Suunto Ocean general discussion
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Additional thoughts after taking my watch for its first freedive:
- I’m stuck with whatever depth/dive time alarm I had configured before I started the dive, with no means of changing it mid-session. I’d like to be able to change my alarms mid-dive - perhaps while on surface mode - to account for changing conditions. For example, perhaps the depth of my dive line has been changed and I’d like to change my alarm to alert me just before hitting that new depth.
There are also features missing when viewing enlarged charts for freediving stats compared to stats from other activities (eg swimming), and I don’t like it. The missing items include:
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The option to display up to three different metrics as main graph, comparison graph, and background graph is not available. Instead, only the main graph is shown. I can only more than one metric at once (such as depth vs heart rate) when the charts are not enlarged and was being shown as part of the stats overview screen.
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When moving the cursor across the graph, I’d only get a readout of the y-axis but not the x-axis (ie time). I’d like to get a more precise reading of the time, please.
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When looking at depth, I’d like my ascent/descent rate to be shown in metres per second.
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There is no option to hide events such as dive alarms or when a dive has started. This clutters up the screen.
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Information on the top bar is not as informative in freediving mode compared to other activities, though I appreciate that my phone’s notification slider is hidden when viewing freediving stats.
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The “Select Lap” option to quickly zoom into the portion of the graph for a particular lap (dive?) is not shown.
Below are screenshots for charts for freediving (above) versus swimming (below) for comparison. The black bars to the left are presumably there to get around my phone’s in-screen camera, so I’ll just use that space to add labels. The blurred out portion in the “swimming” screenshot are my phone’s notification icons.
For context to those who haven’t checked out freedive mode, the metrics that can be displayed on the chart are depth (along with dive events mentioned above, marked with green circles), heart rate (if HR monitoring is on), and sensor temperature. These are plotted against time elapsed since the start of the activity, of course.
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Hello. How was your general experience in freediving mode? I used the suunto d4 until I broke it, I was very happy. Would it be a good alternative?
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@Yerai-Hernández-Díaz I’m not sure how to compare with the D4 since I’ve never used it, and I don’t recall having studied its instruction manual while I was shopping for a dive computer.
I would say its freediving features only covers the bare basics, while the lack of a surface alarm and a way to change the other alarms (depth and dive time) once freediving mode has started is annoying. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I wish Suunto starts copying Atmos Mission 2’s homework when it comes to freediving features.
On the other hand, it does have a vibration alarm in addition to a beep alarm, though you could miss the vibration alarm if you weren’t expecting it. And if you are ever tempted to look at your watch in the middle of your dive (naughty… naughty…
), at least it’ll be quick because the screen is very bright and readable even in dark murky waters. -
@kohjl th
Thanks you for the replay!!!
Waiting for any review for freedivers, but It could be a nice watch for ocasional freedive…
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@Yerai-Hernández-Díaz It’ll get the job done.
I just hope it’s not too much to ask for at least a surface interval alarm, or change alarm settings mid-dive, because even the cheap(er) and cheerful Suunto Zoop Novo can do that.
And then we can get into the more advanced features, like a variometer.
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Not really. For example ATMOS Mission 2, let’s you decide at the watch’s general settings which diving mode will be activated by default, if you dive without going first to a pre-dive screen.
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@Johnkokk My point was that automatic dive mode activation is a thing. For example, you don’t get automatic walk activation or automatic run activation unless you are using one of those activity trackers like Fitbit and even then, you don’t get to choose road run vs trail run.
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@Brainicus I see your point but the thing is that on land you can do everything(but dive). It would be a wild guess for the watch to choose the correct activity.
In the water however when you submerge the watch you can do either scuba or freedive, not hiking for example
So all suunto has to do, is put an option that will set which mode(freedive or scuba) will be activated by default if you SUBMERGE the watch in the water. There could be also an OFF option, so that nothing happens.
It’s what other diving computers do and it makes sense.
By the way if you ask me, if SUUNTO for some weird reason wants only one option for automatic mode, that should be freedive and not scuba in which anyway you have to set up lots of things and would make more sense that scuba should be activated through a pre-dive screen.
Anyway, i hope suunto gets notified for all these we are saying.
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@Johnkokk said in Suunto Ocean general discussion:
In the water however when you submerge the watch you can do either scuba or freedive, not hiking for example
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@Johnkokk I would guess there are still more scuba divers out there than free divers, especially considering the brand we are talking about. But more importantly, as some would say, Suunto products aren’t exactly known for their customizeability. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.
