Cobalt 2 - Battery Dead - Lost AC Adaptor

[Sevenrider860]

Hello,

My son has an Atomic Aquatics Cobalt 2 and he has allowed the battery to run down. He only has the USB Cable and adapter to charge it. I understand the Cobalt requires the AC Adaptor to "reset" the computer, although the USB will charge the battery.

On the original Cobalt I had to open the case and disconnect the battery to force this reset. Is there a key combination on the Cobalt 2 that can be used or do I need to perform the same battery disconnect that was performed with the original Cobalt?

Regards,

Brian

 

[MikadoWu]

Hello Brian,

Can you reset the battery, I can not remember that answer. I do remember RonR stated you needed the charger, and it kicked the Computer into charging.

I ran down my Cobalt 2 about 6 months ago due to a lost adapter. I picked up a new AC adapter and following RonR directions, plugged it into the AC Cable and was good to go a couple hours later. The new was adapter was only $20.

Atomic Cobalt AC Charging Cable - SKU: ATMACCC

Not what you are looking for, but hope it helps.

 

[drrich2]

By any wild chance do you have the AC Adaptor from the original Cobalt? They're the same far as I can tell; I got a refurb. Cobalt 2 as a replacement for the Cobalt 1, and the charging cable and adaptor from the 1 for charging & downloading dives seems to work just fine with the 2.

Richard.

 

[Sevenrider860]

Unfortunately I won't have an AC Adaptor anytime soon. I did unplug the battery and that caused a reset so that the Cobalt reset itself. Everything looks good now.
Thank you for your responses.

 

[RonR]

Sorry I missed this thread earlier, but for future reference, or in case this turns up for anyone with a similar issue...

The Cobalt 2 like the Cobalt 1 won't get a reset signal if it's connected to the USB charger- it sees that USB is connected, and defaults to waiting for a firmware update, it's in what we call "boot mode".

However, unlike the original Cobalt, the Cobalt 2 has a built in hardware reset function. Once you charge the run down battery using USB, you can force a reset by
1) Removing the USB adapter from the Cobalt.
2) Holding down the Back and Select buttons simultaneously for 11 seconds.

This should reboot the Cobalt. You will need to set the time and date, the Cobalt always goes to the time of the last dive exit when it is reset.

Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[Sevenrider860]

Thank you Ron. I thought there was a way to do this on the Cobalt 2 without removing any screws. I appreciate the help.

 

[MikadoWu]

However, unlike the original Cobalt, the Cobalt 2 has a built in hardware reset function. Once you charge the run down battery using USB, you can force a reset by
1) Removing the USB adapter from the Cobalt.
2) Holding down the Back and Select buttons simultaneously for 11 seconds.
Ron

Good Info RonR, thank you.

With that I have a question about a Issue I had t his past weekend with my Cobalt 2. In the water first dive, no issues. As I am gearing up for my second dive, I noticed my Cobalt screen would not turn on. The screen did not look dead, but again nothing would come on. When I got home 6 hours later, I pushed the buttons again, and still no screen. If I looked around the bottom of the screen, it seemed like a back light was on. I plugged the device into the AC Charger and 5 minutes later the device was up and running and the Cobalt recorded my second dive. I noticed that I did have to change the time. I am guessing that the system may have reset when I plugged it in, which leads my to believe that Holding the Back/Select buttons may have fixed my issue on the boat. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thankfully I carry a backup dive computer and the dive was only a 40 foot Drift Reef, so I did not have to bail.

 

[RonR]

Good Info RonR, thank you.

With that I have a question about a Issue I had t his past weekend with my Cobalt 2. In the water first dive, no issues. As I am gearing up for my second dive, I noticed my Cobalt screen would not turn on. The screen did not look dead, but again nothing would come on. When I got home 6 hours later, I pushed the buttons again, and still no screen. If I looked around the bottom of the screen, it seemed like a back light was on. I plugged the device into the AC Charger and 5 minutes later the device was up and running and the Cobalt recorded my second dive. I noticed that I did have to change the time. I am guessing that the system may have reset when I plugged it in, which leads my to believe that Holding the Back/Select buttons may have fixed my issue on the boat. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thankfully I carry a backup dive computer and the dive was only a 40 foot Drift Reef, so I did not have to bail.

It sounds as if something went wrong- let me try to understand a bit more.
First, what firmware version were you running?
When you "pushed the buttons" do you mean just pushing the Select to wake the unit, or holding down the Back and Select to reset it?
Am I correct in understanding that you did the reset while on the boat, before your 2nd dive?
Was the Cobalt's display blank throughout your 2nd dive?
Was the dive recorded at the correct time? That would indicate the Cobalt was running, but the display was not coming up- perhaps a bad cable or a failing display. If the dive was recorded at the wrong time it would indicate the Cobalt had reset.
Was the battery possibly very low? We do dim the display when the battery is nearly dead to preserve data and calculating functions.

I'd like to help you figure out what happened, and make sure if there is a problem with your Cobalt it gets fixed.

Ron

 

[MikadoWu]

First, what firmware version were you running?
When you "pushed the buttons" do you mean just pushing the Select to wake the unit, or holding down the Back and Select to reset it?
Am I correct in understanding that you did the reset while on the boat, before your 2nd dive?
Was the Cobalt's display blank throughout your 2nd dive?
Was the dive recorded at the correct time?
Was the battery possibly very low? We do dim the display when the battery is nearly dead to preserve data and calculating functions.

As always thank you for the help. This was a weird problem so doing my best to explain.
First, firmware version running? 2.43/2

When you "pushed the buttons" do you mean just pushing the Select to wake the unit, or holding down the Back and Select to reset it? I only pushed the Select Button. Did Not remember the Reset Feature until your post yesterday.

Am I correct in understanding that you did the reset while on the boat, before your 2nd dive? No I did not reset it.

Was the Cobalt's display blank throughout your 2nd dive? Yes, the Screen was blank the entire second dive.

Was the dive recorded at the correct time? Yes the correct time was recorded for the second dive.

Was the battery possibly very low? When I got home the display was not turning on, though the looking at the bottom there looked like a back light on. I plugged the device in to the AC adapter and finished unpacking the car. When I came back to the Cobalt, I pressed the Select button and it turned on. I then looked at the battery and it was at 88%, Again, it was only charging for 5-10 max, so it had to have plenty of charge. I then looked at the dive log and the entire second dive was there.

I did not notice the time was incorrect until the next the next day when I successfully upload the dive into my computer. I then set the time to the correct time. When you posted yesterday, I tried the reset, and like you said, it changed the date and time. The and time was close to exactly what it was the day after my dive.

I believe, that the device just partially locked up and a simple reset on the boat would have fixed it. At least I will know what to try first in the future.

Hey I am flying to Seattle today, then heading to Vancouver, I can drop it off to you. Just kidding.

Thank you again for all you do on the Boards.

On a positive note, I did dive with my new Atomic X1 Blades, and they were nice.

EDIT - I just looked at the Cobalt again. I had it 100% charged on Saturday and placed it in sleep mode. It is already down to 86%.

 

[RonR]

I think you are right that the computer locked up, or at least couldn't display information- it was obviously working otherwise since the dive was recorded. The question is why your display didn't turn on. The backlight is separate, so it's perfectly possible for that to be on with nothing showing on the display.
When it came back up on the charger, was it at the time-date screen? That's where it will go after a reset.
Is this a relatively new computer, or have you been diving it a while? Please let me know if anything like this happens again, in the meantime we will try to think about what might cause this.

Ron