Umbilical torches and YBODs.

[Padowan]

I really like that setup . I'd been thinking about the best way/place to potentially mount a small redundant O2 bottle. Best alternative I'de come up with sofar was some sort of butt mounting.

Ammers, do you find that your profile is a bit high or top heavy with things 2 tanks deep on both sides?

[beanie]

i'm going to try (whether it stays / works is an other matter) mounting a 1.5 on the other side from my suit bottle
not sure how wide it will make my unit
although I tend to go for low holes rather then narrow gaps
we shall see..

[PrettyFishies]

Pad - lots of people say that jan boxes/frames change trim. This is true but if you spend time and effort rigging and re-rigging you can get it perfect. My profile is fine and I can get completely horizontal, it takes a bit of "stick with it" mentality but it's great if you do.

The jan box means that the weight on my back now moves in two planes instead of one plane with the yellow shell. This CAN actually cause lateral stress on the spine but in my case it's better not to have the weight on the lumbar spine. On long decos I get mechanical back pain with the rebreather yellow shell and ordinary stages as the weight is all on the lower half of my body (I am small) and I end up in a banana shape trying to stay horizontal. The jan box is a revolution for me on long decompressions as I don't get back pain now.

Also it is fantastic for getting kitted up rapidly on a rocking boat. I have extra dil and O2 buttons and the extra bottles are all plugged in meaning that I can utilise multiple gas switches at will. The VR3 has a profiling tool so I can pre-configure all the gases and reflect gas switching in real time deco calcs.

This is to all intents and purposes a more alpine rig than what I have been diving with in the main, for the last few years and the only thing I now cannot mitigate against is a loop flood. I'd say stick with your box and stages until you get confident with the drills etc.

I have dived the unit to around 100m in the red sea without bailout and around 70m in the UK without bailout - this was really the way the unit was designed to be used but in the event of CO2 and other physiological symptoms it's useful to have something to breathe offboard unless you can really keep your head together in the face of being well outside your comfort zone.

With CO2 I have experimented by using crap types of lime at home and in the shallows so I can feel what it feels like and over time I have got more comfortable with flushing and semi-closed management of this problem rather than the early instincts of bailing out. I would still advocate bailing out though especially in a heavy work load as flushing is then not sufficient! I think it is extremely useful to understand what it feels like to be hit by CO2 and understand the difference between being breathless from working hard and breathless from CO2. Extremely useful. This MUST be done under controlled conditions.

I am comfortable with accepting a degree of ambiguity in alpine diving so if you go down this road eventually of jan box and reducing bailout gases you basically accept that it's probably lights out if you get a random cluster fuck problem. I would not carry massive bottles on the jan box - this is re-inventing the wheel of carrying stages.

Also consideration needs to be given to the gases and depths that you can switch and breathe them OC (bearing in mind that the gases are extremely limited at depth in the small bottles). It's a bit more complex than diving with stages. Yeah, I'd say stick with the box for a bit until you recognise it's failure modes.

I think someone took some pics of my lights so if they're knocking around I'll get them sent across too.

[Brass Monkey]

Anne Marie, I like the look of that rig. The idea of mounting a small O2 tank as well as the canister never occurred to me. I have a 3L bail out on the dil side now with a small weight on the O2 side until I get around to mounting a canister. Now it looks like I'll be thinking about the O2 as well (providing I can reach the knobs).
Is there any chance of some picture of your light heads on the Goodman. Very interested now it's come down to the Halcyon or Green Force. I can's seem to find the F4 on the Green Force site?

Dave.

[PrettyFishies]

Brass Monkey, I've tried Halycon AND green force. Green force is much more modular and interchangeable. I've had loads of problems with custom divers lights, but to be fair their customer service was good.


The attached pic is the double light heads on a handle, this is all Green Force equipment. The handle comes with one bolt countersunk but you can just drill the handle twice to add the two lamps, you don't need to countersink so it's a simple drill through. I used dome headed bolts to hold the clamps

[Brass Monkey]

Thanks Ann Marie, those heads look to be quite a size though. Where did you buy the sytem from. I've looked at the Green force site and cant find the F4?

Dave.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Brass Monkey

I've looked at the Green force site and cant find the F4?

Dave.

Try the Lumb Bros web site
http://www.lumb-bros-das.co.uk/acata...e_Torches.html

These guys are the UK agents, they do not sell direct but through the usual retail outlets. I believe they are at the dive show, and will point you to a retailer who may be able to do a deal.

Northern Monkey, an other F4 user.

PS GreenForce will put connector on any heated undersuit system for use with the F4 battery pack.

[Brass Monkey]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

Try the Lumb Bros web site
http://www.lumb-bros-das.co.uk/acata...e_Torches.html

These guys are the UK agents, they do not sell direct but through the usual retail outlets. I believe they are at the dive show, and will point you to a retailer who may be able to do a deal.

Northern Monkey, an other F4 user.

PS GreenForce will put connector on any heated undersuit system for use with the F4 battery pack.

Checking out the prices on the Lump bros site, the set up Anne Marie is using came to around 1300 quid. Say this isnt so!

Dave.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Brass Monkey

Checking out the prices on the Lump bros site, the set up Anne Marie is using came to around 1300 quid. Say this isnt so!

Much better value than a VR3 and 4th cell.

You can see that elusive side passage in a cave or spot the smaller items such as a pocket watch on a wreck. Grrrreat tool.

You dont have to buy two heads to start with, try the FII with an impact head. (The F4 is ideal for videoing or cave diving, 13Ahs)

Rumour has it Greenforce are working on a 360 watt HID lamp and also a fish eye lens to spread light instead of the large Video Reflectors. AM has her name down already.

CliveRTD I think has the same set up as AM.

[Brass Monkey]

I'm not that smart when it comes to Ahs, how much actual burn time do you get with both heads running? The only way I can see to make the cheeper would be to buy one head at a time but then again there may be some kind of discount for buying the whole lot in a oner.

Dave.