Looks like Uemis is belly up...

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camerone
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Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by camerone »

http://www.moneyhouse.ch/u/uemis_ag_CH- ... .358-6.htm (apologies, it's in German; try Google Translate if you're not fluent.) The short translation is that a judge has liquidated assets and dissolved the company.

Wonder what happens with the IP...while I didn't care for the unit itself, I kind of like the hardware platform, and the software might be fun to hack on, similarly to the Heinrichs Weikamp OSTC series, albeit on a slightly smarter/faster bit of hardware.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by CaptnJack »

It was a fairly outdated decompression model with a bunch of mysterious bells and whistles added. I'm not surprised it didn't make it.
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Joshua Smith
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Joshua Smith »

CaptnJack wrote:It was a fairly outdated decompression model with a bunch of mysterious bells and whistles added. I'm not surprised it didn't make it.

No, that's a plus for most divers. I think the price point was unsustainable. It was a recreational computer that cost almost as much as a full-on technical computer.
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spatman
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by spatman »

a little bankruptcy blurb on their site:
http://www.uemis.com/en/company/news/of ... g_uemis_ag
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CaptnJack
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by CaptnJack »

Joshua Smith wrote:
CaptnJack wrote:It was a fairly outdated decompression model with a bunch of mysterious bells and whistles added. I'm not surprised it didn't make it.

No, that's a plus for most divers. I think the price point was unsustainable. It was a recreational computer that cost almost as much as a full-on technical computer.
I guess. I thought it was oriented to the technical market, but maybe I never really understood their market.
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Nwbrewer
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Nwbrewer »

CaptnJack wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
CaptnJack wrote:It was a fairly outdated decompression model with a bunch of mysterious bells and whistles added. I'm not surprised it didn't make it.

No, that's a plus for most divers. I think the price point was unsustainable. It was a recreational computer that cost almost as much as a full-on technical computer.
I guess. I thought it was oriented to the technical market, but maybe I never really understood their market.
I only dove one once, but I certainly did get the impression it was aimed at the OW market. Pretty colors, LOTS of bells and whistles but also a lot of stuff that the average OW diver isn't going to understand or need. (like a little bar chart showing compartment loading). Mine started freaking out and looked like some sort of christmas display when I didn't stop at 15' for the full 3 minutes.

As far as I know they were still working on a He model, they didn't have one yet. Not much good as a tech computer if it won't do He.

Sad to see them go OOB though. Lots of people seemed to like them.
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Re: Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Joshua Smith »

CaptnJack wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
CaptnJack wrote:It was a fairly outdated decompression model with a bunch of mysterious bells and whistles added. I'm not surprised it didn't make it.

No, that's a plus for most divers. I think the price point was unsustainable. It was a recreational computer that cost almost as much as a full-on technical computer.
I guess. I thought it was oriented to the technical market, but maybe I never really understood their market.
I'm pretty sure THEY didn't understand their own market, either.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by camerone »

CaptnJack wrote:I guess. I thought it was oriented to the technical market, but maybe I never really understood their market.
I'm not sure they did, either.

The thing had no Helium, no CCR, criminally poor choice of deco algorithm, only three gasses, and exceptionally poor (10 hr) battery life. To make up for it, they coupled with a bunch of needless "social" features involving online uploading of data and unbelievably worthless things like swappable color faceplates. Anything with swappable faceplates screams recreational computer, but this one was out of the price range for recreational divers.

There was _one_ interesting thing, which was the buddy feature. As an end user, I thought it was the stupidest ******* thing I'd ever heard, but an instructor buddy last weekend thought it'd be great for open water classes to watch his students' gauges easily. I had to give him that point.

Of course, I just watched the same guy have Uwatec Galileo Sol go bat-s*** crazy on him last weekend, too; that thing is buggy as sin, and just as unreliable as the Uwatecs I swore off of a long time ago. Nice to see they haven't fixed their reliability or quality problems, either :) This one was his second...
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Re: Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by seainggreen »

Joshua Smith wrote:I'm pretty sure THEY didn't understand their own market, either.
+1. That was pretty clear from early on.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by CaptnJack »

I thought the proprietary black box "we are going to pad your deco based on workload and temperature" feature was ummm creative...
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Marc
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Marc »

That is a polite way of putting it.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Joshua Smith »

CaptnJack wrote:I thought the proprietary black box "we are going to pad your deco based on workload and temperature" feature was ummm creative...

That IS interesting. Did it use your SAC rate to determine workload? If so, a freeflow at depth might give you quite a deco schedule.....
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by CaptnJack »

Joshua Smith wrote:
CaptnJack wrote:I thought the proprietary black box "we are going to pad your deco based on workload and temperature" feature was ummm creative...

That IS interesting. Did it use your SAC rate to determine workload? If so, a freeflow at depth might give you quite a deco schedule.....
I dunno. Laura repped for them, maybe she'll chime in with the "inside" scoop. On what happened to the company and existing unit support etc.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by kdupreez »

did you mean "UE(nl)MIS" ? Underwater Equipment (no longer) Made In Switzerland.. ;)

I would venture a guess that the trimix update they have been promising their loyal customers is also now belly up..

AFAIK, Laura mentioned on SB that the "Online" dive profile servers have been moved a while ago already in preparation.. that tells me they knew about this looming bankruptcy for a long time..

I really hope these "new" servers remain up (not sure who will be footing the bill) because the dive logs for UE(nl)MIS can ONLY be uploaded to internet servers, there is NO local download capability... so if those "new" servers goes dark, all UE(nl)MIS owners are now SOL

If I were them, I would at least release the logfile download code as open source to the community..
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by pogiguy05 »

:angry: yes I own one :angry:

I guess I will soon be owning an expensive paper weight :eek:
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Matt S.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by Matt S. »

camerone wrote: Of course, I just watched the same guy have Uwatec Galileo Sol go bat-s*** crazy on him last weekend, too; that thing is buggy as sin, and just as unreliable as the Uwatecs I swore off of a long time ago. Nice to see they haven't fixed their reliability or quality problems, either :) This one was his second...
(Knock on wood) My Sol is working like a champ. Very happy with it. I wanted a GIANT display and at the time it was the Sol or zip. Jen's Uwatec SmartTec has been pretty darn painless too. I have heard some complaints about Uwatec's wireless AI crapping out, but then again you hear that about everyone's wireless AI. Never heard about Uwatec computers flipping out, though.

(The Sol has a silly workload compensation algorithm though. First thing I turned off.)

The Uemis computer looked neat because I like eye candy but as others have said, it is way too expensive. And stuff like tissue gas loading charts... Man, can you imagine trying to use information like that to make a decision under water? Useless.

Also, I learned lessons from other hobbies long ago: don't buy anything cool, exotic, and expensive from a tiny European company if there is a better-supported alternative.... or at least, don't buy the first model.

I am sad to see them go though, competition makes things interesting. But I can't see myself buying a new dive computer til my Sol dies. While I love gadgets I don't know what could tempt me into buying a new computer. This one just works... 'til it doesn't, I guess.
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Re: Looks like Uemis is belly up...

Post by wallyc72 »

I think the there main problem in the United States was the imported they chose to go with. He JACKED the price WAY up. I stopped ordering them when he took over. The guy has HURT a lot of SCUBA company's. I was shocked UEMIS went with him. It's still a cool computer. I have 2 of them I'll dive em till they die. Hopefully by then another SCUBA company picks em up and continues making them. Just my 2 cents.
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