ostc 2n

[terry]

Hi . Just purchased a ostc 2n. Have not got it wet yet but already a problem. Must be my fault. Was playing with the settings and NOW all I'm getting is a flashing screen going through the different sequences with CFOO in red in top right corner. It wont switch off and I cannot get into the menu. Any ideas would be appreciated

[heinrichsweikamp]

Your unit is switching into divemode without any threshold (You set CF00 to Zero...).

You need to reset it. Easiest is using the menu -> reset menu -> reset all -> Confirm? Yes.

You need to be fast to avoid the unit is diving again.

Regards,
Matthias

[MeRodent]

Would travelling to elevation (therefore dropping ambient pressure) stop the unit from diving immediately?

HW might want to consider changing CF so there it is not possible to set it below a minimum (ie the 50cm it sees as out of range).

[swissdiving]

@terry
In this Sticky you find explanations and documents which explain the CF's in detail. Only change CF's once you really understand what they do.
Your life depends on it.
OSTC Custom Functions documentation


@MeRodent

[quote=HeinrichsWeikamp]
What this OSTC 2N dive computer is:
An experimental platform for all experienced divers who are interested in the theory of diving and who value maximum transparency and individual adaptabily .
[/quote]

[quote=HeinrichsWeikamp]
What this OSTC 2N dive computer is not:
Competition for cheap mass products for the occasional diver.
[/quote]

So before people start fiddling with the OSTC they should, at the very least, read the documentation, so they know what they are doing. After all, their lives depend on it!
And there also won't be a need to "travel to altitude".

[terry]

thanks Matthias. very contructive comments, much appreciated.Rather than the high and mighty comments.

I was after ideas to rectify my cock-up. It's like all new things. Play with it and see how it performs. They say you learn by your mistakes. This was done out of the water and guess what? I'm still alive. But the computer is dead and I'm still locked out.

So please constructive thoughts only. As explained, computer was flashing which Matthais has advised me. Now the computer post my forum comment has now locked out. With screen showing Depth on left, Dive time on right reading zero. No stop bottom right reading 240 and bottom left, Max, reading .7 setpoint and 20/27 mix.

The problem being the screen has locked. Unable to enter as bottons do not perform, therefore cannot get into menu.

Any ideas. Constructive ones only please

Regards Terry

[heinrichsweikamp]

Your 2N is not locked, it's simply in diving mode because the threshold is set to zero. Attach USB power and trigger a reset with a magnet near the middle screw on the back. Unfortunately the non-sense CF00 value is stored and will be reloaded after rebooting (You'll see an error screen - ignore it). So, you will probably need some attempts to get it into the reset menu.

regards,
Matthias

[MeRodent]

swissdiving Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @terry
> In this Sticky you find explanations and documents
> which explain the CF's in detail. Only change CF's
> once you really understand what they do.
> Your life depends on it.
> [url=read.php?2,
> 8503]OSTC Custom Functions documentation[/url]
>
>
> @MeRodent
>
> [quote=HeinrichsWeikamp]
> What this OSTC 2N dive computer is:
> An experimental platform for all experienced
> divers who are interested in the theory of diving
> and who value maximum transparency and individual
> adaptabily .
> [/quote]
>
> [quote=HeinrichsWeikamp]
> What this OSTC 2N dive computer is not:
> Competition for cheap mass products for the
> occasional diver.
> [/quote]
>
> So before people start fiddling with the OSTC they
> should, at the very least, read the documentation,
> so they know what they are doing. After all, their
> lives depend on it!
> And there also won't be a need to "travel to
> altitude".

Fair enough Hansjoerg. However the fact is that many people will fiddle with devices before reading the manual as it's human nature. I see it as a valid suggestion that once aware of the issue the software should be set so that it cannot lock itself out when it should be a relatively simple change.

Stating that the OSTC 2N is an experimental platform is all well and good however if it wasn't an excellent dive computer it wouldn't sell anywhere near he units that it has. I would not have spent the $1000 odd on the OSTC 2N just for the fun of having an experimental dive platform - to myself and no doubt many others it is primarily a super configurable dive computer.

The suggestion to travel to altitude is both a suggestion on a possible way to stop or prevent the computer diving and and theoretical question on how the computer makes the decision that the dive is over.

I'm not sure if you are doing it deliberately but the tone of your messages in general come across as aggressive. You refer people to documentation that you believe is easy to find (recent example is the search function which didn't work), you seem to assume that everyone simply can't be bothered to look for data and spend more time telling people to read documentation than most others do in answering the actual question. The RTFM in your signature reinforces this and I would guess there are people who are put off what is actually excellent support through this forum due to the fact that quite often one of the first responses they get is in effect go away and look for the information on your own.

I'd like to point out that I don't necessarily believe this is your intent, however it is definitely your impact.

[scubatinoo]

MeRodent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The suggestion to travel to altitude is both a
> suggestion on a possible way to stop or prevent
> the computer diving and and theoretical question
> on how the computer makes the decision that the
> dive is over.


