New Cobalt 2

[Dr. Lecter]

You're taking two Cobalts with you, plus an Oceanic, in exchange for someone holding your CC# after FedExing you a new $1200 computer for free? Lack confidence in your understanding of customer service levels and consumer electronics quality all you want, but the Cobalt's fine.

 

[Janie1229]

And yet ANOTHER glitch....now my Cobalt is telling me I have a surface time of 6:11 and no fly time of 17.49. IS IT EVER GOING TO END? I am now regretting not sticking with the Aeris A300....

---------- Post added September 3rd, 2014 at 07:17 PM ----------

Dr. Lecter, I did say the customer service so far has been excellent by both my local shop and Atomics. We'll see how it goes. I know nothing is perfect, glitches and "bugs" can happen, just never to me before. I was wanting a more intuitive computer, more than having to re-read the manual cover to cover on my Cobra, but it always worked perfectly. Anyway, hopefully I got one of the few "duds" with the Cobalt and will love the new one.

 

[RonR]

And yet ANOTHER glitch....now my Cobalt is telling me I have a surface time of 6:11 and no fly time of 17.49. IS IT EVER GOING TO END? I am now regretting not sticking with the Aeris A300....

---------- Post added September 3rd, 2014 at 07:17 PM ----------

Dr. Lecter, I did say the customer service so far has been excellent by both my local shop and Atomics. We'll see how it goes. I know nothing is perfect, glitches and "bugs" can happen, just never to me before. I was wanting a more intuitive computer, more than having to re-read the manual cover to cover on my Cobra, but it always worked perfectly. Anyway, hopefully I got one of the few "duds" with the Cobalt and will love the new one.

Janie- to work backwards:

A surface time of 6:11 and a no-fly time of 17:49 seems correct, if the last dive was six hours and 11 minutes ago. Or if the Cobalt was reset (as when updating the firmware) six hours and 11 minutes ago. When reset, the time and date always will need to be reset, it defaults to the time as of the end of the last dive. That's the most conservative option from a deco-safety standpoint. In a new unit that would be the factory test dive.

Kudos to Adan for checking your very early serial number. There were issues with faulty depth sensors on some early production- serious enough that Atomic stopped building them for several months until they could verify that the parts were good. In use, these would read several feet too deep. It's a complicated story, and I'm over simplifying, but this same sensor has been used for many years by many manufacturers (it's probably what was in your Suunto), and we got a bad batch that passed the Atomic wet test but some of which malfunctioned later. Newly produced units do not have this issue- we know exactly where it came from. That's why I asked about your serial number when you said what firmware version was installed. You are right- dealers with early stock should know about this and check- as you saw, it's easy to verify if there is a problem.

I think you can be confident that the replacement Atomic is sending will be free of this issue. Sorry for the stress, but I think that from a user interface/ user experience standpoint, you will be happy with the Cobalt.

Ron

 

[Janie1229]

Okay thanks Ron. It looked like yet another issue when I saw the surface time/no fly time. The dive shop exchanged my Cobalt for another one they had in stock, but I think it may be an earlier version? Serial number begins 0114. The Cobalt from Atomic factory in Salt Lake is supposed to arrive by 8p tonight according to FedEx tracking. I will use that one first - and hopefully not have need for the other one, or the Oceanic. As upset as I was initially, I am just as impressed with the response I've received from both Atomic and my local dive shop. Both have been fast to try and correct the problem and it is very appreciated.

My husband and I relocated from out of state last year, very stressful time, no dive trips for 2 years - very unusual for us, and so this trip has been greatly anticipated. I will try to post from Brac with an update after the first day diving.

---------- Post added September 4th, 2014 at 04:04 PM ----------

Ron, the new Cobalt just arrived via FedEx. Thanks again. I will use this Cobalt on the trip, bring the Oceanic as a backup. Will post again after I've been diving with it.

 

[Janie1229]

My husband and I did our first dives at Brac yesterday. The Cobalt functioned properly, although I am not sure I like how difficult it is to read it at 20ft and above, with the added light it is hard to read. Will see how Ieel after today's diving.

 

[RonR]

All emissive displays- TFT or OLED- will get washed out in very bright sunlight and may require shading with your hand or some such technique in full sun. Adjusting the screen brightness up manually may help to an extent, at the expense of somewhat less battery life. Just as it can be difficult to see if a lightbulb is turned on in bright sunlight, the ambient sunlight will overpower the light the display puts out. There's really nothing that can be done about this- emissive displays will give much better readability in dim light or at depth, and can offer color, but are harder to read in full sun. The traditional monochrome LCD displays are reflective rather than emissive, and get easier to read in bright light, but have much less contrast in dimmer environments. This comes down to a question of personal preference.

