The kiss is 100% manual, I like it because it’ll be me that kills me, not some electronics And never ever consider turning off the O2 unless you’re not wearing the unit. That has literally killed people. (One lad turned off the O2 on the surface, the boat missed him on the pick up, went round again and he was dead by the time the boat came to pick him up) it’s using 0.8l or so of O2 a minute. I’ve been waiting 4 weeks for cells and it’ll be a while till I see them, they’re all being used in ventilators at the moment. Can’t complain about that. B
I ordered a cell on Saturday from Vandagraph and it was shipped this morning, that's just a R-33DE thought for an analyser.
I'll never understand why people choose to go for the leaky valve. If their attention span is so limited that they can't check their PO2 every now and again, remembering to turn-off the O2 valve after a dive is going to be a real struggle. This killed a guy in Scapa 3 years ago and he'd done 2500 dives on his unit. I had to retrieve his body from the seabed.
The ‘orifice' seems to have its proponents and detractors. I’m not qualified/experienced enough to comment, except to parrot "always know your PPO2". Hoping the Nerd backup will trivialise that task.
Even with the electronics it is down to the diver. I trust the electronics so much I have independent ppo2 monitoring. Cells are in short supply for some time it seems. I had this from AP when I asked to add for more to my current quote The sad thing about the medical use is that they use the sensor for a single patient and then discard it when they clean the equipment.
Nor had I. An O2 sensor in a ventilator is likely to collect virus particles and cannot be cleaned. As they need to be sure they won't transfer infection to the next patient a fresh one for each patient is an obvious action. Pretty wasteful. If they removed them and stored them for a week or so they'd (probably) be safe to use. However, I'm not sure I'd want to use a ventilator recovered sensor in my loop.
“Am very much looking forward to getting it wet. Want to do a simple bubble, weight and trim check prior to the course.“ wait for the course and do it right from the start. Before you get wet I’d expect theory , unit breakdown , explanation, unit prep and checks , some if not all fault identifying and remedies. By a quick dip you’ll bypass a lot of this and start wrong.
But the great thing is you can do 90% of the prep the night before, and while everyone on the boat is faffing and assembling stuff, you can carry it to the bench, have a cuppa, switch on and prebreathe whilst relaxing and watching the water go by, content in the knowledge that your gas mix is perfect for whatever dive the weather leaves you with... until you get the cell error warning and have to bin the dive.
I was very frustrated that the whole south coast was blown out this weekend but I was very much cheered up by being able to get an afternoon booking at Vobster. Lovely couple of practice bimbles and I'm pretty sure the sea will still be there when the wind is behaving.
The sea is still available, if you pick your spot. We did a training dive yesterday from the shore. Not a location you'd drive from afar to dive but the trainees enjoyed their first sea dive.
AP phoned to check a few details as they rebuild my rebreather after it had the 5 year service! It looks like I'll be a proper dive again very soon.
On mixed boats doing mid-range stuff (~45m) I take satisfaction from watching the OC guys hauling their twinsets, and stages, off the boat for refills whilst I fill my crack bottle and head to the pub. With all the prep done at home CCR is so relaxing. In 10 years of CCR diving I've binned only a few dives, mostly due to OC component failures, once due to early 2020 handset, and twice due to a cell failure. That was after AI stopped making cells and before AP stabilised their production so all my cells were being changed under warranty. Thankfully, they are pretty reliable these days and I just cycle them out putting a fresh one in every 3-4 months. . Cell warnings are only warning. Two good cells, with a 4th cell for independent monitoring, is adequate for diving (so long as you don't try to calibrate and fail). With the 4th cell already in the unit, a failed cell isn't dive ending either as the dead cell can be disconnected and the 4th cell promoted to the Vision controller.
Is it a proper plastic one, or did you replace the (yellow) box with a metal frame for the full JJ look?
Serious (CCR noob) question: why 3-4 months for replacement? This means cycling out in 9 to 12 months. Isn't ~18 months the optimum cycle time?
I'd always planned (and budgeted on) one new cell every 4 months and 12 months max in the unit with the " newest" replaced cell become an emergency back up. In real life, none of my cells actually lasted 12 months before failing and being replaced under warranty which screwed up the schedule.
For AP replace 12-18 months. So for 3 cells every 4/6 months pop a new one in. I keep a record of my cells and replace as appropriate and the time in the unit may depend on what Diving I’m doing , or more likely where. The one coming out becomes spare.
