VT3 lost signal

[mabuna]

Last weekend my wife and I went diving and on our second dive my VT3 lost signal a few times but not for long. Our third and forth dives I lost signal a little more often and for longer times. At the start of our fifth dive my wife also started to lose signal for short periods of time. By the end of the dive she started to lose it for longer and I could only see my pressure off and on so we called the dive short and quit diving for the weekend. My wife could check my pressure when I could not some times and I could check hers. We got the VT3's for Christmas 2007 and dove them 17 times with no trouble for the first 13 dives. They don't show a battery problem. The water temperature in west hawk lake is at about 42 degrees but our last dive was shallow so the temp was about 54 degrees.On oceanlog 2.2.0 all data is good but there is no end pressure for my last 3 dives. I would appreciate any help you could give me. I have not called Oceanic yet.

thanks
Wayne

 

[mikerault]

sounds like a battery issue. Were you doing photography? On my Mares Genius I used to lose signal when the strobe on my Reefmaster would recharge.

 

[mabuna]

Thanks for the reply mikerault
No photography and no scooter.
They don't show a low battery but thats what I thought to.
The ones in the transmitter right?

 

[philmayer]

It's not the battery. I'll bet you're holding your arm in front of your chest while you dive.

Many times when I'm diving (mainly while supervising students) I will cross my arms in front of my chest. When I do so I put quite a bit of mass (yes, I'm a tad bit ovberweight ) between the transmitter and my Atom 2. Sometimes it will lose signal. As soon as I move my arms to my sides the signal comes back.

 

[ryssyr]

my vt3 signal went out like that too. I changed the battery in the transmitter and after one dive it went out completely. I had to return the transmitter and oceanic replaced it for free. - although others I know who have the same setup have had no problems.

I dive with a camera and pony sometimes and when not taking pics cross my arms. I have had no intermittent trouble with the new transmitter and can even walk around my jeep with the vt3 on my wrist and tank on the ground with no loss of signal.

 

[RAWalker]

Check the transmitter battery but also check the contacts on the battery and inside the transmitter. I've found that a speck of dirt on the contacts causes both intermittent signal and complete transmitter failure. After reporting my finding regarding a transmitter that was thought to be dead but actually just needed the dirt speck removed a number of people replied to me that my post caused them to reexamine their transmitters and found the same problem.

 

[mrlipis]

Mabuna, not to hijack your thread but maybe you can answer a question for me. I just got my wife a VT3 (I have one also) and I set them up on buddy. The manual says to press the M button for two seconds to see your buddies air. While I have not had them both underwater, on the surface that does not work. The computer scrolls through manual,free dive etc. They do see each others pressure if I hold the S and A button down at the same time. Just curious if things change once underwater and wet.

Bruce

 

[mabuna]

philmayer it's not my arm position I even tried to put my hand behind my head with no luck.

RAWalker I'll check the contacts to see how they are.

mrlipis the buttons do different things above and below the water. You will love buddy check but you have to be close together.

thanks for all the replies.

 

[Doug Krause]

Thanks everyone for the ideas - it sounds like it's time for a call to tech support - (800) 435-3483, ext. 761