New Teric and nitpicking

[Jay]

re transmitter: one thing my LDS recommended and did was to put it on a short hose. That way eliminating the possibility that its accidentally destroyed when hauling a tank onto a boat etc.

 

[stuartv]

I've never had mine on a hose. Never had a problem. I do make a point of mounting it on the 1st stage so that it is not sticking straight out to the right, like the tank valve knob....

I have also never been out on a boat that would be hauling my tank aboard for me. I have always been responsible for climbing the ladder and getting out with my scuba unit still on my back.

Maybe it's more of a concern in places other than where my limited experience has taken me.

 

[stuartv]

You know what would be an AWESOME additional feature for the Teric? To me, anyway?

If, when it is in Watch mode, it would be connected to a companion app on my smartphone. The companion app on my smartphone would allow me to have my phone notifications displayed on my Teric display. If I'm using a navigation app (e.g. Google Maps or Waze) on my phone, it would allow me to have the directions show on my Teric face. When displaying a notification on my Teric, the Teric's contextual menuing would make it where I could use the Teric buttons to scroll the notifications up and down and also dismiss them.

The Teric can already connect to a companion smartphone app, for uploading logs and downloading firmware. The most basic infrastructure is already there...

 

[CandiveOz]

Hi Stuart,
To me it sounds like you would like to have more "smart" features on the Teric. I'm not sure how much that is a priority at Shearwater but maybe if they read your post they may take it into consideration. I also understand that you are considering another Teric as backup and I know you like AI. Perhaps I can make a suggestion for your consideration. Buy a Garmin Descent as your back up. Here are my reasons;

1. It uses the same Buhlmann algorithm with GF's as the Shearwater.
2. GPS to mark your entry and exit points.
   
3. It has better battery life (less charging).
4. It has all the smart features you require.
5. It tracks all your fitness workouts and daily steps; run, cycle, swim laps, gym, concept 2 rower, weight training etc.
6. Measures VO2 max and training load.
   
7. It monitors your sleep (personally, I find this a very useful feature).
8. It monitors your heart rate while training/diving (but not through a wetsuit).
9. But most importantly, its a check/hedge against the Teric in terms of potential programming error.

I'm not knocking Shearwater, its a great company. But I also know programmers and unknowingly they sometimes make mistakes; they are only human. With two Terics, running the same firmware, you may not notice the fault. But if you have another computer, from a different company, running the same algorithm and GF's, any material difference during a dive will be brought to your attention to be investigated. Consider it another redundant safety factor. Note, the fault may be with the Teric or equally may be with the Descent.

To fund this expenditure you could sell your Motorola smartwatch, Oceanic Atom and Perdix.
As for AI, you could wait for a new model to be released with this functionality although Garmin may release its own proprietary transmitter which wouldn't help you much. Or some smart cookie programmer may be able to release a Garmin IQ Connect app which could be installed on the current Descent and pick up your transmitter or any other (this is my blue-sky thought; I'm not familiar with the technology or what's involved). Regardless, in my humble opinion (and as a Garmin user) I believe the above features outweigh the AI requirement.

The link below further discusses the Garmin;
Shearwater Teric vs Garmin Descent Mk1

Anyway, just a kind suggestion to consider.

Cheers

 

[stuartv]

@CandiveOz: I AM a programmer. And, I have made the same observation many times here on SB. The ideal dive computer setup would be 2 computers from different manufacturers, both running the same algorithm and parameters. For exactly the reason you said - to highlight a difference between the two so that the user can possibly be aware that at least one of the computers is exhibiting a bug.

However, the Descent is not an option I will consider until a few things happen:

- they add AI.
- their AI works with the same transmitters that Shearwater, Oceanic, et al, work with.
- Garmin resolves some issues of support in the dive community with respect to 3rd party ability to directly download logs from the Descent - i.e. direct download to Subsurface.

I suspect that they will never do all 3 of those things. And so, despite the concern of having 2 identical computers, I will stick with a Teric and a Perdix AI or, eventually, 2 x Teric.

There is an academic concern regarding having 2 identical computers. In real life, Shearwater is a company that I personally am pretty comfortable with trusting 2 of their computers. I'm willing to trust my life to a CCR with 2 x Shearwater Predators on it...

 

[oceancurrent]

My first impressions of the Teric after spending a couple hours playing with it:

1. Overall, a very capable and neat dive computer. Great features and nice form factor. Very very nice work from Shearwater.

