HUD vs Freedom

[OTF]

So I've read similar comments elsewhere about Prism 2's being "flimsy plastic" - does this actually translate into real mechanical failures? Do their parts actually snap or leak often? Or is it just a cosmetic perception thing?

 

[rjack321]

So I've read similar comments elsewhere about Prism 2's being "flimsy plastic" - does this actually translate into real mechanical failures? Do their parts actually snap or leak often? Or is it just a cosmetic perception thing?

The scrubber bucket oring is a known weak joint.

(For the record the SF2 has some of the same joint leak issues despite being much more sophisticated materials)

 

[kammel78]

I personally think vibrate is better than visual, especially as a cave diver where 0 viz is not uncommon. Vibrating HUD's however are one better.

Assuming in no vis, the vibrating alarm would alert you that you needed to dil flush and go scr, whereas with blinky lights you may not see them?

Is having the alarm on your primary ppO2 monitor, assuming you were just using one Freedom, less advantageous than have the visual which is usually a redundant monitor? Let's assume cell splitting, and not separate cells.

it's actually thick wetsuits that you have to worry about, drysuits aren't an issue but the vibrate is more than loud enough to also be an audible alarm.

I've heard as well that the vibration is fairly loud, teammates hearing it as well.

 

[tbone1004]

Assuming in no vis, the vibrating alarm would alert you that you needed to dil flush and go scr, whereas with blinky lights you may not see them?

Is having the alarm on your primary ppO2 monitor, assuming you were just using one Freedom, less advantageous than have the visual which is usually a redundant monitor? Let's assume cell splitting, and not separate cells.



I've heard as well that the vibration is fairly loud, teammates hearing it as well.

Blinky lights imply that they are in your line of sight, you have enough visibility to see them, you don't close your eyes in brown outs to avoid vertigo *I get it really bad in true brown outs so I close my eyes most of the time*, and that you don't go snow blind to the HUD.

When something starts vibrating, and when the Freedom vibrates, it does it with a vengeance, or a HUD vibrates and your whole face starts vibrating there is no way to miss it. When the things vibrate, I don't particularly care what the ppO2 is doing because those are a "dil flush immediately" or "get off the loop" alarms depending on what your ppO2 out of range paradigm is as well as what conditions are doing. If I can see and I knew that alarm was coming *fast drops on a leaky valve mCCR*, then it's a dil flush alarm, if it's one that I'm not anticipating in 0 viz, it's usually a bailout until I can see alarm.

Teammates 10+ft away can hear it and if you have a thick wetsuit on it's more of an audible alarm than a haptic alarm, but in a drysuit or thinner suit it's both.

 

[jale]

Hi
I used to dive a Freedom connected to cells and also had a HUD.
I found that, for me, your brain has a tendency to "forget" the leds from the HUD but you absolutely cannot not feel the vibrations from the Freedom.
I had to replace my Freedom and I do really miss this "sensation system'
The problem with the Freedom is the cable. Divesoft decided to not provide it anymore and they suggest you get the N90. But even that one is a bit borderline. Well, there is a guy in France taking FreedomS regularly to beyond 200M with Joki RBs so a solution must exist
The best might have been the DIVA (don't know if it is still available)
I hope it helps.

 

[kammel78]

Hi
I found that, for me, your brain has a tendency to "forget" the leds from the HUD but you absolutely cannot not feel the vibrations from the Freedom.

I was wondering about that, if the just the lights themselves become background noise since there's constantly something lit up.

The problem with the Freedom is the cable. Divesoft decided to not provide it anymore and they suggest you get the N90. But even that one is a bit borderline.

Are you saying you don't trust the Divesoft cable or that you don't like that you have to get it from Narked?

 

[kammel78]

When something starts vibrating, and when the Freedom vibrates, it does it with a vengeance...

So what you're saying is on long, lonely decos you're intentionally dropping your ppO2 every once and a while... ;P

 

[jale]

Are you saying you don't trust the Divesoft cable or that you don't like that you have to get it from Narked?

Even Divesoft seems not to trust their cable; they stopped selling it. It was included with the CCR Freedom or as a buying option.
I have all the 2 (or 3, don't remember!) versions they made but you always got corrosion in the pins...
I also have the N90 cable which is more "sturdy" and better but it never gave me a real peace of mind, always wondering if it would be fine (maybe because I got previous bad experiences!).
I know some people, with the correct skills, have modified it to make it bomb proof but it is not for me.
That is really a shame because the Freedom is a really good device and Divesoft is a real great company with great products...but this %$#@ cable

 

[tbone1004]

Even Divesoft seems not to trust their cable; they stopped selling it. It was included with the CCR Freedom or as a buying option.
I have all the 2 (or 3, don't remember!) versions they made but you always got corrosion in the pins...
I also have the N90 cable which is more "sturdy" and better but it never gave me a real peace of mind, always wondering if it would be fine (maybe because I got previous bad experiences!).
I know some people, with the correct skills, have modified it to make it bomb proof but it is not for me.
That is really a shame because the Freedom is a really good device and Divesoft is a real great company with great products...but this %$#@ cable

thankfully I'm in fresh water, so corrosion is a lot less problematic for me, but I agree the cable doesn't exactly give me warm fuzzies. No worse than fischer though IMO. The issue is making a physically small computer that doesn't have a cable dangling off of it that can have something plug into it. Not many great options out there...

 

[kammel78]

thankfully I'm in fresh water, so corrosion is a lot less problematic for me, but I agree the cable doesn't exactly give me warm fuzzies. No worse than fischer though IMO. The issue is making a physically small computer that doesn't have a cable dangling off of it that can have something plug into it. Not many great options out there...

Getting a bit off topic, but how far away do you think we are from truly reliable wireless underwater data transmission? Garmin's new watch has something they called subwave, but I haven't looked into it much. Even if you had to have a wired "antenna" from the sensors that snapped onto the bottom of the computer to reduce the transmission distance?

At what point does the unreliability of fischers trump the unreliability of wireless?