Mares smart air stuck in bootloader due to failed firmware update

[ColdLoch]

I recently bought a second hand Mares smart air. I'm gutted at the minute because I've not yet dived with it but it seems that trying to use Mares' software has bricked it.

I made the mistake of installing the mares app and clicking yes when it asked me to update the firmware. It got about 12% through and stopped.
The computer is now stuck in bootloader mode. It says 01boot on the screen.

If I try to connect it either to my android phone or mac, it tells me it's in bootloader mode and asks me to update the firmware. It then starts to count up but stops at varying amounts from 2% to 45%.

It looks like the mares servers are not reliable and loose connections frequently, and the software isn't well enough written to cope with that, so it just hangs without reconnecting to the servers. It also can't restore the old firmware. I'm honestly shocked at how much of a quality assurance and testing failure that is, but that's beside the point.

Has anybody seen this sort of problem before and is there any way I can either factory reset it or get the firmware installed some other way than the app?

Any help greatly appreciated. This is my first dive computer and it seems to be balked before I've even gone diving.

 

[ColdLoch]

Update on this, in case anybody searches for this later.

I heard from Mares tech support who said that it would be fixable by replacing the battery and used a cable connection to update the firmware from a PC.

My local Mares dealer handed the computer to his rep who took it to Kendal. The techs in Kendal couldn't fix it. Apparently, they tried reloading the firmware and it didn't work. They're sending it to Italy to get it looked at. Originally, they had said I had to pay for shipping, but they've since said they'll cover that. Presumably, they believe my story that all I did was try to update the firmware. I now have to wait for what the techs in Italy say.

I've edited this comment because no more than 20 minutes after I first posted it, I got the call from my local Mares dealer saying that Mares won't charge me to ship it to Italy and I want to be fair to Mares. I'm crossing my fingers that it's fixable and they'll do the right thing in the end.

 

[Still Kicking]

Moral of the story: Buy Shearwater.

 

[dmaziuk]

Moral of the story: Buy Shearwater.

What, they have some Northern magick that makes them brick-proof?