Garmin Descent Mk2 Series Review

[Angela Moreno]

Hello,

I am trying to find out what if any reviews have been posted out there with regards to the Garmin Descent Mk2 Series dive computer.  I am in the market for a watch style dive computer with some smart watch features and this is the device I have found so far.  Any commentary out there for me to consider.

Thanks 

Angela

[Scubyinstructor]

Hi Angela,

I got the descent a year ago and I LOVE IT! 

I have dived with a Suunto stinger for the last 20 years and never thought i would be able to replace it but OMG I love the Descent - add to that that it is a smartwatch (that is better than any apple watch and has a battery life of 16 days) and then I found out on one of the first dives that it has an inbuilt compass (That you can set on a bearing and it will automatically give you a reciprocal as well) 

The logging is excellent as well and relatively seamless.

My only criticism would be that the recording of dives is a bit sensitive i.e any surface interval is recorded and therefore it will sometimes record 3-4 dives for what i would consider as 1 dive - depending on what happens on the dive, a weight check gets logged as a dive, returning to the surface to check something is recorded as a dive - If you dive abroad this is probably not too much of an issue but for UK diving with minimal viz it is sometimes a bit challenging! 

Overall I would however whole heartedly recommend it.

Geoff

[Adric Norris]

My only criticism would be that the recording of dives is a bit sensitive i.e any surface interval is recorded and therefore it will sometimes record 3-4 dives for what i would consider as 1 dive - depending on what happens on the dive, a weight check gets logged as a dive, returning to the surface to check something is recorded as a dive - If you dive abroad this is probably not too much of an issue but for UK diving with minimal viz it is sometimes a bit challenging!

What do you have End Dive Delay set to? While I don't recall its default value, the delay can be increased to a max (on the Mk2 series, at least) of 10 minutes. Which I'd expect to be long enough to avoid this problem (at least in the general case).

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[Janne Johansson]

The end dive delay is, however, user configurable. 

mån 30 jan. 2023 kl. 15:54 skrev Scubyinstructor <ge...@drawinginc.ltd.uk>:

returning to the surface to check something is recorded as a dive - If you dive abroad this is probably not tooegroups.com.

[Scubyinstructor]

Thanks Guys - I have just changed the end-of-dive delay (it was set to 1min!!) brilliant - See Angela even my gripe is now sorted - Brilliant piece of kit!

[Andrew Trevor-Jones]

One problem with setting a long End Dive Delay is that the watch won't log your Exit Location until after the delay ends.  For me, 10 minutes is more than enough to have gotten out of the water, walked back to the car and already be removing my gear.  Not that the recording of Exit Location is all that accurate anyway as the watch doesn't turn on the GPS until the very last moment.

[Brian Belzel]

This is not a huge concern.  The end dive delay can be manually overridden.  If I’m done with the dive, and not heading back down, I just hit the end dive button.  That ends it and saves the gps location as the exit point.

[Michael Keller]

Hi Angela.

I guess since you are asking in here you are particularly interested in the integration of the Garmin Descent family of dive computers with Subsurface. As the owner of a Garmin Descent Mk1 and having worked on the integration myself I can say that it is quite good, and pretty much all data logged by the dive computer is imported into Subsurface - the only thing I can not talk to is data from the gas integration (pressure sensors on tanks), as the Descent Mk1 does not have this capability.

When it comes to integration, one thing to keep in mind is that, if you are planning to use the online dive log provided by Garmin (which isn't bad actually) to log your dives as well, there is no way to synchronise dive metadata (dive site name, comments, ...) between Subsurface and the Garmin online dive log.

Hope this helps

  Michael Keller