Jeremy Bouwman
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Good article on it in Scuba Diving magazine for this month
Anybody diving a Uwatec Galileo SOL?
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In 50 dives, I have not once had the heart rate monitor lose contact with the Sol. It does say that the two pickups on the chest monitor needs to be placed flat on wet skin. In the tropics, skin sweat seems to be enough to activate it and keep it active.
One of the many user programmable options for the Sol is how it monitors "work effort" in the deco calculation.
You can set it to use:
1. heart rate monitor only
2. breathing rate only (same as previous Uwatec smart computers)
3. both - worse case
4. both - best case
You can also adjust your "normal" heart rate and you can adjust its sensitivity to breathing rate.
So, losing contact with the heart rate monitor should not be a significant issue.
However, if I was sulaiman, I would take the monitor back to Polar to have it looked at.
Regards
Peter
The flow of dissolved nitrogen in your blood moves to your tissues proportionally to the rate your heart pumps. With more pumping of your heart (e.g. under exertion), more nitrogen reaches the tissues and is absorbed into them.
Therefore, the higher the heart rate, more nitrogen absorption, therefore the more outgassing required to reach a safe level during ascent. So the Sol will reduce your bottom time and/or recommend longer safety / deco stops based on the amount of increased heart activity during the dive.
In some previous Uwatec computers, breathing rate was used as a proxy measure for this process. With the Sol, the more direct measure of heart rate has been used.
Regards
Peter
I give up.
Your prejudice against spending a dime of MY money (not yours) on fun gear (my definition is all that counts when it's my money, not yours) has convinced me of the error of my free-spending ways.
Feel free to continue warning people that they are ALWAYS wasting their money in considering purchases such as these, and that they're gonna die if they use all of the "features".
Rainer
Contributor
LOL. No one is suggesting you're going to die (probably) if you use such a computer. But you ARE likely to inhibit learning many good diving practices. If new divers come to only rely on such a device to calculate NDL, PSI, turn pressures, navigation decisions, etc, what are they going to do when the computer decides to take a dump? I couldn't care less what you do with $2000 of your money, but I'm still going to point out to those without your knowledge of what it's buying you that this might not be the wisest financial choice! And yes, I still find wireless AI computers worthless. I personally don't see the point at all. If you and others think they're fun, well, I just question your definition of fun, that's all.
How could this feature get you into trouble?
At no place in the brochure or manual does anyone claim that the computer can know where you are (although I am sure that GPS-equipped dive computers will be able to do that in the not-so-distant future).
It is simply a digital compass that displays just like an analog compass. If you decide that you want to travel at 330 degrees, it lets you set that heading with the press of a button. If you then point the compass at 300 degrees, an arrow shows you which direction you need to turn to get back to 330 degrees. Very simple, very logical, quite useful if navigating on a long compass heading.
I don't see how anyone could get into trouble with that.
Regards
Peter
Rainer
Contributor
Then you clearly didn't follow this thread where at least ONE user apparently took this feature to be able to get him home even in currents. Listen, clearly the informed user is going to be fine. Seems lots of computer divers don't understand what their computer is telling them. The more your computer tells you, the more you have to understand what it means. That's all. Many divers will get this, some won't.
Sorry but I did follow this thread somewhat better than you have. If you read a bit more carefully, you will see that the person whose comment you tried to use to prove your point has not yet bought the Sol and therefore not yet read the instruction manual. He misquoted some marketing literature. When corrected by you he admitted his mistake and indicated that he did understand the capabilities and limitations of the digital compass feature. This is a long way from an existing "user" misunderstanding the information that the computer is displaying. I doubt if anyone will ever be confused about this feature in actual use. It is just a compass. It looks like a compass. It does not say, "The boat is that way --->"
In fact, for the very first time in dive computers, Uwatec have built this one where there is much less likelihood of a user misinterpreting the information displayed. Instead of using only small flashing icons, this computer actually tells you information in simple, clear language. These kind of advances significantly increase diving safety and should be applauded and encouraged by the diving community.
Of course, there always be people, like the Luddites, who'll automatically reject any new technology or change. But, fortunately, there'll also always be enough people who embrace change that we will move us forward.
Regards
Peter
BMCG
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GPS signals - at least using current frequencies, microwave if memory serves - are attenuated rapidly in water....
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