I did not try it by myself, but maybe a vacuum cleaner can help... Put the OSTC into a bag or a box and try to create an environment with a low pressure.

Definitely this is a bug and should be fixed in one of the next firmware releases. Maybe there are other CF that have to be controlled if they can lead to a malfunction?

[swissdiving]

MeRodent, I take the liberty to reply to your points individually.


Quote
MeRodent
Fair enough Hansjoerg. However the fact is that many people will fiddle with devices before reading the manual as it's human nature. I see it as a valid suggestion that once aware of the issue the software should be set so that it cannot lock itself out when it should be a relatively simple change.

Hansjoerg:
You are absolutely correct. People will fiddle. However as HW states the OSTC is not a run of the mill dive computer and is supposed to be very configurable. I can vaguely remember of only one or two previous cases in the last two years where someone set their CF00 to 0. Its not as if it happens every month two or three times, in which case it most certainly would make sense to limit the configuration options of this CF. If HW feels that the misconfiguration of CF00 leads to too many support requests or leads to people being dissatisfied with the product or service of HW, I am sure they would have made changes to this CF already.
But then terry's problem might just be the last straw that broke the camels back...


Quote
MeRodent
Stating that the OSTC 2N is an experimental platform is all well and good however if it wasn't an excellent dive computer it wouldn't sell anywhere near he units that it has. I would not have spent the $1000 odd on the OSTC 2N just for the fun of having an experimental dive platform - to myself and no doubt many others it is primarily a super configurable dive computer.

The suggestion to travel to altitude is both a suggestion on a possible way to stop or prevent the computer diving and theoretical question on how the computer makes the decision that the dive is over.
I'm not sure if you are doing it deliberately but the tone of your messages in general come across as aggressive. You refer people to documentation that you believe is easy to find (recent example is the search function which didn't work),...

Hansjoerg:
If you read the Search Function forum entry then you may have noticed that the search function does work but with the limitation that results are only shown if you search for words with more than 3 characters. I have asked HW in the topic to take that limitation off.

Quote
MeRodent
...you seem to assume that everyone simply can't be bothered to look for data and spend more time telling people to read documentation than most others do in answering the actual question.

Hansjoerg:
Actually the reason why I referred terry (with a link) to Rob's Sticky about the CF's, is because that is currently to only location known to me where up to date information is available on the CF's.
I would have thought that is perfectly acceptable approach and would be of most help to terry. At that time Matthias had already give terry information on how to fix the problem. And since Matthias is from HW he knows the best approach to fix the problem.
Quote from HW from the Search Function topic:
"...About 50% of support emails (are) asking questions which are explained in the manual already..."

Quote
MeRodent
The RTFM in your signature reinforces this and I would guess there are people who are put off what is actually excellent support through this forum due to the fact that quite often one of the first responses they get is in effect go away and look for the information on your own.

Hansjoerg:
I will take your comment, that I come across too aggressive, on board and will attempt to be a good boy.
However I will not change my approach:
If someone is hungry, at first give them a fish so they are not hungry anymore, then teach them how to fish...

[MeRodent]

Hansjoerg, agreed that the reply with the link is perfectly acceptable and I suppose I meant that in general some of your replies can seem to be blunt (I suppose this is a better word).

I suspect that your intent is to help, I just wanted to make sure you were aware that your impact is not necessarily the same.

Lastly I apologise for the thread hijack. I would have preferred to do this via PM but unfortunately there is no PM option that I can find.

[terry]

Gentlemen
I wish to thank you all for your comments especially Matthias as the magnet trick worked. I am sure this won't be the last time I'll be using the Forum as it has been proved this forum actually works by the very constructive comments and some not, but hey. Life is like that. It would be very dull if we all had the same thoughts.

I run a MOT testing station in England, similar to the German TUV for testing cars on a annual basis. While testing we refer to manuals especially with so many different cars. This manual is not dissimilar to the Owner's manual of the ostc. But having said that, from time to time things are not too clear to the person reading it. Surely, we have all been in that situation from time to time, so we have a hotline to Vosa the goverment body which controls the operation of MOT's throughout England. Many years ago we would phone VOSA and it would be the samesame answer, refer to manual. We would then comment it's not clear, we need help. The answer would then be the same. Manual, manual manual. We would almost give up in despair. It was almost as though it was "Us verse Them" attitude. And wondered why we bothered to contact them in the first place. All we wanted was advise. Nowadays things have changed, yes, we still use manuals.But when we phone they are always very helpfull and if they can help they will do so. Very like the Forums of today.

Remember, when someone asks for help, it's because they need it, not because they have not read the manual. In my case it was a cock-up, but all is ok now.

Once again , Thankyou everyone for comments. regards Terry

[scubatinoo]

@terry: Just for better understanding - what was your idea when you set CF00 to zero?

"Remember, when someone asks for help, it's because they need it, not because they have not read the manual."

But sometimes they are lazy and then it's easier to ask then to search and read...