Cobra 3 USB Interface Cable -- It just quit working.

[altaskier]

Since I have clearly voided my Suunto warranty by using MacDive with my Cobra 3 (incredibly poor response from Chris at Suunto!!!), I decided to go all the way and open it up and look at the wires. With the two dive computer connection pins at top, and the biggest chip at bottom left, the connections are as follows: top row is open hole (left), yellow (middle) then black (right). Bottom row is lavender/brown (left), orange (middle), red (right). And yes, there was no solid strain relief or grommet on the cable going into the housing, though there's a little plastic ridge on the shell that is probably there to press agains the cable and hold it against pulls.

And as others have said, I had one time where I thought my Suunto USB cable was kaput, and it turned out that after another day of drying the dive computer it worked just fine with MacDive (and multiple times since). It's gotta be really really dry to work!

Somehow I guess I used my Cobra 3 with MacDive for a short enough time that it managed to not trigger the self-destruct mechanism on the Cobra 3, so that it still somehow works!

 

[gummybun]

As a new Suunto D6i owner I must say that I find this thread very worrisome indeed. On the bright side, however, I think I can be confident in dropping the $25 for MacDive, and supporting a company that appears to understand good customer support.

I can not fault Suunto for considering all things possible when troubleshooting, but to start by pointing fingers at 'the other guy' illustrates everything that is wrong with modern corporate culture. I hope that this was a one off story.

 

[VicScubaVentures]

@Gummybun ....

MacDive is a very well made, and exceptionally well supported piece of software. I would recommend it to anyone.

I'm afraid to say that my experience is apparently not a "one off" event. I won't recommend Suunto to anyone, based on the "customer service" response I received.

C.

 

[emeshuris]

Hi,
Mine stopped working around 2/2 I really didn't want to be without my computer for almost 2 months so I never sent it in.
I'm glad because, they would have sent it right back.

For me what worked was uninstalling the mac dive application, reinstalling the interface drivers and then reinstalling mac dive.
Mac dive is not the culprit IMO, it is the drivers, maybe an update on the mac modified something, I don't know.
PSA:

1. Do email mac dive for your license prior to doing this, it will be lost, and you will have to wait as the trial only lets you do 5 dives
2. Do make a backup of the Mac Dive data directory as per these instructions: How do I backup my data or transfer it to another computer? - MacDive Wiki

To make sure that this is in fact the issue, you should be able to go to another computer, windows or mac and download the suungo dm5 application.
It should sync, if it doesn't then none of this applies to you.
For me, when mac dive stopped working, suunto dm5 also stopped working.

Hope this helps.

-Edward

 

[Hendrik@Suunto]

Hi,
just trying to understand the issue as the assumed causes vary a bit: so the transmission works fine unless the cable or the device is too wet? I could image that for the cable but find it unlikely for the device itself. After letting the device dry out thoroughly it would work. I assume that the drying process was done in warm condition. One possibility could be that the battery level of the device was too low when trying to transfer data, the warm environment could have increased the charging level enough to allow the transfer again. That there are transfer problems when the battery status is too low, although sufficient for diving, has occurred a couple of times and we're investigating this. This, however, applies to the actual transfer, the plain connection should work anyway. If not: As the cable is not waterproof a shortcut or corrosion inside the connector sounds logical. If you're still having problems please elaborate based on this input...

Further, it is ok to use this kind of 3rd party applications and it won't violate the warranty policy per se! It obviously does if the device's software has been altered by doing so or any damage has been provoked... for downloading logs this is hardly the case.

br, Hendrik