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jstratfan

3rd Viso in 5 months. Guess I'm N3 bound.

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In a span of roughly 5 months, I've had 3 Visos go belly up on me. The first crapped out on exit. The second one went crazy just after landing. The third and most recent was actually L&B's newest alti, the Ares. It locked up just before the plane took off never reading climb up or decent. It had 6 jumps on it. My audible was with me for all of them and worked flawlessly (guess I'll be setting those low speed chimes now) so I'm not completely anti-L&B but three altis in a few months is ridiculous.

So I guess the N3 is my next best option? Anything I should know about the N3 before I go that route? Due to their popularity I really want to give L&B one more chance but they've had enough chances already. Any other options I should consider?

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maybe you an exorcist.

Did you let other people try your Viso's ?

Sometimes people don't go well with some electronics.
I had a Watch which would stop when I wore it, but worked perfectly when I left it on the table.
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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if you're unhappy, wait until you get an N3.

more often than not, i keep finding myself jumping my first altimeter. the battery on the N3 is a total piece of shit.

and if you want to use it for anything other than logging your jumps, you're not finished spending money, or you go throgh the trouble of navigating through the shitty menues.
“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

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N3 sucks.

Visos are backed by L&B guarantee. For those Viso and Opimum that was cracking, I was issued a brand new ones with brand new battery after years usage, after 1000s of jumps.

If you wanna go different route, you can use Suunto. That's what I use, it is the cheapest and yet you can actually wear them everywhere.

This is the first L&B bashing post that I've ever seen in my 10 years of dorkzone.com experience. That should say something. L&B stands behind their product.

I'm pretty sure, they make some faulty sht every once a while, and you happened to pick up all 3 of them. Have you tried contacting L&B at all or did you end up just buying one after the other?
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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You could consider getting the older neptune 2 (used). Find one that has been treated well, you'll get it a whole lot cheaper than the N3 and put the armor case on it. I bought a used one and it is still like new 2 years later.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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jstratfan

In a span of roughly 5 months, I've had 3 Visos go belly up on me. The first crapped out on exit. The second one went crazy just after landing. The third and most recent was actually L&B's newest alti, the Ares. It locked up just before the plane took off never reading climb up or decent. It had 6 jumps on it. My audible was with me for all of them and worked flawlessly (guess I'll be setting those low speed chimes now) so I'm not completely anti-L&B but three altis in a few months is ridiculous.

So I guess the N3 is my next best option? Anything I should know about the N3 before I go that route? Due to their popularity I really want to give L&B one more chance but they've had enough chances already. Any other options I should consider?



Were any of those exposed to magnets? I had a teammate that had a atiltrak keep breaking due to close proximity to slider magnets.

The N3 is solid. Battery lasts a good while and the menus are easy to navigate. If you use it to log jumps, it will start to screw up (miss log things seemingly at random) past 80 IME.

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lyosha

I've had my N3 do lots of funky stuff. One time it went to 2500 ft when I was at 1000 ft and proceeded to go down to 1000 ft at roughly freefall speed.

If you want something that won't glitch out on you, use an analog altimeter.




Yeah because analogs never have problems?? Big difference between digital and analog is you know when a digital goes to shit. An analog might look ok but be 1000s' of feet off.

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sundevil777

You could consider getting the older neptune 2 (used). Find one that has been treated well, you'll get it a whole lot cheaper than the N3 and put the armor case on it. I bought a used one and it is still like new 2 years later.




Alti has said they will stop servicing and making parts for the neptune.

http://www.alti-2.com/content.php?300-NEPTUNE-NEPTUNE-2-END-OF-LIFE-ANNOUNCEMENT

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jtiflyer

***I've had my N3 do lots of funky stuff. One time it went to 2500 ft when I was at 1000 ft and proceeded to go down to 1000 ft at roughly freefall speed.

If you want something that won't glitch out on you, use an analog altimeter.




Yeah because analogs never have problems?? Big difference between digital and analog is you know when a digital goes to shit. An analog might look ok but be 1000s' of feet off.

I can do you one better...two month old analog had the needle pop off the spindle in freefall. Good times.

Manufactured things are good but can do funny things. Get one that works for you. Shit happens.

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I bought all three thru Rock Sky Market so they handled all returns. If you've never purchased anything from RSM, do it. They are phenomenal but because of that, I have never dealt specifically with L&B's customer service although I have only heard good things about them.

All of the malfunctions happened at different times during a typical skydive: First time= immediately after exit. Viso read 14.4 when I left the plane but first check showed 0 and buttons didn't work. Second= landed, picked up chute, walking back to the hangar and started hearing a beeping sound. Alti worked fine for free fall and canopy descent but heading back inside pissed it off. Third= Cessna ride up, glanced at it during take off, display was normal (always takes a couple seconds to start reading), after a couple minutes I looked again and the time/date disappeared and the dash that separates the hours and minutes was blinking, buttons didn't work. Stayed that way thru free fall and canopy. Sent it back just like that so RSM could see what was going on. My L&B audible was with me for all three jumps and works perfectly.

I *really* want to give a Viso one more try but I'll feel like an idiot if the fourth one mucks up (how many times will it take me to learn my lesson??).

Definitely don't want to go back to the analog brick either...

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jstratfan

I bought all three thru Rock Sky Market so they handled all returns. If you've never purchased anything from RSM, do it. They are phenomenal but because of that, I have never dealt specifically with L&B's customer service although I have only heard good things about them.

