Atomic COBALT : WORST DIVE COMPUTER EVER !

[free_electron]

My first one flooded after 31 dives. It died mid-dive at 100 feet...i had to ship it back , at my expense, to have it replaced. i had to scrub 2 days of diving waiting so i could start with another computer. ( i do 4-5 dives a day so i needed to desat completely. had no idea where i was nitrogen and oxygen wise. It died first dive of the day)

The second one got recalled because the lens could blow off.
The third one is bricked.

I just tried to do the firmware update. It is stuck in 'Connect to PC' screen and waiting for the software... i am supposed to go diving in 2 hours. (equipment check before my upcoming trip.


I am going on a 3 week dive trip . Frankly speaking i have lost all trust in this machine. What if it bombs out on me again in the upcoming trip ? Do i need to buy a backup computer ? If so , will Atomics pay for it (since theirs are flaky) ?

This is NOT acceptable. 1220$ + shipping costs, wasted dives , wasted time.

"Before atomics there was no best" .. yeah right...

I am livid !​

-edit-

After following the procedure to disconnect the battery the machine came back to life. i did not attempt another software update as i had 30 minutes before diving...

---------- Post added May 25th, 2013 at 11:10 AM ----------


Aaaand i'm back from the dive. Guess what. it died AGAIN. Does not register depth. i'm sitting at 12 feet and it just turns off underwater. Both backups i was carrying properly registered.

So what do we do next ... I have three weeks before my trip.

 

[Downing]

Contact RonR on this board asap. He was in on the design and has been a great resource for issues like yours. He posts both here and on the "Computers" board.

I feel for you. It really sucks to have ongoing issues like this.

 

[free_electron]

Contact RonR on this board asap. He was in on the design and has been a great resource for issues like yours. He posts both here and on the "Computers" board.

I feel for you. It really sucks to have ongoing issues like this.

I have Ron's information. He is indeed extremely responsive. I also got in touch with Atomic this morning and they will do an RMA no questions asked. Ron walked me through a test procedure and we could confirm that the depth sensor is indeed defective or has leaked water as the millibar reading fluctuate wildly .

I do need to say that atomic stands behind their product. But i am still pissed off because these are things that should not happen. Plenty a company has been building dive computers for years. No water leaks. This machine is sold under the premises of a rechargeable battery. You never need to open it to swap batteries so you never risk flooding it due to an improperly replaced seal... except the seals out of factory are so bad it floods itself or it blows its cover off... and if somethings goes wrong you need to open it to disconnect and reconnect the battery ... breaking the seal that you never had to break ...

These may be 'teething problems' as this is the first computer Atomic has built. Nevertheless for me, as a user, they are a tremendous source of frustration. My simple 300$ citizen dive watch has 1500+ dives on it... not a single malfunction. My old suunto cobra had 1200+ dives on it without a hiccup. My Eon before that had 300+ dives without a hiccup. The atomic ... first one died after 31 dives. This one barely has 30 dives on it ...
I spend a lot of money to do a multi-week dive trip only to see me grounded for 2 days (the day the machine died + the day after waiting to outgas.) because of a flaky computer. Any day lost diving is a waste of money. I can sit at the pool at home too.

Luckily i did an equipment check or my upcoming vacation would have started off very badly ... now there is still time to swap the machine.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

It does suck, but I think you're hilariously overreacting. I've owned two Cobalts, one I bought new and one I bought used. The used one was my wife's for a while before I sold it, gave her mine, and switched to a Petrel... that one (used) never had a problem and was sold before the recall.

Mine (bought new) died after maybe 50 or so dives, and it was determined that the problem was a tiny tail of glue that extended onto the battery compartment sealing surface and fouled the o-ring, letting saltwater in ever so slightly and eventually destroying the battery. Called AA, sent it back for $12 via USPS flat rate, and had it returned within a week working great. A hundred or so dives later, it started having button response issues that got progressively worse until the enter and down buttons both died; this was right around the time the recall happened, so I again boxed it up and returned it, and again had it returned (and fast...it was Fedexed back next day to me in HI, so was out of my hands for maybe 3-4 days). Within a month, though, the main compartment of the computer flooded during a 190' dive where it was backing up my Petrel. I sent it back to AA and waited longer than normal, maybe 1.5-2 weeks, for them to evaluate it and send be a whole new box O' Cobalt--not just a new computer, but new hose, charger, usb, etc. That's now my wife's computer, though I haven't tried to update the firmware on it...better not to worry about it. Cobalt is still the best designed UI and best dive planner I've ever seen on any PDC, ever, and a very capable tech computer to boot. Just wish it came in a wrist mount, non-AI form.

