Wow, two Shearwaters and two transmitters -- didn't quite know who I was dealing with . . . just getting chills.
Who really cares?
Let’s see: you dismiss those of us who have had SPG issues as it being the result of us having bought crap gear. I was just pointing out that I don’t cut corners/buy cheap gear - sorry if that concept offends you in some weird way???
Nothing snide about my question - it was a valid inquiry but, as expected, you did not actually explain what was technically better about your “Mercedes” SPG’s vs the ones that the rest of us use (the best I can tell is that the VAST majority of SPG’s are made at the same manufacturer in Italy - in fact, it’s hard to find one that does not say “Made in Italy”).In response to your rather snide question, I have had some great analogue Scubapro gauges that have stood the test of time, at well over thirty-plus years without issue; so too a few Poseidon and Suunto gauges (made in Finland, Finland, Finland) of similar ages and some even older.
"[H]ow is it better?" -- well, none of those gauges (and I have accrued quite a bit of gear over the years) have ever "frozen" on me, fallen apart, or have somehow lost accuracy, when compared to digital counterparts -- so too, any of my analogue depth gauges. Even those button gauges on my pony bottles, the complaint of so many, have lasted years.
On the other hand, I have had several Oceanic Datamax Pros (among the first AI computers -- a real brick) crap out in the early 1990s, as they were highly prone to flooding; two Suunto Cobras with faulty depth sensors which would haphazardly also enter some violation mode on a shallow first dive, that no one seemed able to explain, least of all Suunto-Oy; then there's my niece's spanking new Shearwater which regularly loses twenty percent of its charge over a couple of days -- and she's already on her second or, maybe, third battery by now -- we just gave her a Poseidon Cirrus double console for Christmas, sans battery.
I just bank on simple-stupid redundancy and have yet to be disappointed -- trust but verify.
I did, however, once lose an SPG and a Jetstream second stage to a lifted RAV4, driven by an sub-idiot on his phone.
Other than that, just hoses and spools were the only things replaced over time; but that was to be expected.
Can't be just the luck of the draw or an outlier -- not that lucky . . .
Use your SPG’s as you prefer, but stop trying to present AI tech as unreliable - it’s 2022; not 1990 and tech has advanced far beyond your problematic Datamax Pro’s. Nothing is perfect - analog or electronic - which is why I believe in and use redundancy!
WRT Shearwater - they have definitely had issues with the battery life on some Terics. In fact, I’ve had mine serviced 3 times - however, none of these issues were true “failures” that would have cost me (or anyone) dives. It just means that one might need to recharge it every 1-2 days. A flaw vs design intent for sure - but not really a big deal for an otherwise awesome computer. I now have 3 dive trips/76 dives on the latest battery and charge is holding high over storage time with this one.
Finally - I love how you suggest that my lack of issues with transmitters is an outlier but your lack of issues with SPG’s is not an outlier - nice application of double standards to suit your messaging!