Catalogue

Oceanic VT3 dive computer has 3 buttons on the interactive control console: MODE, ADVANCE and SELECT. As this dive computer has too many functions and only 3 buttons to call those functions out – you should spend quite a time to study all buttons’ purposes and their combos to get of what you expect under water in order not to be confused later!

Oceanic VT3 has 3 bar graphs that represent nitrogen loading (TLBG), oxygen accumulation (O2BG), and VARI (variable ascent indicator). Below you may see short descriptions each of them:

1. Tissue Loading Bar Graph (TLBG) – shows nitrogen loading during dive and after. When diver goes deeper and stays longer his/her nitrogen level increases and dive computer adds new segments to this bar graph, and when person ascends or performs decompression – nitrogen level decreases and dive computer takes away segments; 8 segments – Decompression mode;
2. Oxygen Accumulation Bar Graph (O2BG) – shows oxygen toxicity level if Oceanic VT3 was set for Nitrox. It works the same as a TLBG – adds and subtracts segments; it stores information about oxygen accumulation for the last 24 hours and if you exceed the allowable limit - all 5 segments will be flashing;
3. Variable Ascent Rate Indicator (VARI) – this graph shows your ascent rate

If FO2 is set only to Air, O2BG will not be displayed during any dive and PO2 values and warnings will not be shown either.

Before diving and from Surface Main we will access and set up Oceanic VT3. All settings divided into the certain groups, like group of alarms and utilities, for example. Below is the summary of what we may set at this stage:

1. FO2 MIX 1 - MIX 1 - Air, 21% - 50%; MIX2 - Air, 21% - 100%; MIX2 - Air, 21% - 100%;
2. Depth alarm - 10 - 100 meters in 1 meter increments;
3. Elapsed Dive Time (EDT) alarm - 10 - 180 minutes in 5 minutes increments;
4. Tissue Loading Bar Graph (TLBG) alarm;
5. Dive Time Remaining (DTR) alarm - 0 - 20 minutes in 1 minute increments;
6. Turn Pressure alarm (for Transmitter 1 only): OFF / 1000 psi – 3000 psi in 250 psi increments;
7. End Pressure alarm (for all Transmitters): 300 psi – 1500 psi in 100 psi increments;
8. PO2 alarm: 1.2 ATA – 1.6 ATA in 0.1 ATA increments;
9. Units of measurement;
10. Time and date;
11. Safety Stop parameters: depth and time;
12. Personal Conservative factor – ON/OFF;
13. Backlight duration: 0/5/10 seconds;
14. Sampling rate - 2/15/30/60 seconds;
15. Transmitters linking code, etc.

Oceanic VT3: Diving With Air & Nitrox

During dive in any mode you will have an access to several displays that Oceanic VT3 provides – main and alternative, plus you may have more of them if you get into the stage when you may have Safety Stop prompt pops up (if you set it ON initially), or different alarms start coming, or violation modes.

Copy this Oceanic VT3 NO-DECO Card for your Reference and Share with your friends and buddies!

Upon reaching certain conditions - Oceanic VT3 will display Safety Stop prompt with Safety Stop Depth and Countdown Timer, if we set Safety Stop option to ON.

During Normal dives (Air or Nitrox) you have access to Switch gases and Buddy Pressure check functions. And it works great, if you set up your Transmitters links properly and there are no missing signals.

When we exceed our No-Decompression Limits (NDLs) - scuba dive computer will activate Decompression mode to help us decompress correctly and resurface safely.

Below you may see following dive information on main and alternative displays during Decompression mode:

• TLBG;
• O2BG (if any O2 accumulated during diving with Nitrox);
• Tank pressure;
• Deco stop icons and Deco Depth required;
• Deco stop time required;
• Total Ascent Time (time to surface);
• Air Time Remaining;
• current depth;
• temperature;
• time;
• max depth;
• Elapsed Dive Time (EDT);
• PO2 current level;
• FO2 set point;
• applicable icons, etc.

