Air integrated or not?

[ScubaDoo83]

Wireless AI put a bad taste in my mouth. I bought a Galileo Luna a few years ago and recently the wireless transmitter stopped working. The computer itself is great and does everything I need but I am quite miffed that a $1K piece of equipment failed so early on in life. I don't even have the motivation to get it fixed, I'll just use my computer in tandem with my SPG until I am in the market for another computer. I won't be buying a Scubapro computer again.

 

[Hou s4m]

I'd say go AI. I just started using it and its one of the best things to have while diving. I use suunto D6i but still keeping a double console handy because with electronics, u never know. I especially enjoy reviewing dive datas on the DM5 software afterward. pretty neat.

 

[Blasto]

Personally, I found that relying on air integration adds a bit of anxiety to the dive. First you hope the battery is still good, then you hope it's going to connect, then you hope it reads right, then you hope you read it right, it's a small number on your wrist. You get used to it, but you also get used to knowing your gas use without looking.

I got an AI computer for other reasons, so of course I do use mine, extra data for the logs. But there's always that nagging feeling that I'll either miss out on a dive one day - when it fails - or miss out on the main point of WAI on every dive by bringing a console anyway.

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

I do agree, but put another way, AI is a crutch for training and experience. A costly and unnecessary crutch.

Or it can be a tool to collect statistics for the digital divelogs, for the ones that like that.

 

[Hoag]

Personally, I found that relying on air integration adds a bit of anxiety to the dive. First you hope the battery is still good, then you hope it's going to connect, then you hope it reads right, then you hope you read it right, it's a small number on your wrist. You get used to it, but you also get used to knowing your gas use without looking.

I got an AI computer for other reasons, so of course I do use mine, extra data for the logs. But there's always that nagging feeling that I'll either miss out on a dive one day - when it fails - or miss out on the main point of WAI on every dive by bringing a console anyway.

Not all AI computers are Transmitter/Receiver units. I have an Oceanic ProPlus 3 and it has a direct connection to the tank via a hose, just like an SPG does. It reads the pressure and then does the number crunching with no reliance on a transmitter or a receiver.