Atomic Aquatics Cobalt Dive Computer

[RonR]

New to scubaboard, question about new Cobalt computer. We bought 2 for wife and I, and on the second dive her's started acting up. About 15min into the dive, did a pressure check and noticed it read 3000psi. It had read just over that on the start of the dive, we knew something was amiss. She buddied with the DM and kept going for a few minutes checking the readout. It actually started going up, then bouncing around. We were only at 20-30 ft so she ended up surfacing early. Looking at the log you can see it starting to act up going as high as 4500psi or so... then bouncing up and down. Maybe at the end it had a good readout...

Anyway, she did the next dive without her DC and used a set of pressure gauges they had on board. It will be going back to the LDS once we get back from St. John (for warranty fix I assume). Kind of bummed but I work on automotive electronics and understand infant mortality issues can pop up. Hope it all turns out well!

That is definitely one that needs to go back to Atomic. Out of thousands of Cobalts in the field, we have had almost no problems with the high pressure sensor, and those few were not displaying pressure at all when the sensor failed entirely. So we really want to see this- it is possibly a part in the circuit that failed after the initial check and calibration at the factory.

Good on your wife for noticing something was amiss with the pressure reading.

One other thought- if somehow the Cobalt got through without being HP calibrated (seems very unlikely, but...), that could explain the erratic pressure readings. PM me if you want instructions on how to check the calibration. It's generally fine to dive the Cobalt without the HP hose attached- no pressure readings, of course, but the computer functions will work.

Ron

 

[citycountryguy]

Ron, or someone, I hope you are out there and can respond quickly--

I am on the first two weeks of three months in Mexico. I have finished about 25 dives on this trip, and my Cobalt has less than 50 dives total. In my second dive today I looked to check my air and the screen was black. I pressed the on button and it popped back on. After a second it began to flicker, then it randomly flickered, turned on and off, and as I ended the dive, it actually came back on at about 25 feet, stayed on for most of the safety stop, and then worked for a while on the boat. When I got back to start writing this this it turned on and worked fine for about five minutes. Then the screen went totally dark, but with random pixels in different colors. Then the screen came back on for a minute, but only showed the "main menu" words--nothing of the actual menu. It then flicked to the dive screen, and now seems to be a brick--there are only a couple of small lines at the very top of the screen.

When the computer was working I saw that it had all the data from my dives still, including the last one, and seemed to have all of the date even if the screen was dark--it was still recording and tracking the dive. That seems odd to me--like it is a screen issue, not a battery issue. If it was a battery flood, it woeven uld have not been recording the dive after the screen went dark, but I know it was, because it took me about 10 more minutes to get out of the water, and when the screen did work for a minute and I checked the log, the time matched my wife's exactly (she is using her Cobalt).

Aside from the fact that I have many more dives planned in the next few days, I will be in Mexico for a while--and have no good way to get the computer back to you--nor do I really want to live without it while I'm here and diving a lot. I have another week on Cozumel before I go to Playa. Needless to say, these are my heaviest diving days right now.

It is not easy to call or even email from here, as there is an hourly charge...I'll check back again soon, but I hope that you can help me with some advice as to what to do. I didn't think the office would be open or phones answered on a Saturday or I would have found a way to call customer service. Please advise...

Thanks.

Michael Bowers

 

[RonR]

Ron, or someone, I hope you are out there and can respond quickly--

<snip>

Aside from the fact that I have many more dives planned in the next few days, I will be in Mexico for a while--and have no good way to get the computer back to you--nor do I really want to live without it while I'm here and diving a lot. I have another week on Cozumel before I go to Playa. Needless to say, these are my heaviest diving days right now.

It is not easy to call or even email from here, as there is an hourly charge...I'll check back again soon, but I hope that you can help me with some advice as to what to do. I didn't think the office would be open or phones answered on a Saturday or I would have found a way to call customer service. Please advise...

Thanks.

