On Mon, 27 May 2002 15:09:52 +0800, Robert Delfs <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I recently purchased a new Uwatec "SmartPro" computer

(snip)

>        http://www.tabula-international.com/Misc/SmartPro/SmartPro1.html

(snip)

>I have no plans to submit the article anywhere else, but I thought the
>points I raised here might be of interest to some people on Scuba-SE.
>
>Robert Delfs

Thanks for posting an excellently written and very informative review!


Based on what you wrote in your webpage about this new POS (which certainly
fits in nicely with the TC Project in HK <G>), I could have written a
commentary at least twice as long (but won't, since I had already
written most of it in the past <BG>) that expounds on what's WRONG with
the newer generations of dive computers that are just FOT (Full of Tweaks)
that are UNPROVEN to have any relation to REALITY in DCI or gas-diffusion
mathematical models!

UWATEC's "microbubble" 'implementation' (in the current generations of
UWATEC computers) is a prime example.  In a show in ATL a few years ago
(Jim Greenlee snickered when he saw me walk past the Cochran booth where
Mike Cochran was there selling his vapor ware :-)), even the UWATEC
reps admitted their "new thing" at the time (microbubble implementation)
was based on THEORY (which I don't question), but had NO DATA to justify
any of the "tweaks" (implementation) -- which I strongly object to any
manufacturer making "claims" that are completely UNSUPPORTED, in terms
of QUANTIFICATION or VALIDATION!

The new SmartPro's "microbubble suppression" is just a giant step in the
wrong direction, no doubt a result of the shotgun wedding of UWATEC and
SCUBAPRO, the latter was known to have manufactured computers that get
bent when the computers gets wet!



But the most alarming part of the new generation(s) of dive computers is
that MOST users of them actually believe that such tweaks as "breathing
parameter", "conservatism setting", "microbubble", "reverse profile",
and even such terms as "body tissues" (and myriads of other buzz words
and flashing terms) have some VALIDITY behind the tweaks other than
salesmanship.

It's only when certain tweaks resulted in CONSERVATISM in the ridiculous
extremes (such as SmartPro's) that people start taking notice the
absurdity of it all, compared to the "obsolete" algorithms (that was
what Cochran called it in 1994) such as the Haldanean one adopted by
ORCA (which is still the one *I* trust) that has a PROVEN records of
hundreds of millions of dives, with no bells or whistles, but above
all, NO TWEAKS!!


In my Cozumel trip earlier this month, I reported an air dive to 225 fsw
in which the UWATEC Nitrox Pro (set to air) required almost 30 minutes
of DECO (at 30, 20, and 10 fsw), while the ORCA had already cleared
the ceiling to "no stop" 20 minutes into the dive.  It's the SAME
Buhlmann ZH L8 ADT model used in SmartPro, except with a few less new
tweaks!


To me, the best contribution of SmartPro to recreational diving is to
wake SOME divers up to the absurdity of the tweaks-touted-as-validated-
reality in the modern generations of dive computers.

I think Giovanni (President of USD -- "Unable to Swim Divers") is
already busy selling these AI, no-thinking-required SmartPro's to his
Dear Friends (DF) in Italy.  :-)))

-- Bob.