Is the Dive computer cable anything special?

[Brtobin2578]

I am looking at getting a dive computer and have noticed that the cable that connect to the PC is around 50 bucks. Is there anything special about this cable? Are the fittings a standard fitting like mini USB, that you could maybe use a normal computer cable? Did they make a special fitting just so you would have to buy the special cable? Thanks for the input

[NitroWill]

Most of them have a chip inside the cable that helps translate some of the data during download - so unfortunately for most cables there's no getting around it

[fireflock]

You can find DIY cables for some of the more popular Suunto and Uwatec computers. Google around a bit and you'll find instructions.

As far as I can tell, cables must be viewed as a profit center or something. Some are crazy expensive (almost as much as a ReefNet Sensus) and I hear frequent complaints about the quality of the software.

Rich

[mitsuguy]

what brand do you have?

the Aeris / Oceanic downloader is a usb to serial adapter with some sort of logic chip in it for communication...

some of the others have been duplicated, but some not so easy or cheaply...

[thor]

I have an Aeris and tried for another, cheaper, solution, to no avail. I waited a long time to buy the cable b/c I thought it was ridiculous to spend that much on a cable. My solution was to use the $50 gift certificate from ST to buy the cable. Problem solved.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by thor

I have an Aeris and tried for another, cheaper, solution, to no avail. I waited a long time to buy the cable b/c I thought it was ridiculous to spend that much on a cable. My solution was to use the $50 gift certificate from ST to buy the cable. Problem solved.

yup... a friend hooked me up at the LDS, so I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet too...

[Damselfish]

I bought a 3rd party cable for my Suunto Vyper off eBay from some guy that was mentioned on SB. Much cheaper then OEM and works fine. I can try and dig up the name if someone cares.

(The Suunto software definitely does suck.)

[DarinMartell]

I just got a Oceanic Veo 180, if anyone can point me at a good third party interface I would appreciate it.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by DarinMartell

I just got a Oceanic Veo 180, if anyone can point me at a good third party interface I would appreciate it.

I have looked and looked, and the only thing I found was someone who designed a USB to serial adapter, and programmed their own logic chip... by the time he was done, he was about $10 from just buying the regular cable...

buy the OE cable and be done with it...