Atomic Aquatics Cobalt Dive Computer

[sunnybuns]

I just had to send my new Cobalt 2 in for repairs. Used it for the first time last week and on the very first dive, at around 35 feet, the alarms started sounding. My max depth was only around 90 feet but it registered as 216 ft. Needless to say, I had to rent a computer to use for the rest of all my dives during the week. Looking at all the posts on Scuba Board now, I'm seeing all kinds of complaints about bad pressure sensors starting last year and are still being reported. I didn't get much of an apology from Atomic Aquatics and I'm still waiting to see what the fallout will be once they receive it. My biggest question is wondering why AA didn't issue a recall or at least warn their customers that this was occurring?? I have a Suunto that's over 10 years old and have never had a single issue with it. Yet, AA insists that I send back a $1400 piece of equipment at my own expense AND got no apology for the extra $100 I had to spend for a rental. Can I expect Atomic's customer service to get any better from here or can I expect to blow more money? I'm seeing scary stories about folks having repeat issues with several different units.

 

[RonR]

I'm really sorry you had this experience. What I can tell you is that Atomic got a batch of depth sensors, some of which were damaged in manufacturing. The damage was not apparent the factory test dive, but turned up down the road, in the second, third, or later dives. It resulted in a depth reading that was greater than actual- what you saw. Fortunately not a safety problem, but a massive pain to have an expensive piece of gear fail. The percentage damaged was small, but that's not much help if you got one. Atomic pulled all of these sensors and units from production as soon as it became apparent this was not just an isolated issue. But it took a while to diagnose, and some people early on did just get replacements that developed the same problem. The large majority of even this sensor batch has been problem free, the nature of the problems is such that most were fine,but there is no guarantee that some that may fail are not still in the field. We are still seeing a few come in. I agree that you shouldn't be out extra cash because of a product problem, and you definitely deserve an apology. Have you talked with Atomic directly, or are you going through a dealer?

Every manufacturer who uses this same sensor (lots- probably the most common sensor used for many years), from Suunto to Shearwater, has had some problems. Atomic got hit with a new protective cap the manufacturer started using that really did cause a new and specific failure mode, and unfortunately that batch coincided with the first Cobalt 2 production. The problem has been fixed, and while no part is perfectly free of failures, we should be back to the level that we and other manufacturers have seen in the past. Every Cobalt 2 is now going through multiple test dives in production to ensure the sensors are working as they should.

I hope Atomic gets this turned around for you right away, and that your experiences with the Cobalt from here on are positive. Feel free to contact me if I can be of any help.

-Ron

 

[mikeycanuk]

We had a strange occurrence last month where my wife's Cobalt2's compass just kept spinning around. My Cobalt1 was fine. The river is near to an old iron ore mine, magnetic interference maybe?

 

[RonR]

We had a strange occurrence last month where my wife's Cobalt2's compass just kept spinning around. My Cobalt1 was fine. The river is near to an old iron ore mine, magnetic interference maybe?

Is it doing the same thing in another location? If not, then local interference is probably to blame. The Cobalt 2 compass is more sensitive, and therefore accurate, than the Cobalt 1. If it's doing this generally, it probably needs to be calibrated.

-Ron

 

[mikeycanuk]

Sorry I forgot to mention it's working fine now, just must be really sensitive. It was going round and round.


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[Zeagle Eagle]

Just got back from a dive trip and I noticed there is a little bit of fogging inside the lens of my Cobalt. It works just fine and I downloaded all my dives. It will not charge or at least the charge indicator indicates four lines _ _ _ _ % . It's going back to Atomics today. I hope it is still under warranty.

 

[hitman22]

Dear Ron

Nice meet you. My name is SJ Park, live in Seoul, South Korea now. If you don't mind, I have some several questions about cobalt 2. I bought cobalt 2 computer from my Australia diver friend in last week. The firmware version is 2.13/2 of my cobalt 2 when I get it so I downloaded version 2.26/2 from AA site.After then I tried firmware update(2.13/2 -> 2.26/2), finished successfully now. All function is OK. This 2.26/2 is most recent version for cobalt 2?

