Mares Icon HD Net Ready Reviews and Dive Experiences

[Hatul]

Since this is a safety issue, allowing you to fly with less than the recommended wait period, I would definitely contact Mares about it.

Adam

[sleepr]

I too just had the 12 hour no fly after a 44 min 26 foot deepest dive and a 26 min 55 foot deepest dive. I had a surface interval of hour and a half. I did notice this in the manual.

"The remaining desaturation time (DESAT TIME): this is calculated by the decompression model in the computer. Any dive started while there is remaining desaturation on your computer is considered a repetitive dive, meaning that Icon HD accounts for the pre-existing nitrogen load in your body.
- The no-fl y time (NO-FLY TIME): this is the time during which an exposure to the reduced pressure inside the cabin of an airplane could cause decompression sickness. Icon HD employs, as recommended by NOAA, DAN and other agencies, a standard 12-hour (nodeco non-repetitive dives) or 24-hour (deco and repetitive dives) countdown. Hence you may find a
situation in which the desaturation time is shorter than the no-fly time. This is simply the consequence of the desaturation
time being calculated by the algorithm based on the actual dive profile, while the no-fly time is an accepted standard in the diving industry. Since the real effect of flying after diving has never been fully investigated, this approach fits with our philosophy."

Perhaps the dive times, tissue loading and dive numbers contributed to it deciding you were effectively not a repetitive diver. IE it decided you were no longer saturated for your 2nd dive and treated it as another first dive hence only incurring the 12 hour no fly time.

[Hatul]

I too just had the 12 hour no fly after a 44 min 26 foot deepest dive and a 26 min 55 foot deepest dive. I had a surface interval of hour and a half. I did notice this in the manual.

"The remaining desaturation time (DESAT TIME): this is calculated by the decompression model in the computer. Any dive started while there is remaining desaturation on your computer is considered a repetitive dive, meaning that Icon HD accounts for the pre-existing nitrogen load in your body.
- The no-fl y time (NO-FLY TIME): this is the time during which an exposure to the reduced pressure inside the cabin of an airplane could cause decompression sickness. Icon HD employs, as recommended by NOAA, DAN and other agencies, a standard 12-hour (nodeco non-repetitive dives) or 24-hour (deco and repetitive dives) countdown. Hence you may find a
situation in which the desaturation time is shorter than the no-fly time. This is simply the consequence of the desaturation
time being calculated by the algorithm based on the actual dive profile, while the no-fly time is an accepted standard in the diving industry. Since the real effect of flying after diving has never been fully investigated, this approach fits with our philosophy."

Perhaps the dive times, tissue loading and dive numbers contributed to it deciding you were effectively not a repetitive diver. IE it decided you were no longer saturated for your 2nd dive and treated it as another first dive hence only incurring the 12 hour no fly time.

If you look at page 30 of the manual: the definition of a repetitive dive is that the remaining desaturation time is not zero at the start of the next dive. My guess is that after your surface interval the remaining desat time from the first shallow dive was almost zero or zero. So the computer used the 12 hr rule.

My old Vyper on the other hand always uses the 24 hr rule.

Adam

[Hatul]

Hi all, any idea how long the dongle battery last? (Approximate)

According to the manual: 150-200 dives.

[Naboodiver]

I just returned from a week cruise to the western Caribbean. Did dive excursions at Roatan and Cozumel (two tank dives at each). Man, what an experience to be remembered. Both days the diving was outstanding with sunny weather and 100 feet of visibility at both locations. Roatan for its beautiful reef walls and Cozumel for its outstanding drift dives. I can't wait to get back to either location again. My Icon HD Net Ready computer worked flawlessly. What a great computer!!! I can't say enough about the air integration. The changing colors and on screen notices at tank reserve make it a pleasure to use and I feel safe using it.

[Naboodiver]

Icon still performing well. Just finished the last dive of the year. Way to cold but had fun. Enjoy your ICON HD Ready out there in the warmer areas than East Tennessee.

