On Friday, March 8, 2013 I bought my Cobalt. Got it charged and setup, then went to the tropics for work but got one dive in on Tuesday, March 12. Great computer! Or so I thought...
On Saturday evening, March 16, I connected the Cobalt to my PC, installed the software, received a message that the driver was not signed (I'm running MS Windows 7 Ultimate), but clicked on the install anyway button. I downloaded my dive, checked out the profile options, and must say I was really impressed.
Technology is my profession and has been for over 30 years, so I decided the next step was to upgrade the firmware. I can hear you now: "Oh-oh!" Yep, the screen went blank.
RonR and I carried on a dialogue in PM over the next couple of days and nothing I did would get it working again. The driver reports "not installed" when I go into Device Manager.
This morning I called Atomic Aquatics and was told to send it in and they will flash the firmware. That's cool, but--I said--what about when I want to download my dives? Do I send it in to you for that? Wouldn't it be easier if you could just walk me through a manual installation of the drivers that work?
Basically the person with whom I spoke said, "The drivers will work when you connect the unit." Yeah, I can see that right now--drivers not loaded, blank screen.
It's a really cool DC, but when I asked when they would have drivers that are signed the answer was: "We won't." Now that's customer service for you, isn't it?
I shipped it back for repair today but wish I'd just gotten my money back. No matter how cool it is if one of the design features is to die when the unsigned drivers don't load, I don't want it.
I'm sorry Atomic wasn't able to help you get the Cobalt back up without your returning it, but if you are not seeing the device drivers now, after you successfully did a download of dives, then it could be a problem with the driver having been lost of corrupted- but the driver had to be there to download dives, assuming you used Atomic's program to do that. And it had to be there to initiate the firmware download, to the point of sending the command to switch the Cobalt to it's boot mode. On the vast majority of Windows systems this flash tool has been working fine, this last firmware update has yielded only a handful of issues out of thousands of computers in the field. But there are very many Windows versions and hardware configurations and there will undoubtedly be some problems that come up. Troubleshooting individual Windows system issues, beyond a few common problems, is understandably beyond Atomic's ability. It's definitely beyond mine.
You are having a problem bringing up a Cobalt that has become stuck in it's boot code- normally this should be fairly simple, on Windows or Mac, but it is a bit of a special case, timing critical, and we have seen some systems that just can't pull it off. I suspect what the person at Atomic meant is that when you connect the running Cobalt, the drivers will install- as indeed they should. After the firmware is flashed, you should be back to normal again.
The unsigned driver issue should be minor- as embedded developers we deal with many unsigned drivers daily from companies like Texas Instruments or Freescale- or from older hardware/ software/ freeware that isn't keeping up with the annual fees required for registering a "digital signature". If you know the source of the driver then overriding the installation warning should be fine. Some of us feel the driver signing fee is a bit of a racket, and doubt it provides much in the way of consumer protection. Unfortunately different Windows systems can require different methods for overriding the warning, but there should be no problem with the driver installing. Apparently Win 8 requires a few more hoops be jumped through than Win 7 did (unless some recent update has changed this). See the link in post 1131 above, for installing unsigned drivers in Win 8. I will check with Atomic and see if this has come up recently- it's been a non-issue in the past. If it is a problem at all for customers I'm sure Atomic will do whatever to takes to fix it. If there is one theme that comes through these pages, and the comments here on their ScubaBoard forum
Atomic Aquatics it is their high level of customer service.
Ron
Everything about the last several pages of this thread have (1) provided me with further evidence that having a Mac is just plain easier, and (2) convinced me that Shearwater's implementation of bluetooth has got to be the future of DC firmware updates/log downloads. What an ugly mess detracting from an otherwise amazing piece of gear.
It's definitely easier on the Mac in the sense that special drivers are not required, the hardware is much more consistent, and the security settings are not such that they get in the way. But Bluetooth, while cool and wireless, doesn't eliminate the issue of having to install a device or driver, or potential conflicts in Windows, it's just a different communications method. It's great, though, in that when it works, it's very simple for the user. And all Macs for quite a while, and most recent PC's, come with Bluetooth built in.
Ron
---------- Post added March 18th, 2013 at 10:30 PM ----------
Hi Ron,
Do you have photos of this rigging and hose routing (or would this person be willing to provide you with some)? Sounds pretty slick but I can't quite envision it.
Thanks!
Joel
I don't have pictures, but it was pretty basic. He used zip ties to attach bungee loops to the top and bottom of the Cobalt, routed the HP hose under his (left) arm, and slipped the bungee loops over his wrist with the Cobalt facing in the same direction as his palm. Hands free operation.
Ron
. Using a pc laptop running windows 7; I tried to update the firmware on my Cobalt. I have used this laptop previously (successfully) to do this to 1.12 and this is where I started from. I followed the instructions to delete the drivers from the Cobalt - no problem. I then followed the instructions for "upgrading" as I have done this before. I brought up the windows uninstaller as directed but the Cobalt logbook was not listed. I went looking, and sure enough, it was right there in an Atomic Aquatics folder. I go back to the windows program uninstaller and it is still not listed.
