So Vytec DS is not so good for planning deco dives as compare to other divecomp brands at the same level such as Dive Rite Trio? So is the Vyper dive planner the same as the Vytec DS?

Thanks for your inputs Flipper.

We are talking about the advanced technology of dive comp nowadays. I wonder how in the past they do all those deco dives when dive comp was not invented yet. Did they have to dive with divetables...???

Or maybe there were no such things as deco dives in the past.

Flipper
I've just sold a VR3 to buy a Shearwater... It should arrive this week. I'll let you know what I think of it.



When you do your deco training you will learn all about this. For Deco dives, it is best to plan everything by tables. You then write down your profiles on slates and stick them in your pocket, or wrist and take them with you. The computer is an aid. If it craps out on you, you still have your slates.

I bought a Nitek Duo a few years ago and it's done very well so far. If I'm doing a deco dive, then I'll use my Shearwater and have the Nitek Duo set in gage mode acting as a bottom timer... so that I can use my slates. If I was to do really deep mix dives, then I'd use 3 computers. 2 doing deco, one as a bottom timer.

Thanks Paul for your inputs.

Milky you really need to do some research! Did you never learn to do tables when you did your OW course?

yap....but since having a dive computer..never bothered to look at them but I am talking only simple rec dives.not deep dives nor deco dives.

Please do - I'd be very interested. I was offered a Shearwater a while back, and was keen to get one, but at the time at least, it didn't seem to meet what I was looking for.

Ah, the sacred words of TDI: All dives are deco dives.

As expected, Suunto said that the only basic difference of HelO2 to Vytec DS is that HelO2 has the 8-gas mixes.....

So they didn't mention the new matrix screen, dive planning / backup plan capability, the ability to support helium diving, gas blending analysis....

Seems like a very different computer to the Vytec. The Vytec seems to me to have more in common with all the lower range models, except it can do gas switching...

Gas blending analysis? Does it have the facility to run a O2 and He sensor? I bet it dont!
Whats the backup plan thingy all about? Isnt that what all dive computers do constantly?

Not sure if it's the same thing. On the shearwater, it works out your deco obligation based on whatever user settable gradient factor you put in for conservatism. But if something happens, and you want to get out as quck as you can, you can switch to a gradient factor of 1 ie no conservatism whatsoever..... Of course it might have nothing to do with this at all

Gas blending appears to be a function of the PC software, not the computer, and at a guess is probably similar to that of VPlanner, ie: if I've got a bottle with 90bar of nitrox 40 in it, how many bar of O2 do I need to decant to get a 220bar bottle of nitrox 50.....

Backup plan, again, taken from the blurb, I'm guessing it's the ability to load a plan into the computer, but also be able to load a backup plan into the computer and swap onto this. That way time to surface, gas switch points, etc can be changed.

I'm guessing the computer runs the same stinky deco model that means if you do a second dive after a deco dive you're limited to 1 meter for 5 mins before clocking up deco at an alarming rate...

Actually I asked Suunto what other factors that HelO2 is better than Vytec DS apart from it can do helium and 8 mixed gas switching....
Funny thing they didn't emphasized on the capability of uploading your dive plan to your divecomp? Maybe it is not a big thing for deco divers, do you agree?

Dunno. I've never been able to do it.

From my perspective, a key benefit is the ability to sit in front of a PC, be able to fully plan out a dive, write it on a slate as back up, but then for the computer, during the dive, to be able to match exactly what's been planned.

For deep dives, I used to just flip my Vytec over into gauge mode, otherwise it would just sit there beeping at me at the end of the dive.