Maybe it's because I don't do serious (whether in terms of exposure or in terms of precious $/vacation time committments) dives without a backup, but I've never felt put out by the issues my Cobalt has had. I know that for each of the dozens and dozens of Cobalts that have had some issue-- whether it's firmware bricking or flooding or dead buttons -- there are thousands of them working just peachy from the day they left the factory. Such is the reality of mass manufactured electronics, and it happens with Liquivisions and Shearwaters, too. And if you think there aren't stadiums full of people who have horror stories about the lemons churned out by Suunto, Scubapro, Mares, Oceanic, et al., you're deluding yourself.

It sounds like you've had an extremely unusual run of bad luck, but try and gain some perspective.

 

[Atomic Aquatics]

Thanks Doc for the support! Free_Electron, I am so sorry for all of the frustration with the unit. I left you a message on Facebook and I apologize about the delay in responding. I know you have gotten in touch with Adan, the tech, and Darcy. We will get this handled and taken care of immediately for you.

Atomic Aquatics

 

[free_electron]

a long list of troubles ...

??!? and you find that acceptable ? I don't ... If it were a 100$ piece of junk made by one-hung-lo I'd shrug it off. Not if it's a 1200$ piece of equipment made by a company that prides itself to be the 'best'. Keep in mind that these problems have been with TWO individual machines. First one died after 31 dives and was replaced with a brand new machine.

I shipped my computer back last week ( overnight shipped ).
Monday 6/3 They confirmed they were going to send me a replacement.

Toda,y 6/7, I called as I am getting worried where my replacement is . First answer : out of stock until end of next week.
-PANIC- Eh, guys I am leaving on a trip in a few days. No dive computer is a bit of a problem .... Then I got patched through to Adan. "We're not sure what is going on. Let me check into it. Maybe we can send you a demo unit in the mean time.

We'll see if it arrives in time. I am leaving on a trip in a few days. I am getting very nervous right now ...

 

[dlofting]

I'm new to diving, but an old hand with computers.....I've used, fixed, sworn at and threatened them since the first IBM PC came out in the 70's. I earned my living in the computer business for almost 15 years. I would never do a recreational dive without a backup computer and if I did any serious diving, I would have 2 backups....you're right, they shouldn't fail, but they do. We need to make sure that one or even 2 failures doesn't stop us from diving.....even if it means using tables.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

??!? and you find that acceptable ? I don't ...

Like I said, it's a lousy position to be in, but you lack perspective. If you think it can't ever happen with a piece of consumer electronics regardless of the quality of manufacture, even important stuff like dive computers, sat phones, etc., you're deluding yourself about how consumer electronics manufacturing works.

What I'd find unacceptable for a high priced, high quality product would be a relatively significant number of people having these problems and/or Atomic not bending over backwards to fix any problem anyone had. From what I've seen, AA US does exactly that and I know if I have some special need for a rush that I can call them as often as I like and both get reports as to status and convey to someone with the authority to make it happen my needs re: when I have to have a working unit in my hands. As a side note, AA EU is by all accounts no more worthy of anyone's business than SCUBAletsscrewyouonpartsandservicehoweverwecanPRO.

If you've paid for overnight return shipping, told them when you needed working units in-hand, and got confirmation it would be taken care of...I expect them to make it happen. If they don't, I'll agree with you the situation is unacceptable. I don't think $1200 should buy a dive computer that never breaks, but I do think it should buy incredible service to go along with a very good computer.

 

[free_electron]

Like I said, it's a lousy position to be in, but you lack perspective.

Well , here is my perspective :

Suunto cobra : 1200 dives + dives : 0 problems
Citizen Hyper Aqualand : 1500 + dives : 0 problems
Cobalt 1 : 31 dives : water leak on sensor : dead : lost 2 days of diving : had to rent computer
Cobalt 2 : 35 dives : water leak on sensor : dead : waiting for replacement : spend 900$ on a backup computer

If you think it can't ever happen with a piece of consumer electronics regardless of the quality of manufacture,

Let me give you a perspective on that. I happen to be in a business that produces over 1 million consumer and enterprise devices a DAY. Devices people trust their data to. You know how many fail of those ? a few hundred a year... (true failures and not mistreatments / user stupidity). they are typically sold for around 60$... our failure rate is in the parts per million.
The cobalt has how many in circulation ? a few thousand. I got two failers and you had two failers. If we find a few more the failure rate is in the parts per hundred.... and that's a 1200$ device. ( add the backup computer, lost time and money shipping it, and it doubles to a 2000$ + device... )

That is reason 1 i am peeved off.

