MK2 - dead? battery?

[glenndm]

Hi,

I have a new(ish) ostc mk II, bought at the beginning of the year, which I have practically not used.
Due to lack of time, my last dive was almost 3 months ago. the ostc has been in a cupboard since.

Today, I was preparing to do (at last) a dive tomorrow.

I could not get the ostc to turn on again. the buttons did not react to anything.
assuming the battery has gone flat, I connected it to a pc using the usb cable.

Although the windows 7 pc immediately recognized the device and installed the driver, the ostc remained dark. no led blinking, nothing.

then after a few minutes, the screen backlight came on, but remained blank.
a further few minutes, the screen went dark again only for the backlight to come on again, but now an orange led was blinking faintly.

I left the ostc connected for a further 4 hours.
afterwards it still does not react to anything.

What can I do?

regards
glenn

[glenndm]

a final note: during the 4 hours charging, the blacklight turned off again after a few minutes to remain completely dark since.
the orange led is now blinking twice a second, meaning the battery is recharged?

so what now?

[glenndm]

just stumbled across the magnet on the back trick here on the forum (perhaps something to put in the manual?)

with the magnet, the screen lights up bright white, then dark, then multicolor noise to go dark once more
still no reaction to buttons

glenn

[glenndm]

final attempt for today.

I found this message on another board http://www.yorkshire-divers.com/forums/computers-dive-timers/134145-ostc.html#post1546187

I followed the steps with firmware mk2_v190_stable.hex, it all worked, the blue led flashes, then what seems like a reboot....
...but then, once again, a dark screen with no reaction from the buttons.

glenn

log tiny bootloader:
Bootloader for HeinrichsWeikamp OSTC,
based on TinyBootLoader, v.1.9.5 written by claudiu.chiculita@ugal.ro
http://www.etc.ugal.ro/cchiculita/softw ... loader.htm
Support: info@heinrichsweikamp.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connected to \\.\COM4 at 19200
HEX: 28 days old, INHX32,18Fcode+cfg, total=76576 bytes.
Searching for PIC ...
Found:18F 4685
WRITE OK at 0:17, time:16.732 sec

[edhowarth]

I had similar on my almost new Mk2. I swapped the battery with a friends and it was fine. Emailed HW and they sent me a battery free of charge. Its now OK.

Something to try if you can find someone close to you.

Ed

[heinrichsweikamp]

Hmm, maybe you try the 1.80 (Attached) again? To rule out this is an software issue...

Regards,
Matthias

[glenndm]

edhowarth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had similar on my almost new Mk2. I swapped the
> battery with a friends and it was fine. Emailed HW
> and they sent me a battery free of charge. Its now
> OK.
>
> Something to try if you can find someone close to
> you.
>
> Ed

Thanks for your reply.
I'll first try the suggestion of Christian Weikamp to go back to firmware v1.80.
If that does not succeed, I'll try a friend's battery. the ostc is very popular in our group, so finding one shouldn't be a problem.

glenn

[glenndm]

Flashed v1.80 firmware - log:
Bootloader for HeinrichsWeikamp OSTC,
based on TinyBootLoader, v.1.9.5 written by claudiu.chiculita@ugal.ro
http://www.etc.ugal.ro/cchiculita/softw ... loader.htm
Support: info@heinrichsweikamp.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connected to \\.\COM4 at 19200
HEX: 140 days old, INHX32,18Fcode+cfg, total=87022 bytes.
Searching for PIC ...
Found:18F 4685
WRITE OK at 18:36, time:33.897 sec
-----------

I waited a few minutes before doing anything.
the orange led still flashed twice a second during a minute, then that stopped too.
tapping the buttons...nothing
magnetic reset ... white screen > multicolor noise > dark screen > orange led blinking.
the only reaction to tapping the buttons is that the orange led stop blinking completely. all is dark.
...
final move is to try to swap the battery as suggested by Ed.
Only this sunday I'll access to another battery
Mine shows 4.1 V - battery itself seems fine, no bloating.

We'll see on sunday
Thanks for your help
glenn

[heinrichsweikamp]

Hi Glenn,

From here (I'm off for some diving currently) this looks like a dead display (Normal yellow LED behavior).
We'll replace this for free (Of course) but it's still a strange coincidence with the update. Please contact Christian or Manfred in the office (info@heinrichsweikamp.com) - they will take care of this immediately.

Cheers,
Matthias

[glenndm]

Hi Matthias,
The device is on its way to your office.
My friends were not keen on swapping the batteries from their ostc's. The battery seemed fine anyways.

happy diving,
glenn