Catalogue

Suunto Stinger has 4 control buttons on user interface panel and to become the master of using them – you need to set some time to learn sequences and combinations of them to know what to expect on surface and underwater. It won’t take you long, though, because Stinger is a friendly dive computer with great manuals.

Dive computer has 2 Bar Graphs that are shared between functions.

Left side Bar Graph is shared between Mode Indicator, Battery power indicator (when all 4 segments are displayed battery is OK, less number of them means that battery needs your attention or replacement), and Ascent Rate functions.

Right side Bar Graph is shared between Mode Indicator and Oxygen Limit Fraction (OLF). OLF is a function that represents oxygen toxicity when diving with Nitrox.

After we learnt how to use buttons to call up and set functions we want – it is time to customize parameters of Suunto Stinger dive computer.

Firstly, we start with adjusting our time and dual time, date, setting alarm for Time functions. These functions are accessible from Set mode. There is another useful function that you may use in Time mode – Stopwatch.

After we set everything regarding to Time mode, our next task – set all appropriate parameters for Dive modes – Air, Nitrox, and Freedive/Gauge. All adjustable settings can be programmed from Set mode and I made a list of them below:

• Dive mode – ON/OFF;
• FO2 – Air, 22% - 50%;
• PO2 – 1.2 – 1.6 bar;
• Sampling rate for Freedive/Gauge mode – 2/4/10/20/30/60 seconds;
• Dive Time alarm – ON/OFF;
• Max Depth alarm – 40 meters factory preset or user adjustable at the range 3 – 150 meters (when set for ‘zero’ meters – alarm is disabled);
• Altitude Program setting: A0(0 – 300 meters)/A1(300 – 1500 meters)/A2(1500 – 3000 meters);
• Personal Conservative Factor setting: P0/P1/P2 – to make this dive computer progressively more conservative

If you want to plan your dives ahead – Suunto Stinger has Dive Planner for you. This function can be called up during the Surface mode by pressing Select button, and it calculates your No-Decompression limits at range 9 - 45 meters with 3 meters increments, accordingly to your current nitrogen and oxygen intake.

When you activate Suunto Stinger – it performs all necessary pre-checks and at this time it is possible to preset display of how you want it to show data – whether maximum depth or temperature from the lower left side; and whether Elapsed Dive Time (EDT) or current time from the lower right side of display. It is all easy done – just use PLUS and MINUS control buttons.

Suunto Stinger: Diving With Air & Nitrox

Deeper than 1.2 meters dive computer will start showing dive data.

Copy this Suunto Stinger NO-DECO Card for your Reference and Share with your friends and buddies!

Stinger, as well as other dive computers from Suunto, has Bookmark function. You may use it if you need to store profile data in the unit memory for further downloading to PC.

During No-Decompression dive Suunto Stinger may give you Safety Stop prompt. Dive computer displays two types of Safety Stops:

1. Recommended Safety Stop;
2. Mandatory Safety Stop

You may miss first one without any penalties, but the latter must be completed, because it is activated if we ascend faster than allowable maximum rate.

When I ascended faster then allowed – Ascent Rate Bar Graph (left side of display) gave me full set of segments, message SLOW and audio alarm. I slowed down and upon reaching certain depth range, Stinger gave me a Mandatory Safety Stop remainder with STOP and ceiling depth notations. In this case we need to stop and stay at that depth for some time until warning will disappear.

If you miss Mandatory Safety Stop – dive computer will decrease No-Decompression times for the next dive, and in this case it is a good idea to stay longer on surface before the next dive as well.
Suunto Stinger display all appropriate information with all data and icons for each type of Safety Stops – therefore, you won’t be confused.

When we set Stinger for Nitrox dive – we must enter exact numbers of FO2 and PO2. After we did that – dive computer would calculate maximum operational depth (MOD) according to FO2 and PO2.

Stinger allows us to set only 1 Nitrox mix with FO2 - Air, 22% - 50% and PO2 within the range 1.2 – 1.6 bar.

Dive computer allows us to preset desirable values that will be displayed, as we did when preset display for Air dive. Operation is the same – press MINUS button to change FO2/max depth/temperature on the lower left side and press PLUS button to change current PO2/Elapsed Dive Time/current time from the lower right side of the display.

