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    Dive Computers
    Dive Computers
    Dive Computers
    Ebook189 pages2 hours

    Dive Computers

    By Anton Swanepoel

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A Beginner's Scuba Diver Guide Book To Dive Computers.
    Understanding the Principles Behind Dive Computers and How to Select What’s Right For You.

    There is nothing more liberating than slipping beneath the waves to explore a world of teaming aquatic life, stunning coral reefs, and the occasional wreckage (laden with gold). The environment is stunning, perhaps the most serene place on earth, but there are risks, inherent dangers even advanced divers face each time they enter the water. Some of the most challenging dives are also the most rewarding, revealing plant and sea-life not accessible in the shallower waters. This informative guide, to dive computers, is designed to help you make an informed decision that could save your life

    Opinions vary greatly in the industry, drawing novice divers through a minefield of “he says – she says” scenarios. Who do you listen to and what’s pertinent? Anton Swanepoel is a skilled diver and TRI-Mix instructor, recording dives over 400 feet. He knows the topic, having taught other divers for ten years. Rather than just telling you what to buy, Anton has chosen to help you understand the core concepts so that you might decide for yourself. New equipment is evolving every day, but the basic principles, governing dive computers, remain the same. In a nutshell, they calculate the assumed uptake and release of gas in the body.

    Why a dive computer? The intent, and what this book delivers, is an education in the types of dive computers available and how they work. What’s right for you may not be applicable for your friend. By the end of the guide, you should be able to make a knowledgeable, informed decision on what’s best for you.

    Below are a few topics the author covers:
    The fundamentals of on- and off- gassing
    Dive computers vs. Dive tables
    Short history of dive computers
    Decompression sickness – brief overview
    Using your dive computer
    What to do should your computer fail
    And much, much more

    The unsurpassed beauty of our planet’s oceans deserves your time, money, and energy. Diving is a narcotic, restoring a sense of balance and peace for many. Do it with the proper understanding and gear.

    If You want to know more about choosing the right dive computer for you, then This Book Is For You.

    Click The Buy Button Now

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnton Swanepoel
    Release dateFeb 15, 2015
    ISBN9781310625367
    Dive Computers
    Author

    Anton Swanepoel

    Adventurer and world traveler, Anton Swanepoel, hales originally from Pretoria, South Africa, but has called a number of exotic locations home. Educated as a software engineer, he worked for a large multinational company before deciding to travel the globe. Along life's journey, Anton became a skilled scuba diver and technical diving instructor, teaching for seven years while living in the Cayman Islands. His resume touts Tri-Mix instructor levels from multiple licensing agencies, and dive records over 400 feet.Mr. Swanepoel has always loved travel and writing. In the past several years he's combined these passions, authoring and publishing a host of books, sharing secrets he's learned along the way. When he's not exploring an underwater landscape or racing a motorcycle down a stretch of highway, you'll find Anton visiting world destinations and chronicling his experiences.Today, he is a fulltime globetrotter and writer, having penned instructional guides for diving and travel, as well as a pair of fictional novels. His excurtion titles are geared toward do-it-yourself travelers, who enjoy saving money and seeing the out-of-way places. His favorite destinations include, Machu Picchu, the mountains of Vietnam, and the Temples at Angkor Wat.

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      Book preview

      Dive Computers - Anton Swanepoel

      Dive Computers

      A look at how dive computers work.

      From dive computer history and algorithms to decompression and deep stop calculations

      including the affects of gasses on the body

      By Anton Swanepoel

      Copyright © 2015 Anton Swanepoel

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

      All pictures are property of

      Published by Anton Swanepoel on Smashwords

      Anton Swanepoel's Website

      Anton Swanepoel’s Blog

      Follow Anton on Facebook

      Follow Anton on Twitter

      Introduction

      From the first time humans looked under the ocean with thinly polished turtle shells, we wanted to go deeper. Breath holding could only satisfy our urge and hunger for knowing what lies below the waters for so long. It was destined that we find a way to go deeper.

      Welcome to Scuba diving.

      Dive computer Oh dive computer, which one is right for me?

