Catalogue

Suunto Vyper Air has 4 operation buttons on the user interface: MODE, SELECT, UP, DOWN. Some of functions require short pressing, less than 2 seconds to call up certain action, but some of function require pressing and holding.

As with any dive computer you need to devote some time to learn purpose and what to expect after you pushed certain control button to avoid confusion or maybe even panic during diving if you do not get what you would expect!

Suunto Vyper Air has 2 bar graphs to assist you not only with numerical values, but also graphically:

1. Tank Pressure Bar Graph – it represents gas pressure in your cylinder if you installed and paired Transmitter;
2. Ascent Rate Bar Graph – it shows us visually ascent rate.

At this stage we need to complete pleasant task – customize our Vyper Air! So, we may start by setting up digital watch functions, units and backlight duration, and I listed them below:

• time;
• date;
• daily alarm;
• units;
• backlight (user adjustable for 5/10/20/30/60 seconds);
• tones

Suunto Vyper Air doesn’t have dual time feature, which can be your travel destination time, as for example, Suunto D6 has.

Next we will set and calibrate digital compass. You may use compass during diving or onshore, of course.
My Vyper Air got confused during calibration after few attempts, but when I repeated this operation in approximately 10 minutes – everything was excellent and no problem at all!

Then we need to install wireless transmitter (of course, those who got one!) and after we will adjust functions and alarms and will be ready to dive.

Settings of Dive Mode are listed below:

• Depth alarm – user adjustable at range 3 – 100 meters (factory preset for 30 meters);
• Dive Time alarm - ON/OFF/1 – 999 minutes;
• Mix 2 – ON/OFF;
• FO2 – 21% - 99%;
• PO2 – 0.5 – 1.6 bar;
• Altitude Programs: A0 (0 – 300m)/A1 (300 – 1500m)/A2 (1500 – 3000m);
• Personal Conservative Factor: P0/P1/P2 – makes dive computer more conservative;
• Sample Rate for profiles: factory default preset 20 seconds; user adjustable 1/10/20/30/60 seconds;
• Deep Stop – ON/OFF (if ON – stop duration may be set for 1 or 2 minutes);
• RGBM attenuation (100% or 50%);
• Units – metric/imperial;
• Tank Pressure alarm – range of 10 – 200 bar (it is a secondary alarm point for tank, primary alarm point is 50 bar and it factory fixed and can not be changed);
• Tank pressure – ON/OFF – set it to ON if you have Transmitter to have related data displayed;
• HP (high pressure) code for Transmitter

Don’t forget to activate Dive Mode before actually going underwater. After you did that – this Suunto dive computer would do necessary pre-checks and display information about oxygen settings (if selected Nitrox Dive Mode), personal, altitude, and RGBM settings, battery status, display functionality, etc.

Suunto Vyper Air: Diving With Air & Nitrox

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

Values, which are corresponding to air integration, are displayed only when Transmitter installed and paired correctly. And also, I didn’t have Deep Stop and Diver Attention Symbol on display, because Deep Stop option was set to OFF and I didn’t need to extend my surface time that may happen after violation – so Diver Attention Symbol wasn’t displayed as well.

If I wanted to activate Backlight at some stage – short press MODE button. Here you really need to work out duration of that button pressing in different modes and for different functions!

To make a bookmark for my dive profile I pressed SELECT button and dive computer confirmed that my bookmark stored in memory for further viewing and downloading to PC.

If you have optional Transmitter installed and paired – dive computer will present tank pressure data and Air Time Remaining (ATR) according to your air consumption. If ATR reaches ‘zero’ – Vyper Air will give you an alarm. Even in the case of alarm and ‘zero’ ATR – you still have 35 bar of gas pressure in your tank for safely surfacing.

Suunto Vyper Air monitors precisely ascent rate. I did fast ascent just to see how it reacts – and it did well! Alarm was clearly heard; Ascent Rate Bar Graph had full set of blinking segments – dive computer made it clear that I did something wrong! So, following the sense of being Responsible Diver – I did Recommended and Mandatory Safety Stops to avoid an injury.

If you want to set dive computer for Nitrox dive – it gives you access to specific parameters, like actually enabling Nitrox Mode, set MIX 2 to ON/OFF and FO2 and PO2 settings for nitrox gas mixes.

Suunto Vyper Air allows us to dive with 2 nitrox mixes with FO2 21% - 99% (like Suunto D6 that has 2 nitrox gas mixes with FO2 21% - 99% as well) and you may set PO2 from 0.5 bar to 1.6 bar.

When you set up all values related to Nitrox – Vyper Air calculates maximum operating depth (MOD) according to PO2 and FO2 numbers. And if you exceeded PO2 that you set before – dive computer will give you an alarm. In this case you need to ascend safely to bring PO2 back to normal.

During nitrox dive you will get data similar to air dive, but in addition Suunto Vyper Air displays information related to Nitrox Mode:

• FO2 value;
• PO2 value;
• OLF – oxygen limit fraction (oxygen toxicity level)

And again, to switch between the main and alternative displays – press UP/DOWN buttons.

