Cressi Leonardo, no display after renewing battery

[Barryattle]

Update: the thing stayed dead for days, giving a few seconds of the initial display, then a beep and going dead. I thought maybe the button had broken this time rather than it being the stupid battery change issue. Well, I let it sit for over a week without placing the battery in at all and just put the battery back in. Works just like normal, didn't even need to race through the menu and reset it. So this is clearly another manifestation of the firmware issue with battery changes. Cressi, this is totally unacceptable. You need to fix this for all of us who still own (and maybe use) these DCs. "Works until you need to change the battery, after which you have to ask if you feel lucky today" is unacceptable, even if it will come back to life after a week or two sitting with the battery out (or maybe even in, for all I know). I assume there's no equivalent of a mandatory recall for autos with manufacturing defects, but this firmware fault needs to be treated the same and all owners of these defective devices offered free repair.

Oops - should have reset it when I had the chance. Let it sit with the battery installed, head it beep after a little while, and it's dead again, back to the original behavior. So if this happens, let yours set without battery for a week or two, then put it in and navigate to reset as fast as you can.

Given no response from Cressi here or from the support request on their website and that the second failure occurred during a dive, after changing the battery (i.e., potential risk of injury/death, not just financial), I have filed a report with the CPSC. I'll post if/how they respond.

 

[mb.cressi]

You guys are not really offering a feedback. Two mails already to limbo

Hello,
We constantly monitor the mailbox, could you provide in DM your email address so we can make a search, please?

Thank you.

Michael B.
After Sales Service
Cressi

 

[DrOzda]

Well after 3 weeks my Leonardo returned fixed.
Thanks Cressi.

 

[Barryattle]

A few brief updates on my situation:

1) I found that, even though it seemed fine after I did the reset function (twice), as I posted earlier, it was dead an hour or two later, back to previous behavior. I let it sit without battery another week, put the battery in, did 2 resets, and it has been acting normal for over a week. This makes me suspect the resets didn't fix anything - all said they worked, but it still went back to dead after the first pair. Rather, I wonder if it is something like a capacitor that has to discharge below some critical level before the device will go back to normal functioning when a battery is inserted.

2) The CPSC notified me that they had sent my complaint to Cressi, and subsequently posted it on their site. (Yes, how many of us search that before buying things...?)

3) I went back through this thread and saw that, somehow, I had missed the Cressi USA post on p.4, I think, about emailing support@cressi. They responded within a day, unlike the message sent through their website, and sent me a prepaid UPS mailing sticker within a day to send it in to them. So kudos to them on that - thank you, Cressi folks! I am guessing that the firmware fix mentioned earlier in the thread will be installed and that should take care of it.

 

[dmaziuk]

... I wonder if it is something like a capacitor that has to discharge below some critical level before the device will go back to normal functioning when a battery is inserted.

If you look a the manual for (older) Seiko watches (Leo and Giotto are Seikos), you'll probably find the part where they tell you to short a pair of contacts after replacing the battery. I.e. your guess is likely close.

Of course in the computers, the guts are sealed and there's no user access to said contacts.

 

[Barryattle]

If you look a the manual for (older) Seiko watches (Leo and Giotto are Seikos), you'll probably find the part where they tell you to short a pair of contacts after replacing the battery. I.e. your guess is likely close.

Of course in the computers, the guts are sealed and there's no user access to said contacts.

Interesting! I did try shorting the battery contacts together briefly (and then putting the battery in again) but that had no effect. Perhaps Cressi service will tell me to eat my shorts... ;-)

 

[dmaziuk]

That likely won't work: they'd have a capacitor to protect against that (and power loss) during battery change.

 

[Angelo Farina]

One of my Leonardo computers just went out of battery.
Perhaps not "just", I just discovered it is dead, perhaps it happened a couple of months ago!
In my family we have three of them, and this one was not used for a while.
As I have no plans of using it until next summer, is it advisable to leave it with the dead battery inside, or is it better to replace it immediately?
Or do I remove the exhausted battery now, leave it without any battery for some months, and install the new fresh one the next spring, just before using it again?

 

[dmaziuk]

I would put in the battery and see if it wakes up: some of them apparently don't and need to be sent to Cressi for a reset. If that happens, it's best to find out before you need it

 

[Bluefin59]

It's important to give credit where credit is due. I sent two Cressi Leonardos to CressiUSA Returns with Michael's help and it was sent back postage paid within a few days. One was operational after the battery change and the other had the dreaded blank screen. Michael said to send both back and they both would be re-programmed and diagnostics done. Well done Cressi for making this repair easy.