Nautilus Lifeline and Diver Lost for 13 Hours in Hawaii

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citycountryguy

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Location
Alexandria, VA
# of dives
I just don't log dives
I don't want to confuse threads, but in the Hawaii forum there is a discussion about a diver who was lost for 13 hours. In the news reports in that thread, there is an indication that the diver had a "transmitter" but that it failed for some reason or other (unknown to me, unstated in the news story). As part of the television story, it shows a unit that looks identical to the Nautilus Lifeline. I've been considering purchasing a Lifeline, but am curious about this incident, and wondering if Nautilus has any information or background that could be provided as to how the unit may have worked--or failed to work--in this instance (or confirmation that it was, in fact a Lifeline). Thanks.
 
Captain Mike here from Nautilus Lifeline.

We are working diligently to uncover the nature of Mr. Folsom's circumstance, and as soon as these details are known to us they will immediately be provided to the diving world as well. In an attempt to uncover this information, we have emailed and left telephone messages with Mr. Folsom, and await his reply as it is graciously provided. With knowledge of the details, we may have a better understanding of what occurred and we will provide a full report to the public once it is available.

Regards,

Captain Mike Lever.
 
Thanks. I'm sure you want to know about this as much as we all do. Appreciate it...
 
As a lifeline owners, my buddy and I are very interested in understanding what went wrong. One thing I noticed after the last firmware upgrade, the green button no longer powers my unit on/off. I need to depress the distress button. Is this normal?
 
Anxiously waiting...
 
As a lifeline owners, my buddy and I are very interested in understanding what went wrong. One thing I noticed after the last firmware upgrade, the green button no longer powers my unit on/off. I need to depress the distress button. Is this normal?
The green button never turned the unit off. Time turns the unit off and the amount of time can be changed in the settings on your computer. I wouldn't hit the distress button, as that could easily get out to the Coast Guard or someone else, leaving you in big trouble. Remember your information is transmitted.

"Power Off
If no buttons are pressed for more than 5 minutes while your unit is on, it automatically turns off. You can change this auto-off time using the Setup Utility on your computer (see Selecting and Adjusting Settings on
the Computer on page 17)."
Strongly recommend reading the owners manual.
http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/pdf/NLL_OperationsManual.pdf
 
Sorry, the "off" was a typo. My unit no longer turns ON when pressing the green button - I must press the distress button to turn the unit on. I'm going to contact support and will start a new thread with findings so as not to hijack this important topic. This happend after the V0.58 firmware upgrade. By the way, you can manually turn the unit of via menu selections.
 
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By the way, you can manually turn the unit of via menu selections.
Correct, but that is not with just the green button. I had meant to post this next paragraph below but didn't grab it for some reason in my last post.

"To manually turn off the Nautilus Lifeline:
1. Press the Green Chat Button and Hail + Distress Button at the same time.
2. Scroll through the menu by pressing the Chat Button until you reach the “Power OFF” option."

So far from what Mike has shown us the company will do what it takes to make the customer happy. I am sure with a call to their tech support they will get it resolved.
 
Peter, I second your comments about the Nautilus folks - they have been extremely responsive. As the buyer of a 1.0 product, I'd fully expect to find some bugs and problems. I also think its important to share those problems with the community so others can figure out where they'd like to jump in on the adoption curve.
 
I own two of these units and have found the company to be responsive to all questions. I purchased out of mfg batch 2 but as with any early purchase on a totally new product I anticipate there will be some tweaks. We await the diver involved in the Hawaii incident to make contact with them so they can access the situation and let the rest of us know what happened.

Point of clarificaton, there are 3 buttons on the radio:
1. Green for talk,
2. Orange (looks redish orange) which is the HAIL+Distress button that is Channel 16 and the
3. RED send my location out (911 emergency) button which is red and located under a red protective cover for Distress.
In an exchange above the comment "I need to depress the distress button." was made. I will wager the writer was refering to the orange/red button aka HAIL+Distress button and not the RED Emergency button. But you can see how that could get confused in conversation given the redish nature of the orange button and its naming as Hail+distress button.

SUGGESTION - I woulld recommend changing this color of the HAIL+Distress ORANGE (which looks redish orange to me) to Yellow and naming it only HAIL so as to avoid confusion in discussion with the RED DISTRESS CALL THE COAST GUARD button.
Just my $0.02.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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