Cobra Safety Stop Indicator

One thing has always bugged me about the Cobra safety stop indicator: the way I read the manual, for a recommended safety stop, the "STOP" indicator should come on when you are between 10 and 20ft., and stay on while it counts down the 3 minute stop. But it doesn't always do that. Often it will just have the countdown number, but no "STOP" indicator. Why?

its a piece of junk... Sell it to me.... for $150

Also, the book says that "with every dive over 10 meters (30ft.) the instrument has a 3 minute countdown for the recommended safety stop..."

In fact, with actual and simulated dives in the 30-40 ft. range, there is no safety stop indication. What gives?

There are two kinds of safety stops on newer Suunto computers: Recommended and Mandatory.

A recommended safety stop will not have the word STOP. It will just count down the 3 minutes. This is nice conservative diving.

A mandatory safety stop will have the word STOP and count down the 3 minutes. This happens when you violate the ascent rate dramatically or continually violate it a little bit. It doesn't have to flash "slow" for you to violate the ascent rate. It's like there are bars on the left side of the computer for your rate and if you are continuously at full bar then you need a mandatory safety stop. Or if the computer actually tells you to slow down then the stop is mandatory.

There is little or no penalty for violating a recommended safety stop but severe if you violate a mandatory one. Your next dive will be a short one.

Also pay attention to the extend SI warning. I do not have any numbers but I swear it will limit your next dive if you don't do what it says.

partridge:

A recommended safety stop will not have the word STOP. It will just count down the 3 minutes.

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As I recall, the instruction manual says that "STOP" will appear even for recommended safety stops. In fact, I've seen it sometimes in both simulations and actual dives where there is no mandatory stop. But it seems that if the dive is somewhere in the 40 ft. range it may not appear.

yup you are right. The manual says that the word stop will be there for both kinds of safety stops and a ceiling will be there for a mandatory one.

I agree with you. I have done a safety stop with no stop word. Now I am confused. I was ok in my little world until I read this thread. haha

partridge:

yup you are right. The manual says that the word stop will be there for both kinds of safety stops and a ceiling will be there for a mandatory one.

I agree with you. I have done a safety stop with no stop word. Now I am confused. I was ok in my little world until I read this thread. haha

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I agree completely with this post. Prior to whipping out my Cobra manual, I "KNEW" that there wasn't supposed to be a Stop sign during the recommended safety stop, because during my RSS, only the countdown is displayed.

After reading the manual, the STOP sign should also be present during the RSS.

There is obviously a disconnect between the way my (and your) Cobra functions and how the manual says it should.

Yup. It's all mccabejc's fault.

I resolved the problem with my COBRA, I used white-out on the manual