      With so many dive computers on the market, and their prices not cheap, buying the wrong one can be a costly mistake.

      The purpose and aim of this book is to help you in understanding how dive computers work in simple terms, and to help you make a more educated decision on what computer is right for your needs. Dive computer calculations for decompression stops, deep stops, ascend ceilings, on- and off gassing, RGBM, VPM and gradient factors are covered at a high level for you to get the just of it, without needing to be a scientist.

      To do that we will first learn why we need to monitor our time underwater, and what a dive computer actually does. We will look at some of the different algorithms that are used in dive computers, their advantages and disadvantages.

      Decompression is looked at a bit deeper without scaring the non-mathematician reader. Examples for calculations at a high level for explanation purpose only are given for deep stops and decompression ceilings, both fixed and variable.

      The four basic styles of dive computers, being wrist computers, console computers, computer watches and mask computers; each with or without air integration options are looked at to help you understand the difference between them, their strengths and weaknesses, so you can decided which is best for your diving, now and in the possible future.

      The different styles of computers that are more suited for shallow diving, and computer styles more suited to deep technical diving are looked at.

      Different functionalities found on modern dive computers and their intended uses are also covered including choosing the best and correct dive computer(s) for your needs, and getting the most of the dive computer(s) you have or choose to buy.

      Understand your dive computer; it’s what keeps you safe.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1: How On- And Off-Gassing Works

      Chapter 2: Effects Of Gasses

      Nitrogen

      Oxygen

      Helium

      Co2

      Co

      Chapter 3: Dive Computers Vs To Dive Tables

      Chapter 4: Dive Computer History

      Chapter 5: DCS And A.G.E.

      Chapter 6: ICDS DCS

      Chapter 7: How A Dive Computer Works

      Chapter 8: Computer Algorithms

      Chapter 9: Dive Computer Features

      Chapter 10: Types Of Dive Computers

      Chapter 11: Multi Gas Dive Computers

      Chapter 12: How Many Dive Computers To Carry

      Chapter 13: Using Your Dive Computer

      Chapter 14: Caring For Your Dive Computer

      Chapter 15: When Your Computer Decides To Quit On A Trip

      Chapter 16: Last Notes On Dive Computers

      About the Author

      More Books by Anton

      Chapter 1: How On- And Off-Gassing Works

      Although on- and off-gassing will be discussed more in the chapters dealing with diving algorithms, however first it is important to know something about how gas enters and exits your body. In this chapter we will look at on- and off-gassing at a very high and simple level. This chapter is intended for people that have no knowledge of diving.

      On- and off-gassing is more technical than what is practical to discuss completely in this chapter or even book, added that we do not know everything about the subject yet, as many factors affect the rate of on- and off-gassing, some known, while other factors are thought to play a part, with factors still to be discovered. However, for the scope of this book it is not needed to go into extreme levels of detail, unless you want to build your own dive computer. 

      The air one breathes has roughly:

      20.95% Oxygen O2 (rounded to 21%)

      78.08% Nitrogen N2 (rounded to 79% to include trace gasses)

      0.93% Argon Ar

      0.03% Carbon Dioxide CO2

      With trace gasses and vapour making up the remaining 0.01%.

      The air has a density of 1.293 g/l and its total molecular mass is about 28.97 kg/kmol.

      For decompression and bottom time calculations, the inert gas in the breathing mix is used (inert gas is any gas the body does not use for metabolism, basically anything other than Oxygen). In standard air, the Nitrogen and the other trace gasses are used in decompression calculations, and in Tri-Mix mixtures it might include Helium, Hydrogen, Neon and possibly Nitrogen, depending on the mix.

      When you breathe underwater, your regulator keeps adjusting the pressure for the gas you breathe according to the ambient pressure you are at. Every breath you take passes through the regulator, down your trachea or windpipe and into your lungs.

      From here the gas dissolves into your bloodstream via the alveoli.

      The gas moves from an area of a higher concentration to an area of a lower concentration of gas. The blood in the lungs then travels from the lungs through arteries and veins and capillaries to the rest of your body and returns. Each step gas travels from a higher concentration to a lower concentration, thus a small amount of pressure is lost to keep up a pressure difference and due to diffusion resistance from cell walls and the different body tissues themselves.

