Cobalt Firmware update is on the Atomic Website

[drrich2]

Quick update in the spirit of posting the good news, too. Due to a family emergency of sorts (things are good now), I couldn't mess with it for a few days. Then plugged in the AC adapter (not the USB adapter) and in seconds got a screen to set date & time, so it had completely depleted like Ron said it would. Charged it up awhile. A day or two later (been a tad hectic around here), went through the Mac update protocol on Atomic's website, but on my wife's Core i7 iMac, and the process went nice & smooth. Firmware updated, date & time reset, good to go.

For all the hassles, I still love my Cobalt for the intuitive interface, rechargeable battery I needn't take out & re-install, and the huge dive log capacity on board. On a Bonaire trip, one can rack up lots of dives. Last August my buddy & I were at a dive site there, and realized we hadn't set our computers (me-Cobalt with VT3 backup, him-Geo 2.0) for EAN 32. Me, no problem, and somehow I messed with my backup computer (a VT3) and got it changed, but we could NOT get the Geo 2.0 changed (didn't have the manual with us).

And realizing you need to change the time? Or tank size? No problem. Yeah, it's a console, but it's air-integrated without a transmitter, and pressures get logged & SAC calculated automatically.

Guess I'm another intermittently annoyed but satisfied customer, if that makes sense. Thanks again, Ron!

Richard.

 

[jeffloughridge]

I have 3 Cobalts, mine and two of my kids. Two took the update with no problem but the third stopped when it said transferring 7337 bytes. It stayed there and never progressed. The Cobalt is bricked with no display or power up. I tried the recovery procedure but when I plug the USB cable into my laptop (Windows) it says it doesn't recognize the USB device. I cannot proceed with the update at that point. Any ideas?

 

[RonR]

I have 3 Cobalts, mine and two of my kids. Two took the update with no problem but the third stopped when it said transferring 7337 bytes. It stayed there and never progressed. The Cobalt is bricked with no display or power up. I tried the recovery procedure but when I plug the USB cable into my laptop (Windows) it says it doesn't recognize the USB device. I cannot proceed with the update at that point. Any ideas?

Jeff,

I'm sending you a PM with some ideas and more detailed instructions- if the recovery procedure doesn't work, basically to run down the battery and start with A/C, or to remove and reset the battery- depending on how soon you want to use the Cobalt.

Ron

 

[jeffloughridge]

Thanks Ron. It worked perfectly!

 

[free_electron]

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.

this is the WORST dive computer on the market.
My first one flooded. the second one got recalled because the lens could blow off... and now the third one is bricked.

i am going on a 3 week dive trip . What do i need to do to get this thing to work ? hit it with a hammer ?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Why are you screwing around with an update 2 hours before you're supposed to go diving? Charge it up, go dive, and then worry about getting the latest and greatest firmware. That said, it is perplexing that AA can't seem figure out how to idiot-proof the whole 'update the Cobalt' thing.

 

[lonebrave]

Second the question of why are you messing with it that close to diving. The only reason I can see to doing that is if the firmware update fixes something that I MUST have on the planned dive, with the full understanding that if the sh*t hits the fan, I'm not diving.

 

[RonR]

In defense of free_electron, he didn't do anything wrong with the update, and we were able to get him back up and running before his dive. Unfortunately it turns out his Cobalt, which is from early production, has a serious problem that will almost certainly require replacement from Atomic. Having had, as an early adopter, two failures is pretty frustrating. All I can say is that Atomic's production procedures and controls are far better now, and I have a lot of confidence in current production being of consistent quality of assembly. I expect he will be happy with his new one.

Firmware updating is a tough problem, mostly because there are many operating systems, hardware configurations, and levels of user sophistication. It's something we know needs to be made simpler.

Ron

 

[mbaker248]

I was not able to get the update by myself, and locked up my cobalt. Sent it to Atomic and they fixed it as well as put the new update on it. NOW COMES A BIG PROBLEM. I went diving yesterday and 11 minutes into my first dive(no dives for a week prior) at 53' my cobalt went into Deco. I fulfilled all the deco stops/obligations, and surfaced non the less for wear. The cobalt then went to showing 199 minutes of NDL and would not waver from that. I went back down to 30' and stayed for several minutes and no change. I don't know if this is problem with the new update, or another bug that has come up with the cobalt.
Does anyone have any tips/ideas on what happened? The date and time were manually set before diving and like I mentioned before the new update as been installed by Atomic.

Ron I also sent you a private message addressing this to see if you had any idea on what might have happened.

Thanks guys/girls

Mike Baker
SDI Instructor #16499
Ada, OK.

 

[RonR]

... I went diving yesterday and 11 minutes into my first dive(no dives for a week prior) at 53' my cobalt went into Deco. I fulfilled all the deco stops/obligations, and surfaced non the less for wear. The cobalt then went to showing 199 minutes of NDL and would not waver from that. I went back down to 30' and stayed for several minutes and no change. I don't know if this is problem with the new update, or another bug that has come up with the cobalt.
Does anyone have any tips/ideas on what happened? The date and time were manually set before diving and like I mentioned before the new update as been installed by Atomic.

Ron I also sent you a private message addressing this to see if you had any idea on what might have happened.

Thanks guys/girls

Mike Baker
SDI Instructor #16499
Ada, OK.

I responded to your PM. The 199 minute no-deco time at 30' or so would be correct, even after a deco dive, but the going into deco would not, unless there had been a previous dive- or the Cobalt registered a greater depth. One question is if the time was set correctly- if the Cobalt had just been reset, it would default to the time as of the end of the last dive, that could lead to very short no stop times. It's difficult to say anything without looking at the profiles that the Cobalt recorded for that dive and any previous- I gave you an email in the PM, if you could use the export function on the desktop dive log- any program that will download from the Cobalt is fine- or even screenshots of the profiles, we should be able to provide an explanation.

Ron