0:00
I've had two failures of the handset on
0:04
One of them was at 55 m, one of them was
0:10
Both of them I had roughly an hour of
0:13
decompression to do. That's not a great
0:15
place to be, needless to say. And when
0:17
it happens, if it happens, maybe one of
0:20
the things that suddenly becomes really
0:24
This is my secondary computer, my backup
0:27
computer, not connected to my
0:29
rebreather, so it works on a fixed set
0:33
But when that happens, this is what
0:35
controls my decompression.
0:38
For those of you who don't recognize it,
0:39
and I'm sure most of you will, this is a
0:42
Shearwater Perdix 2. I've had other
0:45
versions of Shearwater computers, so
0:47
before this I had a Perdix, and before
0:51
I think I had a Petrel 1 and a Petrel 2.
0:53
So I've dived Shearwater computers for a
0:55
very long time. And I'll be honest, I
0:58
love them to bits. In both of those
1:01
scenarios, the Shearwater sorted me out.
1:04
I was able to do my decompression,
1:07
get safely to the surface. In one
1:09
incident, I managed to stay on the
1:10
rebreather loop. In the other incident,
1:13
I actually had to bail out. But on both
1:15
occasions, the Shearwater sorted me out.
1:18
I love them. I've used them for a long
1:20
time. I'm really happy with them. But
1:22
one of the things that struck me a few
1:24
weeks ago was actually I don't know very
1:27
much about other dive computers.
1:29
Whenever anybody asks me, I always say,
1:32
you know, Shearwater.
1:33
I kind of thought, you know what, I
1:35
should really find out a bit more about
1:36
other dive computers, see what they've
1:38
got to offer, and see how they compare.
1:41
So you probably saw I did that on my
1:43
Facebook page and my Instagram, and I
1:46
said, look, I'm looking to use some
1:47
other dive computers and see how they
1:50
perform. And a lot of people got in
1:52
touch with me, which was which was
1:54
really nice. And I've had the
1:55
opportunity to dive with a few of them
1:57
and I've got some more, you know, I'm
2:00
going to dive with some more in the
2:01
future. And I'm also going to do some
2:03
kind of long-term testing on some of
2:05
them as well to kind of see how they
2:06
perform on more than one dive. Now, the
2:09
first computers that I got,
2:13
were VR3s. So, for those of you don't
2:16
know, the VR3, that was kind of the
2:19
computer that started it all off. And in
2:21
fact, here we go. I've I've Here it is.
2:24
VR3. This is This is the granddaddy,
2:27
really, of CCR diving computers.
2:30
Released in 1997, it was the one
2:33
everybody wanted and everybody used. So,
2:36
I've taken this on a dive. I've had it
2:40
68 m on the East Point. Absolutely
2:45
One of the big problems with it, though,
2:46
is it's LCD monochrome. So, I really
2:49
struggled to see the screen. For those
2:51
of you don't know, I normally need
2:53
reading glasses. And I don't have lenses
2:56
or anything. I'm kind of in that
2:57
midpoint where I'm probably going to
2:58
need them fairly soon. But anyway, I
3:00
couldn't see really see the monochrome
3:02
handset even with the, you know, the
3:04
backlight, which is pretty rubbish. So,
3:06
fortunately, somebody sent me this,
3:08
which is the the color version of the
3:11
VR3. And that was uh much better. So,
3:13
I've dived with that and used that down
3:16
to, I think it was on a 70-m dive on the
3:19
Silver Laurel. And I actually did all my
3:22
deco on that one. The The other one, I
3:26
VR3 makes you do deep stops. I missed
3:29
the deep stops on the monochrome one, so
3:31
it kind of kicked me out and said, "Use
3:33
tables." The color handset, I did all my
3:35
stops on it, cleared the stops, got to
3:37
the surface. So, absolutely interesting.
