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If the part about BCD swapping is factual, what can happen and has happened to me is that the BCD inflator is not fully connected. In wreck dives in the Great Lakes where we wear dry gloves, the adapter may not be fully connected and separate during descent. The same goes for the drysuit...

Thank you for sharing the pictures. It's a nice 7s7p layout and leaves some gap between the 7 cell groups which is good. I prefer to use spacers that provide gaps between neighboring cells when building larger battery packs to help dissipate heat. For smaller battery packs I use in dive lights...

Yes on the Sierra with the programmable ESC. Maybe on the non-programmable Echo ESC. The motor is fine, it's the electronics inside the ESC that may crap if sustained higher voltage outside the factory operating range is applied. The DiveXtra Echo battery housing is neither waterproof nor well...

There is no meaningful buddy diving training that I know of. If I recall OW/AOW training, folks got “lost” all the time. That was the norm in quarries, not the exception. The only reason instructors and DMs get away with it because diving is pretty safe and self preservation induces even the...

But she may lose you. I get what you’re saying but both of you may be better served if your wife trains to be self sufficient. There are very few problems that require a buddy’s intervention to resolve if you’re adequately trained. But should you get tangled up in netting and not be able reach...

Thanks for the clarification. If health wasn't a factor and O2 inline shut-off was closed (I missed this bit), then both hypercapnia and hypoxia seem possible contributing factors. Among others. By default, I would still doubt that an experienced diver wouldn't have awareness to check PO2 for...

Unless I missed some known facts surrounding the diver's death, your conclusion is not logical. Given the age of the diver, and the general stats surrounding the causes of diver fatality, in the absence of further information health issue is a primary culprit. Secondly, given the experience...

Not sure where you are getting your data from. Meaningful statistical comparisons are difficult to get and unreliable. In some instances where folks have made an effort, scuba diving is indicated as being safer than general aviation (see chart at the end): The Risk of Dying Doing What We Love -...

Depends on load. A 7s Li-ion pack charged to ~29.4V drops down to mid-27V range when light/moderate load is applied. Can be more depending on load. Your numbers and logic need to be couched in the specifics of the dives that you do to make sense. If 20V cutoff has been causing issues for you...

The cutoff voltage of Echo's ESC is a concern as it's not programmable. However, 20V is low by my standards because I don't discharge 18650 Li-ion battery packs below 3.6V. Typically 3.7-8V is what I plan for in a dive. For me DPV is just a tool to reach a fixed distance with minimal effort and...

Li-ion voltage will also drop, just not as much as NiMH. I agree that the sustained higher voltage of Li-ion cells (at around 27-28V) is likely the cause for the intermittent ESC failures you noted. NiMH fully charged will also be in the mid-28V range, however, dropping down to 24-25V occurs...

That was my original thinking as well. However, looking at the various 30-40 amp ESCs with similar form factors as the Echo's, they specify 6s for Li-ion batteries (if at all) which leads me to believe that rjack321's observations on reliability is likely to hold. As I use DPVs only on certain...

Thanks for the info.

Does anyone know the specs of the Echo (pre-Sierra) electronic speed controller, in particular, if it can tolerate 7s Li-ion input voltage? I contacted Dive Xtras but the person replying did not know. I opened the ESC heat shrink wrapping but no identifying information.

I think you learned a valuable lesson and glad all worked out. I’m assuming the SMB’s helped find you when they returned an hour and a half later. SMB’s, horns, mirrors, etc. do not provide guarantees. When swells are 3+ feet, even tall SMB’s are hard to see. Use the stuff between your ears and...

That’s overkill and not a practical solution. Diving, as with most activities, entails effective risk management not elimination. Chances are that you’ll get hit by a distracted driver before getting lost at sea. It is a rare event. But if it does happen, make sure that the essential equipment...

The UV18 (unless the motor has been mod'ed) has a stronger motor (more winding) than the old UV26 but it's still heavy at 70+ lbs and lacks power compared to the newer DPVs. In high flow caves, you can expect to achieve crawling speed. Against strong currents, it's no match unless going...

Yea, given that he was diving with a pair of cylinders and in wet suit, that’s highly unlikely. As an aside, if diving in drysuit with several cylinders at depth, it can happen. I forgot the details but not too long ago a fatality resulted in a deep dive where a DPV flooded (I think after...

Missing a scrubber: Scuba-diving lizard can stay underwater for at least 16 minutes

The only one benefiting from this thread is the owner of SB. Ladies and Gents: go (ice) diving or maybe pick up a book. Yes, there are still such antiquated things (even in kindle form) that, well, actually contain non-zero information.