SMI Prism training

woody

I am looking at an SMI prism unit from a seller in Australia, He is selling the unit as he says that the back up there is very bad on spares etc.
I am trained on the meg at present and can not find anyone in the UK who knows much about these units. Stefan's article is very informative and says that the unit is the best to have for him.

Can anyone tell me if there is any training available here (UK) and what the spares back up is like on these units?

Lastly, I have a complete pre and post dive check for this unit and it looks very simple to operate. Are there any known reliability issues?

Thanks in advance for any info/help

Mike

apitkin

Hi Mike.

There are no UK-based Prism instructors. In fact I think there are only two UK Prism owners that I know of. I've not met the other one. I did my training in the US.

The spares back-up is direct from SMI. They are pretty good about shipping spares out, and are very helpful for advice, but they are on the other side of the ocean. That has not been a problem for me as I've never needed to send anything back.

Prism owners seem to fall into two groups. There are the ones who seem to have endless problems with their units and are generally unhappy about the reliability. Then there are the rest like me who just go diving and find the Prism to be rugged and reliable.

Feel free to PM me if you want more information.

Andy

caveseeker7

Mike, thanks for the feedback on my article.

There are indeed no current PRISM instructors based in Europe.
A listing of instructors is available on SMI's website.
Hopefully sometime next summer Robert Landreth (here on the board)
will return to Mallorca as an instructor. He's been diving his unit for
years, the one I photographed is the second one he has as he plans
to offer one for training. He worked at SMI in CA, building and repairing
PRISMs.

In regards to spares, that depends on what's needed really. Common
ones like SMI O-rings are usually available for immediate dispatch, same
with sensors. Spare or replacement scrubbers, too. Other items like
secondary display may have to be build first.

__________________
Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'!"

Chris

The PRISM is very simple to operate and a wonderful unit to dive, in the water I love mine.

Reliability issues
Personally, on my unit I had to have the software reloaded as it was holding .1 above setpoint. SMI said this was due to a software error due to corrupt data that occured during the move to TN around the same time as my head was built...

I hope to have mine back this week, after 8 weeks out of the water, seems SMI's support within the USA is pretty good, unfortunately I cant say the same for being down under. IMHO having to wait over 8 weeks for return of the head even with DEMA on and some extra work that needed to be done to it due to some pin corrosion is pretty ordinary

My analogue secondary packed it in after 20 odd hours of use, SMI reckons it was knocked I have my doubts on this one, anyway I will be getting rid of the analogue Secondary and putting a digital secondary on when it comes back.

SMI have said they are really working on getting the support of the units up to scratch and better avaliability of Spare Parts internationally, they get it sorted soon, or you may well see some more up for sale.

__________________
Megalodon
Sorb and Sensors whilst in Australia www.divetub.com.au
Diving & Photography @ www.uwphotog.com

Rich Sawkins

Mike,

They are easy to setup and dive, even I can manage it .

I don't know if there are any particular issues, like most things mistreat them and they can break. The secondary (analogue gauge) is quite delicate and needs treating with some care. The connectors for the heads up, on-off switch and secondary need to be treated and maintained appropriately.

My scrubber basket and a few other parts are starting too look a bit 'used' where they've got bashed about on a wreck or two, but generally its all holding up so far.

You could always head over to Perth for some training ? Possibly cheaper than it would be in the US if you take everything into account. www.imagedive.com.au

Cheers
Rich

decoweenie

Wow! The movers jarred the program so hard that the lines of code jumped out of place ?





Sorry...

__________________
"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM

Rich Sawkins

We thought it best not to ask for any further explaination

Steve

LMAO. Have some Green.

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silent running

Hello Mike, if you are expecting to be able to get parts for a CCR within your postal code, you will probably be disappointed. Most manufacturers will need to ship you parts. O-rings and such are yearly replacables, and are easy and cheap to ship and keep around. A well stocked spares kit is something every CCR diver needs and should figure into the cost of owning one. Mine costs about $200. I have never missed a dive in 300+ hrs of use on my unit. But maybe that's just because it's designed so well and can still be dived even with, say a dead battery or even a flooded battery compartment . Unless you dive every weekend and expect to really abuse your unit, I don't see parts delivery time as an issue. I'm sure that anybody who lives in a place far away from the manufacturer could complain about parts availability, if they were of a mind to.
As for any known reliability problems with the Prism, the only one I can think of is the passive needle gage 2ndry needing a bit of care -I would not expect my dive computer to take a 5ft drop and work flawlessly either. I personally have never had a problem with mine or the rental unit I used in my training, which had an older fragile single movement gage instead of the double movement gage used in the newer models. And I have dropped mine on boat decks and knocked it about plenty. Once you understand the safety factor involved in why SMI went with a totaly passive 2ndry, you will have no problem understanding the value inherent in it and will look after the 2ndry the same way you would anything that can save your ass in a crisis, like your dive computer. The Mks have a very similar 2ndry and have been proven in the most demanding CCR diving.
As you guessed, the Prism is very simple and easy to use and thus is more reliable than most CCRs. An enormous amount of thought and experience went into it's design. And all this is packed into the smallest (other than the Sport Kiss) and most capable unit -scrubber duration, lowest WOB, ease of operation, failsafe modes. If you have any other questions or doubts call SMI and speak to Peter or Sharon. You won't regret it. -Andy

silent running

That is pretty funny... -Andy