Future advances in regulator design?

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There is a "smaller" to go to, the integrated reg used in Spare airs and such, just not good enough.

In the past Zeagle made a regulator where the first stage replaces the valve on the tank. Aqualung had something similar in their military catalog. H20 Odyssey still makes something like that. If you want the most compact regulator (if you can call it that) there is something that is like a straw, you bite down on it and it releases air. It attached to a BC fitting.
 
Don't think anyone actually *wants* the bite valve. I mean, hardly even the kind of people who dress up in leather with cutouts in sensitive places.

But integrated first stages and mouthpiece-only seconds is how I would imagine the scuba analog of all-screen cellphones to look like. Almost forgot... with WAI already inside. Air pressure powers FADEC in jet engines, it can power WAI.
 
Redundancy is something that most (just about all!) recreational divers know very little about because it is not part of the mainstream open water course curriculum- and I think it should be!
Every time I dive my harness pockets contain a spare mask and I have a spare air/ pony or bail-out tank. You won't see a skydiver leap out of a plane without a reserve parachute but divers happily glide off down to 130 ft all the time relying entirely on one first stage to supply their life support system.
Maybe there is some way that a first stage could effectively contain a redundant first stage linked to the secondary without a significant increase in bulk or expense? And some kind of warning system like the old J valves for those people to seem to be incapable of reading an SPG and relating remaining gas to depth etc?
All stuff that existed in some form in the past of course, but in the process of slimming, cheapening and dumbing down equipment maybe the baby got thrown out with the bath water.
 
Maybe there is some way that a first stage could effectively contain a redundant first stage linked to the secondary without a significant increase in bulk or expense?

You mean like this: V-TWIN - Beuchat

And some kind of warning system like the old J valves for those people to seem to be incapable of reading an SPG and relating remaining gas to depth etc?

They did it is called the Scubapro MK-7. You can find them cheap on eBay and VDH sells the rebuild kits.
 
I have been working with ceramics and ceramic coatings for a while now. My original plan was for the Kraken to have all metal parts ceramic coated. At the 11th hour I changed my mind due to some tolerance issues with a few of the parts but overall it was fantastic. One of the first ones I did is still going strong and was sent to Hollywood last month, (see other thread) I have been working with the applicator on coating plastics in ceramic as well. Although promising, those parts are not quite ready for prime time either. The special edition Kraken I did last fall has many of the ancillary parts on it coated in ceramic.
Luis is not a fan of the original cotton harnesses and for overall diving I'd tend to agree with him. But if you really want to be a Manfish, diving a harness on a steel 72 or tripples with a single stage Mistral, minimal wetsuit and weights is a great way to dive and you really feel the connection with all your gear. About as close as we can come today to the experience of the first "aqua lung" divers. Try it.....You just might like it :)
 
Luis is not a fan of the original cotton harnesses and for overall diving I'd tend to agree with him. But if you really want to be a Manfish, diving a harness on a steel 72 or tripples with a single stage Mistral, minimal wetsuit and weights is a great way to dive and you really feel the connection with all your gear. About as close as we can come today to the experience of the first "aqua lung" divers. Try it.....You just might like it :)

I love the harness, I just hate the way it was attached directly to the cylinder back in the 50's. The attachment point was bad for the single tank. I use a plain harness with the backplate. With doubles (specially small doubles) the basic vintage harness and tank bands works great. It is one of my favorites.

I totally agree that with the simplicity and minimalistic sentiment.


You mean like this: V-TWIN - Beuchat

That is a very interesting first stage.

I kind of like the idea, but truly considering the history of reliability and actual possible failure modes for most first stages (mostly a leak or IP creep), I have to question the actual need. IMO, it is all about balancing the risks with the options.

This can be a lengthy discussion about risk assessment, probability of failure, MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure), and most important, actual consequences of failure. The actual analysis and evaluation of the consequences of failure can merit its own discussion.

BTW, in the late 70’s (maybe into the early 80’s) the company that made the At-Pak made a first stage with two independent balanced piston regulators. It actually went a step further and if you quit breathing from the primary first stage for a predetermined time period, it would automatically inflate your BC to bring you to the surface. I don’t think that was a good idea, but I will give them credit for thinking ”out of the box”.


They did it is called the Scubapro MK-7. You can find them cheap on eBay and VDH sells the rebuild kits.

Low air pressure alarms are available again. They are now integrated into some “air integrated” dive computers. I don’t know if you can program into them custom ring-tones, but give it time… someone will do it. :)

Note: I like the Mk-7 in some weird kind of way...


It is interesting to notice that history repeats itself, in one way or another.


Some may notice that I will always bring stuff from the past when we are actually talking about the future of scuba gear. I don’t have a crystal ball to look at the future, but looking at the past we can look at trends, we can study what has already being tried and it either didn’t work or it was not accepted at the time for a number of reasons, etc. Studying the past (for gear, etc.) may help us from making the same mistakes and can teach us what may work.

I am also not restricting my posts to just the regulator, because I feel that the entire scuba kit should play together as a system. The original “aqua-lung” was not just the regulator, it was the complete kit including tank and harness.
 
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How about a regulator that the manufacturer supports 1000 dives or 5 years (pick your own numbers) before needing service?

We used to regularly swap spark plugs, coolant and transmission fluids on our cars. Not so much anymore...
 
How about a regulator that the manufacturer supports 1000 dives or 5 years (pick your own numbers) before needing service?

We used to regularly swap spark plugs, coolant and transmission fluids on our cars. Not so much anymore...

You may need to confirm this with VDH for the actual policy, but the design of the Argonaut Kraken will exceed that with no problem.

I actually had in mind closer to 10 years, if salt water is not allowed into the regulator first stage.


There is no reason why the first stage on other regulators could not be treated the same way.

The second stage on a conventional single hose regulator is a different story. The seat needs to be replaced more often.
 
Yeah. I'm just looking forward to the ultimate step of completely standardized internals (because there's nothing left to make perceivably better, and nothing to be saved by making it worse), built out of something corrosion- and oxygen-resistant like ceramics, with non-degradable o-rings, so you never need to know the internals are there.

Standardized internals is a business decision, not an engineering problem. It's the simple matter of a large company consolidating many different product designs into a single product that fits 90%+ of the market. Quality has to be up there with the best while slamming down the price through economies of scale.

Competitors have to make things differently for the sake of being different, as there would be no point in paying more for the same thing.

Appropriate PVD/CVD coatings for metallic components are sufficient for 20+ year life, and relatively inexpensive. Ceramics aren't necessary, as their benefits of high heat and high speed wear resistance aren't applicable to diving and are 5-10X more expensive.
 

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