Oceanic Datamask Inoperative

[wombat1300]

Hi All,

Possibly this belongs in a new thread but I thought I'd chime in on a thread Doug was active in to get his feedback.

I bought a Datamask last month and just got back from a trip to Mauritius where I did about 15 dives with it. I'm experiencing the same screw corrosion but hopefully the replacement screws will make it out to South Africa sometime soon. As long as its just cosmetic I'm happy to wait.

Once I found the "trick" to the PC connection I've had very little problem getting the downloads to work. I found that the connector needs to be pushed "down" i.e. towards the lens once it has been clicked into the socket.

All in all I'm happy with the unit and being a DM and photographer I find it useful to have the info constantly to hand when I need to be multi tasking.

I'm having 2 problems that possibly someone can assist/advise on. Firstly the Oceanlog software seems to show me different tank pressure readings between the graph and the log page and neither seem to be realistic. One dive had me with 0 bar for the last 20 minutes of the dive! I'm guessing this is something to do with the metric conversion on the software. I've dropped an email to Oceanic support and will hopefully get to the bottom of it but I thought I'd see if anyone else was seeing this behaviour. Also the weight field in the log reduces the value by 0.1 kg every time you view the page, weird! I'd love to see download support on third party software like Diving Log 4 from Diving Log 4.0 - Scuba Log, Dive Log, Divelog - Logbook software for scuba diving - Logbuch Software zum Tauchen , I don't know if Oceanic would consider publishing their interface format for developers like this.

Second issue is with the mask positioning on my face, the fit is fine and I'm not getting any leaks but I find when submerged teh mask rides up my face a bit and the result is that the bottom line of the display gets blocked. I've tried adjusting the strap position but can't seem to get it to stop doing this. Unfortunatley the most important piece of info is IMO yout NDC or ATR time and this is on the bottom line which I have to adjust the mask to bring into view. Not quite the hands free experience I was hoping for! Any suggestions? As general interface feedback it might be an idea to shift this info to the top of the display at some point in the future but that would be a huge job I know.

Another thing that I noticed and it's probably jsut me not having read the manual is the Turn alarm just won't go off once it starts beeping. I presume pressing either the A or S buttons should acknowledge the turn around and silence the alarm?

Apart from my whining I think its a great device and really think people should try it before making a judgement. I was of the "Its not worth the $ for the sake of looking at your arm every now and then" school of thought but after diving with a friends I was hooked. Its not that its difficult to look at your arm, or even inconvienient but having it just there in the corner of your vision makes you almost subconsiously aware of your status all the time. For example when I first started diving in the Red Sea, coming from South Africa, the hugley better vis and sloping shore reefs had me only realising my actual depth when I was 10m's lower than I thought. So my 2 cents worth is "don't knock it until you've tried it"

I'd love to see additional transmitter support like the Atom 2 in the pipeline but I suppose it would be a hardware upgrade so us early adopters would lose out even if it does come along...

Anyway, enough rambling from me...

 

[wilton]

Hi All,

I received my Datamask on Christmas day (thanks, Santa!) and only a few days later, my Dad and I dove the Bonne Terre mines in Missouri (what timing!). This is what I wrote after returning home that night:

--> insert review
It is, without a doubt, the perfect device for low-light situations. There's more to the mask than this, of course, but for hands-free cavern, night, wreck, cave, or mine diving, it's perfect.

That said, it's got a fully-functional air-integrated dive computer in the mask. All of the standard two-button dive computer functionality is available (buttons are outside, one's on top, one's on side). It's also got standard nitrox capabilities.

One difference I noticed from standard air-integrated computers is that the mask is keyed, via a serial number, to the sender, so there is no need to "sync" the two. If the mask is within a yard of the sender, it syncs automatically (there is an option in the mask to set the sender's serial number).

In physical terms, the dive computer is situated on the right side of the mask, and the LCD is a white -- brightness is adjustable, but I'm surprised they didn't make the LCD red (which wouldn't affect night vision). The brightness is adjustable.

The LCD cuts into the right side lens by about a quarter of the total viewing area and there is no cutout on the right side (due to the dive computer). There is a cutout on the left side of the left lens to increase visibility on that side, but since my standard mask doesn't have cutouts on either side, it didn't matter to me, and the loss of visibility in my right eye was negligible.

