Does everyone really need an SPG? (w/transmitter)

[J-Vo]

Waking this thread up, as I finally had an actual wireless transmitter failure.

I was about 800' up the Hill 400 line in Ginnie on my way to the whale bone. The TX on my right tank lost connection, but I didn't think anything of it until it didn't come back. As I'm side mount I didn't think anything of it and continued my dive timing my gas switches on the 5's rather than switching on pressure. At the end of the dive I checked and confirmed my tanks where within a couple hundred PSI of each other.

Upon investigation, there are not obvious issues with the transmitter other than it will not connect. It does not look to have flooded and changing the battery did not help. I should note, I only have one transmitter that I bought new, and that one is on my wife's single tank regulators. The one that failed is serial number 12,XXX, while the other one I use is serial number 13X,XXX, and my wife's is 12X,XXX. So I surmise that the failed transmitter is an order of magnitude older manufacturing date then the other two and has seen a lot more water time.

This gives me an excuse to buy a yellow transmitter for my side mount pair. Not that I have had any issues with two gray transmitters.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @jvogt

I had a transmitter that worked perfectly for 7 years/900 dives before it simply quit working. It had never been flooded, battery compartment was pristine.

My transmitter was Oceanic brand and it was replaced with a new transmitter for just $120, through their service program Service - Oceanic Worldwide This service has been continued after Oceanic was acquired by Huish. If your transmitter is an Oceanic, this program would work for you. I have no idea if other brands have similar service programs for transmitters that are out of warranty, perhaps worth looking into

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

I had an incident on a boat diving sidemount where my transmitter on my left tank lost connection. I noticed it as I jumped in the water and had to haul myself back out, and the crew were nice enough to grab my backup SPG and install it. Kind of annoying. First time I've had an issue. Transmitter reconnected when I tried it back at home and worked fine for the last dive. I'll probably still run just transmitters for now, but definitely has me second guessing my decision. I don't love running transmitters + SPGs at the same time but I do want what I run to work consistently.

 

[Barmaglot]

I had a weird failure with my transmitter on a recent dive - it was fine as I was setting up my gear, but after I splashed down and submerged, it did not do any updates - just stayed at 217 bar through the whole dive. I had a backup SPG on my regulator, so I used it for that dive - no big deal. After I got back on the boat, I closed the tank valve and purged the regulator to get it to shut down, then reopened the tank valve and it was still sending 217 bar. I had a spare CR2 battery with me, so I swapped it, and afterwards it worked without issues.
I have noticed, however, that while my SPG and transmitter readings match one another on the upper end of the scale, the gauge consistently reads ~10 bar more when I reach low pressures, i.e. I would see 30 bar on the computer but 40-ish bar on the gauge.

 

[DiveClimbRide]

Guages have lower accuracy towards the bottom of the scale. The computer is probably correct.

 

[Divrtim]

I've always had/carry an SPG. I've been diving computers of some sort for over 25 years. The main reason I have an SPG( located on my left side, on a 22" HP hose, with a clip and attached to my BC D ring. The clip is attached to the SPG hose with a large O ring doubled over slid through the clip ring and slid over the SPG hose.
I know some divers use bungee or cotton line cord to secure their clip to their hose. I use the big doubled over O ring because I can break the SPG free of the clip with one hand if if the hose ever gets tangled or clip malfunctions.
I've not experienced a transmitter failure per se but, I have experienced an intermittent signal loss a couple of times inside wrecks. I can see the SPG easily and it is a simple tool. Nothing really to break on it. Don't skip the deco stops.

 

[Centrals]

Guages have lower accuracy towards the bottom of the scale. The computer is probably correct.

Probably.
But does it matter?

 

[Blackcrusader]

Probably.
But does it matter?

Of course it matters. Divers have had OOA situations with gauges reading 30 or 40 bar.

 

[SlugLife]

I don't have transmitters or computer that can connect to one, so my opinion doesn't really count yet. I also didn't read the entire thread.

However, one of those $15 button SPGs would take up practically no space, and be potentially useful in some rare circumstances, if you're diving sidemount. With backmount, the button-gauge (without a hose) would be useless, because the time and effort spent removing your harness to look at the gauge would be better spent returning to the surface.

The button SPG could also be useful when setting up gear and verifying you have a full tank, without turning on and connecting the computer to the transmitter.

 

[flyboy08]

If risk adverse backups are good . 737s will fly on one engine..