Download Dive Log from Cobalt 2 on Mac

[ericdube]

Is there a trick to get the Cobalt 2 connected up to a Mac via Mac Dive? When I plug it into the computer, it's not seen in the USB device list under System Information (likewise Mac Dive can't find it.) I made sure the USB cable was plugged into the USB side of the adapter, but no luck on the two systems/multiple USB ports. (I also went into the USB menu on the Cobalt 2, but it doesn't seem to do anything other than providing printed directions.)

The only thing I see is on the Cobalt 2 side under the Battery Status: "Charging Done 100%" whenever I plug it into the USB port.

I'm guessing it's probably something I'm doing wrong. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[abernat]

Do you have the latest version of MacDive? Previous versions did not work with the Cobalt 2 due to timing issues. The current one works fine with mine.

 

[ericdube]

Do you have the latest version of MacDive? Previous versions did not work with the Cobalt 2 due to timing issues. The current one works fine with mine.

I believe so. It's 2.3.5 that is installed on my system right now. However, I'm not sure that MacDive is my issue since the Cobalt 2 isn't even showing up as connected to the computer in the USB device list.

My Cobalt has the latest firmware 2.26 on it, and I was even able to get it to connect (on the same computer) in bootstrap mode using the supplied USB cable and USB adapter. So basically, I'm at a loss as to what I might be doing wrong.

I did try calling Atomic today. The person on the phone was trying to be helpful but didn't know what the issue might be. I was transferred to someone in software, but they were out of the office so I left a message. Hopefully, I will get a call back since the last 3 times I tried leaving messages on product questions about their regulators I never got a call back from anyone.

Thanks for the help!

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2014 at 07:19 PM ----------

I should probably add that I've tried 4 different Mac computers (Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro Retina, and MacBook Pro) using both their USB 2 and 3 ports, but I'm having no luck with any of them. The Cobalt 2 is not showing up as a connected USB device on any of the systems. They were all running either OS X 10.9.4 or 10.9.5.

In addition, I've been able to upload dives to MacDive without any problems using a Mares Puck Pro and the USB kit, so I'm know the setup should be working just fine.

 

[abernat]

That's the version I'm using which does work. Another suggestion - fiddle with connector (which I've had to do). Also try Subsurface which is open source and also works with my Cobalt 2.

 

[ericdube]

That's the version I'm using which does work. Another suggestion - fiddle with connector (which I've had to do). Also try Subsurface which is open source and also works with my Cobalt 2.

Thanks again for the suggestions/help. Much appreciated.

I was able to get it to work, but only after a bit of debugging using my Linux system. From what I can tell, the behavior on Mac is completely different than how it works on Linux (which is the reason why I was having trouble.)

Linux: When you're in the USB interface under the System Information screen, when you press the select button it will immediately say "CONNECTED!" on the Cobalt 2 screen. From there you'll see the Cobalt 2 in your USB device list (via lsusb) identified as "Philips (or NXP) Hantek DDS-3005 Arbitrary Waveform Generator".

Mac: When you do the same (meaning press the select button on the Cobalt 2 to connect), nothing happens. You get *no* "CONNECTED!" message on the Cobalt 2 screen. However, if you check back under the Mac's system information interface within the USB sub-menu you'll see the "COBALT" device listed. Only after that when you run MacDive to download the dive log data will the "CONNECTED!" message ever appear on the Cobalt 2 screen.

Is this expected behavior? I haven't checked my Windows system yet, but I'll try to check it tonight once I'm home (to see how this functions.)

This is what completely screwed me up as I didn't keep checking back in the USB device list to see if it had connected since nothing was happening when I hit the button. Anyway, I was able to finally download the dive log to MacDive.

 

[RonR]

Yes, this is expected Mac behavior- OSX handles USB enumeration in its own way. Linux and Windows will go one command further in configuring USB devices in the enumeration process, OSX stops and leaves the final connect up to an application. You won't see the "connected" message on the Cobalt's screen until the connection is established with MacDive by selecting the "download dives" option. It will, as you saw, show up on your Mac's devices as a Phillips/ NXP device, or if you have USB Prober (which installs with X-Code) you can see it there. But the Mac won't send the "ready for you" message to the Cobalt until the application does. Somehow this needs to get put into the instructions for MacDive and the Cobalt. It will be the same for all Mac applications.

