Testing New OCi Watch & Transmitter

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Yeah, Teric seems to be the favorite, and I'm not arguing, that display looks fantastic and the programming is great, BUT the battery....

Everyone has nice things to say about the Teric, but charging would probably be a nightly routine. I understand Lithium-Ion batteries have a lifetime of 300-500 cycles or 2-3 years. I would expect the newer batteries do better than this, but it might be worth checking out.
 
Out of the three, Teric but I'd consider the following computer/watch from Ratio also:

http://www.ratio-computers.com/catalog/Ratio_Computer_iDive_Color.pdf

I looked at ratios after a friend recommended them. One of the bigger selling points, besides them being loaded with features, is the color changing transmitter so you can monitor buddies air pressure. I think mares does the same thing.

The big drawback I came to was they have a very poor reputation for service. You have to mail to them and they apparently take a long time. Compared to the wonderful reputation Shearwater has for great customer service. Does not make any sense to pay the same price for a computer and get crappy customer service after the sale.

Also the seac guru appears to be the same computer as ratio idive series, same form, same cables, transmitters look identical.
 
The big drawback I came to was they have a very poor reputation for service. You have to mail to them and they apparently take a long time. Compared to the wonderful reputation Shearwater has for great customer service. Does not make any sense to pay the same price for a computer and get crappy customer service after the sale.

I have very positive with their customer service and support. I don't know about sending equipment back to them for service but I imagine that if you bought it from a local dealer, you take it back to him and they will deal with Ratio. This isn't a big issue for dealers and customers in countries with some sort of Ratio representation.

the seac guru appears to be the same computer as ratio idive series, same form, same cables, transmitters look identical.


It maybe a licensed version of the Ratio computer most likely. Ratio has several models to choose from and I don't believe that Seac has all of the models in their product line.

I just checked Seac's website and they only have one model in their product line. They don't appear to have the latest version of the computers including the "iDive Color" that came out this past DEMA (2018).
 
Everyone has nice things to say about the Teric, but charging would probably be a nightly routine. I understand Lithium-Ion batteries have a lifetime of 300-500 cycles or 2-3 years. I would expect the newer batteries do better than this, but it might be worth checking out.

You appear to have your Teric battery misinformation stuck in you head and for some strange reason repeat it frequently. Remember this post from January when you were corrected by divers that have the Teric: New Teric and nitpicking

Here's the quotes from that earlier post:

If they made the Teric with a B/W LCD screen and one year battery life I'd buy it. Right now I am happy with the Oceanic OCi, but the Teric has some features I like. Daily charging is not one of them.

"daily charging" is misinformation. I've done a dozen dives over [EDIT] several four days and only used 75% of a (full) battery.

agreed - no need to charge the Teric every day while diving! However, dropping it on a Qi wireless charging pad each night is super easy too, so I don't get the battery concerns at all!

There have been some faulty batteries (out of the box) that were replaced by SW, but nothing to support this "nightly" nonsense. (and my dozen dives over 4 days, we with AI on, 2sec sample, max brightness. You can read more from me and other users that have a similar experience here: Teric battery life )

Do you really think SW or any Teric customer expects a mere 3 years "lifetime" out of the Teric's battery?? Of course not. No one buys any device today expecting such poor performance. There will be some degradation but that's a different topic.
 
Do you really think SW or any Teric customer expects a mere 3 years "lifetime" out of the Teric's battery?? Of course not. No one buys any device today expecting such poor performance. There will be some degradation but that's a different topic.

I don't know what Teric customers expect. What does Shearwater have to say about anticipated battery life before replacement? What kind of battery life do you expect from your cell phone?

The OP is inquiring about using a dive computer as a daily watch. What kind of performance you get as a part time dive computer might not be relevent.
 
The OP is inquiring about using a dive computer as a daily watch. What kind of performance you get as a part time dive computer might not be relevent.
I wore my Teric as a daily watch on a recent dive trip. Because I don't look at it all the time, I did not leave the display on all the time, which makes a HUGE difference in battery life. Hitting one button to see the time, and one button to turn it off again, was not an issue. Nor was charging it at night after a few days just to be safe. It never got below 50% after several days of diving and looking like this, but I charged it anyway. I think you need some other, better, reason to dislike the Teric.
 
Honestly, it is really the only thing I dislike about the Teric. I dislike it enough that I recently bought a Perdix instead.
To my mind, the ultimate number of charge cycles is the big unknown. Time will tell.
 
Honestly, it is really the only thing I dislike about the Teric. I dislike it enough that I recently bought a Perdix instead.
To my mind, the ultimate number of charge cycles is the big unknown. Time will tell.
I don't get the big concerns - I recall reading that the predicted life is at least 5+ years (DRIS website indicates that too). If you start having charge issues then, you would just send it back to Shearwater Service to replace the battery. Complete non-issue for me but, "to each his own" and the Perdix is a great choice as well.
 
I'd hate to have a watch where I have to press a button to turn it on and then press it again to turn it off just because I wanted to know the time all because I am concerned about losing battery charge. I may do it on a dive trip because I didn't want to bring a regular watch but not on regular basis.
 

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