leaving optima 2 on

[tred 0]

have always jumped a helmet with my audible visible and would manually turn it on before jumping, now I have a G3 so it is hidden. in then manual it implies that if i just let the audible go into stand by mode after 14 hrs it will still be ready to jump. am I understanding this correctly? do most people with g3's just leave audible on stand by and will it drain the battery quicker?

[mathrick 2]

I don't have an Optima, but I do have a Pro-Dytter. Now it turns out that Pro-Dytter had two distinct revisions, and the second added the ability to switch to what they call "econo-mode" (essentially what Optima does standard) and turn it off. First gen hardware, which is what I have, has no such ability and is always on. They advertise battery life of at least a year in such a setup, and I've been using mine for a couple of months (since mid-May I think?) after installing working batteries. No problems so far other than the slight annoyance of having to manage your luggage carefully during flights so that it doesn't end up in carry-on and go off during landing scaring the shit out of fellow passengers. So whatever is the case for the Optima, I don't expect it to be less efficient in standby than the old Pro-Dytter which didn't even have dedicated standby.

"Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

[grantunderland 0]

I haven't had any issues in ~900 jumps on mine. But I do try to turn it off and on before each jumping day just to make sure it still knows where zero is. It seems after time, likely with weather/density alt. changes, it can go off 100-300 feet high/low. It's a small amount and shouldn't be a big deal, but I don't like hearing a beep and seeing 4.3k on my visual

[BigMikeH77 0]

I've owned both the OptimaII and SoloII. When dormant but powered on, the unit takes a pressure measurement once every x seconds. Once a significant change in pressure is detected it starts taking measurements at 30 times a second (or something close to that). So if you leave your audible on, it's more like a standby mode.

For good measure, I try to remember to always turn mine off at the end of the day or once I get home. Listen for the LoBatt warning beeps on the ride up to signal to you that it's time for a replace.

The L&B manuals can be found HERE, if you need.

[tred 0]

so if left on standby mode I don't need to physically turn it back on? it will turn itself back on when climbing to altitude and remain accurate?

[BigMikeH77 0]

If you simply don't turn off the audible, it will go into standby mode (as it were) that continues to measure barometric pressure, but at a greatly slower rate, until it detects you are in an aircraft again and on your way up. At that time, it becomes active again and retains the last settings used. This is true for both the OptimaII and SoloII.

It's always a good idea to check your audible settings as a part of your pre-jump gear checks and to know what those beeps on the way up mean, too

[tred 0]

thanks for info!

[maggyrider 10]

I use a Solo II audible in my helmet. I never turn it off - not even during longer jump breaks and battery runtime is usually around 1.5 years (actually never had it run completely empty). The audible gets used a lot when I jump as I do around 500 jumps per year. At the same time I have to say, that I do most of my jumps at one dropzone and my helmet and audible are usually stored there.

Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.