Since I wear contacts, I was curious to see if actually be able to see the LCD, since peering at hard angles sometimes makes my contacts stick, but I had no problems whatsoever.

-->end review

One of the other things I noticed was the temp. was off by six degrees. The Bonne Terre mines are a consistent 58 degrees year-round, with no thermocline (this is an undisputable fact). My Aeris wrist computer read 59 degrees, and my father's read 58. My Datamask recorded 64 degrees.

When I called Oceanic today about this I was immediately connected to Doug, who was extremely friendly and was quite aware of the issue, and was quite adamant that that the issue was known and was being worked.

W.

 

[tracy_from_oz]

Hi Doug

So all in all it is fair to say that a small percentage of the masks have a fault, which statistically is like any other piece of technology made. However that shouldn't deter people from buying this product, eg like me, as you have the answers to the problems like corroding screws.

Tracy

 

[Doug Krause]

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for that. As much as the title of this thread pains me, I try to tread pretty lightly here - afterall, the power of Scubaboard comes from the users, not a manufacturer's pitch. I think that most people interested in purchasing the mask that come across this thread will come to the same conclusion.

 

[peterbj7]

If you ever decide to produce a left-eyed version please post that here. Despite what some people may have thought I'm not against this device in principle and I'd be interested to try it - maybe buy it. But no good for me if it uses the right eye.

What about the observation that having the display in red would be better for night use? Night and other dark use (ie. caves) is where I think it offers most benefit, so that suggestion seemed a good one.

 

[wilton]

Doug,

Here's another thought of mine that didn't make it into my review -- and that is, of course, the issue of losing the mask. Losing a $50 mask is one thing, but losing a Datamask is completely different, and since I regularly dive the Oil Rigs (360' bottom) here in LA, it's an issue for me. Beach dives, as well, can be problematic. I'll probably just string some zip-ties from the strap to my BC, but it would be kickass if you all could add a tiny brass hoop on the right side and include a thin, elastic, quick-release line.

My concern is not simply about losing my own mask, but about rescue situations, as well. I think you'll find that a lot of divers are trained to dump the mask en-route to the boat when rescuing a non-responsive diver. Unfortunately, in these situations, it's also usually imperative to retain the dive computer. A lanyard might be extremely helpful in situations like this.

I hate to keep bringing more issues to you -- I think you have a great product and the more we bake it the better it will get.

W.

 

[motorboat.vz]

Hi All,

Possibly this belongs in a new thread but I thought I'd chime in on a thread Doug was active in to get his feedback.

I bought a Datamask last month and just got back from a trip to Mauritius where I did about 15 dives with it. I'm experiencing the same screw corrosion but hopefully the replacement screws will make it out to South Africa sometime soon. As long as its just cosmetic I'm happy to wait.

Once I found the "trick" to the PC connection I've had very little problem getting the downloads to work. I found that the connector needs to be pushed "down" i.e. towards the lens once it has been clicked into the socket.

All in all I'm happy with the unit and being a DM and photographer I find it useful to have the info constantly to hand when I need to be multi tasking.

I'm having 2 problems that possibly someone can assist/advise on. Firstly the Oceanlog software seems to show me different tank pressure readings between the graph and the log page and neither seem to be realistic. One dive had me with 0 bar for the last 20 minutes of the dive! I'm guessing this is something to do with the metric conversion on the software. I've dropped an email to Oceanic support and will hopefully get to the bottom of it but I thought I'd see if anyone else was seeing this behaviour. Also the weight field in the log reduces the value by 0.1 kg every time you view the page, weird! I'd love to see download support on third party software like Diving Log 4 from Diving Log 4.0 - Scuba Log, Dive Log, Divelog - Logbook software for scuba diving - Logbuch Software zum Tauchen , I don't know if Oceanic would consider publishing their interface format for developers like this.

