What kind of dive computer do you use? and why?

[Nwbrewer]

I don't bother with a dive computer. All of my dive buddies have one anyway so I just look at theirs to know how much time I have left.


Oh yeah and I get my airfills at am/pm

[Sounder]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

[mz53480]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

[defied]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

Unless you buy a Thirsty-Two ouncer.

D(B)

[Sounder]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

Unless you buy a Thirsty-Two ouncer.

D(B)

Yeah, I usually get a soda anyway so I don't feel weird when I ask to use the restroom. Drive-up air fills - best secret in scuba.

[Dashrynn]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

Unless you buy a Thirsty-Two ouncer.

D(B)

Yeah, I usually get a soda anyway so I don't feel weird when I ask to use the restroom. Drive-up air fills - best secret in scuba.

you guys are kidding right..?

[Sounder]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

Unless you buy a Thirsty-Two ouncer.

D(B)

Yeah, I usually get a soda anyway so I don't feel weird when I ask to use the restroom. Drive-up air fills - best secret in scuba.

you guys are kidding right..?

If you don't believe us, try it. Just be sure to tell them you need a yoke adapter because usually they've got the tire-fitting on it. Be sure to ask for the punch card. They only pump air though, no nitrox or trimix.

[mz53480]

Recently I saw am/pm had an air-fill punch card. It's the best kept secret for cheap air fills.

Yeah, but you have to pay cash or they charge you an extra $0.25 per cuft if you use credit/debit.....

Unless you buy a Thirsty-Two ouncer.
D(B)

Yeah, I usually get a soda anyway so I don't feel weird when I ask to use the restroom. Drive-up air fills - best secret in scuba.

you guys are kidding right..?

If you don't believe us, try it. Just be sure to tell them you need a yoke adapter because usually they've got the tire-fitting on it. Be sure to ask for the punch card. They only pump air though, no nitrox or trimix.

In Oregon, they're full service too! If you have a hatchback, just put your valve tanks towards the back, hit the 'open' button and you don't even have to get out of your car!

[spatman]

In Oregon, they're full service too! If you have a hatchback, just put your valve tanks towards the back, hit the 'open' button and you don't even have to get out of your car!

the Shell stations in Portland can fill your argon bottle too, but you have to buy a car wash first.

[Sounder]

In Oregon, they're full service too! If you have a hatchback, just put your valve tanks towards the back, hit the 'open' button and you don't even have to get out of your car!

I haven't done it in the 4Runner, but I've done it in my little truck and in my wife's car. The key is just having the valves easy to reach. If they can get the fill whip in there, they'll fill them without you having to take them out. It saves SO much time. I can grab a coke, hit the head, and I'm on my way to the dive site having lost little to no time.

the Shell stations in Portland can fill your argon bottle too, but you have to buy a car wash first.

Seriously? Since my argon bottles are so small, it'd be really cool to get them topped off between dive sites. Thanks!!

[Pez7378]

I don't like the taste of the am/pm air, it's kinda tangy. I'm not sure if it still is or not, that was before I started getting nitrox from NWSD.

[Dashrynn]

In Oregon, they're full service too! If you have a hatchback, just put your valve tanks towards the back, hit the 'open' button and you don't even have to get out of your car!

I haven't done it in the 4Runner, but I've done it in my little truck and in my wife's car. The key is just having the valves easy to reach. If they can get the fill whip in there, they'll fill them without you having to take them out. It saves SO much time. I can grab a coke, hit the head, and I'm on my way to the dive site having lost little to no time.

the Shell stations in Portland can fill your argon bottle too, but you have to buy a car wash first.

Seriously? Since my argon bottles are so small, it'd be really cool to get them topped off between dive sites. Thanks!!

Wait.... I.can fill my paint gun there too?

[spatman]

I don't like the taste of the am/pm air, it's kinda tangy. I'm not sure if it still is or not, that was before I started getting nitrox from NWSD.

it's the same down here, too. i don't do am/pm fills anymore. it's usually the shell stations, though sometimes i go to the 76 stations when they have that "buy two fills and get a free small slurpee" special.

[Joshua Smith]

I dive a Shearwater GF- the old one that's about the size and shape of a cinder block. I love it, even though it's huge.

But the reasons I use it probably don't matter to the OP. You're in the market for one, I assume?

[Aquanautchuck]

My "only" dive computer is a OLD Suunto Eon. You can get them dirt cheap on Ebay. Love it. Now if I can only adapt a sheet magnifying glass so I can read the numbers I would be all good again.

[defied]

In Oregon, they're full service too! If you have a hatchback, just put your valve tanks towards the back, hit the 'open' button and you don't even have to get out of your car!

I haven't done it in the 4Runner, but I've done it in my little truck and in my wife's car. The key is just having the valves easy to reach. If they can get the fill whip in there, they'll fill them without you having to take them out. It saves SO much time. I can grab a coke, hit the head, and I'm on my way to the dive site having lost little to no time.

the Shell stations in Portland can fill your argon bottle too, but you have to buy a car wash first.

Seriously? Since my argon bottles are so small, it'd be really cool to get them topped off between dive sites. Thanks!!

Wait.... I.can fill my paint gun there too?

What kind of paint gun? I filled up my Dangerous Power Fusion F8 paintball gun there when I was on the run once.

