Current Generation of the CCR Dolphin

 

 

Well, I think that I have finished working on this unit.  I now have it just the way I want.  I am writing this from a hotel in LaPaz, Mexico with one day to go before I fly back home.  I put 21 hours on my CCR Dolphin last week, in the mid 80’s water temp of the Sea of Cortez, diving with Baja Expeditions on the 88 foot Don Jose.  The unit preformed flawlessly, my deepest dive was to 184 fsw and my longest dive was 2 hours and 7 minutes.  I was getting about 1.5 hours of bottom time per 1000psi of oxygen and the same duration on my diluent.  The supply cylinders were 13 cf Luxfer aluminum, so my usage was about 80 liters per hour of use or 1.34 LPM.  I replaced my scrubber after every 6 hours of diving, using 2.2 kg per fill.  So the results of all this is that I can remain underwater over 4 hours between cylinder fills.  I would say that is pretty efficient diving. 

My friend Alan Studley was on the boat also diving his KISS RB, he brought his KISS NanoBooster and we had  large supply cylinders of Helium and Oxygen as well for fills.  We were using trimix diluent for every dive, even the shallow reef stuff and I have to say that Helium is a great gas to dive in a CCR.  Usually after a week of diving I am wiped out, not so here, with so little nitrogen load, I felt great at the end of every day.  Every evening we serviced the units, rinsed the loops out, changed scrubber, and blended and boosted gas preparing for the next day.  The NanoBooster is a dream come true for rebreather divers, the travel weight is under 10 pounds with whips and a digital gauge and it preformed perfectly.

 

So here below are some pics of the unit as it currently stands.  I have removed the large cylinder supply pressure gauges and installed small pony gauges on the regs, check them once before a dive and again before the next one, no reason to look during the dive as any supply failure will be heard or seen as bubbles and as a dropping PP02 (oxygen injection failure), whereby you bail (see bailout procedures) and end the dive.

This has reduced the clutter of the unit quite a bit.  I am now using a wrist mount compass, so the console I used before is gone, the Explorer computer is on my left wrist, the KISS valve is strapped to the waist band of my harness coming out from the shell on my right and the Oxygauge comes over my shoulder along with the inflator/Air 2 on my left shoulder.

 

I have replaced all hoses with new scuba rubber hoses, losing the SS braided stuff I originally got from Gordon with my KISS valve, the SS hoses were very stiff and didn’t flex or twist well, being that the pressure is only 150 psi I felt comfortable replacing them.  I purchased crimp clamps and the crimping tool to be able to make my own hoses, adaptor barbs-Swagelok connectors to connect to the KISS valve and the adaptors to convert standard scuba 2nd stage hoses to the drager dosage device (acquired from www.tecme.de).  This really cleaned up the plumbing on the unit.

 

I have also remounted my cylinders with some G-snaps, sliding, locking mounts that I got from Patrick at www.oxycheq.com.  These made the removal and remounting of my cylinders really easy.

 

  So here is what the new hoses look like on the KISS valve, I put a new filter on it as the old one was difficult to blow through, and probably getting clogged.  I also removed the ball valve because I am having no trouble reaching the tank valve with the unit on my back, I never had any trouble with it, just decided I didn’t want it any more.  This new setup is very flexible and with it positioned on my waist band its easy to reach, I usually dive with my hands folded at my waist anyway.

 

 

  Going back to a regular orifice inlet on the dosage device, I removed the jeweled orifices with a small flat blade screwdriver leaving only two small holes, the adaptors I got from techme (actually I got them from my buddy Jeff in Florida, he got them from techme) threaded on to the orifice block.

 

  Here is the dosage device with the two new hoses hooked to it, left side is 02 and right side is diluent, hooked to the normal demand side with another techme adaptor.

 

  So as you can see here, the plumbing is very simple, from the oxygen reg (non-compensated, of course) on the left, one hose goes out to the filter and KISS valve, then back to the dosage device, the diluent reg has two hoses, one going directly to the dosage device and another heading up to be hooked to the my BC.  You can just see the pony gauge on the 02 reg pointing up and to the right.  This is ALL of the plumbing, and by capping the two regs and the dosage device I can dunk the whole mess in fresh water for a rinsing, before it was like wrestling an octopus.

 

  Here is the new G-snap brackets for the cylinders, they are set up for SS hose clamps on both sides but I drilled them out for the shell side and mounted with SS bolts, washers and nyloks.  Now just a spring loaded clip at the top and the tank slides straight up and off.

 

  Here you can see just how neat and tidy this thing is, I am kneeling in a cavern at San Diego Reef, notice the Oxygauge next to my inflator and the HS Explorer on my wrist.   I can strap this on and be off the boat in 4 minutes.  The light I am using is a Green Force 10 watt HID. Photo by Alan Studley.