Monday, September 18

the Scubapro xTender - an update

I placed a counter on my weblog to see who (and why) visits my weblog and I saw a lot of people visiting my "scubapro xTender-something like a review"; Since it seems people are interested and I gathered some more dives on it (close to fifty actually), I decided to post a little followup on that "something".


A few weeks back the original wrist-bracelet broke, so I had to replace it with a velcro strap. Knowing the difference now, I'm almost sory I didn't do this earlyer, since it's more confortable on the hand, less bothering when I'm sweaty, and easier to manipulate.

It's not that the original was unconfortable, it's just ... this "feels better" on the hald.


The computer is stil on the original battery (and seems to be stil going strong). I took it down to fourty metres (41.8 or something) with no problems (I didn't expect any anyway), and during all this time I got VERY familiar with it.

In low light (depth, poor viz. or night diving), the backlight of the screen is strong enough to illuminate 1/2 metres around you, but you can't really use it like this unless you're desperate ( and you're better off with an UW torch anyway :) ).

The "too fast ascent" alarm (a blinking "SLOW" on the watch screen) seems a bit sensitive to me and once it activates during a dive, it will keep blinking on screen when viewing the dive profile for that dive;

For me it's like a black spot on my dive profile, and for this, I find it a bit annoying.

It's also usually one of my goals during ascents to "make it not blink on this dive". On the dives I succeed, this makes me kind-of happy :).

The titanium ring on the edge of the thing is a life-saver, as it took a few strong hits up to now without complaining; Infact I have a few scratches on it, but considering those scratches would have been on the screen instead of the protection ring, this actually keeps me happy.

Regarding the water temperature sensor ... it seems preety accurate to me, though I've had .5 to 1 degrees differences between my computer and other divers' ones. I don't find this to be an issue though, since the temperature is "accurate enough" to estimate equipment requirements.

Otherwise, I stil am happy with it and I probably will continue to be so.

... and by the way, I stil didn't manage to get the english version of the computer manual but I got on fine without it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

The Xtender is one computer I'm thinking of getting.

I've emailed Scubapro asking if they have the manual I can download, but they haven't replied. And I've emailed all the Scubapro offices around the world!
That doesn't make me feel good about Scubapro's customer service.

Can you tell me if there's an audio alarm for the "too fast ascent"?

Does the watch have to be sent back to Scubapro to be replaced?

Thanks.

Unknown said...

Hi James,

It has an alarm for ascending too fast (and I got it a few times :( ).

I'm not sure about sending it back for replacements, but I believe that if you have it under guarantee, any authorized dealer would take care of it.

However, I have had it for two years now and haven't had any problems.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I meant to say does the watch have to be sent back to Scubapro to have the battery replaced.

Did you ever get an English manual for it?

Thanks again.

Unknown said...

I think you don't have to. Either way, I will take it to ScubaPro representatives to replace the battery (this way, if it floods right afterwards, I can ask them to replace it).

... and I stil haven't gotten that manual :(

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I managed to find a pdf version in German. I'm still hoping there's an English one out there somewhere.

www.diveshop24.de/downloads/XTENDER%20Manual.pdf

Scubapro are absolutely useless. I haven't heard a word from them.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

On a whim I went to the Scubapro website a couple of days agon and sent an email to them about getting and English manual and they actually sent me one! It's crappy pdf scan, but it's in English!

Let me know if you're interested and I'll email you a copy. If you want to try your luck, email scuba.pro@telia.com Maybe if they see that there's a demand for it, they'll do a decent pdf copy.

Anonymous said...

Hi James.

I would very much appreciate if you could send me the english version of the pdf instructions manual to chuspi123@gmail.com

Thnx.

Anonymous said...

Anyone looking for the PDF manual? well it can be found here http://www.scubapro.com/oceana/australia/product-support/instruction-manuals/instruction-manuals-%28computers%29 for download in a few languages

Regards,

Chris