Kent,
I have 37 dives on my unit, and I am having a blast. I did the same thing, read the manual a bunch, along with Bozanic's book and hanging out on the boards. I am confident in use of the unit and keeping it up and working, but I am still in need of periodic revisting the theory parts of mixed gas diving physiology.....I personally think maintenance and operation of the unit is simplistic, as it is so well engineered and stable....In almost 1 year I have never had any cell issues at all, although I have 3 sealed spares on the ready. But I have read enough to know about the complacency issues associated with a stable rig.
One thing I had forgotten since I got oc certified 30 years ago is initially, lack of familiarity causes some clumsiness.....as an example, for the first 20 or so dives, it seemed like a royal pain in the ass to gear up and assistance was helpful getting into the harness...now it is no big deal doing it myself......initially dives were unbalanced and out of trim underwater, which is a pain in the rear......you need a good amount of weight in the top pouch and a stainless backplate helps take weight off your hips, which is too low anyway....
Immediately throw away the Inpiration silicone mouthpiece and get a SeaCure moldable one, version Pro2...they have to be ordered by your LDS, as nobody stocks them, let alone knows of them. The Inspiration mouthpiece has more drag underwater than a small oc second stage, so the flexi silicone rubber bite piece allows too much flexure. I always thought the Cis-Lunar MkVP's mouthpiece was trick in that you could bailout to oc without removing it, so check out Bob Howells OC/DSV for the Inspiration, although it is made striclty for "dry training purposes". it is a very well built and engineered unit. Divematics also makes an OC/DSV for the Inspiration. I have read stories of hypercapnia experiences where they knew they needed to close the mouthpiece and bailout but couldn't bring themselves to do it......a DSV/OC may eliminate that co2 induced issue. Bob's unit is dry as a bone too.
Some things I encountered which caused some concern when new is if you inspire any water into the scrubber from incorrectly fiddling with the mouthpiece underwater, all it takes is a 1/3 of a cup of water to partially block the gas inlet hole into the right side of the scubber. I get this gurgling noise and am thinking if I am flodding the scubber, then you tilt to the left and the gurgling upon inhalation goes away.....look at how gas enters the right side scrubber and you will see why. I haven't done anything stupid yet with my rig, so I fail to see how one can pack the scrubber wrong.....
Don't be cheap, get the unit with the automatic diluent addition valve installed, everyone seems to like using them. I disagree with many who say closed circuit rebreathers require alot of fiddling and maintenance....I have heard some say that I takes them close to an hour to prepare a unit for a day's diving.....try ten minute to repack the scrubber, reassemble the hoses and do a negative and positiv epressure loop check, the latter of which you leave standing positivly pressurized as you're done. When I am done with a trip, I flood the whole unit for a few minutes with running fresh water in the large pelican case I keep the unit in to remove dried salt from the externals.....I then take the scrubber off, put the scubber internal cannister in a large plastic baggy and suck all the air out, I remove the two hoses from the scrubber and the second hoses from the counterlung t's and flood the hoses and counterlungs with fresh water after removing the 02 and diluent inflator buttons....once drained, leave it like that to dry, inspect the scrubber lid to make sure it is dry and clean, Saran wrap the inlet and lid opening so some spider doesn't try rebreather diving in your 02 solenoid. Allow good air movement into your conterlungs to dry them, as bacteria cannot live without moisture.....although I think the bacteria thing is overblown....
Always take your manual and books along with you on trips to bone up on stuff, and get some spares of stuff you are likely to lose.
lLet us know how it goes?
