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I gave a posting last Easter on my first impressions on the AP Valves
'Inspiration' rebreather. I have no connection with AP Valves but thought
that other divers might like to hear about what I saw. Since then there have
been some developments that rebreather-interested divers on the net may also
like to hear of.
A good 4-page report & pictures of the rebreather unit has appeared in this
months 'Diver' magazine (published in the UK), which included field testing by
'Diver's' John Bantin, carried out in the Canary Isles.
I sent a copy of my first report & some pictures to Eric's Lundquist's
rebreather web page on
http://diver.ocean.washington.edu/rebreather.html
but he hasn't gotten around to putting them up over the summer. If you can't
get a copy of 'Diver' & still want to see a picture then hassle Eric
(ericl@oc*.wa*.ed*), not me.
So...what has changed since the spring ?
The two units on display at the Birmingham Dive Show over the weekend
have had the protective covers over the back substantially enlarged &
strengthened. The cover now completely covers the scrubber & the ends of the
two cylinders and extends down to cover the 1st stages fitted to both the
cylinders.
The over-the-shoulder split counterlung has been shortened so that it
doesn't extend so far down the front of the chest area. This was done to
improve still further the quite low inhalation resistance when the diver was
completely inverted.
The oxygen over-ride feed button has been moved well away from the
manual diluent feed & is now located on the left-hand inhalation counterlung.
The diluent feed button remains on the right-hand exhalation counterlung.
A loud audible warning has now been fitted to sound when the ppO2 falls
below 0.3 or above 1.6.
The ppO2 set point is no longer restricted to just 0.70 and 1.5, but can
be set to any sensible value at any point during the dive. Changing the set
point however would of course have to be done in conjunction with pre-planned
rebreather deco tables incorporating the change.
It is still undecided whether the electronic display unit will be gel
encapsulated or not. At present the unit is held at the ambient water pressure
& so there is no pressure to cause a leak. However, if a leak did occur then
although it would be serious underwater it might be repairable on the surface.
Sealing the unit would reduce the chance of leakage but would also eliminate
any
possibility of subsequent repair or alteration to the unit if required. My
vote
would be to have it all encapsulated & hang the expense of throwing it all
away
if it was ever needed.
The rebreather is fitted with a 'AP Valves/Buddy Spare-Air' octopus 2nd
stage onto the diluent 1st stage, to enable open circuit bailout in the
unlikely
event of a failure in the breathing loop (or presumably for the use of an
out-of-air open circuit diver).
It is also fitted with an Oceanic octopus 2nd stage fitted onto the
oxygen 1st stage. This is tucked out of the way, well hidden in the BC pocket.
The logic behind this is that a rebreather diver planning a no-deco dive using
a
ppO2 of say 1.5 might suddenly find himself placed into deco neccesitated by an
open circuit bailout onto air. He could use the diluent to get up to 6m & then
could transfer onto 100% O2 to carry out the deco. I have only a limited
personal experience of rebeather use myself so far, but I imagine that the 3
litre diluent & O2 cylinders are only going to get you out of a small amount of
trouble when used in open circuit mode. For more serious diving depths & times
an additional side-mounted bailout cylinder (or two) are going to be essential.
The good thing about all these changes is that the price hasn't gone up (unlike
some others..!). We were told that for 2000 pounds (approx $3000), what we saw
was what we were going to get. The setup shown included a 'Buddy Commando'
style BC with back plate & harness, two 3 litre cylinders with DIN cross-flow
valves, two 1st stages that looked like Poseidon Jetstreams, both the
'Auto-Air'
and Oceanic octopus rigs & of course the rebreather loop components &
electronics. This looks to me like a very good deal for the money.
Courses for the Inspiration are all to be run initially under IANTD guidelines
&
will be held in Poole, Dorset. These will begin this November & will be run by
Dave Thompson at Phoenix. Sale of the rebreathers themselves will begin early
(Jan or Feb ?) in 1997 and a priority will be given to those who first attended
the training courses.
If anyone needs more info then contact Phoenix, not me.
Email = 100044.3401@co*.co*
Web page = http://www.wdi.co.uk/phoenix
Regards, Steve M.
**************************************************************************
* * *
* Dr. S. G. Millard, * E-Mail : ec96@li*.ac*.uk* *
* Senior Lecturer, * *
* Department of Civil Engineering * Tel : 0151 794 5224 (UK) *
* University of Liverpool, * 44 151 794 5224 *
* PO Box 147, * (International) *
* Liverpool L69 3BX, * *
* UK. * Fax : 0151 794 5218 (UK) *
* * 44 151 794 5218 *
* * (International) *
* * *
**************************************************************************
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