Display looks very similar as for Air mode, but with few differences that are related only to diving with Nitrox, like those listed below:

• Oxygen Limit Factor (OLF) Bar Graph on the right side of display – it shows you oxygen toxicity;
• FO2 value;
• PO2 value;
• Maximum operational depth (MOD) in accordance with FO2 and PO2;
• No-Decompression (NDC) Time Remaining;
• High OLF alarm (if conditions exist);
• High PO2 alarm (if conditions exist);
• applicable icons and notations

If you exceed No-Decompression Limits (NDLs) and your No-Decompression time becomes ‘zero’ – Suunto Stinger will activate Decompression mode. All data that you will get after that is related to this mode. During decompression you will be prompted to complete one or few decompression stops at a range of depths.

Suunto Stinger (as other dive computers from this brand) has Continuous Decompression feature that allows us to perform decompression within the certain range of depths. It starts from the ‘floor’ (deepest depth where deco stop time won’t increase) to the ‘ceiling’ (shallowest depth) and decompression is done between them.

In Decompression mode dive computer will display following data related to decompression stops:

• guiding arrows (for your correct ceiling depth and ceiling zone);
• Ascent Time in minutes (total time to surface, including time to reach the correct ceiling, time to stop at the ceiling, Mandatory Safety Stop (if any), 3 minutes Recommended Safety Stop, and time to reach surface after ceiling);
• Ceiling depth and ceiling zone;
• Elapsed Dive Time (EDT);
• max depth reached during a dive;
• temperature;
• applicable icons and notations

If you missed correct decompression ceiling and ascended above it by any reason, Stinger would give you an audio alarm with corresponding icons, your current depth and ceiling depth, and Error notation. It means that you have only 3 minutes to correct you position and descend to ceiling depth displayed or a bit below.

If you continue to violate decompression – dive computer will activate permanent Error Mode and will work as a depth gauge and timer only. You must not dive for at least 48 hours then!

Suunto Stinger: Diving In FREEdive/GAUGE Mode

Last Dive mode available in Suunto Stinger is Freedive/Gauge mode. In this mode dive computer doesn’t provide you with information about nitrogen and oxygen loadings and it will work as a depth gauge and timer, and you may use it for tech-diving as well.

In Freedive/Gauge mode display looks as follows:

• current depth;
• Freedive Time in minutes and seconds at the center of the display (can be changed during a dive to work as a Stopwatch);
• Elapsed Dive Time (EDT)/current time/dive number on the lower right side of the display (these may be preset by using Plus control button);
• max depth/temperature on the lower left side of the display (you may preset these values by using Minus control button)

Also in this mode if you press Select button – this will make a bookmark of your diving profile.

This Suunto computer has Freediving Day History function, which means that we may access our freediving day history in the Free Surface mode to view total amount of freedives, longest dive in minutes and seconds and the deepest freedive during a single day.

When dive time becomes more than 5 minutes for a single dive – Freedive mode changes automatically to Gauge mode. And other functions, like Bookmark and Stopwatch are available.

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After dive was completed you may be interested to have a look at diving logs, check out dive history, plan next dive, or maybe download dive data to PC if you got optional PC data cable and software.

All those functions are available at our disposal and below I gave brief description each of them:

1. Dive Planner – function to plan repetitive dives. It will show us No-Decompression Limits (NDLs) from 9 meters to 45 meters with 3 meters increments, according to our nitrogen and oxygen exposure;
2. Logbook consists of 4 pages of very detailed dive data (4th page is dive profile scrolling). It will store of 36 dive hours with 20 seconds sampling rate (for Air and Nitrox), and it is possible to change this rate to 1/20/30/60 seconds by using optional PC data cable and software. Freedive/Gauge mode sampling rate can be changed by using unit control buttons to 2/4/10/20/30/60 seconds;
3. History is a summary of all your dives. It stores information of 999 dives and 999 diving hours and shows the maximum depth reached, total number of dives, and total accumulated dive hours;
4. PC downloading – optional feature that allows us to interconnect Suunto Stinger and PC, download dive data and then organize your diving records, view and print logs and diving profiles

Suunto Stinger: What Divers Say

By this time we know everything about Suunto Stinger! For dive watch computer it performs perfectly in any condition whether you wear it onshore or underwater.

Solid and elegant built, has all functions that we need to enjoy diving and resurface safely.

I didn’t find any troubles while using it, only three wishes – would be nice to have PC data cable and software included in price and even Suunto Stinger has mineral glass display – it easy to get scratched, so it is a good idea to buy display protector, it costs about 10 bucks; and the last one – user battery replacement option, of course. Everything else – nice and smooth!

So, if you need a dive instrument that looks great in office or restaurant and performs great underwater – have a close look at Suunto Stinger dive computer!

Suunto Stinger	Dive-Computer-Wizard Rating

Even it is pretty basic and quite few years old, and we have new models came to our market – Suunto Stinger still stands out against a background of its fellows because of Suunto quality, performance and user-friendliness!