Michael Bowers

Michael,

It's difficult to diagnose from a distance- at first I was going to suggest a battery disconnection or leak, but you are correct- if that were the reason the dive would probably not have been logged. If you PM me I can send you a link to instructions for checking the battery, just in case. Evidence points to either a failure in the display power supply, or a leak in the main body electronics, perhaps getting water on the display connector. We will think on it a bit more to see if there are other possibilities for what you describe. In any case, the Cobalt will probably need to be replaced.

Perhaps Atomic can send you a replacement/ demo unit to where you are staying. I know they have done so, with a credit card guarantee, when it was possible. They try very hard to help customers. They will be in Monday morning, I will forward your message to them, I would recommend trying to call them or email as early as possible in the day, as the next day is a holiday.

Really sorry this is happening, it's a very strange failure, particularly on an "experienced" unit. Let me know if there is anything else I can do, and keep me posted.

Ron

 

[ericinmich]

That is definitely one that needs to go back to Atomic. Out of thousands of Cobalts in the field, we have had almost no problems with the high pressure sensor, and those few were not displaying pressure at all when the sensor failed entirely. So we really want to see this- it is possibly a part in the circuit that failed after the initial check and calibration at the factory.

Good on your wife for noticing something was amiss with the pressure reading.

One other thought- if somehow the Cobalt got through without being HP calibrated (seems very unlikely, but...), that could explain the erratic pressure readings. PM me if you want instructions on how to check the calibration. It's generally fine to dive the Cobalt without the HP hose attached- no pressure readings, of course, but the computer functions will work.

Ron

Ron - Thanks for getting back, don't worry about PM'ing any instructions on checking calibration. We're done for the trip and I'll get it back to the LDS that we bought from... or should we do a warranty directly to mfg? It worked fine the first dive (both watching it and looking at the dive log), so not likely an A/D calibration not set up, etc.

It read correctly at the LDS on it's tank, and had a 'normal' profile of pressures while using it during it's first dive. Unfortunately just got unlucky with one.

Mine worked great, loved it. The DMs on the boat looked at it and talked about their units that cost $1000ish 5 years ago vs. how this unit works/displays.

 

[RonR]

Ron - Thanks for getting back, don't worry about PM'ing any instructions on checking calibration. We're done for the trip and I'll get it back to the LDS that we bought from... or should we do a warranty directly to mfg? It worked fine the first dive (both watching it and looking at the dive log), so not likely an A/D calibration not set up, etc.

It read correctly at the LDS on it's tank, and had a 'normal' profile of pressures while using it during it's first dive. Unfortunately just got unlucky with one.

Mine worked great, loved it. The DMs on the boat looked at it and talked about their units that cost $1000ish 5 years ago vs. how this unit works/displays.

Either the LDS or Atomic direct works. Correct that if it worked on the 1st dive calibration is not the issue. At the least it will probably need a new HP sensor. I'm going to be interested to see what caused this, these sensors have been very reliable.

Ron

 

[amlai]

I ran into an interesting problem. I did 2 dives this morning. For some reason, my Surface Time and No Fly Time are both stuck reading 0:00. My surface time read 0:00 between the 2 dives (dove with a backup computer), but I think it's crediting me appropriately for the surface time. Is there a way to fix this? Or is this a 12/31 problem that will resolve itself?

Edit: changing date to 1/1/13 did not seem to fix this Surface Time & No Fly Time problem.

 

[RonR]

I ran into an interesting problem. I did 2 dives this morning. For some reason, my Surface Time and NoFly Time are both stuck reading 0:00. My surface time read 0:00 between the 2 dives (dove with a backup computer), but I think it's crediting me appropriately for the surface time. Is there a way to fix this? Or is this a 12/31 problem that will resolve itself?

Well, there could be a 12/31 problem, depending on your firmware version and the time you were diving- if you are in OZ and already passed into the New Year between dives, say. Cobalt firmware versions between 1.10 and 1.13 won't automatically update the year as they should- newer firmware versions will. But I don't think this could cause the surface interval to not be displaying.

