Excuse my ignorance: How do I turn off my cypress?

[reinhart36 0]

I got a second-hand cypress today, and turned it on to see if it appeared to work.

Now I'm wondering how to switch one of these things off...?

thanks!

[SeaKev 0]

Same way you turned it on.

[Fast 0]

Important note:

Unless you plan to travel with the cypress - i.e. Driving around in your car with your rig/cypress, it will use less power if you just let it sit there untill it shuts off as opposed to making the LED light up 4 times.

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[reinhart36 0]

Nothing happens if I push the button. The LED never comes on again. Is this unusual?

thanks

[BETO74 0]

You don't, unless is necessary you don't It saves the battery to keep it on until it shots down by it self

http://web.mac.com/ac057a/iWeb/AC057A/H0M3.html

[reinhart36 0]

I buy that it's fine to just leave it on, but I'd like to know anyway, in case I ever travel with it.

thanks

[fcajump 164]

Quote

I got a second-hand cypress today, and turned it on to see if it appeared to work.

Now I'm wondering how to switch one of these things off...?

thanks!

For the most part, you don't bother. After 14 hours it will automatically powerdown.

However, there are times when you SHOULD shut it down... (e.g. jumped this morning and getting on comercial to go home this afternoon, jumped early this morning and don't want it to shutdown during my night jump.)

Shut down is the same as turn on (1 push, followed by 3 responses to the red LED); HOWEVER, the button push to shutdown must be quicker and closer to the lighting of the LED than when turning it on.

Early on people were complaining that their Cypres would not shutdown because of this.

Be quick and it should go fine.

JW

Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

[piisfish 137]

Same as turning ON, with a slight difference.

1st pressure on the button must be "fast", if it were Morse Code, it would be "Short-Long-Long-Long"

If this is not clear, please PM me.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[ecll 0]

Please. Go to cypres-usa.com and download the user's guide toward the bottom of the page and study it. If you are going to own a Cypres you really need to know what it does and what it does not do...how it functions and when it does not function. At least one person has died because they did not read the manual or did not remember what was in it. I am on my second new Cypres and I still reread the user's guide at least once every year.

[reinhart36 0]

Quote

Same as turning ON, with a slight difference.

1st pressure on the button must be "fast", if it were Morse Code, it would be "Short-Long-Long-Long"

If this is not clear, please PM me.

Thanks piisfish, much appreciated!

[piisfish 137]

Quote

Thanks piisfish, much appreciated!

I know now it because I had to call my DZO from the airport in Barcelona trying to shut mine down before check-in

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[sundevil777 102]

Quote

Important note:

Unless you plan to travel with the cypress - i.e. Driving around in your car with your rig/cypress, it will use less power if you just let it sit there untill it shuts off as opposed to making the LED light up 4 times.

Wrong.

http://www.pcprg.com/cyprespc.htm

So, consider that the unit uses about/at most around 100 times less power at 'rest' compared to when the LED is on/calibrating. Turning off the unit takes, say 10 seconds or so. So if the unit were on for 100*10=1000 seconds or about 16 minutes, then you are better to turn it off. Even with the assumptions that I haven't listed, or even if it is 1000 times less power, then it would be about 2.5 hours for the break even point. So I think it is fairly safe to make the obvious conclusion.

The reason why the battery voltage is lower when the ammeter was connected is because a parallel circuit is established, the measurement affects the system by draining some power. A more expensive meter with a higher impedence would use less.

For a good description of how to turn it off reliably, see (it is all about doing a fast and sharp 'click'):

http://www.cypres-usa.com/cyp16.htm

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[sundevil777 102]

Quote

Same as turning ON, with a slight difference.

1st pressure on the button must be "fast", if it were Morse Code, it would be "Short-Long-Long-Long"

If this is not clear, please PM me.

Where did you get the idea that the last 3 button pushes are better "long"?

There is nothing in the Jan '95 note from SSK that says anything about this, and I've never done anything other than very short/sharp clicks.

http://www.cypres-usa.com/cyp16.htm

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[tdog 0]

I have had cypres units that I must not have been "sharp" enough on... I never have failed by pressing the button three times as fast as I could to initiate the light sequence, followed by normal clicks to turn it off.

