V Planner info

[ian Price]

Hi all

I have just purchased a copy of V planner for my PDA, which is good! seems very good infact.

However, I have not used V planner that much before and it seems to be giving me extremely conservative profiles. Certainly compared with some of the bulmhan and IANTD tables Ive been using.

I think its currently on a VPMb +2 setting.

has anyone got any informed advice, I currently am not sure if it is me thats got it set too high or if Ive been shaving deco times and have got away with it because Ive only being doing small amounts of deco..

Like most people Im not looking for what gets me out of the water first, but at the same time I want to be practicable.

I would be greatful for help and or hints at getting the best out of V planner.

Ian

[rossh]

Hello Ian,
The most common setting in use is +2. The transition from NDL to deco is a broad area, and most can skip over some time. The times in VPM-B in this area are a little longer than older methods, however the repeat factor is less also. Once you venture into longer and deeper deco, with deep stops you should find VPM-B will give a quicker run time.

Regards

[ian Price]

Hi thanks Ross

I appreciate all the help and advice you can give!

Ian

[Mark Chase]

Having attempted to set my computer to mimic tables by IANTD, PADI and BSAC and found them to be pretty aggressive. I use Decoplanner and Vplanner and often find Vplanner on +2 is less conservative than my Decoplanner set to 20/80GF's. I am building up a feel for Vplanner at the moment as I will be moving over to it for CCR diving in the very near future. I am inclined to put it on +3 to mimic my more conservative approach to deco but I will start off on +2 and see how I feel.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Mark Chase]

As a comparison Decoplanner planned dive on 18/40 back gas to 60m for 40mins using 32% and 80% for deco on a 20/80GF gives a total of 90mins with a hang at 6m for 52 mins

The same dive on Vplanner +2 gives 69mins deco with a 6m hang of 34mins

That’s 21mins less deco using Vplanner??

To get Decoplanner to match the deco time I have to set it to 20/100GF

A tad on the worrying side for me but I will give it a go an see how I feel. If I feel crap I will keep moving up the safety ladder till I don’t any more

ATB

Mark Chase

[rossh]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

As a comparison Decoplanner planned dive on 18/40 back gas to 60m for 40mins using 32% and 80% for deco on a 20/80GF gives a total of 90mins with a hang at 6m for 52 mins
The same dive on Vplanner +2 gives 69mins deco with a 6m hang of 34mins
That’s 21mins less deco using Vplanner??
To get Decoplanner to match the deco time I have to set it to 20/100GF
A tad on the worrying side for me but I will give it a go an see how I feel. If I feel crap I will keep moving up the safety ladder till I don’t any more
ATB
Mark Chase

Hi Mark,

They wont line up anywhere as they are different. They cross paths in some places, but that's just coincidence. NDL's are close, as are dives with just a few mins deco, but thats about it.

Your bubble model (VPM-B) plan has a first stop at 40m, whilst your Bulhman G/F will start at just half that. The benefit of deep stops is distinct here, and you can enjoy the improved deco later in the dive (much reduced bubbling getting into the shalow zone).

If it makes your feel any better, I will be doing a dive onto the Jodrey tomorrow with that depth and almost that bottom time (using 50 and 100 for deco). Every weekend 20 to 40 divers do this ship, and 75% have V-Planner or similar on the slate.

If your not confident, work into it the swap slowly by making an overlap of both plans, and then cut back the shallow time over a few dives. Feel it out for yourself.

Regards

[Mark Chase]

They wont line up anywhere as they are different. They cross paths in some places, but that's just coincidence. NDL's are close, as are dives with just a few mins deco, but thats about it.

Your bubble model (VPM-B) plan has a first stop at 40m, whilst your Bulhman G/F will start at just half that. The benefit of deep stops is distinct here, and you can enjoy the improved deco later in the dive (much reduced bubbling getting into the shallow zone).

Hi Ross

Don’t get me wrong I appreciate there is a totally different approach using VPM which is why I am willing to give it a go. When I started using Deco planner had it set to the standard 35/85 and I worked back from there to a 20/80 profile. Now on 60m+ dives or 120min + run times I use 20/80GF. On shallower / shorter dives I would look at more aggressive GF's rightly or wrongly in the belief that these sort of dives put less stress on the body and the margins for error are greater. Despite being a GUE product the Deco planner gives quite a loading on deco for use of He rich mix. I am falling into the camp that believes lots of He is a good thing as long as you use high PP02's late in the deco. As a result I am leaning towards using more aggressive profiles with deeper stops for He rich diving. My early development with Deco planner was diving 30-40m deco dives on Nitrox. Having settled on the 20-80 GF based on empirical data from these shallow deco dives I stuck with it into deeper diving.

Now I think my basis is wrong and I should stick with the 20/80 on shallow Nitrox dives and look at 10/100GF or VPM type deco for deeper He rich diving. This is obviously based on my belief that I can off gas He more efficiently using rich 02 mix for deco.

As for field testing the Vplaner that will start when the box gets here. Trials at the moment are all computer based but it is scary when you have learnt to trust a system and the new one even set to level 4 safety is still 10mins quicker out of the water?? It’s a bit of a leap of faith but the fact that many people dive and trust VPM doing my type of diving is as you say, encouraging.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Drmike]

I had the same worry when I first started using VPM, it gave much shorter deco than other models and tables and I assumed that it was less conservative - it isnt - it just handles the deco using a different strategy so why should the times be the same?


As Ross will tell you it takes a different approach to Buhlman (and the tables that use Buhlman) and the deco curve is different.

From my experience on trimix CCR dives in 50 - 100m range VPM-B is far superior to anything else and I always get out the water feeling great - the same cant be said for other deco models Ive used.

For CCR Trimix dives VPM-B will usually give you shorter last stops than Buhlman but will add more deep stops - until you grow to trust its apparent conservatism why not do what I first did and that's use VPM-B but with Buhlman shallow stops. That will be more conservative than just using Buhlman and you get the benefit of VPM-B curve and deep stops. After a while once you feel comfortable you can cut back on the shallow stop padding until your on pure VPM-B.

Once you go on to VPM-b there's no going back!

[Tim Ingmire]

Hi Ross,

whats the chances of getting v-planner for the palm?

Tim

[rossh]

Originally Posted by Timing

Hi Ross,
whats the chances of getting v-planner for the palm?
Tim

Tim,

The palm version is on the way - no date yet though.