Where we are, in the Pacific Northwest, bright sunlight is not usually a problem .

Hope you're having a great trip.

Ron

 

[Hotpuppy]

All emissive displays- TFT or OLED- will get washed out in very bright sunlight and may require shading with your hand or some such technique in full sun. Adjusting the screen brightness up manually may help to an extent, at the expense of somewhat less battery life. Just as it can be difficult to see if a lightbulb is turned on in bright sunlight, the ambient sunlight will overpower the light the display puts out. There's really nothing that can be done about this- emissive displays will give much better readability in dim light or at depth, and can offer color, but are harder to read in full sun. The traditional monochrome LCD displays are reflective rather than emissive, and get easier to read in bright light, but have much less contrast in dimmer environments. This comes down to a question of personal preference.

Where we are, in the Pacific Northwest, bright sunlight is not usually a problem .

Hope you're having a great trip.

Ron

Ron,
I wanted to just take a moment to thank you for being so transparent and honest. It's so refreshing to see that in the Dive world. I too, have been horrified, at the crappy interfaces on dive gear. I say that from the standpoint of someone with 20 years of IT experience. Currently an IT Manager at a non-profit, but have programmed in the past. I also design and build electronics in my spare time (Nanohawk | Where DIY Electronics meets the cloud), so I know exactly how hard it is to manage cost and build a decent UI.

I was researching the Atomic Cobalt 2. My favorite LDS in Houston, Maximum Scuba, recommended it as an upgrade to another computer that I have. The old computer is from a different, well known maker, and the battery died. The other computer always suffered because it had contacts for the interface. The other manufacturer forces all battery changes to go through a dealer even when the dealer has no relationship with the customer and doesn't understand the product or the service agreement. Ugh!

Anyhow, I'm excited by what I see. I wanted a rock solid dive computer with good readability, good buttons, and the ability to fix problems 15 feet into a dive. The rechargeable battery and integrated USB interface are pure bonus as they eliminate some problems I've seen with other manufacturers. The ability to change gases underwater fixes the only time I've ever had a computer misbehave on me. The computer contacts shorted on the dive boat during the surface interval and set the O2 content to 68%. As I descended for the dive, the computer went into alarm mode thinking I was going to exceed safe PPO2 limits. As it was a group dive, going back up to tinker with the computer wasn't an option. I happened to have my slate on that dive and explained to the DM what was going on. We agreed to proceed and disregard the alarm. So the whole group of 20 divers endured 45 minutes of non-stop beeping while looking for sea horses at 45 feet. We found a few, but the computer locked me out afterwards which generated some drama back at the resort. And yes, I did check and adjust my O2 setting prior to the dive. The contacts must have been in the wrong spot while I was sitting.

Thanks again.

 

[RonR]

Thanks for the kind words. Sadly, lousy interfaces are all too common- we have a toaster oven that requires referring to a manual for many functions.
A good UI should make a manual superfluous. Unfortunately many engineers / product designers think that if they provide some menus and colors, they have made a user interface- without thinking too much about how it actually works for the user in real life.

The problem you describe is a good example- it just shouldn’t be possible to change your O2 % by mistake. That is something that should require deliberate action and confirmation. We have worked hard to look at every action a diver might need to take, and make sure that it is as easy and obvious, and as resistant to inadvertent error or accidental triggering, as we could make it. The Cobalt does allow for gas switching underwater, but only if you set it up beforehand- to avoid accidental triggering. And we do provide a pre-dive check that puts all your dive settings on one screen for review.

It’s very hard to make something easy to use, and we have made the engineering side, particularly for firmware, much more difficult for ourselves in order to make things easy for divers. But for us, that is the most rewarding part.

Ron

 

[Akimbo]

... Sadly, lousy interfaces are all too common- we have a toaster oven that requires referring to a manual for many functions.
A good UI should make a manual superfluous…

I wish I could remember the book but this says it well:

“A manual is a list of user interface failures.”​

Of all the Cobalt’s nice features the UI is at the top of the list and excellent customer service is a close second.

Well done Ron.

 

[mikeycanuk]

I have a funny story on horrendous UI's. During our nitrox course the owner of our LDS gave up after 10 minutes of pressing endless buttons on a Zoop. He was trying to show us how to set our computers for enriched air. I felt bad for the other 2 people in the class, they had Zoops. We all had Cobalts.

We did have Zoops for backups which I soon sold here and got Oceanic BUD's which are a breeze to set for enriched air, very handy such as in Coz where we used 32% and 36% mixes each day.


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