Oceanic VT3: Diving In GAUGE Mode

If you use Oceanic VT3 as a Gauge - it would work as a depth gauge and timer only and wouldn’t perform calculations for nitrogen and oxygen exposure and moreover - following functions like Switching gases and Buddy Pressure Check are not available in Gauge Mode. In this mode VT 3 works only with Transmitter 1.

In Gauge mode you will get main and two alternative displays with the following information:

• applicable icons;
• Tank pressure;
• Elapsed Dive Time (EDT);
• current depth;
• temperature;
• time;
• day of the week;
• Air Time Remaining (ATR);
• max depth reached

Oceanic VT3: FREEdiving

When you select Freedive mode Oceanic VT3 dive computer will operate as a depth gauge and perform nitrox loading calculations based on the default of FO2 of Air and the amount of nitrogen remaining between freedive and diving with Air or Nitrox previously (if any).

Freedive mode has set of specific alarms, which you set while on surface. They include:

• Free Dive Elapsed Dive Time (EDT) Alarm – this alarm comes up every 30 seconds if set to ON.
• Free Dive Depth (FDA) Alarms – you may set those to progressively deeper depths:
• Depth Alarm 1 – range from 10 to 100 meters;
• Depth Alarm 2 – range from 11 to 100 meters;
• Depth Alarm 3 – range from 12 to 100 meters;
• Countdown Timer – you may set it ON/OFF

During freedive you will get the main and alternative displays, freedive alarms displays, and if you entered into the Decompression mode during freedive – you will be given another display as well.

You may see following information on main and alternative displays:

• graphic FREE;
• TLBG (if any nitrogen still remaining from previous dives during last 24 hours);
• Elapsed Dive Time (EDT);
• Dive Time Remaining (DTR);
• temperature;
• current depth;
• day of the week;
• time

Also you may get easy access to Countdown Timer display and possibility to set it ON and OFF.

As I mentioned above, you may get into Decompression mode during freedive. This happens if nitrogen level increases to the Warning level. At this moment all segments on TLBG and O2BG will start flashing, Oceanic VT3 beeps on you, and message VIOLATION (VIOL) will appear. This is considered to be a Permanent Violation, you must ascend and do not dive for the next 24 hours.

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After transition period you will have an access to:

1. Dive Planner – plan and view your next dives according to the nitrogen loading or oxygen accumulation from your previous dives and surface time;
2. Time to Fly countdown timer;
3. Time to Desaturate countdown timer;
4. Log mode with 24 recent dives (only air/nitrox/gauge; freedives not recorded to Log mode, they are stored in the memory and you may download them to your PC);
5. History mode – contains accumulative information of you diving activities (freedives not recorded to History mode, they are stored in the memory and you may download them to your PC);
6. PC upload/download function - interconnect Oceanic VT3 with your PC

It is worth to say here that battery removal doesn’t affect either Logbook data or History data and to keep nitrogen and oxygen calculations for repetitive dives you have to replace battery within 8 seconds – to make, so called, ‘hot swap’.

Oceanic VT3: What Divers Say

Having read all Pros, Cons, and comparisons with other computers, we may say that Oceanic VT3 has only small minor issues, and it is still a reliable dive computer that suitable not only for divers with experience, but for beginners who are serious about diving as well and who is willing to spend some time to learn documentation and more practice to get the most of this Oceanic computer!

Still have few complains about software, but overall it is a great dive computer designed for long-run and it covers wide variety of diving conditions.

And by the way, problems with software can be mainly due to not properly installed updated drivers and software itself; Oceanic stopped supporting outdated software and now has new versions for downloading and installation – check Oceanic website!

Oceanic VT3	Dive-Computer-Wizard Rating

If you want to have reliable, hoseless air-integrated nitrox dive computer, which you will grow into, and dive computer that is packed with lots of features in small size package, and pay for it very reasonable money - Oceanic VT3 is the right choice for you!