All of the malfunctions happened at different times during a typical skydive: First time= immediately after exit. Viso read 14.4 when I left the plane but first check showed 0 and buttons didn't work. Second= landed, picked up chute, walking back to the hangar and started hearing a beeping sound. Alti worked fine for free fall and canopy descent but heading back inside pissed it off. Third= Cessna ride up, glanced at it during take off, display was normal (always takes a couple seconds to start reading), after a couple minutes I looked again and the time/date disappeared and the dash that separates the hours and minutes was blinking, buttons didn't work. Stayed that way thru free fall and canopy. Sent it back just like that so RSM could see what was going on. My L&B audible was with me for all three jumps and works perfectly.

I *really* want to give a Viso one more try but I'll feel like an idiot if the fourth one mucks up (how many times will it take me to learn my lesson??).

Definitely don't want to go back to the analog brick either...



I have had the 0 reading and the dashes before. L&B replaces them no problem.

Only problem I have had with the N3 is the logbook screwing itself up. The battery lasts weeks on a single charge. Alti recently release an elastic wrist band for it as well.

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jtiflyer

***You could consider getting the older neptune 2 (used). Find one that has been treated well, you'll get it a whole lot cheaper than the N3 and put the armor case on it. I bought a used one and it is still like new 2 years later.




Alti has said they will stop servicing and making parts for the neptune.

http://www.alti-2.com/content.php?300-NEPTUNE-NEPTUNE-2-END-OF-LIFE-ANNOUNCEMENT

Yes, but if it just keeps working like it has. I don't care about logging functions, so I figure it will last longer if I avoid pushing any buttons and just let it do it job without stressing anything by pushing on it.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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i love my n3. had it for 5 years or so now, no issues. i love the rechargeable battery. i keep a lipstick recharging battery thing in my car for those times i forget to charge it at home, gets enough juice on the ride up to last at least the day, usually more.
"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

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I had always used L & B's products because they worked and because of their exceptional customer service.

So when my Optima quit working, I mailed it back to L & B. They sent it back with a note that says in part; "Old model Pro-Dytter, Pro-Tracks that are more than two years old, first generation SOLO, OPTIMA and VISO will no longer be repaired/replaced/upgraded."

I bought a used N2. It does everything I need it to do; beep at 5,000 feet AGL. If it dies, I'l probably go back to having nothing again.

Derek V

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Hooknswoop

I had always used L & B's products because they worked and because of their exceptional customer service.

So when my Optima quit working, I mailed it back to L & B. They sent it back with a note that says in part; "Old model Pro-Dytter, Pro-Tracks that are more than two years old, first generation SOLO, OPTIMA and VISO will no longer be repaired/replaced/upgraded."

I bought a used N2. It does everything I need it to do; beep at 5,000 feet AGL. If it dies, I'l probably go back to having nothing again.

Derek V




I'm starting to think L&B has decided that they can no longer afford the generous repair and replacement policies they were once known for. It's probably because we are now in an era of cheap semi-disposable poorly made offshore plastic crap product with a two year life cycle.

Which would be alright except that they still price the product at a retail price that should demand quality. L&B clearly is resting upon their laurels and no longer is interested in providing value for the money they charge. They are basically selling cheap plastic crap for Rolex prices. It's time for some real competition in this market.
Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

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I've only had bad experiences of L&B. I had always heard of there golden reputation, magically replacing any slightly faulty device so they had all the money I could throw at them (for skydiving electronics :-).

What a disappointment! I'm lucky to even get a reply on any courteous emails I send them. I've had a cracked viso - wanted to charge for repair despitek nown issue. A protrack with battery issues, no reply. A dead pro dytter - said to bin it, and a faulty protrack - they asked the date of purchase, then never even replied to me.

I mean I think it's bloody rude when they can't even reply to an email telling you they're sorry but they won't replace / repair your goods.

L&B stuff is alright. I never understand why protrack is so bloody expensive, but badly needs an update for usability - and it doesn't have cnaopy alarms forcing buying another audible. The viso is nice, but prone to cracking, and an even worse menu system than a protrack, takes a genius and a manual.

Big let down.

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I like the N3A, solid piece of equipment, I have no clue what ill do once it craps out, since they no longer produce it.
my last venture with L&B was fairly expensive. I had to send a viso back to Denmark. tracked and insured shipping to Denmark is NOT cheap!!! over $40!!!
seems like quite a few people have issues with the viso, im on my 3rd one.
Flock University FWC / ZFlock
B.A.S.E. 1580
Aussie BASE 121

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I like my viso but it has a cracked screen and the logbook features have started going haywire. (Holding the middle button down used to tell me how many jumps I've done in a day but now it displays a random number.)

My protrack has started randomly beeping (every few seconds) and keeps turning off. I've resorted to jumping with it in my pocket because it wouldn't shut up.

I'll let you know how communication with L&B goes...

The thing that grips me is that I need three devices (Viso, Protract, Optima) to achieve the following:

1) Audible with canopy alarms
2) Digital alti
3) Jump logging with cumulative freefall count (a working viso would log jumps but I'd still have to add them all up every weekend)

They need to add the features of the protrack into the optima or viso.

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hodges



The thing that grips me is that I need three devices (Viso, Protract, Optima) to achieve the following:

1) Audible with canopy alarms
2) Digital alti
3) Jump logging with cumulative freefall count (a working viso would log jumps but I'd still have to add them all up every weekend)



I actually found at on point I don't mind having those three gadgets. The more redundant systems I have the less likely it is that all of them are going to fail. And also less likely that I forget all of them :) I actually think about adding another viso to one of my jumpsuitlegs as it is easier to read under canopy without having to look away from my spot/traffic.
I do understand your point, though. It would be a lot easier to have an all in one sollution.
I like the added safety
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To absent friends

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