I would encourage you to contact Nick with MacDive for any issues- he is very responsive to support requests. As a third party application the Atomic people may not be able to help as much.

There is another odd Mac quirk that can cause problems with some dive log downloads. If anyone has particular dives that won't download on the Mac, we have a fix which will be in the next firmware update. It turns out that if the number of bytes in the dive happens to be an even multiple of the buffer size (which will happen about one dive out of 64), the Mac won't see the file as having been completed, and won't finish the download. So we need to add a few empty bytes to get the dive to be seen as finished. This is only on the Mac, not Windows or Linux. Apologies to anyone who has run into this, if you contact me I can provide the workaround.

Ron

 

[ericdube]

Yes, this is expected Mac behavior- OSX handles USB enumeration in its own way. Linux and Windows will go one command further in configuring USB devices in the enumeration process, OSX stops and leaves the final connect up to an application. You won't see the "connected" message on the Cobalt's screen until the connection is established with MacDive by selecting the "download dives" option. It will, as you saw, show up on your Mac's devices as a Phillips/ NXP device, or if you have USB Prober (which installs with X-Code) you can see it there. But the Mac won't send the "ready for you" message to the Cobalt until the application does. Somehow this needs to get put into the instructions for MacDive and the Cobalt. It will be the same for all Mac applications.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. This is exactly what ended up tripping me up. Now that I know how it suppose to work, it's fairly straight forward (even though there's no indicator that it's connected) plus I really like the fact that you don't need to install any special drivers.

I would encourage you to contact Nick with MacDive for any issues- he is very responsive to support requests. As a third party application the Atomic people may not be able to help as much.

No problem. Although, I think I'm good with using MacDive; it was just a question of how to get the Atomic Cobalt to connect to the Mac.

There is another odd Mac quirk that can cause problems with some dive log downloads. If anyone has particular dives that won't download on the Mac, we have a fix which will be in the next firmware update. It turns out that if the number of bytes in the dive happens to be an even multiple of the buffer size (which will happen about one dive out of 64), the Mac won't see the file as having been completed, and won't finish the download. So we need to add a few empty bytes to get the dive to be seen as finished. This is only on the Mac, not Windows or Linux. Apologies to anyone who has run into this, if you contact me I can provide the workaround.

Ron

Now that you mention it - I seem to remember having 10 dives listed on the Cobalt but only 9 were uploaded to MacDive. I'll going to verify this to be sure this was the case, but even if it was I don't know that it's critical that I get the missing dive downloaded this second. Although, any thoughts on when the next firmware update will be release?

Thanks for the help and I really love the the Cobalt 2 computer (I'm really glad I got rid of the Aeris A300 AI and went with the Cobalt 2!)

 

[RonR]

Thanks. The firmware update is gong through some verification and field testing right now. There are a few folks on SB that have been using it. It has some user interface enhancements, in particular the countdown timers any time you are at a stop "zoom" to provide a bigger display. If you do have a dive that isn't downloading, it will do so as soon as the new firmware is installed. I hope we can get this up within the next month.

Ron

 

[ericdube]

Sounds like there's going to be a number of worthwhile improvements, and thanks a bunch for providing this information! Looking forward to receiving the update.

 

[ericdube]

There is another odd Mac quirk that can cause problems with some dive log downloads. If anyone has particular dives that won't download on the Mac, we have a fix which will be in the next firmware update. It turns out that if the number of bytes in the dive happens to be an even multiple of the buffer size (which will happen about one dive out of 64), the Mac won't see the file as having been completed, and won't finish the download. So we need to add a few empty bytes to get the dive to be seen as finished. This is only on the Mac, not Windows or Linux. Apologies to anyone who has run into this, if you contact me I can provide the workaround.

Ron, any update on the new firmware? I'm running into log download issues, which appear to be related to this problem from what I've recently read. (I have ~20 dives that I can't get download from my Cobalt 2.) Thanks.