Suunto Cobra alarm problem

[ot1]

I have a brand new Cobra with a compass, never hit the water until today, but was purchased in 2003. The battery was dead so I got a new one for $5.00, installed it easily, no problem.

Ok took it into the pool today for a test and I sucked down the tank, I have 288 psi remaining. The book says... a 3 beep low pressure alarm sounds 3 double-beeps at 725psi, then alarms once again at 500psi with 3 double-beeps, then again at 0psi (on page 22). I never heard any of the 12 beeps! When I power the Cobra on, I get a very quick beep, less than a second, but its not very loud, and its rather high pitched. Is this high pitch normal, anybody else have this problem? Maybe I missed all the beeps over my exhales, but it should be much louder so this can't happen! Ok now here is the stupid part, when I close the tank valve, purge the regs, then reopen the tank valve, it sees the pressure to be at 288psi, but no beeps. This seems to be a VERY poor design, would have been easy to program this simple safety alert in, should double-beep for 10 seconds or so when there is low pressure on power up out of the water. Some might say just read the gauge, but if its fogged over from the cold air, its impossible to read, and you can't wipe it and cause it has that plastic shield over it, so you have to dip it in water to remove the fog, but this maybe not practical at the moment.

Would have been nice to be able to adjust the LCD contrast too, because the optimal viewing angle (where the display is the brightest), is tilted on such an angle that the tank pressure is partially obscured by the gap in the lower part of the shield. If the backlight were brighter this wouldn't be a problem.

So any Cobra users out there please chime in.

 

[ajduplessis]

I know on some unit's you have to enable this functionality (low pressure/tank pressure), not sure about the Cobra. I also know that newer divers tend to miss alarms, to busy with other stuff (focused on breathing, buoyancy looking at fish etc). The beep at start-up is normal.

 

[Skooter]

The alarms are user adjustable so confirm the settings on your computer. Then check your computer settings and make sure that adubile alarms are turned on.

 

[ibj40]

When you replaced the battery, the computer may have gone back to the factory default settings. Check the manual to see which one's have to be customized following a battery change.

 

[NCadiver]

Maybe you need to get your hearing check and any time you turned it on with no pressure it would beep.

 

[ot1]

Maybe you need to get your hearing check and any time you turned it on with no pressure it would beep.

No my hearing is fine, perhaps you need to get your eyes checked since I already posted that it gave a quick beep on power up.




OK, I took it the a dive shop, they had a new Cobra 1 module, the power on beep is the EXACT same, short and high pitched.

Refilled the tank to 750...purged it down to 490....no beeps from my Cobra...but this was out of the water, and the shop didn't have any means to test it underwater.

And the tech, did't hear any pressure alarm beeps either. We both agreed the power on beep on the new module and mine wasn't very pronounced.

I talked to Suunto before I refilled the tank to 750, and according to them the Cobra1 doesn't have an OFF setting for the pressure alarm, only for dive depth alarm.

If it doesn't work underwater the second time around, the firmware is whacked. The manual gave it a feature that doesn't exist or it had an undocumented firmware update that fixed this on models manufactured after mine. BTW, a new module is $600.

I need someone to tell me who has one and really knows if the pressure alarm is activated only while underwater(dumb because this alarm should be testable above water as well).


Also, anyone considering a Suunto, get it from a Aqualung dealer as the warranty is for 5 years not 2 years.

 

[NCadiver]

Maybe I missed all the beeps over my exhales, but it should be much louder so this can't happen! Ok now here is the stupid part, when I close the tank valve, purge the regs, then reopen the tank valve, it sees the pressure to be at 288psi, but no beeps. This seems to be a VERY poor design,So any Cobra users out there please chime in.

First dive mode and surface mode work differently so it’s not going to beep low air in surface mode, Two pulling 5 to 6ma it not going to beep that much or it will kill the battery quickly. Which you do is go back to the pool and verify the alarms and pay attention at 725 and 500 psi.

 

[ot1]

First dive mode and surface mode work differently so it’s not going to beep low air in surface mode, Two pulling 5 to 6ma it not going to beep that much or it will kill the battery quickly. Which you do is go back to the pool and verify the alarms and pay attention at 725 and 500 psi.

Since I haven't heard the duration of the beeps, I can't refute the 6ma draw, but really this is suppose to be 3 double beeps, not a constant alarm. So, juice out of the battery is likely nil, anyway, the manual cautions you when dive to check your battery level. I would rather have to replace the battery every year than have a alarm that couldn't be heard, but maybe that is just me.

@NCadiver, do you have a Cobra?

Wish it wasn't so cold out so I could test this right away, but the pool is freezing. Its 34F here this morning.

 

[NCadiver]

Yes I do have a cobra along with a couple of more computers.

 

[Willar]

I find my Cobra alarm to be very hard to hear, but I always thought it was my poor hearing. If I'm enjoying the dive I don't usually hear any alarms.