Shearwater Pursuit Announcement

bgpartri

It is our pleasure to announce the Shearwater Pursuit.

We have the parts for our initial production run, and will begin shipping September 15.

The computer is called the Shearwater Pursuit. There are two reasons for the name. The first is that the Shearwater bird is part of the family of birds known as pursuit divers. Some Shearwaters will dive to 70 M in pursuit of prey. The second is that the relentless pursuit of simplicity is the goal of our designs.

The Pursuit continues our design philosophy of a powerful feature set, easy to understand menus, easy to read display, long battery life, and robust cases.

In general, the Pursuit does everything that the GF did, but in response to customer comments, we have added these new features:

1) A new smaller case.
The new case is about 1/3 shorter and a little bit thinner. It continues to be light on land and neutral in the water. Double straps keep the computer straight on your wrist, and you won't lose the computer if a strap breaks. The Fischer or permanent connector has been moved up the case so it doesn't hit your arm when you bend your wrist. The box part is 1.5"X2.5"X3.25" (38cmX63cmX82cm).

2) The battery can be changed without tools
The only tool you need to change the battery is a coin. Since we have designed it for a Canadian dollar, (AKA Loonie) we will include one with each computer. Battery life is expected to be 6-12 months

3) Flip Screen
The screen display can be flipped upside down so that the computer can be worn on the right wrist if desired. This feature is particularly useful for a 4th cell monitor. Since the Pursuit will monitor 1 or 3 sensors, it can easily become a three cell monitor if a primary system fails.

4) Automatic back lighting
The backlight can be left on AUTO. A sensor senses the ambient light and adjusts the backlight accordingly. For example, if you are diving in bright tropical water, the backlight will use no power. If you swim into a wreck, the backlight will automatically come on. There are still "always on", timed and off settings available.

5) User entered G/F
The users can enter their own GF settings with few limits.

6) Variable O2 percentage for different types of calibration
The user can enter the percentage oxygen for calibration. This can also be used to compensate for altitude calibration.

7) Computer updates over the internet
This is an important point. The Pursuit uses a different hardware platform that removes the processor and memory constraints that limited development on the GF. There will be updates, bug fixes, and new features and they will be available over the internet. The updates can be loaded through the IrDA port. We definitely have some cool stuff that is under development now. Although there may be third party software that will need an unlock code, in general, these updates will be free and available over the internet.

8) The computer will be available in a display-only version
The display version will have the decompression settings and displays disabled. Otherwise it will be just the same. It will do dive time and depth, and provide log uploads. The decompression can be enabled later with an unlock code. This version won't start shipping until the mid October. The display version will sell for $900 US plus shipping, and can have decompression enabled for $600 US.

Then Pursuit sells for $1,400 US plus shipping.

We commissioned our engineers to start the design January 2007, and started diving the new software and hardware in February. We have since redone the boards and cases three times, to get to the production design. We expect the Pursuit to be our development platform for years to come.

In order to better support our international customer base, we will have a dealer and distribution plan in place by DEMA.

Bruce Partridge
Shearwater Research Inc.

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mverick

Looks nice.

Do you have a pack of cigerettes you can put by it and take a pic for a comparison?

Or something else that's a known size?

I have a VR3 I need to sell and order one of these. As it's just sitting. I use my Old shearwater on my meg. I mean old old shearwater... LOL..

Can I run this new shearwater into the 3 cells already in the meg?

bgpartri

That's all the pictures we have. We were supposed to meet the photographer today, but he didn't show. We should have more pictures in the next couple of weeks.

The box part is 1.5"X2.5"X3.25" (38cmX63cmX82cm).

You have a couple of choices. You could just piggy back the pins into the existing three sensors. But I would probably put a 4th sensor in. The Meg Shearwater only uses one battery box, so there's lots of room for a 4th sensor. You can just use a 9V battery clip or something like that to hold it. Then leave the other two molex connectors hanging.

On normal diving, you would have a completely independent PPO2 monitoring system. If the primary system fails, and you are in Truk Lagoon, you can keep on diving by plugging all three plugs into the main sensors and recalibrating.

In terms of redundancy, I am much more worried about the O2 sensor failures than electronic failures, so the independent sensor is attractive to me.

Bruce

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http://www.rebreather.ca

Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.

zoo_diver

I was up in BC a few weeks ago and got a sneak peak at the new Shearwater and I gotta tell you -- it looks and feels like a dream.

Bruce -- can you tell us where the line starts? I've got my gameboy, tent and sleeping bag ready and plan on being at the front of it.

Tom Rose

Nice work as usual Bruce. Look forward to seeing you at DEMA.

Tom

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Johnny Christensen

I'm guessing the metric measurements should read mm and not cm. Or this would truly be the computer for the visually impaired diver.

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Wreckphotography from the cold north

bgpartri

There's no lineup required. We've got about 40 in stock, so we can meet all the orders so far.

Bruce

__________________
http://www.rebreather.ca

Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.

Explorer

Had the new Pursuit in my hands last week and like it very much. Thank you Bruce.

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TRAIN WRECKED.....

Fun Under Pressure

Nice Job Bruce, but i like my "Old" Shearwater GF.

Cheers Markku

teksimple

What? No months of vaporware with numerous "adjusted" release dates? You are violating the standard principle we closed circuit divers have come to expect!

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