-
Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:
- Join over 47,943+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
- Participate in and browse from over 531,990+ posts.
- Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
- Post your own photos or view from 7,455+ user submitted images.
- All this and much more...
You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
An extraordinary new computer
- Thread starter trux
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
anybody owns the Scubapro Meridian and uses it regularly for freediving? I was just about to get a d4i when i found out about this new arrival with HRM integrated, a feature i find really useful for freediving (and rather essential for scuba diving - i wonder why it is not mainstream as it's one of the best ways to individualise the deco algorithm based on one's workload)
Would love to hear from anybody using it at the moment if it really delivers what it says on the paper.
Would love to hear from anybody using it at the moment if it really delivers what it says on the paper.
hey sergiu, how's life?
i dont' think the meridien it's out on the market yet.
scubapro sponsored triple depth 2011 with 2 of them for the winners, but we are still waiting for them. i know that the testing took longer than they thought, unfortunately.
scubapro gave us a galileo to test for freediving, and it's very cool. we used it on shallow and deep dives (up to 85 meters) and even though i dont'have an interface you can very easily see the dive profiles on the watch screen directly and see both lines of divetime and HR.
im definitely looking forward to get the meridien, it will be a very cool looking toy
linda
i dont' think the meridien it's out on the market yet.
scubapro sponsored triple depth 2011 with 2 of them for the winners, but we are still waiting for them. i know that the testing took longer than they thought, unfortunately.
scubapro gave us a galileo to test for freediving, and it's very cool. we used it on shallow and deep dives (up to 85 meters) and even though i dont'have an interface you can very easily see the dive profiles on the watch screen directly and see both lines of divetime and HR.
im definitely looking forward to get the meridien, it will be a very cool looking toy
linda
i got word from a friend who imports Scubapro equipment to Romania that orders are taken in now and delivery is expected in March, that's at least what he told me. Price is really good too, apparently it will sell for about 375 eur in Romania, which is right on the D4i price!
cable and HR chest strap will be extra, i 'm trying to find out if Polar straps (as i have two already) will be compatible as in the case of Galileo.
looks like i'm gonna get one of these toys!
cable and HR chest strap will be extra, i 'm trying to find out if Polar straps (as i have two already) will be compatible as in the case of Galileo.
looks like i'm gonna get one of these toys!
I tested the Gallileo too, July 2008 in Hemmoor.
I think it's indeed a very nice addition to diving, it will be very useful for both scuba and freediving.
I went down to - 40m in chilly 12c water, wearing a 5mm suit, mask and mono. The bpm I got (normal inhale) was 37 BPM. The lowest was with some exhale - 6m dives, - 32 bpm. Apparently the Uwatech guy was impressed and concluded that he needed to make adjustments so the computer would not discard lower frequency recordings and the quick frequency jumps as bad readings.
In a cold pool I had a friend, student medicine at the time record a HR below 18 BPM at - 5m on a reverse pack dive of nearly 2'. He counted the beats in my neck artery, because my HR monitor indicated 00, below it's 30+ range. It felt like a real slow wave going through a flexible hose
. So to serve freedivers, especially NL and VWT divers, I think they should try to have a really wide recording abilities.
One thing though, heart-rate can be an interesting indicator, but one has to consider that it's blood volume per beat can vary.
So I too hope I that my current D3 holds out and I have the cash for the new watch. I hope it does have a 200m+ depth rating, and the housing is not too heavy either.
A depth activated display light would be nice too. And different alarm (ring) tones
I'm pleased to see some great new standard being put forward, some invigorating new competition for the established.
I'm looking forward for more user reports.
I think it's indeed a very nice addition to diving, it will be very useful for both scuba and freediving.
I went down to - 40m in chilly 12c water, wearing a 5mm suit, mask and mono. The bpm I got (normal inhale) was 37 BPM. The lowest was with some exhale - 6m dives, - 32 bpm. Apparently the Uwatech guy was impressed and concluded that he needed to make adjustments so the computer would not discard lower frequency recordings and the quick frequency jumps as bad readings.
In a cold pool I had a friend, student medicine at the time record a HR below 18 BPM at - 5m on a reverse pack dive of nearly 2'. He counted the beats in my neck artery, because my HR monitor indicated 00, below it's 30+ range. It felt like a real slow wave going through a flexible hose
. So to serve freedivers, especially NL and VWT divers, I think they should try to have a really wide recording abilities.One thing though, heart-rate can be an interesting indicator, but one has to consider that it's blood volume per beat can vary.
