[Culdagor!]

Como alguem que em breve se irá meter nisto do rebreathers, ouvi falar do Hammerhead que susbtitui o controlador de fabrica do Inspiration. Queria saber se se pode comprar já com o hammerhead, se tem sempre de ser á parte e se de facto vale a pena em relação ao controlador de fabrica.

[tramorwr]

Mr.C.

A little late but maybe the following might help you:

The Hammerhead is made by Kevin Juergensen of Juergensen Marine to work on, but not exlusively for, the Inspiration. The first units started to appear about three years ago with varying degrees of sucess. There were changes made to the software and on some occasions European users suffered from slow turn around times compounded by the cost of delivery and over zealous customes officers.

Kevin's forward thinking however was not ignored by the guys at Ambient Pressure Diving, arguably the largest producers of closed circuit rebreathers. They have developed and will probably shortly release their version of a wrist mounted set point controller and dive computer with HUD support. APD are fairly aggressive against their competitors and Inspiration users have been warned that non works retro fitting will null the factory warranty.

The best place to read about the Hammerhead is on their website:

http://www.electricf...hammerhead.html

Not to be out done by the eventual loss of business to APD's own version Juergensen Marine is working with Dive Rite to produce a new rebreather. You can see the details on:

http://www.therebrea...verite_ccr.html

The hammerhead electronics can also be found on the Mk15 and, if my sources are correct, on the KISS too (though I have never seen one). The MK15 was used on a rescent cave depth record (270m) and that had been upgraded to include parafin filled hammerhead handsets including decompression software and set point controller. You can see more about it on:

http://www.deepcave....ges/1/index.htm

Planeta Sub reported on the record attempt last month and included a translation of the transcript for the site I believe. See:

http://www.planeta-sub.com/

The Hammerhead is not a standard fitting on an Inspiration nor on the soon to be released Evolution. With the dolar currently trading at 1.322 against the Euro the hammerhaed is a cheaper option than the APD model put your back up will come from across the pond with the customes man standing in the way. Juergensen Marine is not a big set up and so if his time is being spent on the new Dive Right you can expect delays.

Finally, you might hear alot about set point tracking. This is the measure of how good the electronics are at maintaining a constant PO2. With US brovado runnig high at the moment you will hear alot of "mine is better than yours" however be careful at what you read as there is no bench mark. The US Navy test rebreathers but rarley releases their test results let alone their methodology. Ambient Pressure Diving, being British (Cornish to be exact) use the test centre at Plymouth, the home of the Royal Navy. Set point tracking only really becomes paramount when you are really pusihing the limits, when you compare an even moderate set point controller against OC decompression then there really isn't a worthwile comparison.

If you want to see the new electorincs from APD see:

http://www.ambientpr...g.co.uk/evo.htm

Take care and take your time in chosing.

F

[BubbleMaker]

comentários?!


"BUDDY INSPIRATION OR EXPIRATION?
BY GEORGE IRVINE - Director WKPP

Since those who do not know want to make an issue of me not being willing to waste my time talking about why elephants can't fly, I will waste all of your time with this one to get at those who keep recommending the Buddy Inspiration, and who apparently have an agenda with this thing and other shade tree rebreathers out there.

Besides all the failure modes common to all rebreathers, like if the mushrooms in the mouthpiece malfunction and take the diver hypercapnic or hypoxic right away, or a loop hose failure, etc, the Desperation has its own plethora of problems idiosyncratic to the unit. Other units have many of the same issues, and almost all of the civilian rebreathers are poor excuses for anything other than assisted suicide devices. In fact, most are merely

copies of each other’s bad ideas, and most are poorly funded, poorly capitalized, poorly tested and otherwise poorly conceived wet dreams. The Halcyon is a clever device, made more clever by Reinhard Buchaly, but is still a dangerous piece of `kit`, whereas the Buddy is a dangerous piece of `shit`.

I will talk about the Inspiration Rebreather as it comes from the factory. There are many ways to modify the rebreather as one may observe on the Star Wars Bar Scene lists like `rebreather@nwdesigns.com` and is a complete topic onto itself. I will stick to the basics here and leave the `fix it at home` mods to the die hards on the other lists.

There is a small metal screw inside the oxygen sensor compartment, it is located directly across from sensor number two. Condensation often forms on this metal screw and will allow droplets to fall onto the oxygen sensors. This will happen particularly if the diver moves from side to side as in dumping gas from a drysuit or if they invert from horizontal for any reason.