What is your firmware version? And where are you looking for the surface time? It should always show on the Main Menu, but not necessarily in the Post Dive Screen or in the log until you have done another dive, depending on firmware. In new firmware versions (which I hope will go up on the web shortly) we have changed how we display the surface interval for the last dive in the log.

A long time ago we displayed surface time on the Post Dive screen, thinking that a diver would come up from a dive and perhaps keep that screen visible until the next dive. So the "Surface Time" there meant time from when the diver came up from the last dive and would be continually increasing. This was confusing to some and it was decided to not update the surface time on the Post Dive screen- because that meant it would also be counting up (just for the last dive) in the Divelog when you were viewing what is exactly the same screen- while for every other dive but the last this would be the interval between that dive and the previous one. It was confusing, because we used the same term to describe two different things.

Mainly, divers wanted to be able to see and record in their written logs the surface interval between the last dive they just came up from and the previous dive, and we had not given them an easy way to view this. So in newer firmware versions, we have changed how this display is handled. Current surface interval (counting up) is displayed in the Main Menu. In the log, the Surface Time field is always the time between the dive you are viewing and the previous dive.

If you look in the log, does the time and interval between the dives seem correct? And if you look on the Main Menu, is there a surface time since the last dive displayed? Let me know what you see.

Ron

---------- Post added December 31st, 2012 at 04:20 PM ----------

A reminder for Cobalt owners- If you have firmware versions 1.10 to 1.13, these will not update the new year automatically- newer and older firmware versions will. But for these versions, you need to change the year manually for new dives to record with the correct date in the log. This doesn't effect deco calculations, just the storage in the dive log.

I'm hoping our newer firmware versions will be up on the Atomic website very soon, and I encourage everyone to update when they are. There are a number of enhancements in the new firmware, including 90° and 120° bearing marker options for the compass.

Ron

 

[amlai]

I'm running 1.13/2, which I think is the newest currently available via the website.

I'm looking for the surface time and no fly time in the Main Menu.

When I go into the log, and look at the most recent dive, it shows Surface Time 0:00 and No Fly Time 0:00. When I look at the previous dive, it shows Surface Time 46:17 (which sounds correct) and No Fly Time of 12:00 (which make sense as my understanding of the algorithm is that the first dive registers as 12:00 and the 2nd would show 24:00). In the Main Menu, it is still showing Surface Time 0:00 and No Fly Time 0:00.

 

[RonR]

I'm running 1.13/2, which I think is the newest currently available via the website.

I'm looking for the surface time and no fly time in the Main Menu.

When I go into the log, and look at the most recent dive, it shows Surface Time 0:00 and No Fly Time 0:00. When I look at the previous dive, it shows Surface Time 46:17 (which sounds correct) and No Fly Time of 12:00 (which make sense as my understanding of the algorithm is that the first dive registers as 12:00 and the 2nd would show 24:00). In the Main Menu, it is still showing Surface Time 0:00 and No Fly Time 0:00.

Yes, the no fly time after the 1st dive should register as 12 hours on surfacing, after a 2nd it should start at 24 hours, unless the dives were extremely shallow when it might still be 12. Cobalt follows the DAN guidelines in that respect. And the surface time in the Main Menu (but not in the dive log) should count up to the duration of the no fly time, after which the display there would return to zero. The dive log will display surface intervals up to 99 hours. But in 1.13 that would only be true for the next to the last dive.

Is the absolute time of the 2nd (last) dive correct- including the year? Does it display correctly in the dive log list, no dashes that would indicate an incompletely stored dive? And has it been less than a day since the dive? I'd be curious what you see if you change the time and date to be set to just an hour or so after the last dive- it should show (in the Main Menu) what your surface interval would be if that were the correct time.

If you like, you can respond via PM- that might help keep this thread from becoming even more unwieldy.

Ron

 

[Akimbo]

Sorry if I missed it but is the Cobalt download software compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit and Windows RT on the Microsoft Surface? I see Diving Log 5.0 and Touch is happy on both.