I was handed 2 x Lynx systems for some testing in Hawaii a few weeks back.
Disclaimer: I am a LV dealer so know that going into reading this review. That said, As a GUE Instructor and diver, I had NO interest in wireless integrated air or location beacon features, but having my wife on a unit like this, was the driving factor to test dive a couple of these.
We dove a few times on Maui over the course of 10 days and I had the opportunity to play with both the wireless gas integration and the locator function.
My wife and I dove with the units and this was the first time in over 2 years that she was able to get back in the water (we had a kid :cool2: in the past 2 years) and having the wireless capability to see her gas whenever I wanted, made for a VERY relaxed dive without the stress of having to ask every 10min how much gas she had.
That same week, I took my niece (20yrs old) for a few supervised "discover scuba" dives to see if she would be akin to blowing bubbles before taking the plunge and do the full certification and again this feature made our dives much less stressful in knowing exactly how she was doing on gas.
The fact that you can see 9 gas pressures and your own (10 total) in ONE place did pleasantly surprise me a little, I did not expect more than 2.. I remember teaching Open Water classes and having to round robin to each student every 10min and ask for pressures.. this feature alone is worth its weight gold!
I know that we teach students to manage and monitor their own gas, but as the instructor you are still responsible and a little safety net of having access to all of them on your wrist at once takes does take a lot of stress away. Jumping around and peak at pressures gauges throughout a class is not a lot of fun at all.
So, If I was still teaching bigger OW classes, I would probably think about investing in at least having a transmitter for each student's tank.
The locator feature was still in Beta testing phase and didnt work that great in close distances of 0-20ft away from each other. It did work and much better at that, when further away. Again, a GREAT feature to be able to locate divers in less that stellar conditions.. Especially for boat operators! sending text messages and locating divers.. Pretty neat.. unfortunately we just didnt get much use or rather much opportunity to test this feature to its fullest potential on this trip.
As with the other Liquivision products, the Lynx was super intuitive to use and my niece for example (who has no idea what PSI's really mean) mentioned how cool it was to look at the tank display and just let me know when it showed her half way so she could signal me (Of course I already knew that even before she told me!)
I've owned air integrated computers before and signal loss and small pressure digits on monochrome glaring displays have prevented me previously to be favorable towards this technology, but the implementation and possibilities the Lynx bring to the table has changed my opinion quite a bit.
If you have a chance to try one of these units on a dive, especially with a buddy using the same system, I'd encourage you to try it.
K
Disclaimer: I am a LV dealer so know that going into reading this review. That said, As a GUE Instructor and diver, I had NO interest in wireless integrated air or location beacon features, but having my wife on a unit like this, was the driving factor to test dive a couple of these.
We dove a few times on Maui over the course of 10 days and I had the opportunity to play with both the wireless gas integration and the locator function.
My wife and I dove with the units and this was the first time in over 2 years that she was able to get back in the water (we had a kid :cool2: in the past 2 years) and having the wireless capability to see her gas whenever I wanted, made for a VERY relaxed dive without the stress of having to ask every 10min how much gas she had.
That same week, I took my niece (20yrs old) for a few supervised "discover scuba" dives to see if she would be akin to blowing bubbles before taking the plunge and do the full certification and again this feature made our dives much less stressful in knowing exactly how she was doing on gas.
The fact that you can see 9 gas pressures and your own (10 total) in ONE place did pleasantly surprise me a little, I did not expect more than 2.. I remember teaching Open Water classes and having to round robin to each student every 10min and ask for pressures.. this feature alone is worth its weight gold!
I know that we teach students to manage and monitor their own gas, but as the instructor you are still responsible and a little safety net of having access to all of them on your wrist at once takes does take a lot of stress away. Jumping around and peak at pressures gauges throughout a class is not a lot of fun at all.
So, If I was still teaching bigger OW classes, I would probably think about investing in at least having a transmitter for each student's tank.
The locator feature was still in Beta testing phase and didnt work that great in close distances of 0-20ft away from each other. It did work and much better at that, when further away. Again, a GREAT feature to be able to locate divers in less that stellar conditions.. Especially for boat operators! sending text messages and locating divers.. Pretty neat.. unfortunately we just didnt get much use or rather much opportunity to test this feature to its fullest potential on this trip.
As with the other Liquivision products, the Lynx was super intuitive to use and my niece for example (who has no idea what PSI's really mean) mentioned how cool it was to look at the tank display and just let me know when it showed her half way so she could signal me (Of course I already knew that even before she told me!)
I've owned air integrated computers before and signal loss and small pressure digits on monochrome glaring displays have prevented me previously to be favorable towards this technology, but the implementation and possibilities the Lynx bring to the table has changed my opinion quite a bit.
If you have a chance to try one of these units on a dive, especially with a buddy using the same system, I'd encourage you to try it.
K