As we have already known - this Suunto computer allows us to dive with 2 nitrox gas mixes – it has option of Switching Gas Mixes during a dive. And it is very easy to do – just by using UP or DOWN buttons we select desirable gas mix; after that – press button SELECT, and dive computer sets the mix that you selected and will start all calculations according to the settings of this gas mix.

If PO2 limit of the selected gas mix was exceeded – dive computer wouldn’t allow you to change to that gas mix. It will be shown, of course, but you couldn’t pick it up for selection.

If you exceeded No-Decompression Limits (NDLs) – Suunto Vyper Air dive computer would activate Decompression mode. All data that you will get after that is related to Decompression mode. During decompression you will be prompted to complete one or few decompression stops at a range of depths.

This Suunto dive computer has Continuous Decompression feature that allows us to perform decompression within the certain range of depths, so called Decompression range. 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.

Suunto Vyper Air has everything to manage decompression precisely and safely and I got following data displayed:

• 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), time to surface after ceiling);
• Ceiling depth and correct ceiling range;
• Dive time;
• max depth reached during a dive;
• guiding arrows (for your correct ceiling depth)

When I ascended above indicated ceiling depth even for shortest time – dive computer felt it and gave me a continuous alarm with Error notation and DOWN Arrow on display. I descended right away to correct ceiling depth. If you have the same one day – remember that you have only about 3 minutes to correct you position. That’s why it is recommended to stay a bit lower than exact ceiling depth – not to miss correct ceiling zone for decompression.

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

Suunto Vyper Air: Diving In GAUGE Mode

Another dive mode is a Gauge mode. When Suunto Vyper Air set for Gauge – it will work as a bottom timer and depth gauge only. It doesn’t give us decompression data and it doesn’t monitor ascent rate.

Display looks like the following:

1. current depth;
2. maximum depth reached during a dive;
3. total dive time;
4. Dive Timer display

You may reset Dive Timer during a dive and use it as a Stop Watch. Also you may make bookmarks in Gauge mode.

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One of four operational modes of this dive computer is a Plan Mode. This mode has Dive Planner (PLANnodec) and Dive Simulator (PLANsimulator) sub-modes.

PLANnodec sub-mode allows us to see our next No-Decompression times for particular depths for your next dive, taking into consideration any residual nitrogen you may have from previous dives.
It calculates No-Deco times only for Mix 1. This function is good thing for planning repetitive dives.

PLANsimulator sub-mode will help you to get familiar with Suunto Vyper Air and learn its features and displays quickly! This feature that I particularly love – feels like a very old MS-DOS computer game, brings back to me good memories from the old good times!

It is all easy – this name speaks for itself! You will enter the data into this Suunto dive computer and it shows your virtual dive profile. This function is a really great help to make yourself fluent in using of this computer, I recon you will appreciate this very much!

The last main operational mode of Vyper Air is a Memory Mode. This mode consists of two sub-modes:

1. MEMLogbook;
2. MEMHistory

MEMLogbook stores in memory logs, bookmarks and profiles of approximately 80 hours of dives with 20 seconds sampling rate and its capacity depends on sampling rate that you set. Sampling rate is factory preset for 20 seconds for profiling, but you may set it for 1/10/20/30/60 seconds.
Logbook is very extensive and it has 3 pages of data of your diving activity. To access each page – just press SELECT button.

MEMHistory records and stores a dive history for up to 999 dives and 999 diving hours. It displays data about deepest depth reached, total dive hours and total number of dives.

These two functions above are very similar to other models of dive computers from Suunto, like D4/D6/D9, for example. Only slight difference may be in naming those functions and memory capacity.

After you surfaced and got comfortable somewhere near your PC, you would probably want to download dive profiles from Suunto Vyper Air to you computer. And Suunto has a solution for this! This solution has name Suunto Dive Manager (SDM) and unfortunately it is optional – you need to buy separate CD with software.

Suunto Dive Manager will allow you to download dive data to PC, organize it, plan subsequent dives, view and print your diving profiles. You may visit Suunto website now and then to check for newest version of this program.

There is one more good thing about Suunto Vyper Air - diver can replace the battery. When you do this – dive computer will lose its nitrogen and oxygen loading calculations, and some of the user settings will revert to default, but all your logs and history will remain safe.

Suunto Vyper Air: What Divers Say

After diving with Suunto Vyper Air, I may say that it was reliable and easy to use underwater an on surface – pretty straightforward manuals and operation procedures.

Alarms were clearly heard underwater and display was clearly seen, decompression was performed effortlessly – I really like that feeling that I could rely on this dive computer.

Even I had a compass calibration issues from the beginning, but after about 10 minutes it was up and running – so I think it is not a problem at all.

And software is optional unfortunately – you need to buy it separately, but some shops will give you a nice discount when you buy a complete unit pack.

Other than that – this is another perfect dive computer from Suunto that you can rely on!

Suunto Vyper Air	Dive-Computer-Wizard Rating

So, if you want to have reliable and solid dive computer with wireless air-integration and 2 nitrox gas mixes and with broad range of functions, and want at the same time save some money for other dive gear – try Suunto Vyper Air and invest in complete system (it comes with transmitter and USB PC cable) - you won't be disappointed!