Atomic Aquatics Cobalt Dive Computer

[entropy]

Ron,

Thanks for the quick and thorough answers to my questions. Just thought of a follow up. Can I use the 'USB" side and inside of plugging into a computer plug the terminal usb into a plug to AC converter that goes into the wall; meaning usb on one side and wall prongs on the other. I have a number of these for other electronics.

I am traveling to Indonesia where they have 220, I assume that will not be a problem?

Thanks for your time. Lydia

 

[RonR]

Ron,

Thanks for the quick and thorough answers to my questions. Just thought of a follow up. Can I use the 'USB" side and inside of plugging into a computer plug the terminal usb into a plug to AC converter that goes into the wall; meaning usb on one side and wall prongs on the other. I have a number of these for other electronics.

I am traveling to Indonesia where they have 220, I assume that will not be a problem?

Thanks for your time. Lydia

You can plug the USB into any USB charger, including car or solar chargers. It will only put in a max of 500 mA when connected through USB (USB standard) so it's slower to charge with than with the A/C charger. The A/C charger included works with 220 volt systems as well.

Ron

 

[RonR]

I need to issue another heads up to all the Cobalt users out there. We have discovered an error in our date display checking routine for leap year, and 2012 is a leap year. The Cobalt knows there is a February 29th in 2012, however an error in the internal date checking :blush:will prevent Feb. 29th from actually displaying. The result will be that February 28th repeats- and if you saw the movie Ground Hog Day you know how this goes. This will keep happening unless you do one of two things:
1) You manually set the date to March 1 or later in the Set Time/ Date screen.
2) You update the Cobalt's firmware to version 1.17, which should be available on the Atomic Website shortly.


In addition to fixing the error in leap year display, this new version contains minor bug fixes and several enhancements. Changes to versions prior to 1.13 are shown on the Atomic website. In 1.17:

• Per user requests, the time of day will display in the Dive Screen, alternating with temperature.
• The Dive Log Profile display is modified to expand and improve scaling of the profiles.
• Continuous scrolling is implemented in the Dive Log. Holding the UP to DOWN button will advance the cursor rapidly through the dive profile.

In other news, we are continuing to try to come up with a firmware update program for Mac Lion that works on all systems. So far, though we still are finding some Macs that can't seem to make the updater work.

Ron

 

[MattVig]

Mahalo (Thanks) Ron!

While on the subject of dates, has anyone else noticed that their Cobalt didn't change years? Mine didn't and I never realized it until just the other day when I downloaded all my dives. I was diving in French Polynesia over Christmas and my last dive there was on 12/29/2011. After returning home I didn't end up diving again until 21 Jan and then I dove 3 more times after that. When I downloaded all my dives the other day I noticed that the dive numbers for my latest dives appeared at the top of the list of dives, prior to dive 1 (test dive in computer at time of purchase). I thought it was the logbook software, but then I looked at the date / time on my computer and realized it was still showing 2011. Since I never changed time zones on my trip I never even thought to look at the date after returning. I'm running firmware version 1.12/1, which I had been on since I left for my trip before Christmas, so it's not like a firmware update caused this to happen between then and now.

I guess my real question is whether or not there is anything I can do about this now other than setting the time / date on my computer to the correct values, which I have done already. Is there ANY way to modify the dates of dives in the computer? I created a new user in the logbook, downloaded all my dives again into it, and then exported the dive log to an Access Database, within which I was able to modify the dates in the table, but I'm sure those will be wiped out (or worse, cause an error) the next time I download the dives into that user. What are my options, if any???

 

[Dr. Lecter]

In 1.17:

• Per user requests, the time of day will display in the Dive Screen, alternating with temperature.

Per your earlier comment, this change in the display is a user-selectable option, right? Speaking only for myself, I already own a nice dive watch and am not interested in having a non-critital piece of information "alternating" on my computer's screen.

 

[RonR]

Mahalo (Thanks) Ron!

While on the subject of dates, has anyone else noticed that their Cobalt didn't change years? ...<snip>
I guess my real question is whether or not there is anything I can do about this now other than setting the time / date on my computer to the correct values, which I have done already. Is there ANY way to modify the dates of dives in the computer? <snip>

Yes, that's the other date error, it was in some firmware versions. We did have a notice here, but I don't think a general emailing was done- as I hope will be with this leap year issue.

We are testing a way to fix the dates in computers where they were stored with the wrong year. PM me and I'll keep you updated. It will involve sending the Cobalt to us, as it will need to have a kind of memory transplant. But it should be possible to correct.

Ron

 

[RonR]

Per your earlier comment, this change in the display is a user-selectable option, right? Speaking only for myself, I already own a nice dive watch and am not interested in having a non-critital piece of information "alternating" on my computer's screen.

In 1.17 it just alternates fairly slowly with the temperature. We may put in a user selectable preference in a future version, the tradeoff is having so many options that the interface gets complex. But a surprising (to me) number of users really wanted to be able to see the time of day. Let me know what you think- users so far have not thought it was distracting.

Ron

 

[Dr. Lecter]

That's... unwelcome. Guess I'll just avoid updating the firmware until Atomic figures out that foisting mandatory display changes on the computer isn't a terribly bright idea.

 

[ogroeten]

Temperature and time are both less importantiInformations during a dive. Esp. temperature is only interesting and I'm perhaps curious about it. But it is more relevant to know about the temperature BEFORE diving to choose the right undersuit. During dive it is regardless if its 10° or 15°. As soon as I feel cold, I'll end the actual dive and warm up.

Time is more useful to me, since we use Dive-Rosters with pre-planned exit times. If we aren't out of water within time, some rescue procedures will get initiated. Of course a diving watch will do the same job, but: There are not many dives without my Cobalt but much more without my Luminox dive watch.

Since everyone has other requests it is best to use alternating temperature and time. There are no mandatory but less important data alternating. I'll prefer the display of time now and then. On other occasions I'm curious about temperature.

I've seen this change on a test event in Egypt last December. I much appreciate this change.

 

[nelsonrl]

V1.17 does not appear to be downloading just yet. I just tried to do an update and when I pressed the "get latest version" button, I got 1.13 again. Am I missing something?