Petrel capacitor failure and firmware update

[watboy]

My Petrel 1 has recently been unable to store tissue data during battery changes. I sent an email to Shearwater, they said it looks to be a failed super capacitor and a known issue. A firmware update is in the works that will store data elsewhere. I guess as long as it still has full functionality, I shouldn't care. But still a little miffed that something has failed on a 2 year old, $1200 dive comp.

 

[buddhasummer]

Yeah, unfortunately things do go wrong with electronics, luckily it's Shearwater your're dealing with and not Suunto, at least they'll make good.

 

[BenjaminF]

It can't be repaired?

 

[sheeper]

the same exact thing happened to me. i contacted Shearwater and they gave me an RMA for it. I received a new Petrel back from them within the same week. Awesome and fast service.

 

[Jax]

My Petrel 1 has recently been unable to store tissue data during battery changes. I sent an email to Shearwater, they said it looks to be a failed super capacitor and a known issue. A firmware update is in the works that will store data elsewhere. I guess as long as it still has full functionality, I shouldn't care. But still a little miffed that something has failed on a 2 year old, $1200 dive comp.

Wow. This is the first time I have heard of an "fail" on a Shearwater.

Amazing. (Not counting the battery contacts issue, that was a design issue.)

I'll bet you that if you contact them, you can send it in for repair. Shearwater is like that.

 

[tbone1004]

i had another interesting issue with mine after a battery change where one of the dives got corrupted but I can't view any dives before that other than the test pot dive, can't delete that dive because it won't show up on the computer, but is logging all subsequent dives normally. Very strange. Computer is functioning fine right now otherwise, but very irritating to have to deselect that one dive every time I upload. Working with their software guys to try to figure it out for the last few weeks

 

[dmaziuk]

Wow. This is the first time I have heard of an "fail" on a Shearwater.

Amazing.

Electrolythic capacitors have a limited lifetime. If that's what they used.

Capacitor-backed memory doesn't always survive power-downs. It's rare but I had it happen once or twice on otherwise perfectly ok devices.

 

[abstract]

I returned the petrel for a aeris a300 cs. I already have problems before I even used the unit. I am getting worried I made the wrong mistake just to get air integration.

 

[buddhasummer]

That's unfortunate. The A300 CS certainly seems to have a lot of issues from what I've read. Good luck.

 

[watboy]

Shearwater says there will be no loss of functionality with the new firmware update. They are not offering to repair it, though I haven't pushed. They said it would require replacing the entire board. Its sort of a pain in !$@#$@ for me to ship it to them and deal with customs on the return. Though it is actually only 18 months old with 100 dives or so.

Anyone try the petrel 2? is the compass any good? The suunto digital compasses in their dive comps were useless. Currently I dive with the petrel and a suunto sk7 on my left forearm. It would be nice to have less clunkage.