-gas switching (also useful if you strap an Air tank on but forget to change your computer from your last Nitrox mix before hopping in the water), a nice graphical representation of dive profiles in the log book, and a simulator so that you can familiarize yourself with all of the readouts.

I can't speak to the accuracy or service issues reported by others, but the depth readings are more or less consistent with those on my wife's Aladdin Prime (haven't done a side-by-side comparision, but our max is always within a few feet, and that's probably accurate).

On the negative side, the compass is definitely difficult to use and I prefer the regular one on my console for that. The computer is also quite conservative in all the published tests. This was borne out by my experience, where my NDLs are always significantly lower than my wife's, given similar profiles. I also noticed that if you go into deco on one dive, you seem to take a big hit to NDL on the next. Finally, you're supposed to round down Nitrox percentages for the purposes of N2 calculations, while the computer automatically adds 1% to the user setting for O2/MOD calculations.

Hope this helps!