OSTC Sport - BT won't connect and battery drain

[cebo0o]

Hi,

I have two problems with my OSTC Sport.
Those problems seems to have appeared after firmware update to v 10.14, as I didn't notice any problem before that.

1 - Battery drain.
After using my OSTC sport for 3 months, with very reasonable battery consumption, I updated to v10.14 end of february ( just after firmware release). On march 8th, before the dive, I check my computer and notice the battery is dead. So I dive with my back-up computer. In the evening, I replace the battery with a brand new AA alkaline one and the OSTC Sport starts fine.

Today march 29th, on the dive site, and with no dive since I changed the battery, the screen shows only 54% remaining. And tonight as I write this message, only 39% remaining.

2 - BT connection unsuccessful
After noticing this abnormal (I think) battery drain, I wanted to try restoring a previous version firmware, just to check if this was linked to v10.14.
I selected BT in the OSTC menu as usual, but my OSTC is not visible by my Macbook. I checked with 2 other computers, MAC & PC : impossible to pair with the OSTC via BT. I tried restoring OSTC parameters to factory defaults, same issue.

Has someone experienced similar problems after firmware upgrade ?

Any idea to help me solve this ?

Thanks for your help !

[heinrichsweikamp]

Hi,

This looks like a battery issue.

Current consumption of the 10.14 in sleep mode in the sport is ~200µA@1,5V, meaning a quality battery like the Energizer 1,5V E2 AA (Which was the reference battery for the 1,5V tests, 3000mAh) lasts ~2 years in St.By. Also, the battery percent-display was calibrated for this battery. It may be wrong for others.

Another issue with 1,5V batteries is that the bluetooth requires quite a lot of current from 1,5V batteries. ~200mA of peak current and the input voltage must be >1,1V while bluetooth is active.

I assume the bluetooth chipset is starting, the battery voltage drops and the OSTC disables the bluetooth chipset automatically.

-> Please try with a different (quality) battery if this issue continues.

Regards,
Matthias

[cebo0o]

Hi Matthias,

Thanks for your answer.

The battery currently in my OSCT Sport is a Duracell Simply AA 1,5V, maybe not the best I admit, but this is what I had available for tests.

Anyway, I had previously a SAFT LS14500 AA 3,6V, the one supplied with my OSTC. From november 2014 (purchase) to firmware update end of february 2015, the battery level dropped from 100% to ~84%. After the firmware update and until march 8th, in sleep mode only, it dropped from ~84% to 0%. Then I put a brand new Duracell AA 1,5V, and from march 8th to march 29th, in sleep mode only, it dropped from 100% to 54%.

I'll give a try tonight with a new battery to check if I can connect via bluetooth. I'll let you know the result.

Regards,

Cédric.

[heinrichsweikamp]

Hi,

Also update to the latest 10.15 (released today). I also verified sleep mode and operation current consumption for this release.

Regards,
Matthias

[cebo0o]

Hi,

Sure, I'll update to 10.15 too.

Regards,
Cédric.

[cebo0o]

Hi,

New test tonight with a new Duracell simply AA 1,5V battery (twin sister of the previous one).

Battery indicator 100% 1,5V. The OSTC sport is immediately detected by the macbook bluetooth.

For information, it didn't work with the previous one showing 39% and 1,3V on the battery indicator.

I immediately upgraded the firmware to 10.15. Thanks for the improvements (compass and GF settings), by the way.

I now have to wait and check for battery life and consumption back to something normal.

Thanks for your help.