Replaced my old dive computer with a D5 - what to expect?

Barmaglot_07 wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Since I always dive with a camera rig, I'm thinking of putting the D5 on a strobe arm. But then I (may?) have issues with it sitting in a rinse tank and not knowing I'm on a surface interval?

I don't have a D5 (my computer is an Aeris Elite T3), but dive computers detect the start/end of a dive by pressure, not by moisture, so unless the rinse tank is like six feet deep, it won't be a problem.

What do you guys do with your wrist computers at the end of a dive?

On a day boat, where I don't remove my wetsuit between dives, it stays on my wrist. On a liveaboard, I take it off my wrist and put the band around the camera carrying handle, then rinse the whole thing.

Since I had my own computer since 2006, and was mostly happy with it, I never paid much attention to what other divers did with their wrist computers between dives.  I assume most took it off, put it down, removed wetsuit (at least peeled top off), and then put it back on a wrist.

But not everyone.  I started remembering how my Roatan divemaster David uses his computer while diving - it isn't on his wrist.   As you can see a bit from this photo, he attaches his wrist computer to his BCD:

I remember seeing him look down at his computer during dives, and it was never on his wrist, always on the front of his BCD.   Which probably means he never has to remove it, except to deal with the battery.

I sort of like this system, though I probably won't use it.  Why buy a wrist computer and attach it to a BCD and then use it like my current Cobra, where I have to look down at something.   Just having to recharge the battery at the end of a day would tend to have me not getting much advantage to this.

But attaching to the strobe arms of the camera?  Another story there, since that camera always accompanies me on and off the boat, including dealing with battery charges between dives.  If the rinse tank doesn't affect my surface interval, I think this could be the ideal place for a dive computer.

One thing is for sure.  I need a system to deal with it, or I will end up losing it, forgetting to have it on my wrist when I enter the water, or some other problem.   It's just something I never had to worry about before.  My experience with dive watches isn't a good history, though most of it was in my early diving days.  I also remember my late wife actually losing her dive watch during a dive, after having successfully used it diving for 10 years.   She must have been in a hurry and not got it properly latched down, or maybe the strap finally broke.