Although it's an old geezer (like myself), I've always liked my Uwatec Aladin Pro dive computer. It was only the second one I owned (after my Orca Skinny Dipper) and I felt its algorithms were well suited for my diving.
Then, after five years of fairly heavy service, the computer battery failed despite a reading of about 39% remaining battery life... in the middle of a long deco dive (good thing I had analog backup... and my brain). Why should I be upset with that? The Uwatec manual says in more than one place that the battery will continue to deliver power even after it hits the 0% remaining battery life. Yeah, right... most of the people I've talked to say theirs failed in the 30-40% range. So that constitutes false advertising.
I sent the Uwatec in to the factory to get the battery replaced (not user replaceable). $70 later (and that was a bargain as I don't think my LDS charged a cent on his end), it is returned to me with a fresh battery.
However, not long after the factory replaced the battery, the computer started resetting my Nitrox mix without any help from me. Now despite being one, I don't dive "geezer gas" due to the maximum depths I film at. In fact, I didn't even know how to reset the oxygen percentage. The computer "very nicely" did it for me... usually only to 28% or 32% so not a big deal for many of my dives.
However, a month or so ago, it told me I was approaching death. It was beeping like heck (I couldn't hear it... I'm a diver, but my buddies sure could). I checked the display which was flashing frantically. It had reset my mix to 50% O-2, again without me touching a thing!
Today I go on my first dive since the fires started. My computer had been sitting in a padded bag on my kitchen counter for the last 6 days. After I submerged, I quickly noticed that the LCD display was not displaying most of the dive data. In fact, very little data other than my depth (barely readable) and my remaining non-deco time. I looked closely and there appeared to be a crack beneath the faceplate. The LCD was bleeding at both ends of the crack and obscuring the rest of the display.
The computer had not been banged or abused in any way. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the incredibly low humidity and high temperatures had caused this crack inside the computer itself. Not sure how that could happen since it was indoors in a padded case. Living right by the ocean we're used to reasonable (not high) humidity and moderate temperatures. The past week has been anything but.
So now I have a computer I can barely read and 10 days in a row of diving multiple dive days. Of course I will borrow another computer that I can read, but I will dive with this one as well since the data was still down-loadable to my desktop.
Wonder if anyone else has had such bad "luck" with these Uwatecs?
Then, after five years of fairly heavy service, the computer battery failed despite a reading of about 39% remaining battery life... in the middle of a long deco dive (good thing I had analog backup... and my brain). Why should I be upset with that? The Uwatec manual says in more than one place that the battery will continue to deliver power even after it hits the 0% remaining battery life. Yeah, right... most of the people I've talked to say theirs failed in the 30-40% range. So that constitutes false advertising.
I sent the Uwatec in to the factory to get the battery replaced (not user replaceable). $70 later (and that was a bargain as I don't think my LDS charged a cent on his end), it is returned to me with a fresh battery.
However, not long after the factory replaced the battery, the computer started resetting my Nitrox mix without any help from me. Now despite being one, I don't dive "geezer gas" due to the maximum depths I film at. In fact, I didn't even know how to reset the oxygen percentage. The computer "very nicely" did it for me... usually only to 28% or 32% so not a big deal for many of my dives.
However, a month or so ago, it told me I was approaching death. It was beeping like heck (I couldn't hear it... I'm a diver, but my buddies sure could). I checked the display which was flashing frantically. It had reset my mix to 50% O-2, again without me touching a thing!
Today I go on my first dive since the fires started. My computer had been sitting in a padded bag on my kitchen counter for the last 6 days. After I submerged, I quickly noticed that the LCD display was not displaying most of the dive data. In fact, very little data other than my depth (barely readable) and my remaining non-deco time. I looked closely and there appeared to be a crack beneath the faceplate. The LCD was bleeding at both ends of the crack and obscuring the rest of the display.
The computer had not been banged or abused in any way. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the incredibly low humidity and high temperatures had caused this crack inside the computer itself. Not sure how that could happen since it was indoors in a padded case. Living right by the ocean we're used to reasonable (not high) humidity and moderate temperatures. The past week has been anything but.
So now I have a computer I can barely read and 10 days in a row of diving multiple dive days. Of course I will borrow another computer that I can read, but I will dive with this one as well since the data was still down-loadable to my desktop.
Wonder if anyone else has had such bad "luck" with these Uwatecs?
