The great Suunto data cable thread (incl DIY)

[ekiledjian]

there's no way a person could hurt themselves with the interface. if only conducts low voltage current... not enough to feel or hurt you.

Bob3 is referring to indirect and consequential damages. You CAN get sued if a lawyer prooves to the judge that there is reasonable doubt that your cable could have cause a malfunction in the dive computer and thus could have contributed to the situation. Remember that the diver does not need to die, just be injured.

You can add a statement that the device is provided as-is. without warranty of any kind either implied or expresed blah blah blah. A good lawyer cna write something up in 10 minutes.

 

[jamiei]

Why do you keep replying to parts of this thread that are a couple years old? You only serve to confuse people... Jamiei and Athens Home Solutions are one in the same...

 

[jamiei]

Just for anyone that may read this/be interested in purchasing an interface, I would like to provide an update. As of 10/20/04, I will (for the first time this year) be completed caught up on orders and begin to produce units to hopefully compile some inventory of these so that I can get all orders shipped out within 24 hours of payment. In the last few months, despite my best efforts I found myself several weeks behind on orders due to high demand and this concerned quite a few people as to the legitimacy of my business and product. This is just a note to those that may have doubts or concerns to say that everything is running smoothly and turnaround times are faster than ever. As always, please call or email me with any questions.

 

[jlayman800]

Anyone care to report on which USB adapters have worked with the serial cable? There's too many adapters out there and some seem to cause conflicts or other problems.

Oh, I had no idea there were conflicts. I just purchased an adaptor from sewelldirect.com that will plug into a USB and provides me a Serial Port. I sure hope it works for my SUUNTO dive computer interface.

 

[jamiei]

Oh, I had no idea there were conflicts. I just purchased an adaptor from sewelldirect.com that will plug into a USB and provides me a Serial Port. I sure hope it works for my SUUNTO dive computer interface.

I don't use one personally (usually), but a great number of my customers do and I haven't heard of anyone having any problems with any specific brand/model. I bought one off ebay (no name) for I think $3.85 that came with drivers and worked fine. Please don't email me asking who I got it from because I have no idea... use the search button like I did. Now I have gotten a lot of emails with people having problems with their adapter (thought it was the interface also) but it always turned out to be a problem with how the drivers were installed or user setup. The adapters have somewhat of a tricky job convincing the software that a usb port is a serial port, especially when you tell (and think) the interface is plugged into com 1 and its actually com 3 or something. That has always been a large part of the problems I've heard of personally. I've sold a whole lot of interfaces and I would guess that at least 30% of those use usb adapters and I've never heard of conflicts. The only thing you will most likely see is that the suunto software will not "recognize" the interface but that doesn't mean it won't still transfer.
jamie

 

[Willar]

I recently ordered the interface cable for my Cobra from Jamie (Athens) and got it quickly. Cable works great. I had v1.51 of Dive Manager and it didn't recognize the cable was connected. I loaded v1.6 off Jamie's CD that came with the cable and everything works great. Thanks Jamie!

 

[jamiei]

I recently ordered the interface cable for my Cobra from Jamie (Athens) and got it quickly. Cable works great. I had v1.51 of Dive Manager and it didn't recognize the cable was connected. I loaded v1.6 off Jamie's CD that came with the cable and everything works great. Thanks Jamie!

Just as a quick note for those that may not have read it in this thread or elsewhere... version 1.51 has a bug that causes the software to not recognize either my interface or Suunto's interface but generally transfers are still possible with version 1.51 as long as you have the correct com port selected. The trouble is, without divemanager "finding" the com port for you (recognizing it...) then its easy to think its on com 1 and it actually be on com 2 to divemanager.

p.s. I think I tried to send you a couple emails Willar, but they didn't go through (if you're the person I think you are).

 

[nshon]

Hi guys, I just found this guy selling off eBay for $30 all in. Any experience with him or the product? Works a serial cable. Website at http://www.alex.hk/suunto/index.htm

 

[jamiei]

Hi guys, I just found this guy selling off eBay for $30 all in. Any experience with him or the product? Works a serial cable. Website at http://www.alex.hk/suunto/index.htm

Since I also make them, I purchased one from him to see what it was like. He originally tried to sell just the circuit to me to be used in my units before he began selling them on ebay. His price to me was much too high so I declined his offer. What you get is an interface with a rg45? plug (network cable) that will only work with the d3 and mosquito and from my experience doesn't seem like it would be very reliable there either based on the current connection setup. I have a cobra and there is no way it will work on it. Due to the design of the connection (plug), it could be quite hard to maintain contact between the dive computer and the interface during a transfer without it timing out. It's not bad for the price, but there is no way I could offer what I make for that price because I use something a little more high tech than a network plug and so my material costs are higher and my interface is more labor intensive. I would say I spend approximately twice as long building my interface as he does his. Mine features gold plated spring contacts which are designed not to slip off the dive computer contacts whereas his design used the thin contacts of a network plug which relies on a tight fit from pressing the plug into the slot on the dive computer. I'm really not sure why he doesn't improve the design of his connection to make the interface universal other than the additional time involved and thus increased cost. I think it would sell better that way. Please don't take anything I've said as a biased knock on what he makes. I'm in no competition with him. I make what I make and he makes what he makes... some prefer his and some prefer mine. I just have always tried to do anything I can to make my interface better for the consumer and still stay within a reasonable price, which I have. Both of our designs feature basically the same circuit and both will work with a usb adapter. I posed the question of warranty to him and he replied that he offers a 6 month repair warranty where as the buyer pays for shipping (this was when he first started offering them several months ago). I have not actually tested a transfer with this unit since it doesn't work with the cobra, but the software did recognize the interface. I think thats about all the info I have for you.

 

[jamiei]

I thought I should inform the board about recent actions taken by Aqualung...

Today, Aqualung had my listing for interfaces removed from Ebay... Why? Because they can I guess. The only thing I could see is that they claim I'm not an authorized internet dealer of suunto products... no duh... never claimed to be and have never sold suunto produts. There are two other sellers on ebay that mention Suunto's name just like me and who use several images of the software as well but these users were not targeted. Aqualung can easily have me removed from Ebay it seems. Anyone have any ideas about what I need to do to keep this from happening? I make it clear in the listing that I make the product and that suunto doesn't, nor do they endorse it or warranty it. They did not attempt to contact me and failed to leave their contact information with Ebay when they filed the claim against me so I had to spend an hour trying to get it from Ebay. Looks like this may have to go back to the old days of email requests and money orders or I may just have to call it quits. Has anyone ever bought an interface from me thinking it was made by suunto?