Oceanic Geo vs. Suunto D3

[JAN 1974]

Originally Posted by DeepRN

Alright, I'm back with some additional input:

First off let me say that the Oceanic Geo is also being sold as the Aeris Manta. It's the Manta that I've purchased; but they are the same computer.

We bought a couple Mantas/Geo's from DiveTank here on the west coast of Canada. Dennis at Divetank gave us a price of $359USD. They provide 5yr service/replacement and will ship batteries for free, when requested.

The computer looks/wears well. I wear it as my daily watch. The display is easy to read and uncluttered. There are many options available in this computer, but a little tinkering and I've come to the conclusion that the four buttons are used in a relatively easy predictable pattern for accessing modes/menus. Actually it's primarily three buttons used. The fourth being the backlight. Options from most watches are present as well (countdown timers, cronograph, alarm etc)

Some notes on it: 10m/30ft is the shallowest selection for the user-defined depth alarms in FREE mode. The wet-activation is nice, but only available for NORM/GUAGE modes, not FREE mode. In addition to alarming, the display will show a word describing the event that is happening (ie. SLOW when ascending too fast in NORM mode) The red LED light (see link to video at bottom) which flashes with any alarm is a nice attempt at making alarms more noticeable. However, like many other dive computers, the Geo's alarm could be louder. There have been a few times that I didn't notice the depth alarm sounding. The one-second sampling is nice. Once back on the surface, surface interval now counting, info from the dive just completed is reviewable with the press of one button. There is also an alarm in FREE mode which will alarm at a predetermined TIME interval, both surface and during a dive. Could be good for training. Automatic/manually adjusted elevations is nice. Although I've not needed to attempt it yet, the user-replaceable battery (available at most retailers and good for a couple years of normal usage) is a nice addition (see pic). The PC cable is needed to download info from dives made in FREE mode, for displaying/graphing. All settings on the computer can be adjusted via computer this way as well.

After diving a few times with it, I became concerned that the computer was not storing info from dives made in FREE mode! The service at DiveTank could be better. I had a difficult time getting any additional information on the computer through them regarding this concern. They did however, provide me with a toll-free number for Oceanic. Rick, at Oceanic, was kind enough to review the detailed email I had sent displaying pics of the watch, with descriptions, and replied very promptly. I learned that the Manta/Geo store information from dives made in FREE mode to 512kb of downloadable memory! I was happy to hear this. Rick was also kinda enough to ship me a (free) PC cable! <---- great service! All details from the most immediate 24 dives made in NORM/GUAGE modes are stored in the computers LOG, and transfer into the history (9999 dives).

Thoughts: A nice loud alarm is a good thing. I'd trust Eric when he says that some computers are better than others. This is about the only downside thus far for this computer. The red LED light is a nice effort at a secondary method of notification. As an all-in-one it will definately do the job, so final choices may come down to accessability to various products, final prices etc.

Lastly, this computer continues to track tissue loading/unloading even while in FREE mode, ***BUT, the manual DOES state that even though this function is occurring in both modes, it will not account for competitive freedive depths***

Here are a few pics, and one little video of the LED light.

hmm... i'm not sure why, but i cannot upload a pic of the watch in FREE mode.

just a quick note: the last pic is of the present day/time (in 24 hr clock) with the month/day on the bottom.


MediaMax, powered by Streamload - Free Online Storage - Share Videos and Photos - Online MP3 Access

Actually Oceanic Geo has wet-activation for freediving mode......you just have to preset the freediving mode as default

JAN 1974

[JAN 1974]

Originally Posted by xenopus

Did anyone take advantage of this deal? The price was 300.99 (but only for 1 day!) Now its back up to over 400.00

Check auctions from this seller frequently. I got my GEO computer from this seller for 249.99 (won his auction) about 3 month ago.

JAN 1974

[beero1000]

Originally Posted by DeepRN

Rick was also kinda enough to ship me a (free) PC cable! <---- great service!

DeepRN, how did you manage this?

Mark Lane at Oceanic told me that they sell the cable for $99.95. thats not a typo. after spending hundreds of dollars on a dive watch they want me to pay another $100 for a piece of wire.

[Sergiu]

Originally Posted by beero1000

DeepRN, how did you manage this?

Mark Lane at Oceanic told me that they sell the cable for $99.95. thats not a typo. after spending hundreds of dollars on a dive watch they want me to pay another $100 for a piece of wire.

Welcome to the world of dive computers! Selling separately the PC/Mac interface for a hefty buck is a common practice with the top brands, unfortunately. I always felt cheated by this practice as the profit margin when selling a "piece of wire", even together with the software, must be huge. It is after all a simple cable and a small reading device plus a relatively simple soft to produce, I would suspect the production costs are really small and getting smaller (per unit) with the increase of the number of units sold.

