Cobalt 2 vs Cobalt 1 battery life

[mikeycanuk]

Bought my wife a Cobalt 2 for her birthday. During our 2 week dive vacation I noticed that the 2 was around 35% while the 1's (me and my son's) were around 65% after a week or so. I tried turning down the screen brightness on the 2 but it still didn't make much of a difference the following week.

Is this normal?

 

[mikeycanuk]

Anyone? Ron?

 

[RonR]

Don't know how I missed this for five days, but here is a belated answer.
The Cobalt 2 will have somewhat less battery life than the Cobalt 1, due to a much more powerful processor and the different display technology (TFT's require backlighting). The difference will be greater in bright light if set to automatic brightness control, or if the brightness is turned up. If it is draining rapidly, in just a few days, or dropping more than 1-2% per day when in sleep and unused, then that would indicate a problem. But a difference between 1's and 2's over a week or more of diving would be expected. You should still get 25-40 hours of diving out of a charge, depending mostly on screen brightness.

Ron

 

[mikeycanuk]

Thanks Ron. But I'll be dammed if the up button on my 1 isn't working. Is there still warranty on it? It's over 3 years old.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[RonR]

Thanks Ron. But I'll be dammed if the up button on my 1 isn't working. Is there still warranty on it? It's over 3 years old.

Odds are very good that what you have is a rusting magnet in the keypad. It's trivial to fix, and Atomic has new magnets that are molded in a cover that should prevent the problem in the future. I would contact Atomic about getting a set of magnets to replace what you have if this is the reason- give them your serial # and explain the reason. I doubt if they will be stickers for warranty terms about something like this. I am PM'ing you with instructions for removing the cover and checking.

Ron

 

[mikeycanuk]

Got my new buttons and magnets, 2nd day FedEx no charge!

Thanks Ron & Atomics!

 

[oldpeanut]

Hi Ron,

One of my student divers' Cobalt 2 dive computer seems not be able to hold the battery capacity. After fully charged to reach 100%, next day went out diving for 3 days and made 5 dives(average 45 minutes bottom time with 1 hour surface interval), ended only 5% left in the battery capacity. What should we do? Please advise.

By the way the computer had been returned to the distributor in Canada for check up, the incident happened after it had been inspected because the first experience was even worse - after fully charged, next day dropped down to 87%, made 3 dives in two days and the battery status indicated only 3% left!

Thank you in advance for any of your help.

Terry

 

[RonR]

Terry,

Is this failure to hold a charge a consistent behavior or intermittent? And can you let me know the firmware version?

I'm going to assume that the computer was stored in a dry location, and not with the charging adapter in place. And that it was charged while dry- we did have one instance where the charging adapter was getting plugged in wet and causing electrolysis on the Cobalt. If the Cobalt is wet, it won't really go to sleep, but will keep sampling waiting to start a dive. That will run the battery down.

Let me suggest some diagnostics we can try. If your student just leaves the computer sitting overnight- not putting it manually into sleep mode, but just letting it sit- what is the rate of charge loss? It should be on the order of 1-3% per 24 hour period. After sitting like this, if they dip the front into water without touching any buttons, does it wake to the dive screen? That would indicate that is is in true sleep.

If the Cobalt 2 is run at maximum display brightness, it will run the battery down in diving, but not this rapidly. It might last 10-15 hours or so of diving. Can you let us know what the brightness level is set to?

Can you connect to USB to download dives and update firmware?

I'm going to PM you with some instructions for accessing a battery diagnostics screen, if they can go to that and take a picture for us that will give information on the battery and charging state, and tell us the power draw.

There are two things that I can think of that could cause this. One is that the battery has a high rate of internal discharge or is just weak and needs to be replaced. If that were the case, this behavior should be consistent. Replacing the battery is a easy thing to try- do you know if that was done when it was sent in before? The other is that there is a damaged component on the PCB that is not always allowing the Cobalt to go fully into sleep mode- the display turns off, but the processor is still active. There are certainly some other components on the board that, if they failed, could cause a high current drain. So we will work at figuring this out and getting the problem fixed.