Second issue is with the mask positioning on my face, the fit is fine and I'm not getting any leaks but I find when submerged teh mask rides up my face a bit and the result is that the bottom line of the display gets blocked. I've tried adjusting the strap position but can't seem to get it to stop doing this. Unfortunatley the most important piece of info is IMO yout NDC or ATR time and this is on the bottom line which I have to adjust the mask to bring into view. Not quite the hands free experience I was hoping for! Any suggestions? As general interface feedback it might be an idea to shift this info to the top of the display at some point in the future but that would be a huge job I know.

Another thing that I noticed and it's probably jsut me not having read the manual is the Turn alarm just won't go off once it starts beeping. I presume pressing either the A or S buttons should acknowledge the turn around and silence the alarm?

Apart from my whining I think its a great device and really think people should try it before making a judgement. I was of the "Its not worth the $ for the sake of looking at your arm every now and then" school of thought but after diving with a friends I was hooked. Its not that its difficult to look at your arm, or even inconvienient but having it just there in the corner of your vision makes you almost subconsiously aware of your status all the time. For example when I first started diving in the Red Sea, coming from South Africa, the hugley better vis and sloping shore reefs had me only realising my actual depth when I was 10m's lower than I thought. So my 2 cents worth is "don't knock it until you've tried it"

I'd love to see additional transmitter support like the Atom 2 in the pipeline but I suppose it would be a hardware upgrade so us early adopters would lose out even if it does come along...

Anyway, enough rambling from me...

I got my first mask on 11-6-07 and took it diving in Dec. and it worked almost flawlessly. I had the problem with screws "not that big a deal" but the big problem was I never got an Alarm Sound. I would see the "SLO" in the display screen and my watch alarm was sounding but NOT the Datamask. "I was filming some rays and turtles and going up a little to fast". Bad DM, Bad DM....
I am also having a problem making the conn. inside the mask and I also have found that if you once attach the conn. inside the mask and push down on the plug it seams to connect most times.
The part I don't like is if it times out or disconnects it closes all windows and makes you start all over on the first page.

Can you make it stop one page back?

When I got back I downloaded all my dives and my mask did log all the times I had an alarm. So the computer was working just not the alarm system.
So I called Oceanic and they said to send it in and they would replace it.
Well I did and I got a new one in about 1 week. That's service.

I was told that you can "hear" the alarm when you first turn on the computer. I can hear it BUT it is very, very low. I have not taken the mask diving and will not till May so my question is how loud should it be? Will it be louder under water? I know sound is better under water but how good?
My hearing is not as good as it was when I was a kid but I had my wife listen for it and she said it was very low also and she can hear a pin drop in the next room.

Now the new mask still has the same problem hooking up with my computer but maybe they will get this fixed. I just hope they do an upgrade and not make me have to buy a new one to fix this problem.
I would still buy another one if I lost this one by the way.

Blaise

 

[tracy_from_oz]

I know people are worried/apprehensive about the mask because of fear of losing it.
I found this at scuba toys as I was looking for something to secure the mask as im thinking of purchasing a data mask for myself.

BCQR7, Accessories-Clips & Retractors, Cetecea, BCQR7

 

[philmayer]

Doug,

Here's another thought of mine that didn't make it into my review -- and that is, of course, the issue of losing the mask. Losing a $50 mask is one thing, but losing a Datamask is completely different, and since I regularly dive the Oil Rigs (360' bottom) here in LA, it's an issue for me. Beach dives, as well, can be problematic. I'll probably just string some zip-ties from the strap to my BC, but it would be kickass if you all could add a tiny brass hoop on the right side and include a thin, elastic, quick-release line.

My concern is not simply about losing my own mask, but about rescue situations, as well. I think you'll find that a lot of divers are trained to dump the mask en-route to the boat when rescuing a non-responsive diver. Unfortunately, in these situations, it's also usually imperative to retain the dive computer. A lanyard might be extremely helpful in situations like this.

I hate to keep bringing more issues to you -- I think you have a great product and the more we bake it the better it will get.

W.

One of our users lost his in the quarry the first day he dove it. Now he wears a coiled cord (like you use for lightweight dive lights) to connect his mask to his BC.

I don't worry about a retractor for mine, I just put it on my insurance with the rest of my gear. If I lose it, State Farm will buy me a new one.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

is the Datamask and the aeres compu mask same mask , also why didnt you have it able to do the two off gas's like the atom 2,0 sure would been nice feature for tech diving.