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Dave, I was just talking to Kaffl a few minutes ago, and we decided to build him another motor which he can switch to for more speed. There were basicly three different motors out there with the difference being the rpm that they will try to hold . The tradeoff is the burn time. At WKPP , we have to go long distance, so we use what Kaffl has for that, but the guys who do shorter distances want to turn it around faster, so they use the middle motor ( which I am going to send to Kaffl to try). For real short rippers, we have a third motor, but the problems really mount with the heat and the wear and tear on everything, and the thing costs nearly 100o dollars by itself. The fastest motor uses 28 amps of current, too close to the limit for the wires, the relays, and the brushboard, not to mention the temperature of the solder ( even silver). They do not fail in short runs, but if you run one for 90 minutes, it will fail. One did on me at Wakulla, but luckily it did so as I let off the trigger to pick up my first deco bottle - the solder had atomized and redeposited everywhere when the scooter cooled and shorted the whole thing out when I went to move forward. I just thought it was dead so did not try it again. We also made deeper scooters for the French, but had a really bad time with motors - they ended up using the 1300 rpm motors. Bill Mee came up with a way to run the hotter motors, but personally, I do not have any myself anymore. I would rather go 20-40 fpm slower and be sure to get there. The increase in power needed to go faster underwater is astounding, and at our gas management rates, with no concern for deco, slower is better. The trick is to lessen the drag - much easier ( and cheaper) to manage. Several guys on the team have the rally fast scooters, like Pete Wallace, Joe Citelli, Sallot has a ripper, Moon, Ted Cole, Trout, etc. I have one of the slowest, but it holds its speed with multiple stage bottles. I had to build twelve scooters just to make one for one guy on our team and for 2 for Olivier Isler's team ( they were trying to break our record and we wanted them to at least have a chance ), so I am well stocked in these things now, and am only holding three of them for when our new custom-made batteries come in next year for the Turner Sink exploration we will be doing. That dive takes more overall power and burn time due to the horrifying sypon speed ( at that depth, I will spend the money , in Wakulla, what we have is overkill). DVNICHOLAS@ao*.co* wrote: > > Nuno, > I have had a couple of opportunities to ride an Irvine built scooter. > George built it for Joe Kaffl - Northeast Sump Exploration Team. > The most immpressive thing about the scooter is the handling. That thing > turns, stops, starts like a Porche and sits perfectly neutral any time it's > asked to do so! > We do'nt have any large cave in our area, only sumps so we were testing the > scooter in a quarry. I was riding it through the windshield[obviously > containing no glass] of a submerged step van and could stop at any time and > hover without touching anything. With no current it stayed exactly where I > stopped it time after time. Perfect for pictures, mapping or whatever. > The towed aray was extremely comfortable. The accelerator was effortless to > reach. > The scooter can be turned very easily with one hand or nimble beyond belief > when steering with two hands. > Acceleration was good. Top speed was good though not blinding fast. > It towed two divers in full cave gear quite easily and that was after more > than a solid > 1-1/2 hours of continuous use. > Nuno, If you're looking for a scooter someone has put alot of time and > thought into making this unit perform and keeping it simple. > Dave > Nicholas > > Diver/Explorer > > Northeast > Sump Exploration Team -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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