A backup computer or dive tables.
I have not had any problems with my Cobalt other than the "known" issue of changing the year. However, it was utterly useless for 4 dives. I have a Oceanic B.U.D. When I saw the Cobalt go into Deco so quickly, I knew there was something wrong, so I immediately referenced my B.U.D., completed the dive and continued with the 3 other dives for the day.
My issue is that this was clearly a known issue in the firmware and no update was provided prior to 12/31/2012. I received no communication from Atomic that this was a known issue and that I should be aware of it. I used a $199 dive computer to save the day because my $1,200 computer had an error that the company decided was not an issue important enough to fix in the 7 months I owned the computer.
I had nearly the exact same experience on a dive several weeks ago, when the Cobalt my wife was diving jumped straight into deco on the first dive of the new year. She was understandably concerned about why her trusty computer that she loved so much was suddenly behaving very strangely, but I remembered the firmware bug and just told her to remain above me and we'd dive the Cobalt's pressure for her and my Petrel's NDLs for the both of us.
Fixing the date topside fixed the issue, but from a company like Atomic and with a product like the $1200 Cobalt I expect a lot more than 'oops, yeah, there's a workaround for our year-old bug.' Similarly, the firmware update situation for Mac has been delay after delay after delay. Errors are to be expected, but year long delays to get it right are never, ever acceptable. If you have to release something that works on 95% of Mac systems after a couple months, rather than making everyone wait forever, so be it. To give credit where it's well and truly due, on the hardware side of things, Atomic's service has always been great and the Cobalt is no exception. If something's wrong, they'll just make it right.
Now my Cobalt is off for repair due to its flooding during a recent deep dive where it was a backup, and I'm honestly not sure I'm going to keep diving it when it comes back. I recently grabbed a VPM-enabled OC Predator for an amazing price, and plan to use it as a backup for my deco dives/a second computer for when diving with the wife. She likes the Cobalt's U/I a lot, but likes her computer to work more. I like the Cobalt's U/I a lot, but like something simple enough for her and more flexible for me to use as a backup more.
To be clear, although it recently returned from Atomic after getting its buttons fixed and recall checked, I have no concerns about the reliability of the Cobalt itself. Despite some annoyances (alarms that cannot be silenced, no "expert mode" to allow for on the fly gas definition) that have become more glaring the less recreational diving I do, I still think it is hands down the best designed dive computer interface on the market. It
could be amazing for tech diving with a firmware addition to give the diver more control over the computer's behavior during a dive.