D(B)

[Gooch]

Ahem- I have a simple VEO 100nx which can handle nitrox info just fine. It's simple, cheap, and gives me exactly the info I need. I dream of having a Liquidvision computer (they are soooooo coool and soooo spendy) but for now, its good enough for me. Maybe just any wireless computer would be a good step up---Oceanic Datamask?

My gas stations won't fill your argon bottle but they will ask "What is argon? Is it that state south of here...?"

[LCF]

My goodness, at the risk of actually returning this thread to the original topic . . .

I started with a Cobra on a console. I hated the console.

I went to a Vytech in a DSS boot. It had big numbers and was easy to read, and I liked it until I bent it in Cozumel because it was diving 21% and I wasn't. Then it went into gauge mode.

But timing ascents was problematic, so I bought an Aladin Tec 2G. I loved the stopwatch. I wanted the resettable depth averaging, but never was able to make it work. I hated the interface and could never remember which button to push for how long to get what I wanted. The numbers were small and the backlight was flaky.

And then a friend of mine waved my little yellow friend under my nose, and I was lost. BIG numbers that I could make BIGGER. A display that prioritized depth and time, while STILL giving me decompression information from a program that accepts that people sometimes go deeper or stay longer than the RDP approves of. Further, said program generally thinks the ascent strategies I was taught to develop and use are just fine. And if I forget to tell it I've switched from 25/25 back to 32%, it will sit and scowl at me as I ignore its advice, but it will be there with me for the next dive. I can download profiles -- but I can also show them to the folks on the boat before I get to my computer, because the device generates profile plots.

All the computers I've owned have had their downsides. This one has the fewest -- it's electron-dependent and prefers to spend its nights on the charger, and the logging software is pretty primitive compared with the lovely program for the Aladin. But for middle-aged eyes, and for my purposes, the display and the organization of the display are simply incomparable.

And yes, it's an X1 and cost me an arm and a leg, and it was worth it.

[mz53480]

I don't like the taste of the am/pm air, it's kinda tangy. I'm not sure if it still is or not, that was before I started getting nitrox from NWSD.

it's the same down here, too. i don't do am/pm fills anymore. it's usually the shell stations, though sometimes i go to the 76 stations when they have that "buy two fills and get a free small slurpee" special.

The AM/PM in Hoodsport only costs 75cents for a fill:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX2OrEy18lo[/youtube]

[Dashrynn]

until I bent it in Cozumel

Twss!!!!!!

[eliseaboo]

I used a Veo 250 for over 100 dives. My gf now uses it. I bought a Nitek Duo because I got a screaming deal on it off craigslist, and think it's pretty good. I don't have call to use 2 mixes yet, but it's a good little computer. The download cable is freaking expensive though-I haven't bought one yet because the price is so prohibitive.

Honestly, though, since I started diving 32%, I just use the computer for a bottom timer and do the tables in my head.

i know the veo 250 does nitrox til 40% and has a oxygen tox bar or something ( im not nitrox qualed)

Yep, the Veo 250 does nitrox to 40%. I forgot to set it to nitrox a couple times, and realized that I wasn't paying all that much attention to it anyway, so I got the Nitek Duo to be a better bottom timer, and to give me the option of doing deco on 100% at some point in the future.

At least, that's how I rationalized it in my head...

wouldn't plan on doing a deco dive for atleast a year or two.....doesn't the 250 do deco dives? I remember reading it somewhere....

okay i just read up on your comp, and the switching between nitrox and air must be nice for someone who dives both

I know for a (unfortunate) fact that the 250 does deco, but it is mainly only to get you out of trouble once you get into it. It will guide your deco stops, but it seems designed for someone who wasn't planning to enter deco in the first place. Deco stops take priority over safety stops on the timer, so take note if you are a rec diver who gets caught in a deco situation -- watch your timer, not your computer!

[scottsax]

Correction about the Shearwater. I will only use a computer that will allow me to download the dive information directly, allowing me to code a script in linux to collect said data, and display it in my own dive log app. I'm confident that the Shearwater would let me do that, but not 100% positive until I can play with it. 0]

D(B)

Nerd.

[Nwbrewer]

Deco stops take priority over safety stops on the timer, so take note if you are a rec diver who gets caught in a deco situation -- watch your timer, not your computer!

Elise, can you expand on this? A safety stop is a deco stop, the training agencies just choose not to call it that.

[spatman]

Elise, can you expand on this? A safety stop is a deco stop, the training agencies just choose not to call it that.

i think there is a difference, jake. a deco stop is a mandatory stop, whereas a safety stop is not. the safety stop is intended to provide some padding to a recreational diver's off-gassing, but can be skipped if necessary.

[Nwbrewer]

Elise, can you expand on this? A safety stop is a deco stop, the training agencies just choose not to call it that.

i think there is a difference, jake. a deco stop is a mandatory stop, whereas a safety stop is not. the safety stop is intended to provide some padding to a recreational diver's off-gassing, but can be skipped if necessary.

Ok, I'll give you that semantic argument, but I still don't get what Elise was saying about the keeping in eye on the timer rather than the computer when you put the computer into deco.

Once you go from "inside NDL" safety stop to "outside NDL" deco stops I got the feeling the computer was telling her to do some sort of deco profile, but that she was adding an additional "safety stop" to that profile. It's certainly not going to hurt you to add some time at 15' no matter what your profile was, I'm just trying to understand what the computer was telling her, vs. what she thought she needed to do.

Jake