•
The use of the compass
•
The quality of the battery. (Some lithium batteries may exhaust unexpectedly,
which cannot be tested in advance)
•
The time the dive computer has been stored until it gets to the customer. (The
battery is installed in the unit at the factory)
NOTE
Low temperature or an internal oxidation of the battery may activ-
ate the battery warning even though the battery has enough ca-
pacity. In this case, the warning usually disappears when the
DIVE mode is activated again.
10.2. RGBM
The Suunto Reduced Gradient Bubble Model (RGBM) is a modern algorithm for pre-
dicting both dissolved and free gas in the tissues and blood of divers. It was developed
in co-operation between Suunto and Bruce R. Wienke BSc, MSc, PhD. It is based on
both laboratory experiments and diving data, including data from DAN.
It is a significant advance on the classical Haldane models, which do not predict free
gas (microbubbles). The advantage of Suunto RGBM is additional safety through its
ability to adapt to a wide variety of situations. Suunto RGBM addresses a number of
diving circumstances outside the range of dissolved-gas-only models by:
•
Monitoring continuous multiday diving
•
Computing closely spaced repetitive diving
•
Reacting to a dive deeper than the previous dive
•
Adapting to rapid ascents which produce high microbubble (silent-bubble) build-
up
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