Minumum depth for dive record in Cobra?

[bvmjethead]

Had my first OW class last night. Dove with the Suunto Cobra. It was registering depth as 3 feet when we were face down on the botton of the pool in 3 feet of water. We were there for about 35 minutes.

Fired it up this morning to see if it "recorded" the "dive" in the logbook or the history. It did not.

Must be a minimum depth?

 

[ClayJar]

Suunto computers switch between dive and surface mode at four feet. When you begin the dive and cross four feet, they start counting, and when you cross four feet on your way back to the surface, they begin counting a surface interval.

If you descend again before five minutes are up, it continues counting dive time where it left off, so a shallow shore dive where you keep spending a couple minutes here and there shallower than four feet can have a reported dive time significantly shorter than the length of time from initial entry to final ascent past four feet, even if it's counted as "one dive" (since you weren't above four feet for five minutes any given time). Basically, once you've ascended past four feet the dive timer pauses for five minutes before declaring the dive officially complete, so in that interval you can resume, and afterward, you're starting a "new" dive according to the computer (but you can add them together in your logbook, of course :biggrin.

 

[bvmjethead]

Thanks for that info Clayjar.

I knew there must be a minimum but could not find it in the Cobra's manual or anywhere online....

 

[ClayJar]

I knew there must be a minimum but could not find it in the Cobra's manual or anywhere online....

Going from the PDF of the manual from Suunto's site, here are the references and quotes:

The dive computer will remain in the Surface mode at depths less than 1.2 m [4 feet]. At depths greater than 1.2 m the instrument will go into the Diving mode.

An ascent to any depth shallower than 1.2 m [4 ft] will cause the DIVING display to be replaced by the SURFACE display,[...]

If you start a new dive with less than 5 minutes of surface interval time, the dive computer interprets this as a continuation of the previous dive[...] After 5 minutes on the surface, subsequent dives are, by definition, repetitive.

(Just in case you wanted authoritative information instead of just my memory, there you have it. Of course, even *my* memory can remember "4 feet, 5 minutes", but hey, it's the principle of the thing, eh? :biggrin

 

[bvmjethead]

Dang, I kid you not. I read that manual and guess I just didn't understand what I was reading....

Weird...

Thanks again!