Oceanic geo hard reset

[FishOutUvH2O]

I understand that this had a negative effect on your vacation, but it's not Oceanic's fault, Doug's fault, or the Geo's fault. Return the Geo for repair and take it as a lesson learned.

I'd have to agree. While I'm happy that Oceanic and others have made their PDCs with user replaceable batteries, I understand that the process may not go right for every user. I own a GEO and VT3 and have had to replace the batteries on both and can definitely see that if the instructions aren't followed to the letter it would be easy to cause a problem.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

You didn't properly change the battery and flooded the computer. How does that make it a piece of junk?

You didn't post your thread in the Oceanic forum and you're upset that the Oceanic rep hasn't responded to you? The moderators moved your thread here at 1:39 AM PST. The Oceanic rep hasn't responded by 10:21 AM PST so he's the bad guy?

I think perhaps you have some unrealistic expectations. As an instructor, I would expect you to understand that tech failures are a part of life. Particularly when you "pried the batter holder-in-place thingamagic a little prior to the dive when I put the battery in there."

I understand that this had a negative effect on your vacation, but it's not Oceanic's fault, Doug's fault, or the Geo's fault. Return the Geo for repair and take it as a lesson learned.

Sweet, except I didn't flood the computer--I made that very clear in my posts there was ZERO water in my bottom timer...you obviously didn't read them..so please don't put "words into my posts"

Let me summarize:

1) Change battery. Everything works.
2) Dive, computer turns off underwater, computer turns back on--2 second event. Depth/Time still available while big flashing ERR on it. Verify depth time w/bottom timer #2...everything good.
3) Surface
4) Open back of case, battery is somewhat lose inside. Lost connectors U/W. FIXED by applying 10 grams of pressure onto metal positive battery in-place-holder-thingamagic. NO WATER anywhere inside.
4) Can't put back into BOTTOM TIMER and/or COMPUTER MODE. Just says error. Watch still works. Take underwater; still no depth/time. If it gave me that I wouldn't care...but since I surfaced between dive #1 and dive #2 it now completely locks you out (did I mention that this worked underwater after reset on dive #1)? I bought this thing as a bottom timer, I could care less about oceanic's algorithm...
5) Makes a great $300 WATCH.
6) If I send it to Oceanic they will probably charge me an arm and a leg to apply their super secret reset code, after they determine what I just said above is true--because I obviously am a clueless diver who can't take responsibility for his own safety I must now have all this verified by some Oceanic Repair guy...who will then hit buttons in a certain order for a "hard-oceanic-factory-reset"
7) If it happens again..well I guess I have to send it in again. No thanks.

Also, I left a message on oceanic's 800 line saturday w/my number. While I understand that they are closed sat/sun it is now Monday afternoon, and no return call.

Yes, it's a piece of junk for locking out a diver FOREVER (as I said, read my posts). That's my opinion. Yes, I am annoyed and should probably not be typing at this stage

 

[MarineResearch]

4) Open back of case, battery is somewhat lose inside. Lost connectors U/W. FIXED by applying 10 grams of pressure onto metal positive battery in-place-holder-thingamagic. NO WATER anywhere inside.

Unfortunately, the maximum pressure allowed by the thingamagic is 9 grams. From the Oceanic warranty:

Warning: Force applied to the thingamagic in excess of 9 grams voids this warranty and could result in diver death.

I'll trade you a 25 year old Casio G-Shock that still works down to at least 115 feet for your erroneous bottom timer. The Casio is perfect for a bottom times and is not cluttered up with all that useless algorithm stuff. Also, I think I've had the same battery for at least the last decade, so little potential for battery replacement errors.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

lol..

 

[Web Monkey]

Let me summarize:

1) Change battery. Everything works.
2) Dive, computer turns off underwater, computer turns back on--2 second event. Depth/Time still available while big flashing ERR on it.

Did you replace the o-ring? Oceanic "highly recommends it". It's not necessary for the inside to get wet for it to fail. Damp is enough.

There are a number of no-win design decisions when designing a SCUBA computer and you just found one of them.

The Smart-Com has a battery that can only be changed at the factory. A lot of people gave Uwatec a lot of flak over this, but in the end, a battery the user can't change will never be changed improperly. I've yet to see a SmartCom where the case leaked without being destroyed first.

On the other hand, when the battery does go dead (every 5-7 years), the computer needs to go back to Uwatec, while the Oceanic can be changed locally.

Unfortunately, changing the battery is a seemingly simple task that requires a great deal of attention to detail. Everything needs to be absolutely clean and perfect, with nothing out of alignment, bent, corroded or dirty, and a new o-ring really is required if you want to reduce the risk of failure.

It's also possible that your case or one of it's seals is damaged, which caused the first battery to fail. If you had the battery changed at a good service facility, they would have changed the o-ring and pressure tested the entire unit to make sure it functions at depth and doesn't leak. (actually, I'm not sure if everybody does the pressure test, but I know we do). That way it would have failed in the shop, and not on your dive.

Terry