Reasons NOT to Use a Computer for a New Diver?

[kelemvor]

I have no problem with new divers buying a computer IF they are taught how to use it properly. Many are not. They are sold a $1000 piece of technology and then given little or no instruction on it's use. Read the manual they are told. Ever try that. Except for Shearwater the computer user manuals I have seen are exercises in frustration and might as well be written in ancient Sumerian. Unless you are a lawyer or engineer forget it. Especially for the people who have just been trained using material designed for 8th graders. And not very smart 8th graders.

I read mine! However, I'm an engineer so never mind.

The computer I have was pretty easy to figure out. Only a handful of features were not immediately obvious. However, I dove with another diver who had spent $1k on the same computer and had never even looked at it. He had it in guage mode and didn't know what that was. Since he'd already dove that day it was locked out and I couldn't set it back to computer mode. Since he had a brass spg, he just dove until he ran low on gas, then came up. Coincidentally it's the only diver I've ever instabudied with who has run OOA. Lucky for him he breathes enough gas that NDL's aren't much of a factor yet.


Back on topic. When I first got certified I dove analog gauges for the first 10 or 15 ow dives I did. Used the naui tables to plan. Then I bought a computer. I continued to use the naui tables to plan, but would dive the computer's recommendation. On the rare instances that I dove a very square profile they weren't that far apart from one another. Now days I use the "plan" mode in the computer and dive computer only. It's easier, and as far as I can tell is safe. If the computer fails, end the dive and surface.. no big deal other than a lost dive.

One of my favorite features of computers is the downloadable logging. I enjoy coming home from a dive and downloading the data. Then spend some time examining the dive. It helped me improve my diving in several of ways - the first off the top of my head is how much gas I was wasting overfilling (and then dumping) my BCD descending and getting neutral.

You might get more traction on your question in the DIR specific forum instead of the basic discussion one with all the extra post restrictions.

 

[dmoore19]

If it can be assumed that the person has invested the time to learn how to interpret what the computer is saying and also uses it to see the NDL times before splashing I would think a computer would be superior to tables.

Tables and the computer display are representations of the same thing, calculations using an algorithm based on depth and time. Take your choice, their really isn't any difference, it is the same information displayed differently.

 

[Hawkwood]

....

What's a good inexpensive wrist mounted non integrated computer that isn't too expensive and allows for air /nitrox?

We offer our students an Oceanic VEO 2 for $289 CDN.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

We offer our students an Oceanic VEO 2 for $289 CDN.

Does it have a user replaceable battery?

---------- Post added October 18th, 2013 at 06:23 PM ----------

A fun thing to do is to dive a computer and run tables at the same time.
After a few dives you can begin to see where square profiles leave off and the computer takes over.
There's a lot of time you can get screwed out of diving tables, but computers take you to the edge.
Planning the next dive with tables is a benefit, but then sometimes you never know what you'll get into when you dive a new spot so how are you supposed to plan that? Especially a site with a lot of up and down terrain.

 

[Bob DBF]

I picked up a Oceanic Veo 200 in 2005 because I was going to do multi level, multi dive, multi day trips. From '63 till then I used tables to the point that I was doing them in my head and now have a general idea where the computer should be on the normal dives.

Square dives and shallow are a piece of cake on tables, however once you have to start fudging the tables for multi levels, they become useless and possibly quite dangerous.

And for those that asked, I check my computer prior to my splash for the time at depth(s) I'm planning for the dive.



Bob
-----------------
I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I have no problem with new divers buying a computer IF they are taught how to use it properly. Many are not. They are sold a $1000 piece of technology and then given little or no instruction on it's use. Read the manual they are told. Ever try that. Except for Shearwater the computer user manuals I have seen are exercises in frustration and might as well be written in ancient Sumerian. Unless you are a lawyer or engineer forget it. Especially for the people who have just been trained using material designed for 8th graders. And not very smart 8th graders.

That's because user documentation is usually written by the person who designed the product ... who's more interested in describing all the neat features and functions rather than telling you how to actually use the thing.

I've been writing manuals for a living for more than 35 years now, and most of the ones that come with products I buy are just awful things to read. I generally end up tossing them in a drawer and resort to pressing buttons until I figure it out.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[fdog]

When a customer buys a computer in the shop I work in, they get an online class from Dive Computer Training included.

IIRC only about 25% of the customers (even though it's free to them) actually end up getting online and take the class. It's a shame, too, because the students that actually DO the class really, really know their computers in every respect.




All the best, James

 

[dmoore19]

The Classes offered by Dive Nav are excellent. I have done 2 of them. Far superior to the manual read.

 

[TMHeimer]

That's because user documentation is usually written by the person who designed the product ... who's more interested in describing all the neat features and functions rather than telling you how to actually use the thing.

I've been writing manuals for a living for more than 35 years now, and most of the ones that come with products I buy are just awful things to read. I generally end up tossing them in a drawer and resort to pressing buttons until I figure it out.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah, I hate them. I slugged through mine a few years ago. Why not just explain in simple laymans' terms how everything works? With the important stuff in the first few pages. How to download log info. to your PC can go in the back of the manual. Reminds me of a telephone book sized manual a freind who was into computers in the '80s showed me. I guess I was right in waiting
for the Internet to arrive and then for simple ways to use it.

 

[Bob DBF]

That's because user documentation is usually written by the person who designed the product ... who's more interested in describing all the neat features and functions rather than telling you how to actually use the thing.

I've been writing manuals for a living for more than 35 years now, and most of the ones that come with products I buy are just awful things to read. I generally end up tossing them in a drawer and resort to pressing buttons until I figure it out.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I worked on Japanese copiers when they first came into the US and, at that time, the service manuals were a direct translation to English by non technical people. You really get to understand how differently people think when reading that manual and trying to understand how the machine works in order to troubleshoot a problem. They do a much better job now.


Bob