OSTC 5 Dive Computer Review: A Serious Shearwater Challenger?

Is the Heinrichs Weikamp OSTC 5 a genuine alternative to the dive computers that dominate technical and CCR diving? For years, Shearwater has been my benchmark for technical dive computers. In this video I put the OSTC 5 through its paces specifically as a standalone backup CCR decompression computer for the sort of deep wreck diving I do. The OSTC 5 is a very different proposition. It is big, solid, rated to 200 metres and has a huge 3.7 inch AMOLED display. It also offers extensive CCR functionality, trimix and bailout support, up to five programmable setpoints and, with the S8 interface, the ability to monitor oxygen and CO2 sensors directly. One of the things that particularly interests me is the way Heinrichs Weikamp develops the OSTC. The software is open source, users can interact directly with the developers, and new ideas and fixes can make their way from the community into future firmware. But there are compromises too. I talk about the button ergonomics, the lack of wireless cylinder pressure integration, connectivity, battery life, charging and what the OSTC 5 is actually like to use underwater. Most importantly, after diving it alongside my Shearwater, would I trust the OSTC 5 as my independent backup computer on a serious CCR dive? And would I give up my Shearwater for one? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ *CHAPTERS* 0:00 Why I am testing the OSTC 5 2:20 Size, build and 200 metre rating 3:34 That huge AMOLED display 5:27 Open source development and the OSTC community 6:49 S8 sensor integration, pO2 and CO2 7:44 The buttons and underwater ergonomics 9:12 CCR functions and five programmable setpoints 10:26 Decompression, gradient factors and bailout 11:39 The missing wireless cylinder pressure 12:31 Battery life, Qi charging and replaceable battery 13:24 Connectivity and living with the OSTC 5 14:50 My verdict 16:23 Would I give up my Shearwater? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ *ABOUT THIS CHANNEL* Deep Wreck Diver explores shipwrecks, submarines, and sunken aircraft from around the world - combining technical diving with detailed wreck identification and historical storytelling. Every dive uncovers a piece of history lost to the depths. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ *Kit I Use* Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos: - Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4 - Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA - Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk - Drysuit is an O-Three Ri200 - https://www.othree.co.uk/drysuit-range/ri-2-100-drysuit/ - CCR is an AP Diving Inspiration (XPD) - https://www.apdiving.com/ - Backup computer is a Shearwater Perdix v2 - https://amzn.to/42FXZOW - Reels are by Kent Tooling - https://www.divingproducts.co.uk/ - Cameras are Paralenz Vaquita - Video light is NiteScuba NSV60 - NiteScuba NSV60 - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_onHEKQZ - Phone housing is Divevolk Seatouch 4 Max - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_omJlNKL - Stickers for gear by Dive Signs - https://www.divesigns.com/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ *Strobes* I use two different strobes (also affiliate links) -- Prozhaozhu 3000 Lumen Diving Strobe - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3Qb99tF -- Prozhaozhu 4000 Lumen Diving Strobe - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3KmWqCN - Jon clip - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oDqq0RW ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱Follow My Socials! Instagram 👉 https://www.instagram.com/deepwreckdiver/ Facebook 👉 https://www.fb.com/DeepWreckDiver Buy Me A Coffee 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/d33puk Email 👉 [email protected] #OSTC5 #TechnicalDiving #CCR