Besides, at the moment Ocean doesn’t have a dive planner, a compass, an ability to add custom dive screens or modify the fields on the main screen, nor does it have GF99 or SurfGF, nor Trimix that would be a standard gas for GUE even on 50m dives… Sadly, I’d guess being able to customize which dive mode to pick when one goes below the surface is very low on the list of priorities.
I have a beer that says we gonna see a sidemount support first
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Well if that’s the case for the scuba activity as well whith so many misses, then the hole situation is actually sad.
It is supposed to be a DIVING watch, and all the diving part (scuba and freedive), so far is poor (to put it polite).
I really want to keep hoping though.
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By the way has anyone noticed that when you have GPS enabled (at least for freediving), but maybe it is also for swimming, etc, that distance that you swam is way off in the suunto app ?
I did a couple of spearfishing sessions with gps enabled and at one time the app said i swam for 10 meters(!!!) and yesterday it said 400+ meters when a I swam at least twice as that. In both cases, the route is correctly marked on the map in the app, but the distance is completely off.
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@Brainicus Good points. Regarding dive planning, I tried to find out if the Suunto DM5 software works with the Ocean but no one seems to know. Would be good if someone with an Ocean could try it.
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@Alejandro dive planning should come to Suunto App, as far as I know.
Watch: Suunto Vertical Ti
Blog: isazi's home
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@isazi Okay, good to know.
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@Alejandro said in Suunto Ocean general discussion:
@Brainicus Regarding dive planning, I tried to find out if the Suunto DM5 software works with the Ocean but no one seems to know.
Isn’t DM5 a desktop based software? If so, just like SuuntoLink of yore, it won’t work with any newer Bluetooth based watches. Even if Suunto wanted to update it for Ocean, given how sketchy Bluetooth stacks are on desktops, it would be a non-starter.
The best one could hope for is either relevant DM5 features make it over to Suunto app, or a new dive focused app (like Garmin ended up doing with Garmin Dive once they realized the depth of features expected in a properly executed dive log).
Here’s my read of the situation: Ocean is a diving equivalent of Spartan in the world of Ambits/Movescount. Perhaps, it won’t take multiple generations of devices before we arrive at diving Race, but anyone buying Ocean today should realize where things stand and adjust their expectations accordingly.
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Your read on the situation rings true – especially as I was an early adopter of the Spartan and had it for years, before finally getting a Race. Well noted.
Yes, DM5 is desktop-based and I used it with my EON steel, a Macbook and then a transfer over to Suunto app – well, before all the text in my DM5 somehow got completely mangled up and I can’t read anything at all now… So yes, I echo your hope: a proper, dedicated app for diving would be 1st prize. To be honest, I’m surprised that DM5 has not already been completely rewritten already given that Suunto has had a comprehensive range of dive computers for many years. But as isazi indicated, maybe Suunto plan to try and squeeze it all into the one app. Let’s see. I guess.
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@Alejandro said in Suunto Ocean general discussion:
But as isazi indicated, maybe Suunto plan to try and squeeze it all into the one app. Let’s see. I guess.
Let’s see, after more than 6 years in production Suunto app doesn’t have a notion of gear and gear tracking such as shoes, for example. Which you can totally track in Garmin or Strava, for example. And even in Stryd.
We still have one Bluetooth sensor per type. You can make a convoluted argument for having just one heart rate strap. But how are you going to deal with two first stages pods in sidemount, for example? Oops. Should people have one wetsuit and one mask too?
The requirements for gear tracking on dive side are far, far greater. Regs, tanks, BCDs, weights, fins, masks, wet- and dry-suits. You want to log tank pods and tanks used, so you can have your SAC rates. You want to keep track of dive buddies and dive masters. You want to track weights used on different dives, so you can fine-tune your buoyancy in specific conditions. Recent trend is to add certifications and certification specialty skills to specific dives, like deep, wreck or night. This is what MacDive has been doing and Garmin Dive added. And that’s just rec level scuba log. Throw in a nicety such as a map of diving locations, perhaps, a location database, a competent dive planner – and I’m starting to question how it’s gonna all get stuffed into a single app. Worse still, how that app would work for somebody who has activities on land, but also scuba dives, and wants to see both.
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@Brainicus I don’t have this watch - do you have one?
afaik Suunto Ocean allows for multiple PODs that can even be individually named. -
@Egika Right, and can those multiple pods be linked to the same gas blend (hint: they can’t, neither can they be displayed side-by-side)?
Also, I’m seeing nothing in the current manual about naming the pods, would you mind sharing the reference?
