The Shearwater Teric Announced

[rombre]

now it just needs to become available (again) at any dive shops here in the UK

 

[DavidFL]

Teric experience for 24 hours: as a watch and PDC:

Received my Teric on Saturday; went diving on Monday. For the last 24 hours, wore only the Teric for my watch, and made two dives. Spoiler: at the end of 24 hours, battery remaining was 56%

Brightness was either medium or high outside; was pretty hard to see the screen on the surface on the boat in the midday Florida sun even on hi, and switching brightness with the button to any setting other than hi made it completely unreadable. Lots of fumbling once the screen disappeared to get it back on and on hi. AI integrated with a single transmitter. Teri was in OC Rec mode. Once in the water, no problem seeing the screen; pretty sure it was on HI for both dives and the surface interval. I don't remember touching the brightness button after I finally got it set on HI on the surface on the boat.

0600: Wakeup; got the Teric off the charging stand; made sure battery said 100%
Loaded my pickup; drove to Jupiter Inlet Marina; boarded
10:39: First dive started; from Jupiter Marina; M/V Kyalami from Jupiter SCUBA diving; Max Depth 89ft; 56minutes total time
After boarding the boat, Teric switched automatically to Watch; one button put it back n dive mode to watch the surface interval timer; was in HI in the Florida noontime sun
12:41: Second dive started; Max Depth 75ft; 50minutes total time
23:00: Back home from Jupiter (went to Fort Lauderdale; had dinner with my son; normally back in Orlando much earlier from my Jupiter day trips); watch was on medium brightness from the time I finished the second dive until I dropped it in the rinse tank at home around 11pm
0600: Tuesday; got the watch out of the rinse (laundry room deep sink); battery remaining 56%

Pretty much confirmed my expectations. In my heaviest use, wearing the watch all day and diving multiple dives (Kona Aggressor in August), it will need to be charged every night.

Overall impression: extremely favorable. Had my Perdix on my other wrist.

Have been having a lot of trouble uploading to my Android phone or my laptop; didn't just work like the "Start up" guide implied. Still haven't got that working right. Wouldn't upload to Subsurface either.

EDIT/ADD after reading some unread posts here....the little red floating compass arrow point north is outstanding. Really outstanding.

 

[rsingler]

@DavidFL , brightness compared with the Perdix?

 

[Shearwater]

Thank you for the feedback @DavidFL . A couple of notes. Changing your color settings may improve visibility in the Florida mid day sun. You can do this under Settings > Display > Colors. We have created a color Theme called "Sunlight".

Today we made Shearwater Cloud v 2.1.1 available. This version fixes various bugs. Be sure to have this version installed in your Android phone. It might fix some of the problems you have been experiencing. Subsurface is not yet available because the Teric is so new.

Cheers

 

[The Chairman]

We have created a color Theme called "Sunlight".

Now, that's a bright idea! Good job!

 

[DavidFL]

Thank you for the feedback @DavidFL . A couple of notes. Changing your color settings may improve visibility in the Florida mid day sun. You can do this under Settings > Display > Colors. We have created a color Theme called "Sunlight".

Cheers

Thanks, I had found the Sunlight theme and had already changed to it before my dives yesterday Still had trouble reading in direct noontime sun. Once I hit the light button and got off "high" (trying for higher) couldn't tell at all what I was seeing. Of course the next toggle is off, and the toggle after that is dim (with four brightness settings selected). Somewhere around there I hit Menu; could only barely see something on the screen but couldn't tell what it was. Lot of fumbling after that; don't know exactly what I hit in the fumbles, to finally get back to a screen (by that time in the shade on the boat and with my other hand shading the screen)

Maybe some kind of long press on the "light" button defaults to the high setting?

 

[DavidFL]

Today we made Shearwater Cloud v 2.1.1 available. This version fixes various bugs. Be sure to have this version installed in your Android phone. It might fix some of the problems you have been experiencing. Subsurface is not yet available because the Teric is so new.