Condensation is inherently found within this area and will form on the oxygen sensors even without this metal catalyst. The O2 sensors are located on the inhalation side of the breathing loop, so you have warm gas that just went through the scrubbing process meeting with cooler gas that you will inhale thus the condensation forming on the cell faces. This condensation causes discrepancies/inaccuracies within the cell readings and they begin to VOTE trying to figure out which one is more than .2 bar out of line with

the other. Cell warnings will manifest within this period of time and the diver will begin to get audible and visual alarms ...task loading increases.

The unit alarms if it senses a PO2 over 1.6, which is a good thing. Problem with this is that many of the divers will run 100% oxygen at 20 ft, which is a PO2 of 1.6, if they drop below the 20 ft they get an alarm, fair enough. If you have several Inspiration divers in close proximity with cell warning alarms, and high PO2 alarms it becomes very difficult to know if the alarm is coming from your unit or from another diver. Some will be able to

assimilate this to being in an area where several cellular phones begin to ring and everyone pulls out their phone to see if it was theirs. Mix this with CCR divers using wrist computers that alarm and you really have an orchestra playing down there, so much for the peace and tranquility of `no bubbles`.

Weight must be placed on the top of the rebreather in order to balance the trim. If divers put to much gas in the counter lungs the upper body is lifted and trim is then off center. Gas in a counter lung is just another source to administrate, along with drysuit, BCD, PO2 on handsets, pressure in O2 and DIL cylinders.

Many divers use the Inspiration to extend their times in open ocean, this in itself may pose problems. If the decompression gained by the increased bottom times is met with undesirable conditions such as rough seas it is not so easy to adjust buoyancy as with breathing open circuit. Many of the buoyancy characteristics involved with rebreathers require a longer learning curve and must be anticipated, if the diver is not up to par they are much less forgiving than OC. If the constant PO2 is increased or decreased too quickly due to unforeseen circumstances the diver could quickly become hypoxic/hyperoxic.

Mouthpiece does not have OC bailout built into it, bailout is a time of increased stress so it is pertinent the transition should be smooth without chance for a mistake. The bailout procedure on the factory unit uses a device called an Auto Air, this duals as a breathing device and BCD inflator. I couldn't imagine this being an effective tool for gas sharing,

nor proper bail out for the user either, as the CCR mouthpiece has to be effectively closed before the transition to OC bailout is performed or it will flood the breathing loop making the diver negatively buoyant. Bail out should be in the form of a combination unit on the mouthpiece to facilitate safe transition.

If the O-ring on top of the cartridge lid is dirty or not aligned properly CO2 will take the path of least resistance and bypass the carbon dioxide scrubber therefore breathed back into the loop. Hypercapnia begins and the diver is faced with another problem to solve.

As the diver descends they must equalize the counter lungs, if this procedure is not adhered to and they begin an uncontrolled descent the lungs collapse and the diver is not able to breath, an automatic diluent add is an aftermarket product which does combat this. But since we are talking factory here the diver is faced with equalizing counter lungs, ears, sinuses, mask drysuit, BCD, monitoring PO2 on handsets, buddy position, light and depth in the water column. It has been mentioned before that this is `a busy time`.

Inspiration does not have SS backplate and utilizes many plastic fastex clips, which some view as failure points. There are seven quick releases on the soft harness including the crotch strap and handset clips. The clips that hold the yellow casing lid on the unit break frequently so spares are required as well.

Often difficult to transport with Sofnolime, if you do not have an MSDS on your person you will be declined, even if you do have the Material Safety Data Sheet on hand and the handler does not feel comfortable with the issue they will not let the scrubber material on the plane. Most Inspiration divers seek out `Inspiration friendly dive Centers` so they are able to obtain the wide array of parts required to service and maintain.

The oxygen sensors are proprietary to the Inspiration, which limits the diversity on this product. Many of the CCR's will allow various types of sensors to be used but not so the case with Inspiration's and it is strongly voiced by Martin Parker. Patrick Duffy with Oxycheq in the US sells similar sensors and says there is absolutely no difference between the Teledyne's he sells and the Inspiration sensors.

Scrubber canister is small (2.45 Kg of 8-12 mesh, 797 diving grade sofnolime) and does not facilitate the use many of the mixed gas Inspiration divers put it through. At depth CO2 breakthrough is rapid even with a resting diver, if breathing resistance is elevated the scrubber is near void. With increased CO2 build up the diver is of course exposing

oneself to further malady. Diving high helium concentrations assist with this problem as it is less dense than air, easier to breath therefore less CO2 buildup and the scrubber should last longer but it is playing on the edge. High PPN2 should be ultimately avoided.

