The New Atomic TFX

[rsingler]

Yes, that's correct. Min Venturi leaves just 20% of the opening visible from the mouthpiece, and two boxes are showing. You can't close it further, nor would I want to.
The flow path from this valve is so short and so direct to the mouthpiece, that it's bound to be sensitive. Flows from the valve are huge.
Max manual adjustment of the old D400 gate by the technician was "1-3 clicks", which still left 70% of the flow path open. You'd never close it more. It's very sensitive.
The new Venturi diverts part of the flow around the front of the housing toward the diaphragm to eliminate Venturi assistance of valve opening.
Putting the Venturi on "2 boxes" (min) will eliminate freeflow on giant stride in all but the most hot-tuned regs. And you'll easily feel the difference in flow between Max and Min.

 

[scuba_bubu]

Yes, that's correct. Min Venturi leaves just 20% of the opening visible from the mouthpiece, and two boxes are showing. You can't close it further, nor would I want to.
The flow path from this valve is so short and so direct to the mouthpiece, that it's bound to be sensitive. Flows from the valve are huge.
Max manual adjustment of the old D400 gate by the technician was "1-3 clicks", which still left 70% of the flow path open. You'd never close it more. It's very sensitive.
The new Venturi diverts part of the flow around the front of the housing toward the diaphragm to eliminate Venturi assistance of valve opening.
Putting the Venturi on "2 boxes" (min) will eliminate freeflow on giant stride in all but the most hot-tuned regs. And you'll easily feel the difference in flow between Max and Min.

Thank you for elaborating. I’m just used to a lot more play on the t3 2nd stage so it had me wondering.

 

[stuartv]

I spoke to the Atomic regional director earlier today, he told me that the TFX is one of their most popular regulators they have ever made. They can't keep it in stock, their entire production run is sold before it arrives in their warehouse.

One TFX production run is probably more than what some other companies sell of one particular model of their regulators in a year.

I can totally believe that first part.

I'm not convinced on the second part, though. If we were talking about ScubaPro, then yeah. But, Atomic just doesn't seem to be all that popular. I am dubious that their production runs are really all that big. Especially for a reg that costs USD$2650. It seems more likely to me that their production runs of the TFX are not all that big - and that is why they are all sold out.

It's hard to imagine the sales and marketing execs at Atomic sitting around and saying "at $2650, we're going to sell shiploads of these. We should make them in very large batches to meet demand."

 

[rsingler]

First pass at disassembly, in preparation for Regulator Geeks 4. Took about 15 min, going slowly. With one familiar exception, was easy peasy.

Those silicone exhausts are held by shallow-thread screws into heavy plastic. Do not overtorque on reassembly. That said, I'll bet you could slightly oversize with a follow-on screw if you stripped the threads. That'll be the first thing you guys complain about. But the exhaust wings are really nicely made!

The poppet assembly is logical and the reversible seat is very nice! Double the service life with a quick flip. Very cool.

As expected, the titanium knife edge is exquisite. Buy a plastic crochet hook to extract.

The lever looks like the zirconium plating on the Z3 barrel, but I could be wrong.

Initial mechanical advantage of the lever is over 15:1 !! That drops a bit as the cam kicks in.
Poppet opening augmentation from the cam is 3.22mm/2.59mm, or an extra 24%! Poppet lift is maybe as much as 1.7mm !! With a giant 6.5mm orifice, that's huge potential flow, and over a very short flow path to the mouthpiece compared with a barrel reg.

After I measure o-rings, we'll see how hard it is to put together and tune without a manual. I'm trying to not break anything until I can get parts.
And that brings me to the Venturi housing with its spindly legs. I bought a dozen of them for the D400 from Germany in years past, bc folks like to break them. They're no stronger here, and a bit of a pucker to remove (btm left corner of first pic).

Reg Geeks 4 in maybe two weeks!

 

[stuartv]

First pass at disassembly, in preparation for Regulator Geeks 4. Took about 15 min, going slowly. With one familiar exception, was easy peasy.

View attachment 801891
Those silicone exhausts are held by shallow thread screws into heavy plastic. Do not overtorque on reassembly. That said, I'll bet you could slightly oversize with a follow-on screw if you stripped the threads. That'll be the first thing you guys complain about. But the exhaust wings are really nicely made!

It looks like if you did completely strip the holes for the screws that hold the exhaust wings, you'd have to replace the whole plastic(?) reg housing. Is that correct (barring McGyvering it)?

 

[rsingler]

It looks like if you did completely strip the holes for the screws that hold the exhaust wings, you'd have to replace the whole plastic(?) reg housing. Is that correct (barring McGyvering it)?

Correct

 

[Geo7]

Good points on the exhaust screws, but that should be easy to handle for anyone with anywhere near the skill level of servicing this reg. The lever screw not sticking (but it doesn't corrode), and handling the removable orifice with care (just like a piston) are my concerns when I eventually have that 2nd stage.

 

[lexvil]

Nice Rob!

does the diaphragm retainer screw in or is that the function of the snap ring part that looks like it fits into the front of the body (upper left in pic 1, snap ring between the exhaust wings) ?

 

[rsingler]

No tools for that, Lex! You can get the faceplate, retainer and diaphragm off with just your fingers.

 

[lexvil]

No tools for that, Lex! You can get the faceplate, retainer and diaphragm off with just your fingers.

I was wondering about the design, that clip seems to fit in the rectangle slots, is this how the purge cover is attached?