My other diver friend used cobalt 2 also now but his cobalt 2 is different with mine a little. His cobalt 2 side rubber label is cobalt 2 but my cobalt 2 side rubber label is cobalt just. Then I ask the reason to AA and Mr. Adan explained some of the earlier Cobalt 2 cases only said "Cobalt" on the sides.

I want to know how can I change recent cobalt 2 side rubber label. Just part change or must need change all housing? Is it possible change by myself? Also how much spend money for change?

Please let me know detail information.

Regards.

Park.

 

[RonR]

Dear Ron

Nice meet you. My name is SJ Park, live in Seoul, South Korea now. If you don't mind, I have some several questions about cobalt 2. I bought cobalt 2 computer from my Australia diver friend in last week. The firmware version is 2.13/2 of my cobalt 2 when I get it so I downloaded version 2.26/2 from AA site.After then I tried firmware update(2.13/2 -> 2.26/2), finished successfully now. All function is OK. This 2.26/2 is most recent version for cobalt 2?

My other diver friend used cobalt 2 also now but his cobalt 2 is different with mine a little. His cobalt 2 side rubber label is cobalt 2 but my cobalt 2 side rubber label is cobalt just. Then I ask the reason to AA and Mr. Adan explained some of the earlier Cobalt 2 cases only said "Cobalt" on the sides.

I want to know how can I change recent cobalt 2 side rubber label. Just part change or must need change all housing? Is it possible change by myself? Also how much spend money for change?

Please let me know detail information.

Regards.

Park.

Hi Park,

There have been a couple of version of the case graphics, some say Cobalt 2, some just Cobalt. The label is molded into the main case body. It is not really possible to change the main case- that would require completely disassembling and essentially re-building all of the parts of the case, and transplanting the circuit board and HP sensors into another case. Since that would disturb all of the seals, it would be necessary to re-test the assembly, so it would be most of the labor of manufacturing another computer.

There will be a new firmware version (2.4) with some improvements available very soon on the Atomic website.

Ron

 

[Graeme_Dubai]

Yes, the computers are wet tested before leaving the factory- but you can't delete any real dives from the dive log. In the dive planning function you can delete saved "simulated" dives from the "sim" dive log, which looks and acts in other respects like the real dive log. That may be what you are referring to. If you push back the protector over the QD fitting you will see that it is a separate fitting attached to a standard HP hose end. It's no problem to shift it to another hose. I'm not familiar with the Zagg screen protectors, but I can say that the ones included with the Cobalt have held up well in field testing. I'll check them out.

I see here that dive log entries cannot be deleted and this is a problem for me.

I have 45 dives in my new Cobalt 2, but dive log entry number 13 is corrupted. I know it is corrupted because the log entry has no name, only dashes, I am not able to view the log entry or dive 13 profile on the Cobalt, and when I use any software to download the dives from the Cobalt to my laptop i can downloads dives 1-12 but then when it hits dive 13, the Cobalt screen goes blank and I have to restart it using a back+select hold. No other dives records are downloaded. tried this with the Atomic Aqauatics Divelog program (when it hits dive 13 the program also aborts windows) and I tried it with Subsurface for windows and that crashes after 12 dives are DL'd

Clearly I would like to delete log entry 13. Is there a manual way to do this, or to clear the log?

Thanks

Graeme

 

[RonR]

Graeme,


Can you tell me what firmware version is running on this Cobalt? The dive log software should just skip over a dive with corrupted data and download the rest, it’s surprising that you are seeing this and we would like to understand what’s going on.

Do you know why the dive was corrupted? This can happen, for instance, if the Cobalt runs out of battery while diving and is unable to finish a dive.


The way the Cobalt’s data is structured there is only the option to completely clear the log, we don’t have the ability to delete single dives. I’m going to PM you with some suggestions, and instructions for completely clearing the log- hopefully that won't be necessary.


-Ron