Goodbye ocean, hello Lake

Damn you weather!!

We were going to be diving on the Tutukaka wrecks all day (HMNZS Tui and HMNZS Waikato) on Saturday but the weather is not playing ball.

So a different type of roadtrip/mission is in order – possibly Lake Okataina and the submerged pa!!
More details to follow shortly.

Product Review : Suunto Vyper Air

Suunto Vyper Air

I was so excited to receive my new Suunto Vyper Air dive computer and wireless transmitter.
However the weekend I had planned did not quite eventuate and I had to wait longer than I expected to use it (in the swimming pool does not count!).

The Vyper Air holds a lot of features – most of which I have not yet used for too long;

* a digital compass (with greater tiltability – 45 degrees they say)
* a Dive Plan simulator

The main reasons I wanted this computer are in fact the features that I am most happy with;

* wireless air integration
* two gas mixes – between 21% and 99% oxygen

Setting up the transmitter and the wireless integration is a pinch! Have the dive computer near to the transmitter and turn on your tank.
The computer gives you a channel number that you can change if you like – otherwise you are good to go. The computer starts reading the transmitter from 15bar and also completes a pairing procedure that is supposed to prevent channel number conflicts with other divers transmitters and computers.
Seeing as I am the first to own one of these – I do not anticipate any errors so far!

I took off diving for the weekend and planned to use my current dive computer and my Suunto Dive Computer and compare the two.
My other computer has been diving with me for about three years and I know it so well – so I thought that it was a good plan to use both and to see how the functions I use, and glance at the most, appear on the screen of the Vyper Air.

I found the screen very easy to read – except that in some bright light, the cover that is provided places a shadow over the bottom left and right corners which is where the current tank pressure (left) and dive time (right) are. I am sure that resolving this will simply be a case of turning my wrist.
No decompression time is easy to read – it is basically the largest and the boldest number on the screen.
Receiving more information is simple enough to find – the left and right (or up/down) buttons will scroll through dive time, temperature, max depth, current time and tank pressure. With the wireless transmitter enabled, you can also see remaining Air Time.

I notice immediately that my older computer is a lot more conservative – it generally reads 2m deeper and gave me 2 minutes decompression whereas the Vyper Air was clear. I don’t find this a problem – it will be a good computer to follow when I am diving with students – or guiding. However, I have set deepstops on the Vyper Air to up the conservatism a little.

Changing the computers settings is very easy – using the same select/mode buttons that have been appearing on console and wrist mounted Suunto computers for a while now. If you are unsure of how to change the settings, the date or calibrate the compass, the manual is well written with images detailing the screens you should expect to see.

Over the weekend my primary gas mix varied from an EANx32 down to a basic air fill. I simply used Nitrox Mode and altered my mixtures between 21% and 32%. I did not see the point in switching back to air mode and I will probably leave it like this. It reminds me to check my mixes and to make sure that my computer is reading the same as the check I have just completed on my tanks.

It does seem a shame that Suunto are not catering to the Mac users for Dive Log software – especially for a wireless transmitter enabled dive computer.
I have spent some time researching alternatives online and having a look at what other Suunto owners are using. Installing Microsoft Windows and dual booting was not an option for me, and I wanted to be able to use the data I already had saved in my previous electronic dive log (JDiveLog).

I have selected MacDive as my free electronic dive log.

So far, I have not been able to merge the two log files, but I am happy with the profile information that MacDive gives me and I cannot see it being any more work to maintain the data however if anyone has suggestions – let me know!

You need to download and install the USB/Serial drivers before you install the MacDive software. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

*Dive Software for Mac*

Dive Log Sofware – http://thedoorisajar.org/macdive/

USB and Serial Port Drivers – http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm