Atomic Aquatics Cobalt Dive Computer

[RonR]

Are they built at the same Atomica facility where the regs are made?

Just curious.

I'd love to tour that place someday.

Not really- the circuit boards require a specialized facility, so they are assembled by a contract manufacturer. The final assembly and testing is done at Atomic, but not in the same place as the regulators. They built a special setup for assembling, calibrating, testing, and packaging the computers. It's not large, but it's pretty cool to see a bank of computers running through computer controlled dive profiles in wet chambers.

 

[FuzzyMelton]

Ron,

Thanks for all the open and honest communications. Even with the few small problems with my Atomic that seem to have been corrected I am still a huge Atomic Supporter. They have absolutely the best products out there. Bringing an electronic dive computer to market is quite different than they typical mechanical components that they are famous for. The Cobalt is the best computer out there and the company support has been superb (typical Atomic). It is disapointing that it has taken so long to get the software support and the updated firmware to the end user, but to Atomic's defense they have never put out second rate equipment. Eveyrthing they have is rated Number One and Editor's Choice or Top Pick.

 

[jaeckert]

When I said proprietary, I meant something with their logo and done according to their specifications. Many third party dive log apps might not track, for instance, multi gas dives, or register the same alerts. It's also necessary to have an end user solution for upgrading the firmware, which would ideally be integrated into the desktop divelog. Atomic has been 100% OK with working with open source dive log developers and with libdivecomputer for open source driver support. They just weren't comfortable with relying entirely on that path.

Sorry. My bad. You have to remember that you are talking to someone who remembers Atari the first time around.

The rate of compass display update is a limitation, due to the processing involved, so we are not going to see a video-smooth motion. We "swing" the display like a dampened analog compass, moving to a new heading incrementally, so it doesn't appear to jump too far suddenly. That actually ends up being pretty disconcerting. The damping was chosen in field testing, and wile a lot of people initially thought it was slow on the surface it was well liked underwater.

Fair enough. If, this is full disclosure, I should say my 4 plus hours on the Cobalt have all been in a pool (and all that rebar). I will shut up until I have it out in open water.

Just to be clear, while we are the original developers of the Cobalt design, and have worked closely with Atomic for years now to turn this into a real product, I don't work for or necessarily speak for Atomic. We feel very fortunate to be working with them on this project and future products, they are a top quality company. While there have been a few glitches as with any new product, they have been handled with the customer's interest as the top concern. The most persistent complaints have focused around speed- initially of getting the Cobalt out, and now delivering the download software- and those come largely from Atomic's desire to do things right the first time.

Again; my error. If, I would have paid a bit more attention to your original message I had quoted, I would have realized you are not in the direct employ of Atomic. By your willingness to put up with the grumping (deserved and undeserved), when it is not even your own immediate place of employment, speaks even more of your own integrity. I hope both your company AND Atomic understand, and appreciate, what a great representative they have advocating for them in this forum.

Finally; I would hope that Atomic, and other manufacturers, will learn from this (why they didn't see this from previous Microsoft Windows debacles is beyond me...) that it is better to delay release (and maybe, even, early promotion/advertising)than to put out a product that is less than what they want to represent them or their brand. This, in no way, reflects on you.

Thanks, one more time, for staying in here, and doing your best to keep us informed.

Joel

 

[MichaelAsg]

hey Ron, I know that this sounds like a broken record but what's the current ETA for the software arrival. I need to print my dives and I dont want to do that by hand!

 

[RonR]

hey Ron, I know that this sounds like a broken record but what's the current ETA for the software arrival. I need to print my dives and I dont want to do that by hand!

I'm afraid I'm the broken record here. Truthfully I don't know, but there has been some activity in the last week, and there is a Cobalt firmware update ready to go, so I really do expect it to be up on the Atomic site within the next week.

 

[RonR]

You have to remember that you are talking to someone who remembers Atari the first time around.

Ha, Hah.. Well, you're talking with someone who remembers working a bit with Nolan Bushnell when Atari was still a Really Big Deal (previous lifetime, sailboats, not computers).

Finally; I would hope that Atomic, and other manufacturers, will learn from this (why they didn't see this from previous Microsoft Windows debacles is beyond me...) that it is better to delay release (and maybe, even, early promotion/advertising)than to put out a product that is less than what they want to represent them or their brand. This, in no way, reflects on you.

Thanks, one more time, for staying in here, and doing your best to keep us informed.

Joel

Thanks, I think the error- probably showing our age- was in not realizing how important divelog software is to people. Lots of attention, and many delays, went into making the Cobalt as good s we could get it before release. But we tended to view the divelog software as an add on feature, something I now see was a grievous error. I get it now- in fact, I'd love to have a log of dives from 40 years ago. I can barely remember a thing.

 

[lonebrave]

RonR....thanks for keeping up with this thread. I'm freshly certified (OW, AOW, EANx all this month). Did my AOW and EANx with it. Amazingly simple for a noob to use. Anxious for the firmware update so that I can download my dives in to MacDive.

 

[Hatul]

Ha, Hah.. Well, you're talking with someone who remembers working a bit with Nolan Bushnell when Atari was still a Really Big Deal (previous lifetime, sailboats, not computers).




Thanks, I think the error- probably showing our age- was in not realizing how important divelog software is to people. Lots of attention, and many delays, went into making the Cobalt as good s we could get it before release. But we tended to view the divelog software as an add on feature, something I now see was a grievous error. I get it now- in fact, I'd love to have a log of dives from 40 years ago. I can barely remember a thing.

For someone new to diving the Cobalt may be a good choice as I'm sure Atomics will get it right eventually. For those of us with working computers I can't see upgrading to something that does not even have a working PC link and with battery issues.

Adam

 

[Akimbo]

Ron:

Do you have any idea how closely the RGBM algorithm in GAP Recreational tracks the RGBM implementation in the Cobalt? Gap’s interface looks like it would be a better dive planning tool for testing different profiles than on the Cobalt itself.

 

[RonR]

Ron:

Do you have any idea how closely the RGBM algorithm in GAP Recreational tracks the RGBM implementation in the Cobalt? Gap’s interface looks like it would be a better dive planning tool for testing different profiles than on the Cobalt itself.

They are reasonably close. Exactly how close would depend on the profiles and the max depths, but differences would be fairly minor. The Cobalt implementation and the GAP implementation are not the same (the Cobalt has to be able to function as a real time system and so is constantly recalculating, and it transitions to iterative RGBM based on depth), but I expect GAP would work fine for planning- as desktop software it has many more features than are implemented in the Cobalt's simulator (and the screen is bigger).

The main difference, of course, is that you can use the planning function in the Cobalt out on the water to plan the next dive in the midst of a repetitive series, and it will start with your actual tissue saturation as measured from your actual diving. That's something desktop software can't do. But if you are planning dives well ahead, and have GAP, then I'd certainly try it. You can then replicate the profile quite easily on the Cobalt to check how closely it matches up.