73 replies to this topic

[lynnlchan]

My dive computer had an issue which is currently being repaired. It's 2.5 years old with a hundred dives on it. I expect to get it back less then two weeks before departing for the T&C live aboard. I'm hoping to get a dive or two on it before I go but am worried. Should I rent a back-up for the trip? Any advice and suggestions?

Thanks!

[georoc01]

My dive computer had an issue which is currently being repaired. It's 2.5 years old with a hundred dives on it. I expect to get it back less then two weeks before departing for the T&C live aboard. I'm hoping to get a dive or two on it before I go but am worried. Should I rent a back-up for the trip? Any advice and suggestions?

Thanks!

Yes, I would have a backup. For a liveaboard, I wouldnt' want to miss dives because of a malfunctioning computer.


Have you checked with WW? She might have a Cochran avail you could use as a back up.

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Lynn, I've put you on the Cochran list in the first post of the T&C trip thread.

The way WW works those lists is that whoever NEEDS a computer will get first dibs (so to speak), and any left over are handed out in the order they were signed up for, to be used as backups for DAN research.

So, I'm positive that if anyone has a dive computer failure and they do not have a backup with them, then you'll get to use one of the Cochrans.

This group is so great, I've seen a member give up their personal backup computer to someone who had their only dive computer fail on a trip. How cool are SD members to dive with??

[shadragon]

Backup? Yes.

On which dives? Every dive.

[ScubaTex]

My dive computer had an issue which is currently being repaired. It's 2.5 years old with a hundred dives on it. I expect to get it back less then two weeks before departing for the T&C live aboard. I'm hoping to get a dive or two on it before I go but am worried. Should I rent a back-up for the trip? Any advice and suggestions?

Thanks!

What brand of computer was it?? In March I had a Suunto Vyper go haywire, it was less than 2 years old, and had a hundred dives on it. Luckily it was 'back-up' to my console. When I got back, I took it to my LDS, who did a pressure test. About a month later I had a new Suunto Vyper.

Backup? Yes.

On which dives? Every dive.

I agree. I've added a back-up spg to my rig, just in case.

Bill

Edited by ScubaTex, 17 August 2010 - 03:01 PM.

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Isn't it amazing how NOBODY has said "just use your dive tables"???

We are definitely dependent on the computer technology, even though there are alternatives.

[peterbj7]

I would always have two computers with me on a trip, and indeed on most dives. Especially if any work has been done on one of them, including changing the battery.

[pir8]

I carry 2 computers on virtually every dive.

[scubaski]

2 computers, 1 air intergrated every dive.

[lv2dive70]

I'd want my own backup in case I couldn't get a Cochran from the start, bc AFTER the failure, the Cochran would have someone else's profile for the first dives rather than mine.

On a related subject (may not be relevant to OP), it was pointed out to me on my SD first trip that having an analog pressure gauge - in addition to the air integrated computer - was not a bad idea given that if my computer failed, I'd know how much gas I had left. That prompted a quick purchase on my part because I am a big fan of redundancy.

That was probably more like $.03... :-)

[georoc01]

Isn't it amazing how NOBODY has said "just use your dive tables"???

We are definitely dependent on the computer technology, even though there are alternatives.

Here's the problem, unless you have been tracking your dives using tables from the first dive of the week, you don't know what group you are in when the computer initially fails and you immediately abort that dive. So where do you start from?

You could take the next 24 hours off and start from there, but do you really want to do that on a liveaboard?

Having spent thousands of dollars on a liveaboard dive trip, spending a couple of hundred on a backup computer seems cheap to me to insure your ability to make every dive on the trip. It doesn't have to be some fancy air integrated computer.

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Isn't it amazing how NOBODY has said "just use your dive tables"???

We are definitely dependent on the computer technology, even though there are alternatives.

Here's the problem, unless you have been tracking your dives using tables from the first dive of the week, you don't know what group you are in when the computer initially fails and you immediately abort that dive. So where do you start from?

You could take the next 24 hours off and start from there, but do you really want to do that on a liveaboard?

Having spent thousands of dollars on a liveaboard dive trip, spending a couple of hundred on a backup computer seems cheap to me to insure your ability to make every dive on the trip. It doesn't have to be some fancy air integrated computer.

Your comment is exactly why I posted my comment! Most divers rely on the computer exclusively, and if you don't have redundancy and you don't log your dives, you have to stay out of the water for a day. We were taught to use dive tables, but it seems most can't be bothered to use that knowledge.

I personally log every dive, (I write basic data on a slate at the end of each dive, too) so backing up a step & figuring out what group I'm in would only take a matter of a few minutes of my surface interval. I would only go back to the first dive of the day to figure my current group, since I know from tracking my past 200 dives that I generally start each day in group A. I only do recreational diving (no deco diving).

I just wanted to remind everyone that if you cannot afford dive computer redundancy, there is an alternative.

I'd love to have a second dive computer, but they are not cheap and I can use that money elsewhere so I will just have to use my brain if the worst happens. It would not ruin my trip and I would not miss any diving!

[drbill]

I always dive with a backup computer with one of the reasons being the one Kate P pointed out (and the other being that I have had a single computer fail on me during an extended deco dive).

[peterbj7]

I'd love to have a second dive computer, but they are not cheap and I can use that money elsewhere

IMO they are now very cheap, compared with the cost of everything else. I would always dive with two.

[lv2dive70]

I was always diving with two or three (including borrowed Cochran) until I accidentally threw my Suunto overboard in NC in July. I've been wanting to buy a Cochran but the $ + extra for the s/w and dohickey to link it to the computer is out of my price range right now.

I was diving in Fort Lauderdale and borrowed an extra computer on that trip, but I was diving in the Keys the next weekend and was not happy about diving with one computer. Renting a computer seemed like such a waste of money but I didn't really want to buy one either. At the end of the day, I found a nitrox-compatible Oceanic that logs something like 20 dives (about 1 trip) for around $200. It was money well spent in my mind because I would have been completely stressed out if I didn't have a second computer.

One of these days I'll invest in Cochran (or similar) - but for now my need for redundancy has been met, and with a computer that is bigger than my old one (and therefore harder to lose or toss overboard).