Cheers

The android Shearwater Cloud app doesn't have a "check for upgrades" feature that I could find. I ended up having to uninstall the version that was on my Samsung Galaxy S7, and reinstall the latest version from the Play Store. Once I got the newest app, I was able to upgrade the Teric firmware; took a long time to download and install. Once the new firmware was installed, I tried to download my two dives from yesterday. Bluetooth connected, but disconnected partially through the first download, and after that no sequence of attempts would download. Finally, I downloaded Shearwater Cloud for Windows; used that to connect and download from the Teric successfully. When I Sync Shearwater Cloud from Windows and then sync the Android app, the dialogs complete successfully, but the Teric dives are still not on my Android dive list. I had previous dives there from the Perdix, so I'm looking to see if there is some choice I need to make on the Android app for PDC, but haven't found it yet. I'm confident all this will get worked out; combination of software upgrades, new stuff, operator error; operator retraining.

FWIW, I bought the Teric and an AI transmitter as a backup to my Perdix; finishing some OC Tech Training next week (TDI AN/DP), and planning OC Normoxic Trimix shortly after that. Pretty sure the Teric has become my "main" computer and the Perdix is now my backup.

@rsingler I don't remember comparing the brightness on the surface on the boat in the noontime sun between the Perdix and the Teric. I had set the mixes and the GF's the night before at home. I turned the Perdix on and confirmed the mix selected and the GF on the boat but I wasn't comparing at the time and I just don't remember. I put the Teric in dive mode next and got all caught up trying to read it and change the brightness higher, and by the time I got that done we were ready to jump. In the water during the two dives, the Teric display seems just as readable; maybe more readable. For the record, I had the Teric in OC Rec, and in the "Big" setting; I had the Perdix in OC Tec. I use a prescription dive mask because I'm old and have...what's the right word...presbyopia? My mask prescription is not even my latest prescription (which has progressed to stronger and stronger 'reader' corrections in the low bifocals) and I had no trouble at all reading the Teric.

 

[drrich2]

Pretty much confirmed my expectations. In my heaviest use, wearing the watch all day and diving multiple dives (Kona Aggressor in August), it will need to be charged every night.

56% After 2 dives, granted with high brightness settings, but still a lower % charge than I would've guessed. On a live-aboard if you're doing 4 day & 1 night dives per day, would one be cutting it a little close? How fast does it charge back up? If it charges pretty fast, might want to plan putting in on the charger during lunch, which ought to solve the problem.

Richard.

 

[stuartv]

Did leaving it in the soak tank all night make it stay in dive mode and use up the battery faster?

 

[DavidFL]

56% After 2 dives, granted with high brightness settings, but still a lower % charge than I would've guessed. On a live-aboard if you're doing 4 day & 1 night dives per day, would one be cutting it a little close? How fast does it charge back up? If it charges pretty fast, might want to plan putting in on the charger during lunch, which ought to solve the problem.

Richard.

@drrich2 My thinking goes like this. If I'm on a live aboard, I try for five dives a day too. For at least the first couple of days, I will use the Teric as a computer only and turn it off between dives. Using it full time as a watch consumes less energy, but still has to drive the display from the clock chip. My sense without detailed metrics, is that using it for five one hour dives and leaving it off the rest of the time would make it last at least two, maybe three days. On the live aboard I will have regular AC power for the charger, plus my big honking USB stored power that I'm sure could recharge it 4 or 5 times if necessary. Once I'm sure that works, I'll probably go to wearing it all day as a watch and charging it every night. But you definitely could put it on the charger during lunch to increase your odds.

I haven't yet enabled "fast charge" and I've only charged it from about 40% back up to 100% but my sense is it is pretty fast. Charges faster than my LG Urbane smart watch for instance.

I have confirmed that the little $10 CHOETECH Qi charging pad that Shearwater mentioned in one of their posts works fine too. Haven't compared charging times between that and the Shearwater provided stand.