Future Innovations in Scuba Gear?!

[Diver Dennis]

I think the EPRB isea is an excellent one. Has anyone ever heard of a diver carrying one? I know you can get the personal ones now but don't know much about them.

 

[Bill51]

I think the EPRB isea is an excellent one. Has anyone ever heard of a diver carrying one? I know you can get the personal ones now but don't know much about them.

The problem with EPIRBs for this application is that the system is only designed to define a search area of 1 minute. That still leaves a one nautical mile square to be searched for a head sticking out of the water, which is not easy to find in anything less than calm seas. The 121.5 signal can be used to define the search a little tighter, but it still leaves a lot to be desired with the transmission being inconsistently reflected off the water and waves.

EPIRBs start at $600 and you're looking at over $1K for what a diver might find useful.

 

[ChrisA]

People have trouble getting a 3500 PSI tank filled to capacity imagine trying to get a 22,500PSI tank filled. To put 80 cu ft a package that normally hold 3 cu ft would be one major engineering task. The tank would probably be a no hydro, limited life tank.

What type of valve would you use???

I've thought about this a little. The tank would have to be made of something other then chromolly steel. Maybe arbon nanotubes or some other exotic material. but I think Kevlar would work. One trouble is the compressor, it would be horibly expensive and air fills would cost a lot.

I think the tank valve would have to include a regulator that fits _inside_ the presurized tank where the dip tube goes now. It would not even need to be balanced but being inside the tank there would be no problems with leaks or blown o-rings. One the outside the valve would look like a normal K or DIN valve and suply between 0 and 3000 psi to a conventional reg. So it would be
a three stage reg system.

Tanks like this are available with today's technlogy (think about the high pressure plumbing systems for water jet cutters, you know, those machine that cut through stainless steel using high pressure water jets They use _way more_ pressure than scuba.

The in-tank reg is no exotic and actually simpler to make thn a conventional firstr stage

But the big problem is the lack of 30,000 psi compressors at dive shops

 

[Diver Dennis]

The problem with EPIRBs for this application is that the system is only designed to define a search area of 1 minute. That still leaves a one nautical mile square to be searched for a head sticking out of the water, which is not easy to find in anything less than calm seas. The 121.5 signal can be used to define the search a little tighter, but it still leaves a lot to be desired with the transmission being inconsistently reflected off the water and waves.

EPIRBs start at $600 and you're looking at over $1K for what a diver might find useful.

Yeah, a lot of money for a device we probably would never use. Thanks Bill.

 

[ChrisA]

I'll add one more thing to your list:

I dive mostly in "chilly" water. low 50's temps are common. This requires a 7mm wetsuit at least.. This exposure suits require the diver to add weights. It's the weights I'd like to loose but physics says you have to loos the suit if you want to loose the weights so....

How about a 1mm thin cold water exposure suit that goes on like a dive skin?

1mm will not provide much insulation so you'd need electric heating. Thin electric elements would be woven in tothe suit's interior. This can be done today but it would use a "tom" of battery power so the powered exposure suit will have to wait for advances in battery technology or for a diver willing to carry a battery pack as big as a set of double tanks.

 

[Bill51]

Now we need a larger BCD to support the batteries that have replaced the weights on the weightbelt. This could get even more interesting if we need more weight to keep the hydrogen and oxygen down with a fuel cell – and what would DIR say about packing liquefied O2 and H2 on a dive?

ETA: Actually a two layer system with trapped Argon might have some interesting thermal properties.

 

[DrSteve]

Don't some dry suit divers use Ar as an inflator gas anyway?

To expand on the distress beacon. What it needs is an acknowledgement signal when the rescue craft get within 2-3 miles. Then the diver can launch a flare.

As for the 30000 psi compressors...what about filling the tank with Liquid N2 and O2. Those will be as dense as you can get and when they expand...up goes the pressure. 200 L of liquid N2 costs around 120 dollars and I believe their are restrictions on liquid O2. But what would the weight be of a tank filled to that pressure?

 

[Mlody11]

A Cheap GPS locator that can be purchased for less then $50. The technology is therre... no one wants to do it for the masses. A small box that fits in your BCD and is activated by a simple trigger (with safety of course). Maybe make it with as a possible two way radio via satellite. This would eliminate the need for inflatables sausages.

 

[pants!]

A Cheap GPS locator that can be purchased for less then $50. The technology is therre... no one wants to do it for the masses. A small box that fits in your BCD and is activated by a simple trigger (with safety of course). Maybe make it with as a possible two way radio via satellite. This would eliminate the need for inflatables sausages.

Well the GPS locator box idea is there..... the $50 part isn't.

Not only do you need the GPS part, but you need a transmitter powerful enough to send a signal from the surface of the water and a battery big and reliable enough to power it, and put it all in a waterproof case.

Doesn't seem like it would be overly expensive.. I could see this sort of device going for $300-$500.

 

[divewriter]

A the 1997 DEMA show in Orlando, there were a couple of Russians going around with a 12,000 psi titanium tank. Actually getting such a tank into hands of recreational divers would not only mean overcomming DOT hurdles, but also developing a new reg technology, possibly a three-stage design, and most important, building compressors that could pump to those pressures economically.

Still, it could happen.

What was the tank pressures during the 50's and 60's? 2250PSI? In almost 50 years the tanks have been improved by by about 55%, not that great of an increase considering the advances in auto technology or aviation.

The major factor here is money, what percentage of the world's population dives? A small percentage I bet. Not much incentive for R&D to be done considering the small return on investment.