Perhaps this is not the "correct way", but with a Cypres 1 I have sat on the hangar floor and tried one real quick press and nothing, until someone said, "press it three times very quickly to get it going."

It might not be the "correct way", but it works.

[pdj6p 0]

T-dog is right that three very fast pushes on the button and then a push every time the light comes on works. In fact it is the only way I"ve been able to turn off a cypress.

Death is so permanant, and I'm just not ready for that kind of committment.

[tbrown 26]

Quote

Please. Go to cypres-usa.com and download the user's guide toward the bottom of the page and study it. If you are going to own a Cypres you really need to know what it does and what it does not do...how it functions and when it does not function. At least one person has died because they did not read the manual or did not remember what was in it. I am on my second new Cypres and I still reread the user's guide at least once every year.

Couldn't agree with this more, word for word. Two years ago a woman died at Perris (my home DZ) after setting her Cypres at home in Huntington Beach (my hometown). HB is at sea level, Perris is 1450 ft MSL. She went in, while the Cypres "correctly" had her pegged at 1450 ft AGL. Obviously she should have gone for her reserve handle long before she did (it seems she did pull silver, below 100 ft), but if she had understood even the basics about how her Cypres worked, she would have waited until arriving at the dropzone before turning it on.

Since then, I have carried my Cypres Owner's Manual with me to the dropzone in my gearbag. I am NOT an authority on the Cypres, and my manual is for the original version and not the Cypres2. It has also been pointed out to me that this info is available online, which is true, BUT Michele never found this info in time to understand how her unit worked and it cost her life. I keep my manual around in case anybody around me raises a question about the Cypres, I can offer to look it up with them in my Owner's Manual, right then & there.

Look this up TODAY. Look it up before you jump again. If you don't have a hard copy, print the online version and stuff it in your gear bag. Read it, study it, learn it, believe it. Share your printed version with others if a question comes up at the DZ. These things work remarkably well, but they have their limitations and those need to be understood. Thoroughly.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[piisfish 137]

Quote

1st pressure on the button must be "fast", if it were Morse Code, it would be "Short-Long-Long-Long"

If this is not clear, please PM me.

Where did you get the idea that the last 3 button pushes are better "long"?

[dontiego 0]

Quote

However, there are times when you SHOULD shut it down... (e.g. jumped this morning and getting on comercial to go home this afternoon, jumped early this morning and don't want it to shutdown during my night jump.)

Or (and I've been this situation several times and had a hard time shutting it off), if you arrive at your DZ on friday after work and turn it on at 7.00PM, then start jumping again on saturday before 9.00AM.
Then it's still on, but won't be for long, so you'd better reset it.

"We call on the common man to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance."
http://bancomicsans.com

[CrazyL 0]

Along with reading and understanding the cypres users guide, call SSK with your question about turning your cypres on/off. Have your rigger help you out as well.

[JackR 0]

I agree again with these posts. Unlike many other complex technical systems, skydiving system manuals and technical information are available on the web. Download it and keep a copy.

I will go one step further with the recommendation of keeping a copy in your gear bag. Print a second copy and leave it at the DZ.

I was rigging for a small-medium size DZ and I had one of those plastic file folder boxes (available at Target, Wal-Mart, and most office supply stores) that I left at the DZ. I used hanging file folders to organize it, and left a copy of the owners manuals for all the DZ equipment and the popular sport equipment in this box. If there was ever a question about gear, we would grab the manual and look it up. Much more reliable than trying to remember these details.

---
Interesting sidebar about skydiving use of the web. Most computer people will tell you that the birth of the World Wide Web was 1995 when Netscape went public. That is about the time it found its way into most American homes. However I still have my 1993 Parachutist announcing the opening of the USPA website. This was after the opening and widespread use of rec.skydiving, if you can remember that.

Packin' Jack
42nd Lost Prairie: The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Skydiving
25 Jul - 3 Aug 2009
2007 photos: http://www.skydive.com/prairie/pages/prairie.htm