So I too hope I that my current D3 holds out and I have the cash for the new watch. I hope it does have a 200m+ depth rating, and the housing is not too heavy either.
A depth activated display light would be nice too. And different alarm (ring) tones
I'm pleased to see some great new standard being put forward, some invigorating new competition for the established.
I'm looking forward for more user reports.
Last edited:
One of the best heart rate monitors ever was the Polar Vantage NV (long since discontinued). It had the option to 'record every heart beat.' This means that the result was not a BPM, but more like an ECG, where you can view the graph where it shows a vertical line at each time point where a heart beat occurred. I used this while diving many times. There was no 'lower limit' to the heart rate since it doesn't even calculate the rate. Also arrythmias were clearly visible.
It was rated to 20m, but I took it to 30m many times.
It was rated to 20m, but I took it to 30m many times.
It's called beat to beat frequency and most good HRMs do it. Suunto T4 and up and the better Garmin and Polar watches too. I used a T6 for a while that used the data to work out all sorts of other parameters by inference, which works pretty well as long as their assumptions remain correct (ie. not for freediving). Cheaper watches store the number of beats that occur in a given period as opposed to the beat to beat time period that the expensive versions do. You can probably guess which is useful to us. The biggest problem with all of this is the expensive belts all communicate over the 2.4GHz band, which is almost completely absorbed by water.
Given Suunto makes some of the best dive computers and heart rate monitors, you would think they'd be the first off the block with some sort of integration.
Given Suunto makes some of the best dive computers and heart rate monitors, you would think they'd be the first off the block with some sort of integration.
I was looking recently at polar watches that would work well in the water. i have a FT80 which is supposed to do well in the water but it is not so i want to replace it. Good news there is a new toy Polar RXC5 specifically designed for triathlon, with a dedicated mode for swimming and more importantly it has a dual frequency to transmit the signal from the belt to the watch, to avoid the usual problems with the 2.4GHz band. a really great review is here DC Rainmaker: Polar RCX5 In Depth Review
Might get one of these for regular training while for freediving, apparently, after 15th of March i'll get my hands on the Meridian!
Might get one of these for regular training while for freediving, apparently, after 15th of March i'll get my hands on the Meridian!
I was looking recently at polar watches that would work well in the water. i have a FT80 which is supposed to do well in the water but it is not so i want to replace it. Good news there is a new toy Polar RXC5 specifically designed for triathlon, with a dedicated mode for swimming and more importantly it has a dual frequency to transmit the signal from the belt to the watch, to avoid the usual problems with the 2.4GHz band. a really great review is here DC Rainmaker: Polar RCX5 In Depth Review
Might get one of these for regular training while for freediving, apparently, after 15th of March i'll get my hands on the Meridian!
Might get one of these for regular training while for freediving, apparently, after 15th of March i'll get my hands on the Meridian!
Got it two weeks ago, just hours before heading for the warm seas to try it out!
First impressions
Pros
- looks very well build and resistant to lots of abuse, time will tell
- lots of features, didnt bother with the scuba ones. For freediving, there is a great deal of alarms, speed, depth, surface time.
- the HRM works great, once you figure out how to configure it in the first place!
- compatible with POLAR transmitter, namely the T31 coded, the cheapest one. From where i bought mine in March, Scubapro did not send any HRT belts and announced it will take a bit longer to produce them under scubapro name. So i tried the cheapo polar and it works like a charm, so dont bother to buy the Scubapro for 70 eur when you can get it for 25 eur or so!
Cons
- comes with a really crappy package and information, looks like they rushed to put it up the market at all, or better say, no cost! No manual on print, just a CD.
- display not as groovy looking as the D4 but you get all the info on display, one can need
- interface at extra cost, the same for the HRM belt
- software rather simple for the time being, yet really nice to see on the same graph the depth, time and heart rate data
all in all, i am quite satisfied with the toy, for 350 eur it's worth every cent.
First impressions
Pros
- looks very well build and resistant to lots of abuse, time will tell
- lots of features, didnt bother with the scuba ones. For freediving, there is a great deal of alarms, speed, depth, surface time.
