Bungee Rigging my Vytec

Hey do-it-yourself gear riggers,
I took a few minutes last night and got my Vytec secured on a pair of bungees and I thought I'd share the results for other's reference. I read some previous posts about hooking up a Vyper using fishing line through the mounting holes, etc., but I decided to go a different route. This method will probably work for a wrist-mount Vyper as well, but I don't know for sure as I've never seen one up close.

Here's how it went:

1. Remove the boot per instructions (the manual says "Remove first from the front end, with the longer part of the strap)
2. Using a paper-clip (1 3/4" size) or a 1.5mm screwdriver, depress one side of each mounting pin (you'll feel the spring tension holding it in) as you gently tug on the strap to remove
3. Take the mounting pins out of the straps and replace them in the CPU unit, making sure they spring back into place securely
4. Cut two approximately 1 foot lengths of 1/8" bungee cord (aka Shock Cord)
5. Do what you need to do using the paperclip and/or tiny screwdriver to "gingerly" jam each end of the bungees under the mounting pins and feed through. Note, I would NOT try this with anything thicker than 1/8", and it may be easier to burn the ends of the bungee first, or you may prefer to feed a frayed end and pull it through instead.
6. Once you have the bungees both under each mounting pin
looking roughly like this =I=I= you can then tie each bungee in a knot. I used the
Zeppelin Bend, and kept it very loose as I adjusted the lengths to fit and match, and then tied them down tightly.
7. Cut the ends closely, and burn them to secure.
8. You're done.

One additional note, I recommend that you tie each bungee so that it makes it's own separate loop, rather than tieing one piece of bungee to the other which creates a continuous loop. With the above plan, you've got redundancy in a bunch of ways: two separate loops of bungee, and two spring loaded steel mounting pins, all of which would have to fail for you to lose the instrument. Feel free to reply if you have any questions, or if I left anything out.

The setup gets wet tomorrow. Here's a pic.

Picture

Is it possible to put the boot back on the computer with this rigging method?

Yes, it's definitely possible to put the boot back on. Here's a second photo from the front that I didn't post at first because it's out of focus, and as you can see, the boot's there. As you can also see, the hour was late, :yawn: and I was too sleepy to remember if the boot was on in the first pic or not.
By the way, the boot, with or without any straps is quite secure by itself, and quite separate.
Are you thinking about doing the same, or are you satisfied with the stock strap on your Vytec?

I'm using the long stock strap, which is fine for my drysuit for now, but will be checking out the Dive Rite bungee straps at Fill Express in FL when I go over in a few weeks - someone posted a pic of them here a while ago. Haven't seen them on the Dive Rite site though.

Yup, I saw that strap too, seems like a good one. After taking everything apart and looking at it, I think a large-size Waterborne strap (1" wide) would work as well. More food for thought.

The extra security - having to lose BOTH pins to have the instrument be lost - is cool.

Will have to look at doing that with mine.

Yes, it will work with the Vyper as well.

The one thing that scares me is...
can the bungie cord, when pulled at an angle, get caught around the pin and dislodge one end of the pin? Like if the cord is slid from end to end on the pin? Having the two separate pieces of bungie is good; that's what I did with my compass. You will like the Vytec. Mine is still with the stock strap, but the nylon strap with the back up(won't loose unit if one pin fails) seems like the way to go, although the bungie is nice to put on and take off fast.

On my Vyper I left the straps attatched to the boot and then cut them about 1" from the boot. Then I drilled two holes in each of the straps and ran bungee from strap to strap thru the holes. I get the convience of the bungee as well as the security of having the strap holding the pins in place. It fits great on my drysuit, my wetsuit, and even my bare arm.

Good point, Jeff. I'm going to take a gander at that tonight and see if it could potentially be an issue. My guess is no, I think the springy part of the pins is recessed into the mounting holes deep enough that no "edges" touch the bungee, but I want to make sure. Thanks for the tip. I've got my SK-7 compass rigged the same way also, and I've liked the convenience and security of bungee.

JeffAustin once bubbled...
The one thing that scares me is...
can the bungie cord, when pulled at an angle, get caught around the pin and dislodge one end of the pin? Like if the cord is slid from end to end on the pin? Having the two separate pieces of bungie is good; that's what I did with my compass. You will like the Vytec. Mine is still with the stock strap, but the nylon strap with the back up(won't loose unit if one pin fails) seems like the way to go, although the bungie is nice to put on and take off fast.

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