3:39
And I'm going to do a
3:40
more a more detailed video on those,
3:43
like I'm going to do for all the
3:44
computers I'm going to talk about. So,
3:46
what I'm really doing here is just kind
3:47
of introducing you to of kind of
3:51
You could call it a test mainly kind of
3:53
review. I guess it's there's no real
3:55
science to it. It's just my impressions
3:57
of all these computers. So, that was
4:00
fantastic. Really enjoyed diving with
4:02
the VR3. Really interesting to dive with
4:05
Um for those of you who've never picked
4:07
up one of these things, they are
4:07
massively heavy. So, I need I could take
4:09
a kilo of lead off as well, which is
4:13
The other thing that I I've got and I
4:15
you've probably seen my review on it
4:16
already is the Perdix 2 bronze journey
4:20
edition. So, I I've dived with that
4:22
quite a bit as well and um you may have
4:24
seen my video. So, that's that's really
4:28
Better screen, vibration alerts, that's
4:32
the upgrades on my Perdix 2. I'm also
4:34
hoping to get the Perdix 3 at some point
4:37
as well. So, Shearwater have said
4:39
they're going to send me one. So, it'll
4:40
be interesting to compare that kind of
4:43
And the other thing that I've had, which
4:47
I was kind of surprised by actually, is
4:49
I've had the two Symbios computers from
4:54
Which is really nice because I guess
4:56
they're probably pretty close to the
4:58
upper end of the market. So, this is the
5:03
it's designed really for use in their
5:05
kind of Symbios ecosystem, but it does
5:07
have a fixed set point mode. Which was
5:10
really interesting. I've done three or
5:13
four dives with this. Really really
5:15
interesting computer and I'm going to
5:17
talk about all of these computers
5:18
individually when I feel I've I'm in a
5:21
position to do so. But, that was really
5:22
good. And this one here, which I guess
5:24
is is in some ways the odd one out
5:28
a wrist-mounted computer. This is the
5:30
Symbios HUD. As you can see there, it is
5:33
mask-mounted with that little yellow
5:35
leash to to make sure I I don't lose it.
5:38
Actually, it hasn't come off. The the
5:40
mount is is really impressive in itself
5:43
and the fact it's mask-mounted is is
5:45
really interesting. I've used a NERD,
5:47
not very much, but I have used a nerd,
5:49
and I've used the AP um
5:53
Huss, which is their own kind of um
5:55
head-up display. They don't They don't
5:57
make it anymore, but but I had one of
5:58
the older ones and used it a bit. One of
6:00
the things I always found with
6:01
loop-mounted displays is that I tend to
6:04
move my head around a bit, even though
6:05
I've got the loop in my mouth, and so I
6:07
was always trying to adjust it to get it
6:10
in my eyeline. This, because it's
6:11
mask-mounted, obviously don't have that
6:13
problem. The The buttons and the utility
6:18
and everything are exactly the same as
6:20
the Symbios uh handset. There's just a
6:23
few more things uh you can see on the
6:25
main screen of this one, but really
6:28
interesting development, and um I'll be
6:30
honest, I love this thing to bits. Um
6:33
but I'm going to do some more diving
6:34
with it, see if there's any kind of
6:35
niggles or quirks or whatever that I
6:37
haven't spotted so far, but yeah, uh
6:39
absolutely fascinating.
6:41
And the last one that I've currently
6:43
got, uh which is uh just arrived today,
6:47
and a lot of people ask me about this,
6:52
Uh this is their latest version,
6:54
and um I'm just trying to turn it on.
6:56
There we go. It's kind of powering up.
7:00
uh very popular, I believe, on the
7:01
continent. I've seen a few people dive
7:04
with them, but that they're not so
7:05
popular here in the UK. So, I haven't
7:08
had time to read the manual, haven't had
7:09
time to go diving with it yet, but I'm
7:11
off to Dover in about 10 days' time, um
7:14
where I do, I'm going to be using the
7:19
when I put out that post on social
7:20
media, a lot of people said to me, "You
7:22
need to look at this one." So, it's
7:24
going to be really interesting to kind
7:26
of see what it's like and to get my uh
7:29
to get my opinion on it. So, as you can
7:31
see there, I've got a I've got a whole
7:32
load of uh different dive computers from
7:35
different manufacturers.
7:39
one that I haven't got yet, although
7:41
once again, it's I've been promised it,
7:43
is the Suunto Nautic.
7:46
Suunto have reached out to me. They
7:47
said, "We're going to send you one of
7:50
I haven't got it. I suspect it's because
7:53
the firmware isn't there for CCR mode,
7:55
and there's no point really sending me
7:57
an open-circuit dive computer. I'll just
8:00
put it into gauge mode, and that doesn't
8:02
really give you very much of anything.
8:08
kind of introduction, I guess, to the
8:11
what I'm going to be doing with some
8:12
different dive computers.
8:15
If you have a computer that you think I
8:18
should be looking at, if you've got
8:20
particularly strong views on any of
8:21
those ones that I've mentioned already,
8:23
I would I'd love to hear them in the
8:25
comments or on my Facebook page or
8:27
whatever else it is. But for now, I'm
8:30
Dom Robinson, deep wreck diver, and I
8:33
will look forward to telling you in more
8:35
detail about all of these dive
