Newbie, and dive propulsion vehicles

Hello everyone,

Firstly, hi! I'm a newcomer to these forums, and wanted to start off my thread by saying hello

Secondly, I wanted to apologise in advance for a couple of things - one, if I'm posting in the wrong section of the forums then sorry! Second, I'm not actually a diver, so I'm not too sure if I qualify to be part of these discussions - I do have a strong interest in diving however

I am a technologist, and am involved in developing novel forms of propulsion devices. The reason why I am posting on this forum is because, I currently have a design for a propulsion unit that I think holds many advantages over existing designs (such as power to weight ratio, size, noise, etc) - and am interested in adapting this unit to becoming a diver propulsion unit.

However, before I go into serious development for this application, there's obviously a need for a real commercial application and demand before I can attract funding etc. It's with this in mind that I thought I could perhaps get some views from experienced divers on a forum like this!

** If this sort of a thread is not encouraged then I apologise again, and please feel free to remove my thread if it is inappropriate **

Could I ask a few questions?

1) What sort of applications would a DPV be useful for - both recreational/technical/commercial?

2) Is the DPV an application where there is demand for? As far as I understand, it is a very niche application and the market size for such an application is small - even for commercial uses. However, I wondered whether this is because an application like a DPV isn't extremely useful, or is it because of the limitations of current designs (that I plan to address)?

3) Are there any DPV users here? Could you tell me more about what you think of existing DPVs, ie the pros and cons - and what features/characteristics would really 'get your blood boiling'?

I think I'll leave the questions to these three for the moment, thank you everyone in advance for your patience and replies!

The Tech guys and gals are probably a better audience for your questions: ScubaBoard > Scuba Diving Central > Technical Diving Specialties.

Hi El,

Thanks for the tip! Would it be better for me to post another thread in that relevant section, or for this present thread to be moved there?

welcome to scuba board

Thanks, all, for the warm welcome to the board. I look forward to participating in discussions here!

I would say in the scuba industry as a whole the demand for a DPV will be low,especially related to cost. The biggest demand for DPVs is the tech market,which represents a very small percent of the scuba industry,and DPVs a small percent of the tech subdivision of diving. The primary applications are wreck divers for travel against things like a strong current or long wrecks,or for cave divers that have long penetrations or strong current. In the cave diving world DPVs are fairly limited in that there are only a few caves that are appropriate for their use,and some of those caves have bans on DPVs. I've used DPVs for many years,and have owned a tekna Dv3x,Mako,and Silent Submersion. I've also used Aquazepps,predators,and gavins.

What are the pros-get me to my destination,and exit faster
expend less gas,and less deco

cons-expensive
weakest link in the equipment chain since it isn't redundant
hazardous if not used correctly,will take somebody further than
they may have gas to exit


What would get my blood boiling- a scooter with greater burn time (battery capacity),without making it bigger. I know that Nimh batteries are here,but their reliability with stacked cells is very questionable,especially for the cost-perhaps lithium ion is the key. I know a cave diving engineer who toyed with the idea of a fuel cell. But,the more complicated you make the scooter the more failure opporunities you'll have-nothing worse than being 3000+ ft back in a cave and hit the trigger and nothing happens;been there,done that :-(

I've used a scooter a few times recreationally and it was fun as a novelty. But since in that situation you mostly buzz past the things you came to see, too fast to really see them, to me there's not much point. If diving from shore you could use one to get to something further away than you would swim, but there's drawbacks - like if the thing craps out you're now stuck with a long swim lugging a scooter. Reliability is critical, and burn time is important. (The type I used seemed pretty flaky.)

Benchmark: http://www.gavinscooters.com/

Thank you everyone, for all those replies! They are certainly interesting, and helpful.

Does anyone else have anything to add to the use of DPVs?

Two areas I see hindering acceptance. A key market area is from beaches, most folks do not like long swims. But most units are heavy and cumbersome to get to the water. One outfit had a custom dolly but then what to do with the dolly once there, walk back to your car? yuck. I would say cost is a factor but if the fun factor is there, that is not hold up based on other rec sales.

My $0.02