- the HRM works great, once you figure out how to configure it in the first place!
- compatible with POLAR transmitter, namely the T31 coded, the cheapest one. From where i bought mine in March, Scubapro did not send any HRT belts and announced it will take a bit longer to produce them under scubapro name. So i tried the cheapo polar and it works like a charm, so dont bother to buy the Scubapro for 70 eur when you can get it for 25 eur or so!
Cons
- comes with a really crappy package and information, looks like they rushed to put it up the market at all, or better say, no cost! No manual on print, just a CD.
- display not as groovy looking as the D4 but you get all the info on display, one can need
- interface at extra cost, the same for the HRM belt
- software rather simple for the time being, yet really nice to see on the same graph the depth, time and heart rate data
all in all, i am quite satisfied with the toy, for 350 eur it's worth every cent.
Thanks for the review, Sergiu!
The advantage of the Scubapro belt is that unlike the T31 it has a replaceable battery. If I am not mistaken T31 needs to be cut open, and then glued together again, where it unsure whether you'll get it sealed well enough for deep diving. T31 was used at the Uwatec/Scubapro Galileo, and I guess the replaceable battery was one of the reasons, Uwatec decided to develop their own one.
possibly that is why scubapro decided to make their own belt, or they do not want to pay royalties for using the polar belt.
Honestly, if i am to choose from a perfectly sealed belt at 25 eur or a battery replaceable one at 3 time the price, especially if i was diving really deep (not the case!), well, i would go for the first option and change it every time the battery is depleted.
Honestly, if i am to choose from a perfectly sealed belt at 25 eur or a battery replaceable one at 3 time the price, especially if i was diving really deep (not the case!), well, i would go for the first option and change it every time the battery is depleted.
The manual says the following on page 31:
Why? I thought it was ok to do some freediving on one day and scuba the next one? I would love if someone could shed some light on this, as I'm looking for a dive computer for scuba and freediving and the meridian looks great so far.
If the computer does not track the tissue saturation in apnea mode, it does not mean there is no saturation. Depending on the style of freediving, the saturation can be from none to very high, so to avoid any risk at the subsequent scuba diving, it needs to wait long time (calculating with the worse case scenario), before it permits scuba. It is certaily an annoyance for the user, but unless they have a reliable apnea saturation model, it is the only correct and legally acceptable way to handle it.
To bypass it, you would need to reset the computer (probably only by removing the battery)
To bypass it, you would need to reset the computer (probably only by removing the battery)
Hi free folks!
Just two questions i have, one about the Meridian, the other about F.10, as i`m thinking about getting an Freediving computer.
The cap in the back of Meridian, (i had one in my hand today), it`s so much like the back of my Citizen Aqualand watch, so, it seems to me it`s not so user friendly in what concerns about battery changing... Anyone can do it at home...? Is there any kind of key/tool available to do that? It seems really difficult to be oneself doing it...
Next...
Is it true that an F.11 is coming...? I`m making some confusion and/or is/will it be a Freediving computer, or also a Scuba and Freediving one...?
By the way, the Meridian wrist strap... it feels so tiny and fragile... like it`s going to brake apart or loosen by itself on one moment or the other... don`t understand why they made it like that... Is this (mine) fear nonsense??? (Maybe it`s because i`m used to my Aqualand watch and other computers like D4, etc...???)
So, that`s it!
Thanx in advance to all!
Freespirit
Just two questions i have, one about the Meridian, the other about F.10, as i`m thinking about getting an Freediving computer.
The cap in the back of Meridian, (i had one in my hand today), it`s so much like the back of my Citizen Aqualand watch, so, it seems to me it`s not so user friendly in what concerns about battery changing... Anyone can do it at home...? Is there any kind of key/tool available to do that? It seems really difficult to be oneself doing it...
Next...
Is it true that an F.11 is coming...? I`m making some confusion and/or is/will it be a Freediving computer, or also a Scuba and Freediving one...?
By the way, the Meridian wrist strap... it feels so tiny and fragile... like it`s going to brake apart or loosen by itself on one moment or the other... don`t understand why they made it like that... Is this (mine) fear nonsense??? (Maybe it`s because i`m used to my Aqualand watch and other computers like D4, etc...???)
So, that`s it!
Thanx in advance to all!
Freespirit