Cobalt Screen Layout Requests

[aquaman5]

Hi Ron,
After many months of research and deliberation, I purchased a Cobalt a few weeks ago.
My old eyes are pretty bad and so far I love the display, I dove the computer four times in a local quarry with a few feet of vis.
I have a couple of requests regarding changes to the UI.
Let me first say that the size and color of the PSI and current depth fonts are very nice.
I also don't use the Cobalt's compass.
I know the question of font size and color has come up in other threads and the standard answer is screen real estate limitations.

My questions are:
1) If we turn off the compass, how difficult would it be to release a FW upgrade to increase the size of the fonts on the screen , excluding PSI and current depth, specifically, dive time, NDT, gas time and safety / deco stop count down time.
Then, if someone enables the compass, before or during a dive, the font sizes would revert to sizes currently used on the Cobalt, automatically.

2) Second request, there seems to be no way to display the lowest water temperature after a dive in the dive log summary screens.
The only way to determine the lowest water temperature after a dive is to scroll thru the entire profile.
Most DCs I have looked at readily display lowest water temperature of a dive, even my BUD does that.

I realize AAs focus is on releasing a wrist mount unit.
However, there a few of us, who for whatever reason, prefer consoles ( or rather, distrust hose less units).
Can current owners expect FW upgrades to address feature requests, in a timely fashion, and not just FW upgrades to address bugs?

Thanks.

 

[RonR]

Thanks for your suggestions. Changing font sizes is not impossible. It's often more complicated than it looks, though, when you take into account the maximum values, horizontal space needed for those values, program memory space for different fonts, and the desire to keep particular data in a consistent position. We will keep looking at ways to improve the display.

I haven't seen requests before for lowest temperature- it's certainly possible, though the post dive summary is pretty crowded with data now- some of which other DC's don't give you, like SCFM consumption. I have had requests to eliminate temperature as unnecessary. One possibility we have been looking at is to have a somewhat customizable interface, since not everyone wants the same things.

We are going to continue making the console Cobalt, and continue developing for it. The last FW update added a number of features as well as under the hood improvements. User requests are the main input for firmware changes.

Hope you are still enjoying your Cobalt.

Ron

 

[OCTAC]

I could use a stop watch sort of timer somewhere on the screen, any screen to use with either the compass or when doing certain timed dives. Also, a larger font size would be helpful, especially in the compass screen. To me it's the only drawback, otherwise I love my Cobalt!

 

[RonR]

A timer associated with the compass is an interesting idea. What is the font size you would like to increase? We did make the degrees reading a bit bigger in the last firmware update. Others are pretty much maxed out for the screen real estate available.

Ron

 

[Brent h]

Hi Ron.

I'm interested in purchasing a cobalt. I'm really torn on waiting til early to mid 2014 to see if the wrist mounted version has been announced or released. Any suggestions on whether it might be worth my while to wait?

One feature I would like to see on the Cobalt is automatic declinations for square and triangular navigation for both left and right turns (90 and 120 degrees from bearing). Is this something Atomic is working on? The Galileo offers this feature. It's not essential but it's nice to have.

Also, are there any plans to include heart rate?

Thank you very much.

 

[Pin83]

I have money burning a hole in my pocket waiting for a wrist-mount Cobalt too. Gotta be an Atomic or a Suunto (DM:shop uniform), and I'm still waiting for the Cobalt... I'll beta-test one... Please?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Also, are there any plans to include heart rate?

If you guys are looking for a source of inspiration for the wrist-mount Cobalt, I'd strongly suggest the Petrel rather than the Galileo variants. Simplicity is good; a bunch of crap shoehorned into the computer is bad.