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Are AI transmitters as accurate as SPG's?

Discussion in 'New Divers and Those Considering Diving' started by purbeast, Aug 5, 2019.

  1. JackD342

    JackD342 Dive Shop

    # of Dives: 500 - 999
    Location: Highland Park, IL
    The Suunto transmitter recall included an inspection of the interior for any corrosion caused by leaks from past sloppy battery changes. That corrosion was part of the failure issue on not one, but two units owned by the same diver, that started the whole thing going. So it was inspect, pressure test, change battery; oring; & cap, and add the flow restrictor. That plus a more formal battery change procedure including dealer training is what you received with the recall.
  2. divad

    divad Solo Diver

    Egads man! You could have, AT LEAST, put on a pair of proper trousers.......I am flabbergasted.....and, a little confused.
    BlueTrin, couv and aldertyler like this.
  3. tbone1004

    tbone1004 Technical Instructor ScubaBoard Supporter

    # of Dives: I'm a Fish!
    Location: Greenville, South Carolina, United States
    haha, I was fully clothed, promise. Was in college at the time so was definitely wearing basketball shorts and realize that picture looks a bit strange
  4. divad

    divad Solo Diver

    That's what they all say.
    eleniel likes this.
  5. couv

    couv Instructor, Scuba

    # of Dives: 1,000 - 2,499
    Location: 13th floor of the Ivory Tower
    What? No long hose/short hose jokes yet?
    divad likes this.
  6. Jcp2

    Jcp2 Literally virtually diving ScubaBoard Supporter

    It’s not the length of the hose, but how you use the transmitter.
    BlueTrin and couv like this.
  7. PBcatfish

    PBcatfish Regular of the Pub

    # of Dives: 500 - 999
    Location: Florida
    I just compared readings from 9 analog pressure gauges. 7 read within 1% of each other at 3,000psi. One read about 5% high. One read almost 10% low. 3 of the gauges were 1990's vintage or older. 3 were probably less than 5 years old. I did not have any transmitters available to test.

    In industry, I have seen pressure transducers fail about 15 times. Probably 2/3 of the time the failures were complete, with no noticeable change in calibration before the failure. Vibration seems to aggravate the sudden failures. About 1/3 of the time, a noticeable change in accuracy was the reason for changing them out. The 15 or so failures were across a couple of hundred pieces of machinery, which each probably average 2 sensors per machine. The timeline of the sample referenced was several years. That's less than a 1% failure rate on an annual basis, under mostly constant use industrial conditions. These were not dive transmitters, but I suspect that the same underlying Wheatstone bridge technology is probably present in them as well.

    Based on this, I would consider it prudent to check the readings of a transducer or SPG against another periodically, just to make sure that nothing looks substantially different. Making that check is as simple as screwing your buddy's regulator onto your tank, so doing it once every few months would not seem onerous to me.
    BlueTrin likes this.

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