New Inspiration scrubber.HUD & integrated controller

[TechBlue]

Dave,
I agree I don't like wrapping two bricks onto my forearms either so I clipped both of them off to the inner D rings of my lungs, no worries the fact that the handsets are clear serves many purposes one, if all is not well in addition to the led flashing red in each unit the display flashes something that would easily be noticed hopefully by you, but also your buddy, the HUD has a vibrator built into it -easy now- so if all these flashing lights don't get your attention you get a very annoying rumble against your teeth. The handset does give you realtime PO2, deco and the choice of ten gas mixes, most people only use the 4th sensor because they already have a VR3 or Hydrospace Explorer, and the new algorithms hold a tighter set point than anything that is out there. I still don't get what you mean about the CO2 monitor, again you know what you can get out of the scrubber, and this also depends on the dives you're doing multiple shallow or one deep. As far as the pressure transducer, it's nice but I would prefer analog gauges over that, which coincedentally is a question I haven't answered on my KISS, should I even bother with SPG's for the onboard gas, it is after all just another point of failure. Hopefully Martin will put the seal of approval on the ExtendAir cartridges soon and life will be easier ffor everybody. As far as testing Joe did some very extreme dives with his HH at Zero Gravity last year. hows that? :mfight:

 

[padiscubapro]

Chris,

I actually don't like the idea of crap dangling all over my wrists, so the dual Hammerhead wrist controllers are not my cup of tea although I will guess one wrist unit can be tethered to the front. I am not even enthused about having even a single wrist controller/computer but I will have to get used to it. I liked the dual controllers dangling in front of me clipped together and out of the way and off me, although I will guess a wrist unit makes for quicker P02 monitoring and it is convenient to have NDL or deco info on the same screen. I also like the fact that realtime P02 comes off the existing 02 sensors, not a 4th one with all the associated separate calibration issues.

At about $85 a bucket for 8-12 mesh, the stuff is not cheap. The C02 production levels to determine the scrubber duration were levels much higher then normally produced. I have heard of many guys getting 5-6 hours, although overcaution is better then saving money so I will not go there. I think most people are doing 4 hours regularly and nobody is publically admitting it. It is like 'roids in the gym, everyone denies it and everyone juices. I like the idea of an axial thermistor if that has been determined to be a reliable C02 indicator, plus if we weren't into tech equipment, now we wouldn't have CCR's in the first place, lol. Besides even the Cis-Lunar Mk5P didn't have this feature.

I like the idea of AP doing the new scrubber, controller and head. I hear really good things about J.M., but I KNOW AP tests the ever loving crap out of their stuff for CE certification.

I think it was brilliant that the Hammerhead uses convex lens covers to magnify the display. In the Evolution controller, it seems to appear to also have a convex lens cover but can't tell for sure. Too bad it doesn't have a dil cylinder pressure transducer somewhere as my Cochran Intelliwrist unit with a tank unit allows me to remove the dil analog guage and go with the digital readout of dill pressure on the wrist unit.

I do think the JM guys are doing an awesome job of innovating.

Dave.
Sorb Is affordable.. If you cant afford replacing it at proper intervals you should stop diving a RB.. 4 hours in warm water with a low workload isn't going to produce 1.6lpm of CO2 so you aren't exceeding the true specs..
WHen you dive deeper you should take a more conservative approach. If you don't know your co2 production you should be assuming worse case. Co2 monitoring is good for one thing.. to tell you its exhauted now.. that means get off the loop now.. You will not get a warning that its failing.. from the point of breakthrough to total failure is generally a matter of minutes.
During zero G I replaced the scrubber after almost every dive (at $25 a fill).. only on two occasions did I exceed 3 hours total time, one was on a dive that was 3.5 hours long with a load of deco in the shallow zone, and one where the combination of two dives exceeded 3 hours by a bit (again alot of deco was done in the shallow zone). I rather swap scrubber than risk any CO2 issues. ALmost all dives were planned with runtimes of 2.5 to 3 hours plus so trying to stretch sorb in this case is stupid.
Its better to replace it more often than trying to stretch it.. effectiveness drops as the dives get deepr so never stretch in at depth.
I have lot of hours on both a stock inspiration and HH.. AT depth the HH holds setpoing much better than the stock lid and there are no tracking issues between an externally connected explorer or VR3 and the controllers.. I dont know anyone who has been able to get a VR3 and stock lid to track an entire dive.
The one complaint some have about the HH is that it doesn't display no stop time remaing left (personally I couldn't care less)... If its that important dive it with an integrated explorer or VR3.

The one thing you should have in the back of your mind is that The rebreather can kill you at any time without warning! Use this attitude you wount get complacent.. You must respect the unit.. Many people have run the units for hundreds of hours witjout incident... but it only takes one failure to kill you if you aren't prepared..

Having one 1 "controller" is a decided advantage in at least one situation..

on an inspiration if you have 2 cells that are bad and one that is good you are screwed.. The best you can hope for is that you have an intergrated deco computer and can run off that single cell and shut off the standard electronics.. if you dont have a 4th cell, you are on open circuit or flying it as an SCR.

On the HH you just switch to manual mode, do a dil flush and find which sensor is good and fly it by that, if you have an integrated computer you have an additional cell to double check yourself..


