Suunto Cobra Malfunction?

[driftin' by]

Just returned from a beautiful trip to Cozumel... well the diving was good anyway. On our third day of diving after visiting Palancar Horseshoe and a nice relaxing SI, my wife's fairly new (~30 dives) Cobra spazzed out. While descending on Dalila at about 15ft she singled to me that something was up. I looked and her computer wasn't functioning... it just showed BAT at the bottom and four segments of the battery indicator were lit up. We ascended, boarded the boat and did several things to get it to come on. Not having the manual with me nor experiencing this with my Cobra on ~60 dives I wasn't sure if this meant the battery was exhausted. Unfortunately for her, she was done diving for the day. Back at our hotel, I installed a new battery and voila, it was working fine again lighting 4 segments of the battery indicator and showing BAT at the bottom during startup. Curious and conflicted, I installed the old battery and it was working again showing full battery capacity. I can't understand why it would have malfunctioned like this at the cost of my Buddy's precious bottom time in paradise. Anyone else experience this? Is there possibly something else wrong that would warrant I send it to Suunto for inspection?

 

[dherbman]

I'm still reading 4 bars on mine. I have over 160 dives on it in 13 months time. For the price of the Cobra and considering how critical it is to your safety and diving pleasure, I'd have it checked out. Better yet, I'd replace it and get a different computer.

I should probably mention that I despise my Cobra, but many people love theirs.

Good luck and please keep us posted on what happens.

 

[mccabejc]

Why the despising of the Cobra? Mine died a few weeks ago, so I'm a bit PO'd, but I haven't gotten to despising yet. Though between the crummy manual, and difficulty getting support, and the intermittent computer connector, and poor SDM, and...

Hey wait a minute... I despise this thing !!!!

 

[driftin' by]

I'm almost ready to despise too. With my wife's acting up as it did and costing her a dive for no apparent reason, I'm pretty close. I agree about the poor documentation and the Dive Manager software is absolutely pathetic. For the price it should keep a running tabulation of temperature instead of just two- temp at beginning of dive and at max depth. I know my friends Uwatec has this capability. On this trip specifically, mine kept going into deco long before air was ever an issue and I'm no miser. All the time other divers in our group never complained theirs going into deco and we stayed pretty close for the most part. I know Suunto's are conservative, but come on already! It wasn't like we were doing anything remotely extreme either. I wish I could send them both back for a refund but instead I think I'll send hers in for inspection. My wife suggested that we both get a backup computer so it wouldn't happen again. That's all well and good that she's opened the check book for additional gear but what she fails to realize is that we spend almost 2 grand for these two hunks of junk and they should damn well work... EVERY TIME! Especially considering they're relatively new.

Now with 70 dives under my belt, I beginning to find that I despise a lot of my gear that I bought after having about 20 dives... Seaquest ProQD+ BC (which I absolutely loathe and is up for sale now), Aqualung Blade II fins and Mythos mask. We have purchased all of our gear, at a premium price, from a previous LDS with the exception of a couple of dive lights and never actually got to realize any of the so called benefits of buying from an LDS that so many talk about. I complained to them early on about my BC, Mask and Fins to absolutely no avail. Sorry, I know this isn't the place for this discussion but I saw the word despise and it got me all fired up. Since we moved to Texas we now have a new LDS and hopefully they're better. For starters, they don't stock Aqualung products which seems to be the line I have the most problems with.

 

[Santa]

Could be the difference in temperature maybe. I coldwater dive a lot and it seems to zap the battery faster on my mosquito. Get out of the water and the heat makes it work a little better which might account for the difference. It just goes to show that one should not put too much trust in digital battery readers. The more worn my laptop batteries get the less correct the battery reading - and it's been the same with some cell phones I owned.

 

[Manta Aria]

It's strange you mention this, My dive buddy's Cobra has malfunctioned like 4 times at mid dive, he then has to rely on regular gauges ( his and mine for comfirmation) for the rest of the dive. Here's the spooky thing, it's only ever happened at one dive site in the same part of the cove. Everywhere else we dive, no prob. Other divers have said similar things, they've said spooky stuff happens there.
OH WELL! : D we're still safe!!!

 

[dherbman]

Why the despising of the Cobra? Mine died a few weeks ago, so I'm a bit PO'd, but I haven't gotten to despising yet. Though between the crummy manual, and difficulty getting support, and the intermittent computer connector, and poor SDM, and...

Hey wait a minute... I despise this thing !!!!

:lol:

The instructor that raved about the Cobra and whose recommendation I followed when I purchased it, now dives Uwatec SmartCom.

 

[jbichsel]

... Seaquest ProQD+ BC (which I absolutely loathe and is up for sale now), Aqualung Blade II fins and Mythos mask.

I have had my Pro QD+ for about 3 years and love everything about it except travelling.

Have you sold it yet? PM me with info.

 

[quarry_mermaid]

Interesting...
I still like my Cobra, but it did malfunction on me and had to be sent back. I was training students in the pool, at 12', and it read zero. Then when I ascended, and held the computer out of the water, it read 1'. The air readings were accurate, but the whole thing was a little weird, especially since it was less than a year old.
Anyway... I still like the interface and I have the repaired one back now. We'll see if there are any future problems.

By the way, I've found that ALL dive computer manuals seem to be crappy. And... I always wear a back-up wrist computer. I use the Scubapro Extender. It's obvious they calculate dive data differenly, but my Cobra has never been thrown into deco mode when I've been following the Extender.

 

[Chaseh]

Maybe it had originally been in its box for awhile and the battery started off low. Then on that dive it reflected a low bat and you replacing it was the right move. Sometimes batteries seem to regain a bit of life when shuffled with, and did so when to put the original back in, but would be impossible to know unless you then started using it again and it quickly died. Was there then any problems with the new battery?

Do either of you recall what the battery indicator was at when the computer was first activated shortly before that dive or dives earlier that week? Was is full?