2. I may be minority here, but I don't feel the four buttons is much of an improvement over the two buttons of the Perdix. Even a few hours after playing with the Teric, I end up pressing the wrong button when trying to quickly navigate around. So, for me the four buttons do not eliminate the "tap-tap-tap-oops" annoyance, just translate it into a different kind of "oops". Perhaps the experience will get better with time? We shall see...

3. I liked the Perdix's system settings layout better as it allowed me to tab through the different setting groups and see my setting values very efficiently. Not so with the Teric where you need to drill down a couple levels to get to a particular setting and see its value by which time you have lost context of the other values in the group. The Perdix menu system was just plain more comprehensible.

4. There is still no option of setting custom alerts, have GTR calculations when in deco, be able to enter cylinder sizes in Shearwater Desktop/Cloud to collect personal RMV statistics across your dives. These are all features that I've had with my other dive computers, and I miss quite a bit. The answer that we have been getting back from Shearwater is that they don't have these so that divers don't shoot themselves in the foot with something that they may not quite comprehend or manage consistently. Thanks, Shearwater, for your low fate in our abilities and saving us from ourselves!

5. My top gripe: In the Perdix AI the current gas was a staple on the main OC Tech screen. With the Teric, it is an optional display item for the info bar. Ok, fine to have the choice of not displaying it, but in practice having this on the main screen is a must for most any tech divers for sanity checking. Since I dive with a transmitter, the first slot on the info bar has to be gas pressure, the second slot has to be current gas. I am practically left with only the third info bar slot to display a choice value which is just too limited. Personally, I like having the "delta+5" value on the main screen during the bottom portion of a dive and having the "ppO2" value during deco. With the Perdix I was able to have both on the main screen. Now I have to choose my poison.

I understand that the Teric has less screen real estate so the number of values in the main screen layout and the menus organization/navigation is more of a compromise than it was on the Perdix. Then again, I see a lot of room for improvement in the usability direction with these constraints. I think it could be made better by:

a. Allowing the diver to set up alternate custom "sticky" info bars that could be switched easily during the phases of a dive. This will allow me to have the computer work with me and my situational needs better.

b. Rethink the user interface of the menu system. Perhaps make the fonts slightly smaller and use more of the vertical real estate so that more settings and values could be displayed as groups similar to the Perdix

I am planning on spending 10 days in the water with the Teric next week. Will post my further impressions.

 

[Shearwater]

My top gripe: In the Perdix AI the current gas was a staple on the main OC Tech screen. With the Teric, it is an optional display item for the info bar. Ok, fine to have the choice of not displaying it, but in practice having this on the main screen is a must for most any tech divers for sanity checking...

First of all, @oceancurrent and others, thank you for taking the time to post your feedback. We do pay close attention to it.

We agree with you that current gas is a must for the main screen. You may or may not be aware that if you choose to not display current gas in the info bar, current gas will then be displayed at the bottom of the screen under dive time. Font size for current gas will be smaller if left for the bottom of the screen or it will get larger if you leave it in the info bar.

 

[Manatee Diver]

4. There is still no option of setting custom alerts, have GTR calculations when in deco, be able to enter cylinder sizes in Shearwater Desktop/Cloud to collect personal RMV statistics across your dives. These are all features that I've had with my other dive computers, and I miss quite a bit. The answer that we have been getting back from Shearwater is that they don't have these so that divers don't shoot themselves in the foot with something that they may not quite comprehend or manage consistently. Thanks, Shearwater, for your low fate in our abilities and saving us from ourselves!

I would also like to see a simple gas time remaining calculation in all modes. That is one thing I love about my Suunto computers and will miss when I move over to the Teric or Perdix early next year, the gas time remaining allows to be double check my dive planning against my actual gas consumption. Also publish how the algorithm works, does it take the average of the last few minutes, the entire dive, or does do something more complex. That way divers have visibility on how it works and how to use it.

 

[stuartv]

I would also like to see a simple gas time remaining calculation in all modes. That is one thing I love about my Suunto computers and will miss when I move over to the Teric or Perdix early next year, the gas time remaining allows to be double check my dive planning against my actual gas consumption. Also publish how the algorithm works, does it take the average of the last few minutes, the entire dive, or does do something more complex. That way divers have visibility on how it works and how to use it.

Have you read the manual?

 

[Manatee Diver]

Have you read the manual?

Yes, but I sort of skipped over the SAC section. But I see that it mentions that it is a 2 minute average, which should be good enough. Now if they provide a GTR outside of OC Rec I would be happy as a clam. About the only features I would want then would be a GPS.