Shearwater Teric vs Garmin Descent Mk1

[ATJ]

I was hoping that they are into fitness and lifestyle, they would have a sophisticated app for diving.

The app isn't all that sophisticated for fitness. Runners and cyclist usually load the data into appropriate third party apps. There are a lot of good data, though.

 

[matt9122]

Ok it supports trimix, but I'd like to know if anyone had indeed used on a trimix dive. There aren't not so many trimix dive computers which can really handle trimix. A new one on the market would be a nice piece of news.

I have done numerous trimix dives on this computer (running it alongside of my Shearwater). The gradient factors are set the same on both and they do in fact give me the same times. It works great as a full trimix computer with gas changes and extended deco.

 

[matt9122]

Seems like battery life is the big issue. I don't want to charge my watch every night. When not diving I get a few weeks off of it. When I do dive I get a few days or up to a week. I would not buy the Teric simply because of the battery. I assume the issue is their high resolution, which looks amazing. However I have no issues with garmin's resolution. I don't understand how the Garmin battery outlasts by so much even when I'm getting a heart rate reading, tracking my running, step counting, getting phone calls and messages, etc.

 

[Jay]

Seems like battery life is the big issue. I don't want to charge my watch every night. When not diving I get a few weeks off of it. When I do dive I get a few days or up to a week. I would not buy the Teric simply because of the battery. I assume the issue is their high resolution, which looks amazing. However I have no issues with garmin's resolution. I don't understand how the Garmin battery outlasts by so much even when I'm getting a heart rate reading, tracking my running, step counting, getting phone calls and messages, etc.

FYI the battery life Teric works as advertised and that user feedback is covered in this thread The Shearwater Teric Announced

 

[JMBL]

I have done numerous trimix dives on this computer (running it alongside of my Shearwater). The gradient factors are set the same on both and they do in fact give me the same times. It works great as a full trimix computer with gas changes and extended deco.

Thanks for answering. Must admit I had my doubts. That makes the Garmin look like a very serious dive computer indeed.

 

[Macan]

Seems like battery life is the big issue. I don't want to charge my watch every night. When not diving I get a few weeks off of it. When I do dive I get a few days or up to a week. I would not buy the Teric simply because of the battery. I assume the issue is their high resolution, which looks amazing. However I have no issues with garmin's resolution. I don't understand how the Garmin battery outlasts by so much even when I'm getting a heart rate reading, tracking my running, step counting, getting phone calls and messages, etc.

Here’s a short unscientific battery test of the Teric. Teric brightness set to Medium. I did 5 dives over the weekend. Total dive time is 276 minutes (4.6 hours). Compass is ON. AI is ON. In between dives, the Teric was in OFF mode and occasionally used to check time or SIT by pressing any button then OFF again. The only other energy consumption task was downloading the 5 dives via bluetooth on to Dive Log (iPhone).

72 hours after a full charge to 100%, the Teric battery level was at 60%. Details below:

Friday July 6, 1pm (PH Time), Battery at 100%

Brightness = Med
Compass = On (when diving)
AI = On (when diving)
Teric = OFF mode in between dives except to check time and SIT then Teric is turned OFF again.

Saturday, 3 dives:
Dive 1: 44 min
Dive 2: 46 min
Dive 3: 60 min

Sunday, 2 dives:
Dive 1: 56 min
Dive 2: 70 min

Monday July 9, 1pm (PH Time), Battery was at 60%.

 

[ATJ]

There are some things I forgot to mention about the app for the Garmin Descent Mk1....

The way you get your dive data off the Mk1 is very different from any other dive computer but is consistent with all the current Garmin wearable devices. Garmin has a cloud based environment called Garmin Connect. You access it via a browser or the Garmin Connect Mobile app on a smart phone. The Mk1 syncs with Garmin Connect via the mobile app (although you can sync directly with Garmin Connect with a desktop app called Garmin Express).

Syncing takes place over Bluetooth and is somewhat automatic. I can get back to my car after a dive and before I have changed out of my gear, my dive has already been synced to the cloud and I get a nice little notification that it's ready to view.

