Buoyancy Cruise Control

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Excellent. A massively over-engineered solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Has potential to injure and maim thousands and thousands of gullible divers who would actually buy this thing or think it has any real world use at all.

This is just begging to be fitted to a Mares HUB to complete the "all the gear no idea" diver package.

 

[SkipperJohn]

considering how difficult buoyancy control is for the newb (like myself) I'm thinking a device like this will sell. (then end up collecting dust or as evidence in a trial.) There are always people out there with "too much" $ and too many means to part with it. I suffer only from the later.

 

[ligersandtions]

considering how difficult buoyancy control is for the newb (like myself) I'm thinking a device like this will sell. (then end up collecting dust or as evidence in a trial.) There are always people out there with "too much" $ and too many means to part with it. I suffer only from the later.

I don't know, I think if a product like this is made and sold, people will buy it not as a temporary crutch, but as a "tool" that will be used at all times. These people will never actually learn how to control their buoyancy. It will reduce diving from a sport that takes a lot of thought, effort, time, practice, etc into something any person, with the mental capacity to inhale and exhale, can do. I'm not saying the sport/hobby should be hard or that we should weed people out, but when things are dumbed down so much, people get in trouble because they're not used to having to think their way through a problem.

If something like this product actually makes it to consumers, I can only imagine what will happen when it fails (and it will at some point....it may not be dive one, it may not be dive 100, it may not even be dive 1000, but at some point, it will fail). It's a risk I'm willing to take with my computer because I dive with an SPG and a buddy as well....if it happens, I grab my tables and deal. If someones "buoyancy cheat" fails, then what? Sink to the bottom....shoot to the surface (hope they remember what they're supposed to do to get themselves out of the issue they're facing)??

 

[Randy43068]

if it's operating valves and such, it's going to run out of batteries one time or another. That's a failure. Wiring fails. Solenoids fail. Valves fail.

For heavens sake, learn to dive. It's safer and sure as hell a lot lower cost than buying such a contraption.

Wouldn't it be easier to teach proper equipment, balanced rig and buoyancy control than to invent a thing such as this? I'm just saying........................................

 

[Dan Weidert]

An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. Only this elephant leads you down the path of ignorance that at best takes the fun out of mastering the underwater environment and at worst puts you and your buddy at increased risk.

Dan: shakehead:

 

[ArcticDiver]

Did everyone miss that this was a college project? In that context Kudos! to them. They found something that hadn't been done before; designed and built a machine that did the job and successfully tested it. They proved their abilities. Wonderful! I hope they got an A+ on their course.

Now as to marketablility, the main part of the posts to this thread.........

 

[String]

They found something that hadn't been done before;

Im fairly sure it was done before. 10-15 years ago. It didn't sell.

 

[Hickdive]

It's already been done, five years ago;

Aquapilot - DIVE BCs

 

[ArcticDiver]

It's already been done, five years ago;

Aquapilot - DIVE BCs

Thanks, Didn't know that. Make that a "C"; or maybe even, depending on details, an "F" for plagarizing.

 

[flashover604]

What will they come up with next? Some kind of little thing that pulls you around underwater so you don't have to kick?! Fins that let you walk on land so you don't have to wait until you're in the water to put 'em on?! Some kind of fancy electronic spg, that might even TALK to you during your dive?! Some kind of dangerous "Exotic" Breathing gas with more Oxygen than normal air?! That kind of stuff will never sell, or it'll end up collecting dust..... People will buy ANYTHING. Some of it is crap, some is great. Then after they do their ten or twenty "I'm a diver" dives, it sits in the closet-locker-big plastic tub for five-ten years until the husband/wife pulls the "Your never going to use this stuff again" argument prompting an eBay/Craigslist/Scubaboard classified ad. Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware. Please check out my ebay/craigslist/scubaboard ads...