AERIS F.10 User Feedback

[Giobbi]

First of all - i love my F10, its a great watch, not to expensive.

BUT: I can agree with some of the critisism. It feels like the watch was launched to early, not tested enough. If you buy something and instantly have to send it back its a bad thing.
I got one of the bad and i know two more that had to be repaired, thats 100% of all i know that bought an F10.
The handling of repairing procedure was great, fast. The watch works great, still got the batt symbol on and off, always under/after dive, maybe because its cold up here (13° : ))..

Companys has to be careful these days, reputations goes like fire thru the internet, good or bad..

I can only come up with one bad thing about the F10 - and that because I'm left handed (can't see the light, switching wrist when diving). If i designed the thing i would have a small, glowing ring around the whole watch instead of a tiny tiny light bulb.. Supercool.

: )

 

[Fondueset]

I've been working with Aeris. They have taken my F.10 into their lab as an example specifically to duplicate these problems. My watch, which was one of the first production models, did not show any problems until after 8 months and approximately 5,000 logged dives - so I can easily see how it would be difficult to discover them.

I've spoken directly with both sales and technical personnel at Aeris/Oceanic and I'm convinced they are doing all they can.

Unfortunately happy F.10 owners don't feel compelled to post on the Internet.

While I think it's great to post questions about what you may have heard or read, I have to question the veracity of posts complaining vehemently about a product by individuals who do not even own it.

 

[toramarn]

I've spoken directly with both sales and technical personnel at Aeris/Oceanic and I'm convinced they are doing all they can.

Does that mean they still haven't got a clue what's going on? :duh

Believe me or not, despite all this I still hold my dive comp purchase and will be willing to buy the F.10 once they confirm that they can fix all the problem...

Will that day come, ever? :inlove

I know that they're trying their best, but once you're in the game you must be ready to take all the pressure.

 

[Fondueset]

I plan to stay on top of this as much as I can - I'll post updates when I get them.

here's what I know-

They identified a static issue with the F.10 and some of their other gauges. This was causing weird stuff - including the battery indicator, rapid battery use (actually - I don't know if anybody has actually had a battery go down and quit really fast - mine didn't so it may just be the indicator - did any of you guys actually have a battery die?) weird display anomalies and not keeping time right.

The problems I had were the battery display and a mysterious loss of about 6 minutes in one day. Also WET notification came up when I had WET activation turned off - but it did not go into FREE mode automatically (firmware maybe?) I would expect no WET indication if WET activation is turned off - but it could just be the way they designed it - senses and indicates WET but does not activate FREE. However - with WET turned off and FREE mode manually activated I did have the watch reset the dive counter during a dive session and without ever having left the water or turned it off. This was also the day it lost 6 minutes.

I reported all that directly to the Aeris Techs and Sales rep - one of whom was asked specifically to receive my watch and pass it directly to their lab.
They have in fact received it and I've let them know that if they think there is a new problem I am willing to either wait until they have a solid fix, or Beta test anything they come up with.

The current fix is to add insulators to the buttons in order to prevent static discharge. It may work and there is just an issue with the Battery indicator algorithm or something.. More as I find out.

 

[lostre]

I actually bought the F10 couple of days ago. Didnt had the chance to dive it yet....just had its settings arranged...BUT...CHNG symbol appeared instantly in the screen :ycard (despite the fact that i was extremely carefull concerning backlight use - i even set it to 5secs)!!! thankfully it dissapeared after i "scrolled" a bit around other f10's screens.
i think watch must be produced during april of 2010. i hope battery indication its just a bug and battery wont really comsumes itself so rapidly. Tried to communicate with both aeris and oceanic in germany (since i live in EU) but nobody even bothered YET replying back concerning any possible ways in which i also could be applicable for the "famous" free of charge upgrade.
lets hope that this will change in the future

 

[WillUnderwater]

I do not think anything is causing the battery to physically drain as I have had units that showed a near dead battery - but gone and lasted for months after. I think it is strictly a metering issue.

 

[mamiz]

Hi Guys!!

I just got my f.10... Surfing in the menus I checked the countdown timer in the surface mode and wonder how to use it... I mean: my expectation would be to set the timer and keep it off; when I'm in free mode (e.g. in the pool making repetitive dives with fixed time dive+recovery), or even not in free mode, I'd just start the countdown timer and make my dive. The whatch would then advise me when the countdown time has elapsed. Then I'd start (set ON) the timer again and repeat the cicle.
..But it seems that, out of water, if I start the countdown timer, it then resets to 00:00 and is automatically set to OFF when the first countdown is over. That would make this timer useless... Anybody can kindly confirm/correct that?

Thanks a lot!
Ciao,
-Maurizio

 

[Giobbi]

Its true but why dont you set Surface Interval instead (SRT, setup in FREE mode)? Will do the same thing but automatically.

 

[Giobbi]

Regarding the battery-thing; i constantly get it, on and off, when wet or dry. It always go away when i switch FREE mode on and off.

Im afraid that one day my F10 is telling the truth, you know the story about cry wolf to many times.... Will i listen then? Best to have a battery in my pocket at all times.

 

[mamiz]

I'll try that: it could work for training with fixed recovery time though; not in case the exercise is with total time (dive+recovery) fixed.
Moreover I guess SRT would need the watch to go into dive mode, but most probably it will not since the pool is too shallow.. But worth checking that.

Thanks for the advice!
-M
PS countdown timer on the D3 worked... on f.10 it would have been enough that the one available in watch mode was counting min and sec, not hr and mins, which is 99.9% of the times useless. So 2 countdown timers available, both useless... a record!

 

[mamiz]

Guys, one more question: will the pc interface allow self-update of the firmware, once it is made available by Aeris? Does anyone know?

