A device that lets you breathe underwater without the tanks?

[Don Burke]

About a month ago I've seen an add for an O2 system where people were able to fill their medical O2 tanks at home with an affordable O2 generator (not a storage tank) it was the size of a large suitcase.
Now tell me how many tec divers could use a machine like that. And how many of you have seen one of those devices for sale at a LDC?

Those things are for sale on eBay every time I check.
Here is the dive version: http://www.dnax.com/dnax.html
Some dive shops have them. The prices are pretty steep.

Others use a device to inject the oxygen at the input to the dive compressor so more of the O2 in the tank can be used.

BTW: What happens when a diver with one of those gills swims into a dead zone with no O2 dissolved in the water?

That is when you draw from the storage tank.

 

[liberato]

Oh, the gill inventor's name is actually Alan-Izhar Bodner which does show up.

 

[PRL]

The flow rates would still have to be pretty high. Far too high for a battery system at the current state of the art.

I think in the 60s' or 70s' there was some work done on wet suits to extract O2. If the extraction media is on the outside of the diver the pump output need would be greatly reduced, and diver moving through the water alone would create a respectable flowrate. But I imagine that a wetsuit like that would have to have a much greater surface area than the diver and that would create drag and more need for O2 by the diver. Anyone knows the surface area of an average diver and the speed the diver would have to travel at to extract enough O2 given that the system is 100% efficient? And how much greater the surface area would have to be for the diver to travel at lets say 1mph?

Just loud thoughts

 

[PRL]

That is when you draw from the storage tank.

So this would in no way be a system a newbie diver should use. I imagine that there would be very little reserve,warning, and time before the switch would have to be made. The switch could be automatic like in hybrid cars, but I just heard on the news that some of them have a tendency for stalling on the Highway. I don,t think I would want a stall like that underwater.

 

[DiveGolfSki]

Oh, the gill inventor's name is actually Alan-Izhar Bodner which does show up.

The inventor answered my email:

> [Original Message]
> From: Bodner <bodner@likeafish.biz>
> Date: 6/3/2005 6:36:09 PM
> Subject: Re: Underwater Breathing
>
> It extracts the dissolved AIR from the water.
> The contents of the dissolved air is different from the air in the
> atmosphere.
> It contains 34% Oxygen, compared to less than 21% Oxygen air in the
> atmosphere.
>
Okay, it's 34% which means that it's subject to the same nitrox limits.

 

[Chris Hipp]

The main problem I see is that it is battery powered. Batteries have a tendency to die. I would not trust my life to anything with a battery.

Does anyone know how much air would be stored in the "air bag?" It would have to be able to be enough for two divers to reach the surface from at least 60 feet before any (smart) divers would embrace.

Seems too dangerous from what I am seeing, we'll have to see how it develops.

 

[sharkinabus]

The main problem I see is that it is battery powered. Batteries have a tendency to die. I would not trust my life to anything with a battery.

Does anyone know how much air would be stored in the "air bag?" It would have to be able to be enough for two divers to reach the surface from at least 60 feet before any (smart) divers would embrace.

Seems too dangerous from what I am seeing, we'll have to see how it develops.

The air-bag will likely operate like a rebreather of sorts to get greater use of the extracted air..

Any (smart) diver will be using a bail-out bottle in case the main system fails. Will probably be safer than a single tank rig..

It would be a bugger to enter any stratified layers in a lake or quarry with much lower dissolved air...

http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/310505_tech.htm

 

[Martha]

I recomend a minature fusion reactor. Split H2O into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fuse hydrogen to form Helium and remix in the right proportions to have HelOx. And you can run all your lights and scooters (and a city)on the surplus power.
I think I've seen one of them at Radioshack.[/QUOTE

That made me laugh out loud!!! I guess I need to be quiet though, since I'm supposed to be working and not surfing ScubaBoard.

 

[Rickg]

Recent CNN article on this subject.

http://www.cdnn.info/news/industry/i050606.html

Rickg

 

[MaresMan1]

The main problem I see is that it is battery powered. Batteries have a tendency to die. I would not trust my life to anything with a battery.

Seems too dangerous from what I am seeing, we'll have to see how it develops.

The battery may not be an issue at all very soon:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/lights/757e/

It will be able to make oxygen and re-power itself soon enough. Now the only limit will be the diver.

Dive Smart; Dive Safe
Enjoy the ride
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