kdsmithjr
Contributor
This is just a question to owners of IST's GP4000+ Compass Dive Computer. This is what happened with mine. My dealer replaced it on the spot after several tries to get it to work dependably.
The dive comps "compass" never was very realiable, unless it was within a few minutes and one dive away from resetting the "declination", even though my location since owning the GP4000 never changed by more than 80 km. Once the declination was set before a dive, it was fairly accurate, but the next day it would say a particular direction was south, while every other computer around would way east. or it sould say north then others compasses said south. After adjusting the declination, it would be in agreement with other compasses. The worst part, though was the following:
I am familiar with lcd displays and the fact that sometimes low contrast with the background may make lettering and numbers "fade." This was different. While on a drift dive, in a down current one day, i checked my GP4000 and it read 60 ft. I check again about 20 secs later and it said 85 ft. when i checked again about 20 secs later....it was blank. totally blank. I immediately checked my console gauges and found myself at 105. I checked the IST again, just to make sure that it was not a wierd angle i was looking at the screen and, sure enough, the screen was blank. At that point, i had no idea how long i was down or how much NDL time i had left. I caught my buddy, who was wearing my "old" IST GP3000+ (which has always worked flawlessly) and we both continued our dive, both depending on her 'old' GP3000+ to give us information. Back on board the boat, the screen was still blank. After asking some of the DM's on board, some of whom had IST dive comps, what they thought it was, we all decided to turn over the dive comp to the back side and "reset" the dive comp. It came back to life and a check of the log showed that the dive where it went on the fritz was not recorded at all. There was no low battery indicator on the reset dive comp (and no low bat. symbol ever showed on the dive comp before the dive in question).
i gave the errant dive comp back to my LDS, which is also my dive op 99% of the time, and they offered to "test" it during the week on other dives before sending it back if it failed again with them. It did not fail again during "test" dives and the dive comp was returned to me as "working normally." And it continued to work normally...including the 'always needing adjustment compass'...as it did before the catastrophic failure at depth. I also changed the battery, just to be sure that battery condition wasn't involved...even though no low bat symbol ever appeared on the face. Then about 3 weeks ago, this time at only about 40 feet, the dive comp went blank again. This time it dimmed before it died completely...i did see it go through that before it died. And, as before, an on board the boat reset restored everything...even the dive where it seems to have had failed again. I was going to return it again, but before I could do that, about a week before i would have given them the dive comp it went into its third strange act. This time after a normal dive, while sitting on deck, i noticed that the face of the dive comp was full of numbers and symbols. It was not scrambled; everything had its place, but every possible thing/warning/number the dive comp could display was on the face of the dive comp. I called the LDS and he said to bring it in and that he would exchange it for a new one on the spot....and he did. And, so far, the new IST GP4000 Compass + is working fine. And it accurately points out North, South, East and West, day after day, accurately and I've only set declination once!
Anyone else having these issues
The dive comps "compass" never was very realiable, unless it was within a few minutes and one dive away from resetting the "declination", even though my location since owning the GP4000 never changed by more than 80 km. Once the declination was set before a dive, it was fairly accurate, but the next day it would say a particular direction was south, while every other computer around would way east. or it sould say north then others compasses said south. After adjusting the declination, it would be in agreement with other compasses. The worst part, though was the following:
I am familiar with lcd displays and the fact that sometimes low contrast with the background may make lettering and numbers "fade." This was different. While on a drift dive, in a down current one day, i checked my GP4000 and it read 60 ft. I check again about 20 secs later and it said 85 ft. when i checked again about 20 secs later....it was blank. totally blank. I immediately checked my console gauges and found myself at 105. I checked the IST again, just to make sure that it was not a wierd angle i was looking at the screen and, sure enough, the screen was blank. At that point, i had no idea how long i was down or how much NDL time i had left. I caught my buddy, who was wearing my "old" IST GP3000+ (which has always worked flawlessly) and we both continued our dive, both depending on her 'old' GP3000+ to give us information. Back on board the boat, the screen was still blank. After asking some of the DM's on board, some of whom had IST dive comps, what they thought it was, we all decided to turn over the dive comp to the back side and "reset" the dive comp. It came back to life and a check of the log showed that the dive where it went on the fritz was not recorded at all. There was no low battery indicator on the reset dive comp (and no low bat. symbol ever showed on the dive comp before the dive in question).
i gave the errant dive comp back to my LDS, which is also my dive op 99% of the time, and they offered to "test" it during the week on other dives before sending it back if it failed again with them. It did not fail again during "test" dives and the dive comp was returned to me as "working normally." And it continued to work normally...including the 'always needing adjustment compass'...as it did before the catastrophic failure at depth. I also changed the battery, just to be sure that battery condition wasn't involved...even though no low bat symbol ever appeared on the face. Then about 3 weeks ago, this time at only about 40 feet, the dive comp went blank again. This time it dimmed before it died completely...i did see it go through that before it died. And, as before, an on board the boat reset restored everything...even the dive where it seems to have had failed again. I was going to return it again, but before I could do that, about a week before i would have given them the dive comp it went into its third strange act. This time after a normal dive, while sitting on deck, i noticed that the face of the dive comp was full of numbers and symbols. It was not scrambled; everything had its place, but every possible thing/warning/number the dive comp could display was on the face of the dive comp. I called the LDS and he said to bring it in and that he would exchange it for a new one on the spot....and he did. And, so far, the new IST GP4000 Compass + is working fine. And it accurately points out North, South, East and West, day after day, accurately and I've only set declination once!
Anyone else having these issues
