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Today’s diving instruments are simple to read and use, and provide all the information the diver needs to safely plan and complete a recreational dive, and even to record the dive in their dive log. Divers need to keep track of some essentials while on a dive; depth, time, amount of air used, and direction. Both electronic (digital) and analog (mechanical) versions of most instruments can be found at your local professional dive retailer. Some electronic instruments combine all or most of the functions necessary into one or a few different instruments.
Today many divers use reliable diving computers to tell them how long and deep a dive can safely be. Dive computers are one of the first pieces of personal equipment a diver should purchase. Introduced in the late 1970’s, dive computers revolutionized diving because they made it easy for divers to keep track of how long and how deep they could safely dive, without having to make more complicated calculations using mechanical instruments combined with a “table” of safe depths and times. The old table method required considerable practice to use, and can still be used as a back-up if needed, but today’s reliable microprocessors help keep track of depth and time, and actually complete the safe depth and time calculations for you. By putting the depth and time data through a rather complex mathematical “algorithm,” a dive computer actually allows the diver to safely stay longer underwater than the older, harder-to-use table method.
While early dive computers were about the size of a small brick, and fairly heavy, they quickly followed the trend of most electronic devices and became smaller as the years passed. Today, it is not unusual to see dive computers about the size of a hockey puck. And many divers wear dive wrist-mounted dive computers so small that they can double as an everyday wristwatch.
Some newer computers even incorporate the submersible pressure gauge to that same compact unit. And some of these “air integrated computers” even use an electronic sender mounted on the regulator first stage to eliminate the hose between the first stage and the computer, further streamlining the diver in the water.
Today’s diving instruments are simple to read and use, and provide all the information the diver needs to safely plan and complete a recreational dive, and even to record the dive in their dive log. Divers need to keep track of some essentials while on a dive; depth, time, amount of air used, and direction. Both electronic (digital) and analog (mechanical) versions of most instruments can be found at your local professional dive retailer. Some electronic instruments combine all or most of the functions necessary into one or a few different instruments.
Today many divers use reliable diving computers to tell them how long and deep a dive can safely be. Dive computers are one of the first pieces of personal equipment a diver should purchase. Introduced in the late 1970’s, dive computers revolutionized diving because they made it easy for divers to keep track of how long and how deep they could safely dive, without having to make more complicated calculations using mechanical instruments combined with a “table” of safe depths and times. The old table method required considerable practice to use, and can still be used as a back-up if needed, but today’s reliable microprocessors help keep track of depth and time, and actually complete the safe depth and time calculations for you. By putting the depth and time data through a rather complex mathematical “algorithm,” a dive computer actually allows the diver to safely stay longer underwater than the older, harder-to-use table method.
While early dive computers were about the size of a small brick, and fairly heavy, they quickly followed the trend of most electronic devices and became smaller as the years passed. Today, it is not unusual to see dive computers about the size of a hockey puck. And many divers wear dive wrist-mounted dive computers so small that they can double as an everyday wristwatch.
Some newer computers even incorporate the submersible pressure gauge to that same compact unit. And some of these “air integrated computers” even use an electronic sender mounted on the regulator first stage to eliminate the hose between the first stage and the computer, further streamlining the diver in the water.
