A300CS OLED Dive Computer

[Hatul]

Just got back from a two week dive trip with the A300cs. I logged 24 consecutive dives (“time to fly” not timing out between dives). The dives ranged from 45 to 72 mins with a max depth of 83 ft. All dives were Nitrox ranging from 32-34%.
Added note, except for my first two dives of the two weeks I had a housed camera with dual strobes in my hands in case it makes any difference with the below comments. I have the A300cs updated to Rev F firmware. ...

Thanks for the excellent review. I have the Galileo and was looking to upgrade to a color AI computer, but I see the Aeris is not the one. The Galileo has none of the shortcomings you mentioned. Yes it has the old LCD matrix display, but you can choose between large digits or lots of info in one screen. In the large digit mode it displays the elapsed dive time and the lesser of the remaining air time and the non deco time. In classic display it displays all three. And the connection to the transmitter in the Galileo is very solid, almost no cutouts. And no battery problems at all, even with backlight turned out for the duration of dive. I'm still hoping a company will turn out an AI color computer I can upgrade to.

 

[radtype]

I was helping with AOW class this weekend in Monterey and the computer was very nice. Easy to see (still wish lettering was larger) on night dive and when helping with deep dive it calmed student because they could easily see bright colors on the display.

 

[Steyr]

I just completed 5 days on a liveaboard in Queensland, Australia (SS Yongala and Great Barrier Reef). 17 dives, a touch over 13 hours in the water with the A300 CS.

In my last dive prior to the trip I had my A300 experience a dead battery with seemingly no warning (kitting up at the start of the dive it was dead - I had to do a quick battery change). A new firmware release also came out immediately prior to my Qld trip. During the 17 dives/13 dive hours on this trip I had no battery issues. The computer performed fine in all circumstances. By the end of the trip it was giving me an orange "low battery" warning. This is staggeringly fewer hours than the manual says a battery should last, but at least the warning was there.

The screen is sometimes difficult to read in bright sunlight, but it makes up for this on a night dive. Even my dive buddy knew exactly how much air I had left at night as he could read my computer from 10 feet away!

 

[James R]

Anyone need a transmitter for the A300 CS?

Band extender, the plastic case, and 2 spare batteries it came with included.

My gf lost her A300 CS on the 2nd dive she took it on...unreal...not sure how/why it fell off her arm, but I am not too happy about that (to say the least).

Yes, I'm serious. PM me if you are interested in these things.

Thank you,

 

[Doug Krause]

Anyone need a transmitter for the A300 CS?

Band extender, the plastic case, and 2 spare batteries it came with included.

My gf lost her A300 CS on the 2nd dive she took it on...unreal...not sure how/why it fell off her arm, but I am not too happy about that (to say the least).

Yes, I'm serious. PM me if you are interested in these things.

Thank you,

James - once I got past my initial reaction to your post, knowing how horrible your girlfriend must have felt... I remembered a night dive many years ago where I lost one of a brand new pair of fins while making my way out of the surf zone. I got up, shouted a few choice words and prepared to give the ocean my remaining fin... when a wave rolled in and left my fin at my feet. I'd like to return the favor. Please give me a shout and let me see what I can do.

 

[DaveCT]

I have been following this thread religiously since I am seriously considering the A300CS as a holiday gift to myself. I understand the steadily improving firmware and software upgrades, but my question is about hardware versions- are there any to be aware of? The reason is that my LDS has 2 units that I am going to go check out this week, but they say they both have build dates from July / August. Will upgrading the firmware bring these units up to where a freshly manufactured one will be, or should I only be looking at units manufactured after a certain date? Thanks for your insight!

 

[MT2001]

I finally got to use the A300CS for the 1st time in Cozumel. 11 dives with a total of 12 hours. Max depth 91 feet.
I was running 100% brightness with 15 sec. sampling rate.
Battery indicator was still green, but I did not want to bother with low batteries hassles on the boat, so changed the batteries after 9 dives in my room.
Had no problems during the dives. Noticed a TX lost connection maybe twice.
I am running the DSAT algorithm, and felt that the TLBG was conservative compared to the other divers in my group.
The screen was a little difficult to see during the safety stop, but not a big issue.
Having the elapsed dive time on the main screen would be more convenient. Screen is big enough that I would think this can be stuffed somewhere on the main screen.

My main problem right now:
I cannot download the dive logs from the A300CS.
I am running a Windows 7 x64 Laptop, and ACI 2.4.0
The A300CS says it is connected, but the divelog downloader says USB interface not found. I do not understand this at all.

I CAN update the firmware in the A300CS (I am using rev H right now).
I CAN read and upload settings in the A300CS from the ACI software. The menu for this says USB interface IS found.

Anyone have similar issues?

 

[rwkosh]

James - once I got past my initial reaction to your post, knowing how horrible your girlfriend must have felt... I remembered a night dive many years ago where I lost one of a brand new pair of fins while making my way out of the surf zone. I got up, shouted a few choice words and prepared to give the ocean my remaining fin... when a wave rolled in and left my fin at my feet. I'd like to return the favor. Please give me a shout and let me see what I can do.

It seems to me that the bungee mount would have prevented this from happening in the first place. So I have to ask, any news on when it will be available?

 

[jd950]

Just finished a trip with my wife using her new a300cs. She had no significant problem with transmitter linkage. It may or may not have lost the signal briefly from time to time but if it did it was unimportant. She never noticed a lost signal and I haven't reviewed the history to try and find any momentary losses. She had to cup a hand around the screen when at or near the surface in order to read the screen but this was a minor inconvenience and due to oled technology rather than any design problem in my view. As some other people mentioned, she would have liked to be able to have elapsed time on the main screen but I believe she said the info was one button push away so she didn't find it a major problem.

I have mentioned before that I don't like the highly reflective bezel and although she did not care about it in a broader sense, she mentioned that on or near the surface readability was made more difficult by the very bright reflections from sunlight she got from the bezel. I noticed the reflections as well during ascents and descents or if we were shallower than about 35'. She could have just about used sunlight reflections on the bezel as a signaling device. It looked like a really bright fishing lure.

Two biggest complaints: Battery only made 12 dives. No one else in our group of four needed a battery replacement anywhere as soon as she did. Maybe she could turn down the brightness and get a few more dives; I don't know.

Biggest gripe: Battery level was green up until the moment during a dive day that the computer beeped once and we got a screen that said "data saved calibrate compass". This screen could not be changed and computer could not be turned off. She used an spg for the remaining dives that day. By the time we got back to our apartment that night, computer was dead. A battery replacement brought it back to life and it showed the status she was at when it locked up; she was 12 minutes into a surface interval.

There needs to be a better warning when the battery is getting weak and there should be a better means of handling a low power battery than simpling locking up with a weird screen. I didn't know if the thing had flooded, or had some sort of mental breakdown or what. Otherwise, I would have to say you can count on maybe 9-10 dives then you need to change the battery. We will contact Oceanic and see if they have any suggestion.

She has made no attempt yet to download the computer data into any software so I have no information on that.

If they can make a nice bungee or decent and longer velcro strap for the computer, change the front bezel and solve the battery gauge issue, I might consider one of these for myself.

 

[Viperdk]

HELP!!!
My new a300cs went dead today. Changed batteri, but it now only shows "error last dive" and then it goes dead again. Can anyone please help