While diving in Palau during June 2024 another diver in our group had a Mk3 with T2 transmitter update the T2 transmitter in the middle of a dive. NOT GOOD!
We had 22 divers on the trip and several of us were either using the Mk3/T2 combo or the Mk2/T1 combo. I was personally using both a Mk3 and a Mk2 with a T2 transmitter. I have owned the Mk2/T1 combo for almost three years, so am very familiar with it. I purchased the Mk3/T2 combo about a month before the Palau trip.
Garmin, I love your Mk3 watch/computer's new screen, better battery life and built in light, but myself and several others in our dive group were very disappointed with performance problems while on the dive trip. I believe the Mk3/T2 combo was rushed out for sale to quickly without sufficient beta and regression testing.
I made the above assertion based on;
- My brand new Mk3 arriving dead on arrival and having to have a new one sent to me by tech support.
- The incident of the Mk3 updating the T2 transmitter in the middle of a dive.
- NUMEROUS problems trying to get the T2 to sync up with the Mk3 or Mk2 while on the surface.
The syncing problem only occurred on the surface and tank pressures could be obtained once underwater using the sonar connectivity. Only two of seven divers on our support boat with Gamins were sharing their tank pressures and the syncing problem wasn't as bad when we had fewer than seven transmitters in the support boat. It's a real pain when you can't get tank pressure on a new tank while doing a surface interval in your support boat. I won't go through all the numerous things we checked and tried to get transmitters to sync up in writing but would be happy to discuss it with a Garmin rep on the phone.
Suffice it to say, there were several divers in our group who were very unhappy with Garmin and a few who were contemplating buying a Mk3 who changed their minds when they saw us fighting to get transmitters synced up prior to diving.