[PSUBS-MAILIST] O2 gauge

[Alec Smyth via Personal_Submersibles]

Hi Hank,

I'm on my third. The first two came as a pair in an eBay auction, which was
ideal because that way I had a spare. I sure needed it, because the first
one lasted 15 minutes in the heat and humidity of a Florida dive. They
seemed like ideal units; brand name, back-lit display, high and low visual
and audible alarms. The second lasted a bit longer, maybe a season. Then I
cobbled together a working one by combining parts from the two and got one
more season out of that. It was instructive taking these things apart.
After just a few dives the printed circuit boards looked like the terminals
on an old car battery, all covered in whitish gunk, and its not like I
dropped them over the side. My take-away was to avoid instruments that are
intended for a hospital. Go instead for something intended for the field
(sealed, clip-on, small enough to go in your pocket, etc.) The hospital
units work perfectly in the garage but die very soon after you start using
them on actual dives.

My current one you can find on eBay by searching "SPD201". It has the
benefit of being really cheap. It is not as ruggedly encased as more
expensive field units, but it has managed to survive several seasons
without turning into a battery terminal, so I'd rate the quality as "not
the best but good enough". There are two things I'd change about it, but
they're both minor. First, it has two alarms but they are both low alarms
and for our application it would be better to have one high and one low
alarm. Second, the backlight comes on when you press a button but turns
itself off after a while to conserve the battery - I'd rather it stayed on
until switched off again.


Best,

Alec

On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 3:20 PM, hank pronk via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
> Can you guys tell me what type of O2 monitoring device your using and do
> you recommend it.
> Thank you
> Hank
> _______________________________________________
> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.whoweb.com/pipermail/personal_submersibles/attachments/20141126/99501dcd/attachment.html>