Cleaning Cobra Contacts

[rfwoodvt]

Two weeks ago had my primary Cobra 1 fail to start recording depth and time on a dive. Put it in the water and the "AC" failed to come. Brought it back to the hotel, took it out of the case cleaned the contacts with warm water, soap and even a q-tip with vinegar.

Still couldn't get it to activate in the water. I should note I've had no problem with it connecting to my computer and Subsurface.

Got home yesterday and thought I'd give it another go before I sent it out for service. Lo-and-behold she activated when she hit the water. Go figure.

Anyhow, just wondering what I could be doing differently (as opposed to rinsing in fresh water and brushing with a tooth brush) in regards to cleaning and prepping the contacts so they will be most likely to work?

 

[Bigbella]

Two weeks ago had my primary Cobra 1 fail to start recording depth and time on a dive. Put it in the water and the "AC" failed to come. Brought it back to the hotel, took it out of the case cleaned the contacts with warm water, soap and even a q-tip with vinegar.

Still couldn't get it to activate in the water. I should note I've had no problem with it connecting to my computer and Subsurface.

Got home yesterday and thought I'd give it another go before I sent it out for service. Lo-and-behold she activated when she hit the water. Go figure.

Anyhow, just wondering what I could be doing differently (as opposed to rinsing in fresh water and brushing with a tooth brush) in regards to cleaning and prepping the contacts so they will be most likely to work?

I usually use an eraser from a #2 pencil to remove deposits from those terminals and haven’t had to resort to vinegar, etc . . .

 

[rfwoodvt]

I usually use an eraser from a #2 pencil to remove deposits from those terminals and haven’t had to resort to vinegar, etc . . .

tried the eraser thing but wasn't as effective as I had hoped, the port is a bit small for the eraser to fit so I couldn't do as good a job as I otherwise hoped.

The odd part is that it still wouldn't activate the day I "cleaned" it up but it started activating today.

 

[Scared Silly]

Soaking it in a 50-50 warm water-vinegar solution is probably in order so to allow the acid to remove the mineral deposits.

 

[rfwoodvt]

Soaking it in a 50-50 warm water-vinegar solution is probably in order so to allow the acid to remove the mineral deposits.

Kind of a crazy thought here and probably doom for the computer, but what about using a Ultrasonic cleaner?

 

[Scared Silly]

Kind of a crazy thought here and probably doom for the computer, but what about using a Ultrasonic cleaner?

NO!!

 

[rfwoodvt]

Soaking it in a 50-50 warm water-vinegar solution is probably in order so to allow the acid to remove the mineral deposits.

Thanks again for this advice, btw.

I was somewhat joking about the ultrasound bath, although being solid state and hermetically sealed should protect it...lots of electronics are cleaned ultrasonically...

Suunto was able and willing to take the device in to their service center for $25 diagnostic fee plus cost of repair but turnaround would have been weeks, if not months unfortunately. Since it was working again I didn't send it in.

Figured I'd give the vinegar bath a try for added insurance to make sure it was clean.

Had the chance to pick up another Cobra that was "not working/fails to activate in water." It was dirt cheap so I grabbed it, brought it home and gave it a warm vinegar bath for about an hour. Voila brought it back to life!

Am thinking I'll be doing a vinegar bath at the beginning of the season as part of my normal gear prep routine moving forward.

Only remaining question is should a fresh water rinse and soak for an equal amount of time be sufficient to neutralize the vinegar or should I add some buffer to the rinse solution?