Mares icon HD, firmware 4.0

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I dove the fw 4.0 this past weekend, and here's an update:

To begin with I have mixed feelings about this new firmware. Yes, it’s cleaner, easily readable and has more options, but I have a feeling it is more hands-on than before.

„What do you mean hands-on?”
Well, I seem to have spent a lot of time on my dive pressing the buttons. Not because I wanted to press them, but the information that was previously crammed on the screen is now accessible by button 3 (TEMP – STOPWATCH – TIME – Icon battery – Probe battery – AVG DEPTH – CONSUMPTION). If you’re used to having any two of these on your display when diving, be prepared to press that button a lot. You need to cycle through all of these again, and again, and again. I need the temp and the consumption for instance.

I’m a bit confused why Mares reverted the air display on the right to the tank picture instead of the numbered display with the consumption in 3.07. Yes, it looks nicer, but having a third of the display real estate taken up by just a coloured image of a tank is not a good move. I need to know what the pressure in the tank is, not how it would look were the air liquid. Which is not.

Everything else I approve and consider and improvement apart from the air display.

Another thing is that the icon reported on the surface my probe battery to be half full. Immediately upon diving, the battery was proclaimed as low, and the G1 low battery was displayed across 1/3 of the screen. The probe battery icon was then displayed in the lower right corner over and over again during the entire dive which is a nuisance. Yes. Show the info, but don’t let it hog the display. After surfacing (when the probe warned up a bit), the battery was again half full… J

Anyone from Mares development reading this?
 
how did you download 4.0? I have a Windows PC, every time I download it, I can't open, it says ENC file, any tricks? thanks. Rick

---------- Post added June 14th, 2014 at 05:40 PM ----------

by the way if you can pair the Icon without pressure contact Mares, mine did and they gave me a new transmitter no charge, it only should pair under pressure, shut off air after checking your gear if not diving for twenty minutes or so. As transmitter every two minutes goes on and off, until you activate icon for dive.Battery will not last as long if air is on all the time and not diving.
Rick

---------- Post added June 14th, 2014 at 08:47 PM ----------

Just figured it out! Installed!
Rick
 
Lionfish51... After download of the ENC file, you have to upgrade the firmware through the DiveOrganizer software. Connect your ICON to the computer with the USB connector. Launch DiveOrganizer application. Inside DiveOrganizer, under ICON or Computer heading you will see a choice to upgrade firmware. Click on it and when it asks for the file, input your location of the ENC file on your computer. It will give instructions and will begin the firmware upgrade. DO NOT DISCONNECT OR TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER DURING THE FIRMWARE UPGRADE.

Oops Disregard... I quit reading too soon.
 
That is good news and a welcomed "new" feature.. I have not had it pair on the first try ever. I need to take a trip to the dive shop to borrow a tank to pair it. Good to hear also that the probe (transmitter) battery feature actually works as well. I guess the guy at the Mares Service Center was not kidding. This 4.0 version looks to be a jump improvement. It will be interesting to get it underwater to see what the display does. Will it continue to show the "tank" view or revert back to the old display when the dive display kicks in? Anyone tried it underwater yet?


I like the transmitter battery level I have run out of transmitter battery in Roatan and again in Costa Rica. I take extras with me now. This will help.
 
I like the transmitter battery level I have run out of transmitter battery in Roatan and again in Costa Rica. I take extras with me now. This will help.
If your battery on your transmitter is going dead you may have the old style transmitter. If you can pare the Icon without air its the old style. When I went on my diving trip this April my tarnsmitter was dead, I replaced battery when I got home and was able to pair without a tank. Acording to the manual. However that was old style unit. Upon contacting mares and sending it back they went over unit and gave me a new style transmitter no charge. Here is how it is supposed to work .You hook up your gear on boat or shore. Once air is turned on transmitter ssearches for Icon every two minutes. Unless you are going in water you have to shut off air and purge access. After two minutes transmitter will shut off. Old style just stayed on, and battery drained. So to recap, no air to transmitter until you are ready to dive.
Rick
 
As I read this particular thread, I am guessing my LDS owner is lying (surprise, surprise) to me.

I just posted the following to the Mares Manufacturing page, but wanted to get answers from divers who also use the Icon HD:

My LDS (who doesn't like the Mares wrist mount HD icon) claims Mares is dumping it due to tech and firmware problems.

He further said, Mares sent out email, stating that they will no longer carry, and service these.

As I love mine, and own 3, is this the shop owners way of making me buy another brand that he carries?

Especially when the "Black edition" just came out?!

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
 
Ok... Finally the local quarry was warm enough for a test of the new transmitter (my third) and the Icon Net Ready with 4.0 firmware. Just like Zoranb, my computer paired the first time after tank presurization. Hell yes, that is a first. The tank PSI instantly appeared. I ran the computer through the different settings during both hour long dives that day. Knock on wood, it worked without issue. I upload to dives to Dive Organizer and examined the charts and data. No more dropped signal between the transmitter and computer and no loss of gas reading. I hope this continues. Hopefully the third transmitter and the new firmware will be the charm. I think I like the old non-tank picture display better. Like Zoranb, I found myself messing with the bottons more now to check out info. Unlike Zoranb, I did not see any difference in Probe battery reading in or out of the water as it displayed full in and out of the water. However this is a brand new transmitter with a brand new battery so that might make a difference. But I really like this new probe battery feature. I have to second that the Warnings (mid tank in my case) are take up too much of the display area but does go away with the a button push. I plan to take it out for another test run early next month.
 
OK, I have a question. What does the display look like if you are not using a transmitter? What shows up on the right where all the air info is? I have an Icon HD and have the opportunity to trade it for an Icon 4.0. However, I will never buy/use the air ready function/transmitter. If a third of the screen will be useless if I'm not using the air function it seems like a bad move. I'm not asking for advice on why I should use the air function. My question is solely about the display when there is no transmitter in use.
 
@Kharon
Even though I didn't use my icon w/o the transmitter, I think that the tank picture is still there.
Maybe someone who'll be diving soon can unpair the transmitter and do a trial dive just to see what the screen looks like...
If nobody reports, I'll do it on my next dive, but I'm not sure it will be in the next month...
Z
 
Hey all.
I just got the HD Icon net ready, and did 6 dives whit it before I updated it to the new firmware 4.0, whit out any problems at all.
But since I updated the firmware, I have had all kinds of problems whit the unit.
First problem is when I recharge it, when it reaches 100%, the computer goes in to deco violation, and shows current dept. 150m, and the screen flashes on and off and I can do nothing to it, once the power is down to 98%(or below) I can go into dive settings and delete the, violation and the computer works again.
If I only recharge to 99%, nothing goes wrong, but I have lost all the dives that was in the logbook, and one dive wasn’t recorded at all.
I the wanted to go back to the old firmware, but Dive organizer won’t let me install the firmware that is available on Mares homepage 3.04, it says I need 3.07, ant that is the only firmware it will let me go back to.
So now is my question, has any of you others had this problem?
Does any of you know where I can get this firmware, can’t find it anywhere.
Or does anyone have it and maybe could send it to me so that I can see if I can get my unit back working
All help would be appreciated.
 

Back
Top Bottom