The major drawback of this environment is that an internet connection is required to not only sync the data to Garmin Connect but to even view anything more than a high level summary. The Garmin Connect Mobile app stores only summary data and the real data is stored in the cloud. This means that if you are in a remote location with no internet access, it is not possible to sync with Garmin Connect or view any dive data.

As Garmin Connect is pretty poor as a dive log, most people would use a third party app to log their dives and currently both MacDive and Diving Log 6.0 support the Mk1. Both of these apps import the FIT* file directly into the app. If you have internet access, you can easily download the FIT file for a dive from Garmin Connect. If you don't have internet access, you can connect the Mk1 to a computer via the supplied USB cable (which also charges the Mk1) and pull the FIT files directly off it.

* Garmin use FIT files to store activity data. These are proprietary binary files but there is an SDK to allow developers to read the data.

 

[Abhijit Roy]

There are some things I forgot to mention about the app for the Garmin Descent Mk1....

The way you get your dive data off the Mk1 is very different from any other dive computer but is consistent with all the current Garmin wearable devices. Garmin has a cloud based environment called Garmin Connect. You access it via a browser or the Garmin Connect Mobile app on a smart phone. The Mk1 syncs with Garmin Connect via the mobile app (although you can sync directly with Garmin Connect with a desktop app called Garmin Express).

Syncing takes place over Bluetooth and is somewhat automatic. I can get back to my car after a dive and before I have changed out of my gear, my dive has already been synced to the cloud and I get a nice little notification that it's ready to view.

The major drawback of this environment is that an internet connection is required to not only sync the data to Garmin Connect but to even view anything more than a high level summary. The Garmin Connect Mobile app stores only summary data and the real data is stored in the cloud. This means that if you are in a remote location with no internet access, it is not possible to sync with Garmin Connect or view any dive data.

As Garmin Connect is pretty poor as a dive log, most people would use a third party app to log their dives and currently both MacDive and Diving Log 6.0 support the Mk1. Both of these apps import the FIT* file directly into the app. If you have internet access, you can easily download the FIT file for a dive from Garmin Connect. If you don't have internet access, you can connect the Mk1 to a computer via the supplied USB cable (which also charges the Mk1) and pull the FIT files directly off it.

* Garmin use FIT files to store activity data. These are proprietary binary files but there is an SDK to allow developers to read the data.

Thanks for the update. I just got the computer last weekend. I am planning to take it to diving this weekend but I am wearing it everyday. I like it so far as a watch!! Like you, I feel the app feature is not adequate and hope they would update it. Along with better log management and dive insights, I think it should also allow setting up dive parameters on the app and push it to the watch. I wanted put these things as a feature request but somehow cannot post it to garmin connect site :-( As they are new in diving area, we can help them to build a better product, if they are willing to listen.

 

[ATJ]

I love the Mk1. It's a great watch for every day and also works well as a dive computer. I think the Garmin Connect Mobile app totally sucks. It is badly written and has so many bugs. I see something go wrong with it almost every day. I have tried raising the issues with Garmin but their support process is even worse than the app.

For example, one morning I woke and my Mk1 said I'd done around 100 steps (which would be right as I'd got up a couple of times in the night). Garmin Connect Mobile said I'd done over 18,000 steps! What was even crazier was that the steps were showing as being done at around 11:45am - in the future. I called the Australian support line for Garmin and they told me to send them screen shots of Garmin Connect Mobile and photos of the Mk1 to show the discrepancies. I did that, they replied that the issue had been raised to Tier 2. I never heard back. That was 2 months ago.

Another time where there were inconsistencies between the Mk1 and the app (where the Mk1 was correct). They finally responed a month later and told me to upgrade the Mk1 (even though it was already on the latest version. They then demonstrated they didn't know it was a diving watch.

So... I don't care if they ever make the log management better and doubt they ever will as the running management is pretty poor on Garmin Connect. I sure as heck hope they don't allow setting up dive parameters from the app.

I'm pretty sure that the watch and the app are worked on by two different teams. I trust the team that work on the watch but I have no faith at all in the team that work on the app. It scares me to think that the safety of the watch could be compromised by the poor development of the app.

 

[Abhijit Roy]

My garmin descent altimeter today said a few times I am 50 ft under while I was at 2nd floor of the office building. I tried getting hold of support for 2 hours without any luck. Hope I will not suffer buyer's remorse on this.