Nitek Duo stuck in error mode? Help!

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booth22

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Well, here we are on Utila, nearing the end of our trip and one of our Nitek Duos decides to take a crap. It was left in the gear room last night (as usual) and this morning we awake to find it flashing the 3 mountain/altitude symbols and the ERR message. :shakehead: It wasn't stored any different way than the previous two weeks so we're puzzled??

Anyone care to take a guess why? Or have any suggestions as to a course of action? Luckily we've got a spare which will fill in for our last several days, and I'm hoping that one will be just fine until we leave.
 
Have you tried removing the battery and resetting it. Kinda like a reboot. And it's your comp but why would you leave it in a gear room where anyone with access to the room could mess with it? My mask, comp, and regs always go back to the room with me.
 
Well, here we are on Utila, nearing the end of our trip and one of our Nitek Duos decides to take a crap. It was left in the gear room last night (as usual) and this morning we awake to find it flashing the 3 mountain/altitude symbols and the ERR message. :shakehead: It wasn't stored any different way than the previous two weeks so we're puzzled??

Anyone care to take a guess why? Or have any suggestions as to a course of action? Luckily we've got a spare which will fill in for our last several days, and I'm hoping that one will be just fine until we leave.

Hi Booth 22,

Feel free to send the computer to us for evaluation, the computer may still be under warranty. Please give us a call to get a return authorization number: 386 752 1087

Best,
Ag
 
Did you store it in a dry box? I've seen computers go into altitude mode if they get "vacuum packed". If you put it in an air tight box warm, and it cooled off at night, the pressure in the box would drop.

The Duo has a little reset button on the back, so you don't have to remove the battery to clear it. Of course that also clears all knowledge of your diving history. If you clear it when your at your N2 limit, and then go diving right away, it will let you stay down longer than is safe.

The lawyers tell you to stop diving for 24 hours, but that is overkill. You can keep diving, *if* you have another way to manage your deco limits. (back-up computer, tables, etc) You have to take the cleared computer with you, but don't trust it's deco recomendations. You can use it as a depth gauge and bottom timer. You can trust it again, when it knows about all the dives you did in the last 24 hours.

The computer is not "magic" it's just an instrument and they do mess up sometimes. If your computer is acting weird, compare it with your gut feeling for what is safe, your backup computer (if you have one) and your budy's computer (assuming s/he is diving the same gas mix and profiles). Then do whichever is the most conservative.
 
Slightly off-topic: (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to start a new thread)

I recently had a Nitek Duo act up in a funny way. It started imagining ascent rate violations. I'm no saint, so when it started beeping at me I assumed I deserved it, but the problem progressed to the point where it would beep and flash maximum ascent rate when I was holding on to the kelp and certain I wasn't going anywhere. (my identical backup computer was fine)

I've since seen my buddy's Duo do the same thing. In both cases replacing the battery cured the problem, even though the low battery indicator had not lit up yet.

Seems like if you have a marginal battery, the voltage drops from the cold until the pressure transducer starts having trouble. Once it starts beeping, the added current load of the beeper can exacerbate the problem.

It's not a big deal. I still think the Nitek Duo is a great computer. Just remember to change the battery if it does something goofy, before sending it back to the manufacturer.

BTW, my DUOs are a couple of years old, so this glitch may already be fixed in the current version.
 
I've had four of these Duos die on me. The most recent one suffered the same error as yours... stuck in altitude mode and showing an "ERR" message.

The first one that died was covered under warranty, the others have not been. Because I solo dive the vast majority of the time, I always wear two computers. But because they only die one at a time, I keep replacing them with the same type so that the profiles match. (Although, the computers don't generally read the same depth...)

In a recent email exchange with Dive-Rite, I asked if the newer models had been improved and the answer I received from Jess there basically said that the computers were "constantly evolving" or something to that effect.

At any rate, most recently I ended up with both of my Duo's dead. One was the altitude error I mentioned above, and then the screen on the second one simply faded away to the point I couldn't read it. Of course I changed batteries, reset etc. They're toast.

Anyway, I ended up replacing these with Apeks Quantums which are the same computer. I only have about 40 dives on one of them, and 5 on the other one. So far so good.

The Duo and Quantum and a host of others are all made by the same manufacturer. I am going to give these two Apeks the benefit of the doubt, but if these die, then I am going to something entirely different. I like the features of these computers, and the price point is right, but I do about 70 deco dives a year and need to be able to rely on them.

I think like so many other things these days, these are manufactured to hit a certain price point and are almost considered disposable. Unfortunately, if they die on vacation or something, it can seriously mess with your dive plan. When I am away, and diving with my wife, we use at least three computers between the two of us, so if one dies, we won't be "locked out" by the DMs...

It's not a big deal. I still think the Nitek Duo is a great computer. Just remember to change the battery if it does something goofy, before sending it back to the manufacturer.

I think that this is true. I dive in the Great Lakes and at depth, the water never gets above 41F. and could be as low as 38F. I replace batteries every spring regardless...
 
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