[zoranb]

In a slight cross-post, my faithful icon let me down this past weekend for the first time. Sounds worse that it really was.
My transmitter (probe) stopped working in the middle of the dive, and refused to show remaining tank pressure. No big deal, as I also have an analogue gauge with me.

I remember last time I dived (two weeks prior) that the display showed a weak battery during the dive, but I thought it was because the probe is attached to the opposite side of my 1st stage (probe on the right, icon on the left hand). The warning showed once briefly during the dive and that was it.

FF 2 weeks, and with no prior warning the probe just dies on me, but I figure it is a dead battery. After surfacing, just out of curiosity, I try repairing the probe and the icon, and behold - it pairs. At this point my eyebrow raises a bit as that means the battery is working. If the battery is working, that means the probe is not, and that is something to worry about!

After returning home, I changed the battery and will check if the pressure reporting works after attaching it to a tank.
I also learned that there is supposedly a firmware update for the probe itself. I haven't had a confirmation on that yet. Allegedly, the first firmware allowed the probe to be paired to the icon without the pressure, as it was always on. Of course, this means battery life was substantially shortened. The probe was in a low power mode, and kicked in all the way when in the vicinity (1,5m/5ft) of the icon. So if you take your probe off and pack in the icon case (where it doesn’t fit nicely anyway because the mould was made to fit the originally intended probes which got scrapped), the probe is in high power mode always, and that drains the battery.

The new firmware, supposedly, switches the probe off unless there’s 10 or 15bar of pressure. That means you can't pair it without it being pressurized, but the battery lasts longer.

Another thing that happened to me a couple of times was that for no reason whatsoever the icon chnaged its date and the time for no apparent reason. This happened 2 times on the old icon and 2 times on the new icon net. The second time the old one changed time on me was between my morning and my afternoon dives. Desat info was thus useless. The new icon changed the time on me in the box after not being used a couple of weeks, but I noticed it after my dive was completed, when the date was off by 2 days. It's a small, yet annoying bug. I check my date/time before every dive now. Maybe the next SW can correct this.

Other than this issue, I'm very, very happy with the icon and how it does what it does. For all of you owners out there, set the light to the lowest setting 10s, to super save battery when diving, and remember to lower the brightness of the display on the night dives, to avoid the angry looks I got from my group when we killed all the flashlights during the dive, and my icon was killing the mood

I am really looking forward to the future possibilities of the "networked diver" idea that Mares is evolving with the icon. I can't wait for the BCDs to get networked and start showing i.e. the amount of air I use for buoyancy or maybe even adjust the amount of air in the BCD automatically based on my depth and/or depth change/weight amount/suit combination for optimal diving and lower air use.

[Pumuckel57]

...
Another thing that happened to me a couple of times was that for no reason whatsoever the icon chnaged its date and the time for no apparent reason. This happened 2 times on the old icon and 2 times on the new icon net. The second time the old one changed time on me was between my morning and my afternoon dives. Desat info was thus useless. The new icon changed the time on me in the box after not being used a couple of weeks, but I noticed it after my dive was completed, when the date was off by 2 days. It's a small, yet annoying bug. I check my date/time before every dive now. Maybe the next SW can correct this.

I can confirm that behavior! The icon net ready changed date from Jan, 26. to Jan, 16. between first and second dive of that day without reason. Also time has changed and left tank pressure was shown as 0 bar in the log of first dive(it certainly was more than 30 bars). But as I could see, the Dsat time and number of repeat dives were not affected, otherwise MARES would have a serious safety problem.
MARES should give a statement, and although I'm happy with my Net ready, these faults cause a strange feeling using their computers.

Pumuckel57

[Ex nihil]

For all practical purposes it must be left connected to the first stage. However, it needs to be connected via a short (4") hose, if our screw it in rigid somebody is going to use it to lift your gear and that transmitter is not very strong. If you take it to a resort ad the staff use it is a handle it will snap off