I paid for my Suunto Vyper PC interface some 140 USD (over 110 eur a the time - diving stuff is expensive in Hungary!) only to get a SERIAL PORT cable and a CRAPPY piece of software. Fortunately, i undated the software online but the cable was still a problem with this OLD serial port, not the usual USB, they asked me for another 50 USD for a replacement if i want USB !

no wonder there are lots of websites where one can learn how to build his/her own PC interface for Suunto, Uwatec, etc

serge

[sanso]

Originally Posted by Sergiu

... Suunto ... CRAPPY piece of software.

Some wonderful people In the free software world have programmed a library that can read what suunto computers spill into this cable and there's a couple of free programs that use this library.

I assume some of it may be buggy, but the developers will be happy to mend any bugs You tell them about. Check out the free software out there. I assume that the bootable live-cd/dvd of ubuntu has this already installed, so You can play around without tinkering with Your installed operating system.

I don't own a dive computer, so I can't really tell You anything about these, but they seem to work.

[rbsub]

Originally Posted by Sergiu

... a CRAPPY piece of software

Take a look here Diving Log 4.0 - Scuba Log, Dive Log, Divelog - Logbook software for scuba diving - Logbuch Software zum Tauchen

HTH

[xenopus]

Hello All,

I've been trying to view the freedive history on my GEO but with no success. The only explanation I found in the manual was on page 69. It explains how to access the history for NORM or GAUG mode, but not FREE mode. Am I missing something here? I am trying to avoid the $99 PC-interface. Can someone explain how to access the freediving history?

Thanks,

Bo

[rbsub]

Originally Posted by xenopus

Hello All,

I've been trying to view the freedive history on my GEO but with no success. The only explanation I found in the manual was on page 69. It explains how to access the history for NORM or GAUG mode, but not FREE mode. Am I missing something here? I am trying to avoid the $99 PC-interface. Can someone explain how to access the freediving history?

Thanks,

Bo

Meanwhile I have an Aeris Manta (same as the Geo), too. I like it very much.

But like you already wrote: It seems to me that there is no possibility to view the freedive history at the computer itself. Only the last dive can be seen.

Another think is that it seems at you can't set the number of dives to zero. If you do 20 dives at one day and you mach 20 other dives 20 hours later, the computer will show you 40 dives. I think it would be nice if you could reset the number whenever you want. In the moment the number will be reset automatic after 24 hours.

[huetan]

I have been using Oceanic Proplus 2 for a couple of years and happy with it. I did shelled out $99 to buy the USB cable.

I just bought the Geo as a backup for the Proplus 2 and, more importantly, for freediving. Before making the purchase, I did try to see if I could use the same USB cable. There was no explicit information either way. I made an assumption that the Geo use the same cable.

I was very disappointed to find out when I receive the Geo that my Proplus2 USB cable doesn't work with the Geo. At the very least, Oceanic should sell a low cost adapter so that people like me don't have to pay another $99. I can build one myself, but I can't help feeling let down by Oceanic. This is the kind of planning and practice one would suspect from a third world country ripoff, not from a reputable company.

Does any one have an email address for a person at Oceanic that I can contact?

Thanks.

[Sean Smith]

Try this,
Rick at Oceanic: rcockroft@oceanicusa.com

[huetan]

Sean, thanks but my emails to him keep bouncing back.

[jwd]

After doing some research I took the plunge (no pun intended) and bought a new Oceanic Geo.

When I got it home I had a play with the menus based on the user guide.

I was not able to access any of the dive functions however.

All the watch functions work fine but when I hold down the "M" button for 2 sec as it says in the manual, the screen flashes with the following text:

"A - D"

I took the watch for a dive and got the "A - D" symbol flashing and alternating with "WET" displayed over the time display. I also noticed that the clock seems to stop when I am in the water (eg if I dive for an hour then the watch will be an hour behind when I get out of the water).

I'm hoping someone knows what I am talking about and can help. Is there a simple setting I can do to reboot the watch (I tried pulling out the battery) or is this something more serious.

I tried the email address for Rick and Oceanic but it came back saying it did not exist.

Thanks

James Dibbs
Sydney, Australia

[rbsub]

Oh jwd,

this sounds not so good. Did you buy it in a local shop?.I guess, that you have to send it to the technical service.
I would try it here: Dive equipment online – Oceanic Australia scuba gear

Have luck

[jwd]

Thanks for the reply.

Took it back to the shop last night and got a refund. I spoke with Oceanic and they said it sounded like it had experienced a minor flood in the past (I wonder if this was why it was reduced in price and the shop only had one on display).

I was going to buy this during a business trip in Japan. While the shop was very accommodating in giving me a refund, I would have been stuck if I had not tested the thing before I left the country.

Just a heads up for anyone else considering a buying a Geo cheap while overseas somewhere.

I would also love for someone to do a real review of the differences/similarities between the Geo and the D3. Maybe something like strap both to your arm at the same time and report of the results.

I had planned to be the one doing the review but to wait until when/if I buy another Geo.

James

[MKDVR]

Just one question so far. Being an Oceanic product I assume it's calibrated for fsw over ffw. Anyone?