      As you descend deeper and deeper, the pressure inside the lungs keeps on increasing, thus the pressure of the gas in the blood and the rest of your body will keep on increasing until you stop and stay at a constant depth. Gas will keep on dissolving into your body according to the pressure that you are at until no more gas can be taken up at that pressure. When this happens it is called equilibrium; however body tissues (compartments) with different diffusion speeds will reach equilibrium at different times.

      The deeper you go the more gas dissolves per second into your body due to the increased pressure. However, the longer you stay at depth, the more time the gas has to dissolve into your body.

      Thus on-gassing is a function of both time and depth, made more complicated by the ambient temperature and that of your body, your body’s make up (meaning muscle and fat mass and your circulatory system), how hard you are working, your fitness level, and the gas you are breathing.

      When you ascend to the surface, the surrounding pressure lessens. Your regulator now adjusts the gas pressure you breathe to match the ambient pressure (so as not to over pressurize your lungs) and the gas pressure in the lungs goes down according to the inhaled pressure from the regulator.

      At a point in your ascent the pressure of the gas that dissolved into your body is now higher than the pressure in your blood that surrounds the tissues. Gas is now starting to reverse the process and move from the higher pressure in the tissues to the lower pressure in the blood. The blood is carried to the lungs where there is now a lower pressure of gas in the airspace in the lungs than in the blood. The gas then moves out of the blood from a soluble state into a gas state through the alveoli into the airspace of the lungs and the wind pipe where it is then expelled out of the body.

      If the diver stays on the same gas and does a slow ascent, the gas in most cases dissolve steadily and without problems out of the tissues and into the blood and out of the body. Some small bubbles may form but it is normally not a problem as these bubbles are normally small and caught by the lungs that act as filters and allow the body to reabsorb the gas and later to expel them.

      Note that the bubbles first need to be re-absorbed into the body into a soluble state before it can be transferred to the blood and the lungs. The lungs just stop large bubbles from passing and possibly causing trouble later on in the body, but too many bubbles can cause an obstruction to blood flow to the lungs and choke the lungs.

      If a diver comes up too fast or stayed too long underwater, it is possible that too much gas starts to dissolve out of the tissues and into the blood. The blood is then not capable of carrying all the gas coming out of the tissues at the same time and bubbles can form in mass. These bubbles if not big can tax the body and you may feel tired during or after the dive (called decompression stress). You may not have decompression sickness yet, but you are at an increased risk of getting it. If the bubbles cause a blockage then DCS can result (see chapter on DCS for more details).

      It should be noted that there is still much debate on what role inert gas bubbles (including micro bubbles), deep stops and dehydration play in decompression sickness, but the current thinking is that all may directly lead to or aid in the development of decompression sickness.

      With the help of your dive computer, you try to keep the amount of gas coming out of your body to a low enough level not to cause problems. This is done by noting your dive time, ascent speed, and doing any deep and or decompression stops your computer tells you to do, including a safety stop of around 3 to 5 minutes at around 15 ft (5 meters) at the end of your dive. 20ft is thought by some to possibly be a better depth to do a safety stop. The added surrounding pressure of stopping deeper may help to reduce the chance of DCS forming if things went wrong. In rough water it is also easier to keep your buoyancy when stopping deeper.

      Although there are many theories and methods for calculating bottom time and decompression stops, many follow a similar pattern with only slight modification. All aim to have you surface with gas tensions in your body tissues below a maximum amount that they calculate are safe levels.

      There is a diversity of calculations found and they all seem to have some successes and failures. Some do better in one type of diving than others but then fail in other situations. It would seem then that on- and off-gassing is a product of multiple possibilities that change with the environment, the diver and dive profile. We learn the rules as we play the game and many a time we learn there are fine prints with the rules.

      Due to the underwater realm changing so easily, your dive plan and deco obligation calculations need to be flexible in many situations. This is one reason that makes dive computers so much more attractive than dive tables, for they can recalculate your decompression obligation if your dive has deviated from your intended

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