Suunto Cobra owners - avoid what I did.

salth2owannabe · Apr 24, 2008

I've got the Suunto Cobra 2 and on a recent trip to Bonaire found out that once you dive with it in gauge mode you won't be able to change it back to computer mode for 48 hrs. (after the no fly time) When making multiple dives a day on vacation you are screwed when you can't change it back.
So I was stuck using my computer as a guage after day 1 of my vacation.
The user manual spells this out in a few places, but what a user un-friendly feature.

PerroneFord · Apr 25, 2008

salth2owannabe:
So I was stuck using my computer as a guage after day 1 of my vacation.
The user manual spells this out in a few places, but what a user un-friendly feature.

Mine works great in guage mode. What was wrong with yours?

Scared Silly · Apr 25, 2008

This is because one can accumulate a nitrogen load that is not tracked in gauge mode. Once switched to dive mode it starts tracking nitrogen. The assumption is that after 48 there is no more nitrogen to off gas so it will switch. If it did switch to dive mode and there was a nitrogen load, it would incorrectly report the RBT and as such potentially lead to deco hit. This fairly basic dive computer operational knowledge.

salth2owannabe · Apr 25, 2008

My computer worked fine in gauge mode and that is how I used it for the rest of the trip. I have had no issues with the computer so far, and I like it. I Understand the nitrogen issue, but 48 hrs, during multiple dives does "lock up" the computer feature. With recent studies 24 hrs appears to be more then adequate for an interval prior to flight. If Suunto used 24 hrs for residual nitrogen I could have been able to switch it back at some point during the vacation, but this is really not the reason for my thread.
I really don't have issues with Suunto for programming the computer this way, better safe then sorry. I mainly just wanted to warn others, who like me, may have overlooked this function. If I was aware of it I would have never switched it over to gauge mode. I could have bought a $100.00 set of gauges to do that.

PerroneFord · Apr 25, 2008

Ahhh gotcha. I tend to prefer mine in gauge mode most of the time, but yea, if computer mode is really what you want, then best to leave it there.

Why did you switch it out to gauge mode anyway?

ianr33 · Apr 25, 2008

Cant you just remove the battery for a few seconds to reset it?

imasinker · Apr 25, 2008

Yes you can remove the battery to reset the Cobra 2, but you must remember to reset all your settings, nitrox, time , date and so forth. You will lose ALL DATA!, including dive profiles History and logged dives. It Is not recommended, as long as you allowed for nitrogen toxicity in your system to clear It is very dangerous to mess with your computer this way. 6 and one half dozen of the other.

pronatureboy · Apr 27, 2008

Does exactly the same on a UWATEC Smart Z (48hrs). Does warn you in the manual.
:soccer:

Suunto Cobra owners - avoid what I did.

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