stevsgarage
Contributor
AS promised in an earlier thread here is a report on my new computer
After reading many articles on dive computers I finally purchased the Mares M1. Not having a large budget to spend on a computer I considered many cheaper models but I decided to buy a mid price unit to get features I may want latter like Nitrox compatibility, logbook, and the planner feature. The salesman at the dive shop uses the sunnto stinger and suggested the Mosquito. It is about the same price as the M1 and is very similar in the way it operates. He really likes that it can be used like a wristwatch when not diving.
The main reason I choose the M1 over the Mosquito is that I like the larger size with bigger buttons, and I dont like wearing a watch. And although I am currently using the M1 strapped to my wrist I plan to buy the consul mount for it latter, although I havent been able to find one locally yet, they show one on their web sight.
Removing the M1 from the case the fist thing I noticed was that the hard plastic case has a thin molded plastic insert to hold the M1 that will probable not last long making the case pretty much useless, and that brings me to my second complaint. The paperback Manuel doesnt fit in the case and will soon be pretty beaten up from dragging it around with my dive gear. While on the subject of the manual I found it difficult to read and understand and although they made a diagram (quick guide) at the beginning of each language section, that only shows the layout of the screen and doesnt really help with the operation. In the back of the book they included a legend section with flow charts to work you through the different setups. I would suggest combining the Quick guide and the legends onto plastic waterproof pages that fit into a slot in the carrying case.
Having said all that what really matters is how well it functions on a dive and that is where I was quite pleased. Before you dive you have to pre set the parameters of the dive, salt water/fresh, Nitrox/air, sea level or one of three other altitude settings and date and time, in military time. You can turn it on manually or it activates totally automatic in the water with in 30 seconds past 15 feet and displays dive time, depth, time remaining in no decompression, and displays a bar graph any time you are ascending warning of your rate of ascent. There is a chart in the manual explaining each bar in speed and pressure but the main thing is to keep as few bars as possible showing. There is also an alarm that will sound when 4 bars and the word slow appears. Press the mode button and the dive time changes to water temperature for 8 seconds. All of this is stored in log to be viewed after the dive.
The only problems I had during the dive mode was that the buttons seemed hard to press, although that might improve after some use. I also forgot how to turn on the backlight for a night dive and of course I left the manual back in hotel room. By the way to turn the back light on press the <-> for 15 seconds of light or hold the <-> down for about 2 seconds to keep it on and repeat to turn it back off.
After being below 33 feet the M1 will automatically go into a 3 minute safety stop mode when you ascend to 16.4 feet and stay below 8.2 and will add more safety stop time if you do not stay with in this depth. After you complete your dive it displays your dive time and maximum depth for 10 minutes then shuts down but an airplane icon says on and it begins to count down time till you can safely fly.
I didnt use the planner function, but I did like to go over my dive after words with the log book feature. It plays back your dive in 20 second snap shots to be viewed one frame at a time, scrolling, or 3 times faster scrolling. One complaint I had with the logbook feature is that according to the manual it is organized like the pages of a logbook assigning #1 to the most recent dive. I dont know about your logbook but I assigned 1 to the first dive and it gets progressively larger in numbers. I found it difficult to go back and find which dive was which with the numbers always changing as I added more dives.
All in all I am happy with my new M1 and would probably make the same choice if I had to do it over but there is room for improvement and it is certainly not the perfect choice for everyone.
After reading many articles on dive computers I finally purchased the Mares M1. Not having a large budget to spend on a computer I considered many cheaper models but I decided to buy a mid price unit to get features I may want latter like Nitrox compatibility, logbook, and the planner feature. The salesman at the dive shop uses the sunnto stinger and suggested the Mosquito. It is about the same price as the M1 and is very similar in the way it operates. He really likes that it can be used like a wristwatch when not diving.
The main reason I choose the M1 over the Mosquito is that I like the larger size with bigger buttons, and I dont like wearing a watch. And although I am currently using the M1 strapped to my wrist I plan to buy the consul mount for it latter, although I havent been able to find one locally yet, they show one on their web sight.
Removing the M1 from the case the fist thing I noticed was that the hard plastic case has a thin molded plastic insert to hold the M1 that will probable not last long making the case pretty much useless, and that brings me to my second complaint. The paperback Manuel doesnt fit in the case and will soon be pretty beaten up from dragging it around with my dive gear. While on the subject of the manual I found it difficult to read and understand and although they made a diagram (quick guide) at the beginning of each language section, that only shows the layout of the screen and doesnt really help with the operation. In the back of the book they included a legend section with flow charts to work you through the different setups. I would suggest combining the Quick guide and the legends onto plastic waterproof pages that fit into a slot in the carrying case.
Having said all that what really matters is how well it functions on a dive and that is where I was quite pleased. Before you dive you have to pre set the parameters of the dive, salt water/fresh, Nitrox/air, sea level or one of three other altitude settings and date and time, in military time. You can turn it on manually or it activates totally automatic in the water with in 30 seconds past 15 feet and displays dive time, depth, time remaining in no decompression, and displays a bar graph any time you are ascending warning of your rate of ascent. There is a chart in the manual explaining each bar in speed and pressure but the main thing is to keep as few bars as possible showing. There is also an alarm that will sound when 4 bars and the word slow appears. Press the mode button and the dive time changes to water temperature for 8 seconds. All of this is stored in log to be viewed after the dive.
The only problems I had during the dive mode was that the buttons seemed hard to press, although that might improve after some use. I also forgot how to turn on the backlight for a night dive and of course I left the manual back in hotel room. By the way to turn the back light on press the <-> for 15 seconds of light or hold the <-> down for about 2 seconds to keep it on and repeat to turn it back off.
After being below 33 feet the M1 will automatically go into a 3 minute safety stop mode when you ascend to 16.4 feet and stay below 8.2 and will add more safety stop time if you do not stay with in this depth. After you complete your dive it displays your dive time and maximum depth for 10 minutes then shuts down but an airplane icon says on and it begins to count down time till you can safely fly.
I didnt use the planner function, but I did like to go over my dive after words with the log book feature. It plays back your dive in 20 second snap shots to be viewed one frame at a time, scrolling, or 3 times faster scrolling. One complaint I had with the logbook feature is that according to the manual it is organized like the pages of a logbook assigning #1 to the most recent dive. I dont know about your logbook but I assigned 1 to the first dive and it gets progressively larger in numbers. I found it difficult to go back and find which dive was which with the numbers always changing as I added more dives.
All in all I am happy with my new M1 and would probably make the same choice if I had to do it over but there is room for improvement and it is certainly not the perfect choice for everyone.