Thanks again.
Cheers,
-Maurizio
PS wonder how Martin tested this computer...

 

[trux]

The only freediving computers allowing user upgradable firmware that I am aware of are Liquivision X1, Uwatec Galileo, and Heinrichs Weikamp OSTC. At all others the upgrade unfortunately needs to be done in the workshop. In my mind that's another good reason for spending a few bucks more - it not only saves you money in case of troubles, but allows you to profit from new versions at no cost.

 

[DivingDane]

you'll find that the Oceanic OC1 is also user updatable directly on line, with any new updates being freedly available. this is a feature that Oceanics family of companies (Oceanic, Aeris, Hollis) are adding to each model as it is released.

Aeris F10 update is on the market pretty much everywhere now i am pretty sure now.

DD

 

[mamiz]

Yep, I've just read on some "quick user guide" come with the watch that self-upgrade via USB PC interface is possible..
It's a good thing, provided that some better firmware revision will be provided. Mine is r1b: is this still the latest?

-M

 

[DivingDane]

Yep.

From the OWNERS of units what firmware changes do people want??? please list
i.e
- Count down timer to reset automatically
- Count down timer in normal mode to offer min:sec
- log temperature a depth and be able to recall it in the dive log
etc

the battery issue i am convinced isnt a firmware issue,with the shims now in the units the battery issues isnt happening. it has never been a case of the battery actually draining flat its a false flat reading that is causing the light and change battery screens. in the dive shops we have tested the batteries after removal and they still have ample charge, to proove that we then placed the same battery into an Oceanic Geo 2 and gave it to a diver who proceeded to use it for another couple of months of VERY regular diving without any hassles. so its a shorting issue not a flat battery.

i agree that there have been some issues but it is still a VERY good unit. its funny the early test units (mine included) which i recieved almost 2 years before the productiuon one had many thousands of freedives on it and never showed the battery fault. the unit was always designed for Depth diving and since people have started to want more and more complicated features.

its a hard balance because the more features you give the more difficult a product is to use. many of the features people here are after i'd never use,but thats me and even more features recreational freedivers and spearfisherman (the lagest market) dont want or care about.

the aim was always to creat a unit the replace the D3, and seeing as the D3 as been out of production for quite a while and still had a strong following it was a very good base (feature wise) to start from. they added a bunch of features to improe it a kept the price lower than the retail of the long since discontinued D3.

its a shame to see so many negative reports whe there are MANY MANY happy divers out there as well.

i agree that there are many features that are possible but howmany are practical is another matter. like Trux has said if you want a computor with every concievable freediving function (and a couple we arent even aware of) then grab an X1 and start designing.

DD

 

[mamiz]

Ciao!

I come from D3 and I'd not expect on my f.10 any super-fancy feature. The baseline is the simple D3 feature list:
1) I'd expect at least (more than enough!) the same features I had on D3: easy to use in the sea an in the pool, since most of us train in the pool..
2) Any additional feature is anyway nice to have, but only if it is working properly and usable; if not it definitely lower down the value of the computer.

Just my personal opinion...

Cheers,
-Maurizio

 

[manelisshe]

This equipment is china junk you get for what you pay the money.many friend have buy this one then buy something differnet anyway, stay away from china equipment, go for the suunto and will be happy freediver,my sdvice

 

[trux]

Well, first F.10 is not a Chinese product, but developped in the USA. And second, I owned some Suunto computers, and had much more serious troubles with them. My last Suunto computer (Mosquito) stopped measuring the depth (hence transforming into an expensive but useless stopwatch) just shortly after the warranty expired. Suunto workshop was unable to fix it, and the only thing what they were able to propose me, was sending me a new watch for the catalogue price which was about two times higher than common price of the Mosquito in stores. Several friends of mine had similar experience with Suunto computers.

 

[mamiz]

fully agree with trux. F10 is very nice watch and promising. Some bugs can be improved. My comments are in that direction.

Cheers,
-M

 

[Scorp]

hi,
i already wrote some comments in this thread. I would like to repeat some points.

First, I like the F10. In my opinion, its greatest feature is the perfect readability of the big display, from any angle. This is simply great under water, much much better than the D3 for example (don't know about D4 in this regard).
On the other hand, it is simply obvious that there are some bugs in this computer, and it's natural that anybody who uses the many features the watch offers sooner or later will notice them. A little list:

- scroll through the logbook; you have 3 displays, and none of them lists the date of the dive. this can't be the intention of the designers; who would intentionally want a logbook that doesen't give the date??

- wet activation not possible to deactivate within 24 hours after a diving session, because there is a FREE mode that stays active for this period and will inevitably log any immersion of the computer below logging depth as a dive. probably the remains of a SCUBA software used for other models, totally useless (and who knows maybe also battery consuming) for the F10.

- countdown timer whithout seconds and not repeating (a very nice feature I often used with my D3 in the pool)

- a daily alarm that gives 3 beeps only - don't know of any other watch that does that. like going to a restaurant for lunch and getting served a half potato.

- the battery issue. my f10 gave me so many battery warnings during the last 3 months (changed the battery in may), i didn't care for them unless, a week ago, i noticed that the watch lost 10 minutes within one day, so i changed the battery again, will see how long it takes with this one (note: i had it in the shop for "repair" of this issue, but nothing changed since I got it back).

so, shortly, i like the f10, but I would really love it if these nasty things wouldn't be there. and they could easily be fixed with a firmware update - an update that any F10 owner should get done for free by the shop where he bought the computer, no matter if still within the warrenty period or not. i really hope for this update to be released soon.

it is wrong for shure to call the f10 a chinese crap - but it is more than justified to point to some flaws that obviously exist.

cheers,
ivo