Reason 2 is the failure mode.. water leaks.. Its operating environment is water... you need at least get that part right... basic engineering. It's like making a series of ships that sink after a few days because of leaky welding.. oops , we haven't got that bit quite right yet... And what were your failure modes again ? water leaks .. right ? so now out of the 4 broken ones(your 2 + my 2 , I know it's a small sample ) we have 4 failures because of water leaks...

There is nothing wrong with the electronics. I like the computer , the user interface is great , easy to use, very clear to read and it stands out head and shoulders above all the other typical dive computers ( forget the tekkie things like the shearwaters and vr3 , that's a different pond altogether).

A key selling point and key decision point in selecting it was the fact you could recharge it and never needed to open it. No need to send it in for a battery swap like some brands , no risk of flooding due to a badly placed seal when you had to swap a battery.
So it's bloody damn annoying if it is exactly that key selling point that fails... Here's the best dive computer in the world.. just don't get it wet ...

Anyway... it's all water under the bridge. Point is i'm still waiting for mine and the clock is ticking. I have to hound them around ... sit here anxiously waiting to see if they will get me a replacement in time. And if they can't get me a unit in time i'll have to spend yet more money to buy another computer and that is totally unacceptable. that is what frustrates me the most. Lost time and money. And then there is the little voice in the back of my mind that tells me : what if the next one messes up again during the trip... the gnawing uncertainty. that's even the worst...

 

[Scared Silly]

A few comments ... the OP is certainly frustrated and I feel their pain - especially when a big trip is coming up. Electronics fail - typically when the product is new. And having several fail in a row is certainly bad luck. Modulo the recall others are not having such bad luck. Of course that does not help the OP.

Sometimes as much as one does want to it is best to walk away - not suggesting that in this case but at some point one does need to make that decision. However, when to walk away IMHO has two components the issue at hand and how the issue is being handled. If a product is DOA after several tries probably best to walk away. However, to me the real measure of company is not when the product works as advertised but when thing go to pot. How does the company handle the issue?

I have called AA several times with questions and had very good luck but once. My dive shop said we will make it right and in the end it was made right - I decided to chalk that one up to a new product, third party, and go from there. Somewhat similar to the computer issue at hand. Since then great help.


However that is not always the case, an underwater camera housing I bought and received from an company in the USA which shall remain anonymous did not work out of the box. Even after removing a part to work around the first problem I still could not use the housing because of another issue. Seems like there was another as well. I was greatly disappointed and literally boxed up the housing and all accessories and shipped them back as I drove to the airport for a dive trip.

When I returned I wrote the mfg a fairly critical email and got a terse email back from the owner. At that point I walked away from their products. However, because housings were coming out left and right I decided to at least post a review of what I could to help others. The online response was interesting to say the least. Some were very critical that I did not at least send the housing back and have them take look at the issue as the company had a great reputation for customer service. Or that expecting something to always work out of the box was an unrealistic expectation. My point was the product was not broken but it was a mfg. defect that should have been caught before it left the factory as the product was not usable from the start! Fast forward a few months and guess what? others were having similar issues with the same housing. At that point I felt I made the right decision.

So to the OP there many AA fans and defenders just like there are fans and defenders of other products. Take it all with a grain of salt. I hope that AA takes care of you and you have good luck with the next computer.

That said let me at least make some suggestions which echos dlofting's post abovefor the next trip in case someone's computer goes belly up. I dive with a dive watch that is simply a depth gauge/bottom timer. If my main computer goes belly up I can at least down load my dive profile and to the best of my ability reconstruct my N2 loading via multilevel or tables or if I have my laptop computer via simulations. Worst case I will utilize my dive partners profiles and add some additional conservatism (we did that once before having watches). Having this as a backup let us continue to dive though we had computer issues. I might only do two dives instead of three but it beats sitting on the beach getting a sun burn. (Sun burn or not drinks at the end of the day are mandatory).