Ron

 

[oldpeanut]

Terry,

Is this failure to hold a charge a consistent behavior or intermittent? And can you let me know the firmware version?

I'm going to assume that the computer was stored in a dry location, and not with the charging adapter in place. And that it was charged while dry- we did have one instance where the charging adapter was getting plugged in wet and causing electrolysis on the Cobalt. If the Cobalt is wet, it won't really go to sleep, but will keep sampling waiting to start a dive. That will run the battery down.

Let me suggest some diagnostics we can try. If your student just leaves the computer sitting overnight- not putting it manually into sleep mode, but just letting it sit- what is the rate of charge loss? It should be on the order of 1-3% per 24 hour period. After sitting like this, if they dip the front into water without touching any buttons, does it wake to the dive screen? That would indicate that is is in true sleep.

If the Cobalt 2 is run at maximum display brightness, it will run the battery down in diving, but not this rapidly. It might last 10-15 hours or so of diving. Can you let us know what the brightness level is set to?

Can you connect to USB to download dives and update firmware?

I'm going to PM you with some instructions for accessing a battery diagnostics screen, if they can go to that and take a picture for us that will give information on the battery and charging state, and tell us the power draw.

There are two things that I can think of that could cause this. One is that the battery has a high rate of internal discharge or is just weak and needs to be replaced. If that were the case, this behavior should be consistent. Replacing the battery is a easy thing to try- do you know if that was done when it was sent in before? The other is that there is a damaged component on the PCB that is not always allowing the Cobalt to go fully into sleep mode- the display turns off, but the processor is still active. There are certainly some other components on the board that, if they failed, could cause a high current drain. So we will work at figuring this out and getting the problem fixed.

Ron

Hello Ron,

When the Cobalt 2 returned to the Canadian Distributor for check up, the technician updated the firmware. I will follow your instructions to diagnose the battery status and let you know.

Thank you again for your help.

Best regards,

Terry

 

[oldpeanut]

Terry,

Is this failure to hold a charge a consistent behavior or intermittent? And can you let me know the firmware version?

I'm going to assume that the computer was stored in a dry location, and not with the charging adapter in place. And that it was charged while dry- we did have one instance where the charging adapter was getting plugged in wet and causing electrolysis on the Cobalt. If the Cobalt is wet, it won't really go to sleep, but will keep sampling waiting to start a dive. That will run the battery down.

Let me suggest some diagnostics we can try. If your student just leaves the computer sitting overnight- not putting it manually into sleep mode, but just letting it sit- what is the rate of charge loss? It should be on the order of 1-3% per 24 hour period. After sitting like this, if they dip the front into water without touching any buttons, does it wake to the dive screen? That would indicate that is is in true sleep.

If the Cobalt 2 is run at maximum display brightness, it will run the battery down in diving, but not this rapidly. It might last 10-15 hours or so of diving. Can you let us know what the brightness level is set to?

Can you connect to USB to download dives and update firmware?

I'm going to PM you with some instructions for accessing a battery diagnostics screen, if they can go to that and take a picture for us that will give information on the battery and charging state, and tell us the power draw.

There are two things that I can think of that could cause this. One is that the battery has a high rate of internal discharge or is just weak and needs to be replaced. If that were the case, this behavior should be consistent. Replacing the battery is a easy thing to try- do you know if that was done when it was sent in before? The other is that there is a damaged component on the PCB that is not always allowing the Cobalt to go fully into sleep mode- the display turns off, but the processor is still active. There are certainly some other components on the board that, if they failed, could cause a high current drain. So we will work at figuring this out and getting the problem fixed.

Ron

Hello Ron,

My student's Cobalt 2 computer seems cannot hold its battery charge again. But I lost the instruction of how to diagnose the battery status. Could you please post it here so that I could do it again?

Thank you very much for your help.

Thanks and best regards,

Terry