If counter lungs are not situated adequately they will float above the divers shoulders and increase breathing resistance. It is taught in the basic course to watch for this ... But they are clipped down with fastex buckles which as we know do fail on occasion. With the diver already quite task loaded on the CCR it is easy not to notice the lung has crept up, CO2 will then increase from breathing resistance.

The LP hoses which feed the diluent and the oxygen inlets on the counter lungs use a different end than the BCD inflator. The BCD is inflated with Diluent gas, the same which you are adding into the counter lung, there is no sound reason not to have the same end on this for diversity. The reason the end is different on the BCD inflator is to supply a greater amount of gas to the Auto Air regulator used as a bailout/inflation device. This

Auto Air is prone to free flow situations and can dump the diluent gas if not tended to quick enough. Most Inspirations divers discard this Auto Air early into their CCR career.

If both handsets shut off in the water the diver is faced with a series of questions in order to `reboot` the system. One of the questions ask if you would like to calibrate `yes or no` if the diver is stressed and chooses `yes` they will effectively be adding 100% oxygen into the breathing loop no matter what depth they are at in the water column.

If the battery is low it will not supply enough EMF for the oxygen solenoid to open the valve and add life sustaining gas.

The control handsets are secured to the canister via rubber hose, the wiring is run through this conduit down to the electronic handsets that are monitoring the dynamics of the oxygen sensors. These rubber conduits enter into the scrubber/O2 sensor compartment where it is humid and if not perfectly sealed will allow condensation to migrate into the hose and wreak havoc with the electronics in the handsets. Many electronic problems with the handsets have involved this scenario.

See Mike Pizzios complaints on techdiver, see the archives of techdiver for info on the Desperation, see the UK coroner for what the bottom line on this thing is. My take? `needs to be sold with a shovel`. "

[tramorwr]

Oh boy George Irvine.

Worshipped by some, hated by others but generally thought as a big mouth prick by those that read his drivel.

This is a guy that wrote a public letter after the death of an Inspiration diver that blamed his death on the dead diver's parents as they were stupid enough to give birth to him in the first place.......

George Irvine has elevated himself to god like status but nearly killed himself after back rollling into the water with all his tanks turned off.

Just a few bullet points:

- The Halcyon, a blatant copy of a french design, is a semi closed rebreather (gas extender) and is not closed circuit, they are not the same beasts. The original french design is called the Joker and is made by a guy called Fredrick Badier, he never made any attempt to commercialise his design but simply made them for himself and friends. Fredrick Badier & Ludovic Giordand currently hold the cave diving depth record in Portugal at 125m. Reinhard Buchaly, after meeting with Fred, copied the idea and DIR adopted the design. DIR had the balls to say it was their deisgn and no other rebreather will do. (the original DIR rebreather called the Big Hall has lost favour). Unlike the Joker, the Halcyon rebreather has been commercialised and no doubt they are making a buck or two off the industrial espionage.

- No one ever pretended that the Inspiration is perfect and infact the community uses the DIR name for the Inspiration: the YBOD or Yellow Box of Death.

- The Inspiration, despite being so crap, is selling very well in the states and thankfully whilst numbers of users are on the increase, accident rates are dropping (thank goodness).

- There are draw backs to the Inspiration electronics, that's why the new Vision electronics on the Inpsiration/Evolution will be launched shortly. R&D has no need to stop.

-AP Diving uses Teldine cells (US made) the molex fitting is not unique and Oxycheck make a cell that is compatible.

-The scrubber life is for 3 hours, I can do a bottom time of 30' at 90m and get out of the water before the three hours are up, easy. The Halcyon is a semi closed unit and so is partially dumping stale air on each breathing cycle and the scrubber has never been officailly tested for duration. The Inpsiration scrubber has; at 6ºc water temp with a flow rate of 16 litres of CO2 a minute the scrubber shows initial signs of CO2 break through after 3 hours. The rule is 3 hours no matter what and remember if you can produce 16ltrs of CO2 per minute then you are burning approx 20 litre of O2 a minute, my burn rate is approx 1 lite per minute.

- I used the Autoair for nearly five years and it never free flowed on me once.

- The Inspiration is CE marked for depths to 100m on trimix with an END that must not exceed 26m. The CE rating relates to breathing resistance, as do all OC regulators. The Halcyon can not be legally sold in Europe as it does not posses the cert. because DIR does not dare the risk of it failing.

Enough said, George Irvine can say what he wants and can call himself god (he isn't alone, most countries/diving circles have one) but when he insults the dead I only hope his exit is not painless.

F