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Rich, As to safety and Responsibility of the manufacturer regarding reliability and safe use of its units in the field, RBC does not stand ALONE. I have been so caught up in specific item based arguements so far, it has been hard to cover general information. Please add to this list the Cis-Lunar-- because of its far more responsible appoach to redundancy and electronic reliability , as well as taking the proper view about limiting "who" should use a rebreather, and what training they MUST have..... ....and also a rebreather company called Grand Bleu---they have made a system for use by far less skilled divers (people more like advanced recreational divers), and made it safe by not putting it out till it was ready, and then limiting its use to recreactional depths with conservative total bottom time built in....Its users can not mix their own gas---the tanks are like a modular pack that is removed and replaced with new tanks filled with the factory specified mix. Because it is depth limitied, PO2 dangers have been largely removed, and its general training plan will allow the recreational market to experiece the silent world of the rebreather for somewhere around $3000, in considerable safety compared to most rebreathers on the market.. I would go so far as to say that the CIS Lunar is the only electronically based unit which is built with adequate safety features to be used "safely" in the technical diving field today. The entire concept of electronics in a rebreather demands the approach they have taken in redundancy and reliability, and this requires a price tag at least as high as the $15,000 fee you quoted as the expected retail on the unit when it becomes available. From what I have seen, there is very little similarity between the Cis Lunar and the other closed circuit systems which showed up at Tek and DEMA, regarding how they handle PO2's or any failure in the unit, and I would expect a far more rigorous training program out of Cis-Lunar than any of the other brands just referred to. Because there is so much activity by these "other" closed circuit rebreather companies right now, and because of the basic flaws to their "failsafe systems", I have been generically talking about closed circuit vs semi-closed. This was more because of the difficulty in explaining the theoretical differences, which were complicated enough without adding in the new twist (i.e., simplifying with anologies like the mechanical BC vs a conceptual electronic BC)....now we have the new twist----yes, there IS a way to make an electronic system safe....but the closed circuit units I have been discussing so far have not utilized these technologies in the manner Cis Lunar has. Perhaps, in the next go round here on tech diver, you and I should post the differences between how Cis Lunar has handled Closed circuit electronics and redundancies, and how each of the other closed circuit manufacturers have---and in so doing show the real picture in diver safety with each system....and who should be treated as a responsible rebreather manufacturer, and who should be treated as just catering to techno-weenies without thought as to consequences. So right now I see three specific markets. Cis Lunar and RBC Odyssey should each get a piece of deep tech and commercial (high end $$$ and mid priced). And the third market should go to Grand Bleu for the lower end recreational market $3000 approx). What do you think? Dan Dan Volker SOUTH FLORIDA DIVE JOURNAL "The Internet magazine for Underwater Photography and mpeg Video" http://www.florida.net/scuba/dive 407-683-3592
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