VT3 and Tranamitter

[JamesH]

Hello all,

Wondering if some one can help. I just bought a VT3 computer with transmitter. OH bout a month and half ago. I hooked it all up to test it out. Everything worked good. Told me how much air was in the tank. Great.. So now I went and hooked it back up and all it does now is the PSI blinks zeros. Close, far, changed the battery on the transmitter. Battery on computer says GOOD. But wont see transmitter. Went in Oceanlog and made sure transmiiter 1 was set to on. Still all I get is the PSI blinking zeros. Any one have this problem? Is the transmitter kaput? Do I need to do something to the computer so it hears the transmitter?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim

 

[donnyb]

Aloha James, welcome to SB...

First the transmitter is activated by pressure, so make sure you have the tank valve open.

As a side note, be sure to turn off the valve and purge the pressure when not using it to avoid draining the transmitter battery.

Next press the main mode button repeatedly to cycle thru the various main menus (log, fly, etc) till you get back to the pre-dive / surface mode. That usually gets the transmitter back. The loss of signal on the surface usually happens from either moving the computer too far away from the transmitter, or I have seen it just "time out" from longish periods without anything happening.

Another side note, the the transmit connection is automatically re-tried when you drop a few feet on your descent, so often it will flash for me on the surface, but start right up at 3 feet deep. If you have no signal at 3-4 ft deep, your transmitter probably has a dead battery in my experience.

 

[Dan Watkins]

Flashing 000's usually means that the VT3 is not connected to the transmitter. Your transmitter is connected to your 1st stage, and you did put it on a tank and open the tank valve right? It will just read 000 if the transmitter is not reading pressure from a tank.

One thing you might want to confirm is, go into the SET U menus (or the Utilities tab in Ocean Log) and make sure that TMT 1 is set to "on" (the "on" checkbox is checked in Ocean Log), and that you have the transmitter serial number entered properly. The serial number will be etched into the side of the transmitter.

You shouldn't need to do this, but did you try hitting the right/front (Advance) button? Did that do anything? I know sometimes after I linked to the transmitter and remain in surface mode, sometimes the PSI vanishes. I assume so it doesn't waste battery with constant connection while in surface mode. Hitting the A button brings the PSI back up. My guess is this won't matter though since you aren't even getting the initial connection.

 

[donnyb]

Oh, forgot one more thing, Did you do the procedure in the instructions where you enter the serial # of the transmitter on the wrist unit? I think its called "link"

If you did all that stuff, then I am at a loss. Try another transmitter battery?

My old transmitter was very touchy about how far the battery compartment cap had to be screwed down into the hole to make good contact.

 

[Doug Krause]

Great feedback - thanks donnyb and Dan Watkins. Another thing to try: purge your second stage a couple of times. The receiver (VT3 wrist unit) stops looking for pressure if there is not a change for 10 minutes. This is typically not the case if you aren't getting pressure from the beginning, but worth a try. Next thing that I'd try? 800-435-3483, ext. 761 - Mark or Ron.

 

[JamesH]

Thank you guys. Its working now. I tried the SN cause it was never entered in either the computer or log. That didn't work, still flashing zeros. I didn't want to try the battery again cause I changed that, and didn't work. Then donnybs response about the battery compartment cover. I figured, what the heck. I tightened the cape and presto there it is. PSI working.

Great!
Thanks again.
Jim