UWATEC SMARTCOM consoles

[RC Diver]

My wife and I bought two UWATEC SMARTCOM air integrated consoles a few years ago and love the at a glance display of all important information. However, after and sometimes during dive trips they have the tendency to shut down and nothing I do can get them to turn on by touching the metal contacts. I have read where residual salt on the contacts can short circuit the connection but I have cleaned them with soap, Salt X, even tried vinegar with no success. When connected to a tank they do activate but there is no way we can review our dive data or download to a laptop unless we can turn them on when above sea. This is getting to be a very frustrating problem.

Does anyone know what the problem is and how to correct it? These were very expensive computers and are now discontinued but we love them.

Thanks

 

[jdcpa]

I have not run into this problem and I have had six of them for several years.

Are your fingers wet when you touch the contacts? Mine don't do anything unless my fingers are wet.

 

[RC Diver]

Yes, I use wet fingers and still can't turn them on. The odd thing is both computers shut down at about the same time. We were diving about the same profile but there is no chance either of us went into deco and violated protocols. I sent my back to Scubapro when this happened a year or two ago and they sent it back working but never told me what the problem was.

 

[jdcpa]

Yes, I have had the same thing happen when you get them serviced. They send them back working, but with no explanation.

I have been told by a LDS worker that they just reset them to factory settings and send them back out, not really doing any repair.

That sounds a little hokey to me, but I have no way to know one way or the other.

 

[cdoc]

I was about to post re the Smartcom with questions.
I have three as my wife, son and I all dive, all bought in summer 2008. They have from 30-75 dives on them. Mine had about 70 dives when the battery died. This was warrateed and changed, 3 more dives followed by 6 months down time and that bettery died. I checked the other two and found dead batteries.
Since I had a dive trip with my wife a month later, I sent them all to UWATEC for battery replacement.
They came back in time for the trip after expedited service. After 12 dives in Utila, mine started screaming and locked up- blank screen, screaming for 2 days, finally died. My wife's puter read 400 psi low on all dives and will not download dive info.
I have not tried the third one, and have little faith that it will be reliable when I do.
Did UWATEC ever fix the recall issues? I know another couple that had two fail as well. Seems these computers have a real bad history.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml03/03163.html

 

[SCUBAPRO Harry]

It is difficult to determine the problem without inspecting the computer; however since they activate when charged with gas, I suggest using a pencil eraser on the contacts, then wet your fingers and try to activate. If this fails, you should drop them off at your LDS for inspection and shipment to Tech Support if necessary.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

i have had a smartcom for years, over 300 dives. The only thing i can think of is to dry off the unit before you try and activate it.

With mine if i ty and activate it while it is wet the moisture seems to short out the contacts and you cant get it to do anything.