I dive the HH sometimes with a controller on each rist (if I'm just crusing around) or the primary on my wrist and the secondary clipped off..

 

[CCRDolphinDiver]

Nautilus Tech trip is March 10, board at 8pm in Steveston, BC back on the 14th, check the schedule at www.nautilusexplorer.com email mike at mike@divebc.com
I thought the trip was full, but there might be cancellations, be great to have ya. maybe you could whip me though a trimix Instr course between dives. Ron

 

[O2Addict]

CO2 monitoring is tough, but there are gas annalysers that work by passing IR radiation though the gas and detect the CO2 content, by the loss in the transmission of the radiation, as the CO2 will absorb it.

My question is whilst at the surface this is fairly trival, when at depth the density would change so that would change the reading, is that correct?

What other technologies are there for detecting CO2? How did they drive that CO2 meter on the movie Apollo 13?!!!

 

[Genesis]

Its non-trivial, but apparently the problem has been solved for rebreathers, and there are at least two outfits with dueling patent applications in right now as well as performing validation on their work (before selling it, thank God!)

In the lab its not that difficult, but in the lab you can control the conditions with great accuracy (pressure, temperature and humidity, to be precise.) While you can pretty much assume humidity in a static volume of gas in a rebreather will be at or very close to 100%, you cannot make assumptions about temperature and pressure, and both matter.

 

[TechBlue]

For me the jury is still out on the CO2 monitoring, it would be a wonderful safety feature to have, but regarding the Apollo missions they had a warm body or two sittting in front of a console monitoring all the information for them. With CO2 monitoring I am concerned that people are going to put too much faith in them and when you get them trying to squeak another dive out of the scrubber because the bar graph on their monitor says it's ok the s**t is going to hit the fan because they will be pushing an envelope that doesn't leave a lot of room and you don't just get a slap on the wrist. The training agencies stopped do the drill to show students what a CO2 hit felt like because (A) they were doing it in a pool and (B) They were paddling along waiting for something to happen. In real life a CO2 hit can sneak up on you with very little warning and if you don't react quickly it's lights out time.

 

[padiscubapro]

For me the jury is still out on the CO2 monitoring, it would be a wonderful safety feature to have, but regarding the Apollo missions they had a warm body or two sittting in front of a console monitoring all the information for them. With CO2 monitoring I am concerned that people are going to put too much faith in them and when you get them trying to squeak another dive out of the scrubber because the bar graph on their monitor says it's ok the s**t is going to hit the fan because they will be pushing an envelope that doesn't leave a lot of room and you don't just get a slap on the wrist. The training agencies stopped do the drill to show students what a CO2 hit felt like because (A) they were doing it in a pool and (B) They were paddling along waiting for something to happen. In real life a CO2 hit can sneak up on you with very little warning and if you don't react quickly it's lights out time.

Chris,
Not true... ANDI requires CO2 "experience" in its CCR classes.. The student may be expecting it, but once its experienced, CO2 issues definately wount be discounted.. Its especially useful for those with stubborn attitudes.. They ALWAYS pass out... No matter how hard you stress the symptoms and when to stop it those stubborn people feel it comming on and think they can handle it.. then its lights out.. Once they see this they will probably never do it again(and you probably saved thier life from a future problem).. I personally have never pushed it to the point where I passed out but all the descriptions from those that have are similiar... some type of visual distortion, then next thing they now I have their heads out of the water..

The student is free to stop the excercise at any point, I try and have my students stop it as soon as they feel disconfort in their chest.

 

[TechBlue]

Joe,

Ok so ANDI still requires it, but are you going to disagree on the point that even though the student may have experienced this in a pool that a CO2 couldn't incapacitate them before they could react and actually be aware of the danger?

Chris

 

[DrySuitDave]

During my training the guy before me did it and it wanked him a tad....but I kept kicking and kicking and kicking without really much happening that was really noticable so I stopped because everyone was waiting around for me to finish.

I wish I would have kept kicking so I could experience in a controlled environment how truly sucky I hear it is...

 

[padiscubapro]

Joe,

Ok so ANDI still requires it, but are you going to disagree on the point that even though the student may have experienced this in a pool that a CO2 couldn't incapacitate them before they could react and actually be aware of the danger?

Chris

I'm thinking you meant could still incapacitate...

a CO2 event can come on quickly and incapacitate anyone. Doing a CO2 experience at least it lets the student feel what its like. Sure they can miss it but unless you have experienced it you have no idea what it feels like (and much more likely to miss the symptoms).. IF they passed out (or saw another student pass out) during the excercise its likely that ANYTHING that feels remotely like what they experienced, they will play it safe.

My personal trigger is a feeling of impending doom (really nasty dark narcosis). I have had it felt it on 2 ocasions, 1 was definately a co2 issue (partially flooded scrubber - but didn't abandon the loop, watched positoning and did regular flushes - aborted dive), the 2nd ocasion was probably a co2 build up that was due to poor ventilation.. I was so pre occupied with a student on a deep dive that my breathing was probaby too shallow, I did a flush (head immediately cleared up), a watched my breathing for the rest of the dive it never came back