CO2 sensor

[Dave Crampton]

I spotted this today:

Gas Sensing Solutions

Its a CO2 sensor and might be suited for CCR applications.

Dave C

[Pasty Man Stan]

Firstly, I know nothing about rebreathers. But they do fascinate me.

If you were to fit one of these, would you get the sensor potted onto a lead and then run it to the board that was in "well sealed" bit of the unit?

The display looks like it would be dead easy to mount in a casing, and small as well.

[iwantone]

From a previous thread I started on this subject, it seems that many rb divers don't think they are any use. I still maintain that CO2 monitoring is a essential device missing from most rb's.

Taking cover

[SoggyFox]

I spotted this today:

Gas Sensing Solutions

Its a CO2 sensor and might be suited for CCR applications.

depends how it functions in high humidity. I think thats the major problem for any CO2 unit. We'd all love them on RB's but my main concern is what will it tell me that i dont't already know, i have my loop already plugged into a CO2 sensor.....me!

if your breathing like a train and the sensor isn't going off....does it work?

if your breathing normally and the sensor goes off.....is it working?

if your breathing like a train and it goes off......whats it telling me?

If i'm stupid enough to push a scrubber way beyond its tested durations and solely rely on a sensor to alert me to the fact the scrubber has died then i'm a fcuking idiot and shouldn't be diving an RB.

we'll find out how well they work and exactly how to use them over the next few years. Oddly its one of the interesting sides to the Apocalypse, if it ever ends up getting built and they get it working right. I guess it'll be an addtion to the armoury but i'm waiting for while.

[BJ]

My experience of CO2 poisoning was that I was so confused I didn't realise that I was breathing like a train. I was still onboard the boat but managed to throw myself into the water. I can understand why people have heart attacks on CCR and blame CO2 poisoning. I only just made it back to the surface and was out of it for the rest of the day. You need a CO2 sensor to warn you at very low percentages or it will be too late.

[pieater]

Issues would seem to be:

Environment
- most systems don't like humidity
- most systems have issues with helium
- I understand that some systems need to be run in artificially high temperature environments (50 degrees C seems to be popular)

Speed of response
- is it quick enough to be of use?
- will that still be the case for spotting a breakthrough in order to do something about it before you get the hit?

We are starting to see CO2 sensors on some units (sentinel and *cough* Apoc) personally I don't fancy being anybody's crash test dummy. How many new technologies have been successfully rolled out without early revisions? Not many.

[MartyC]

Did anybody else notice at the Dive Show that those clever Narked@90 people are working with Amphilogic (Ithink) to develope a CO2 sensor for the mass rebreather market, John was enthusiastic but keeping his cards close to his chest when I asked.

[SoggyFox]

Did anybody else notice at the Dive Show that those clever Narked@90 people are working with Amphilogic (Ithink) to develope a CO2 sensor for the mass rebreather market, John was enthusiastic but keeping his cards close to his chest when I asked.

just when you thought you'd kicked the habit along comes your friendly Shiney dealer and all your will power and hard work count for nothing......

[nigelH]

- I understand that some systems need to be run in artificially high temperature environments (50 degrees C seems to be popular.

I had a pair of cells that read the right range and promised good He/H2O resistance but they needed heater elements and burnt watts of power. I was a bit iffy about putting them in a loop I was breathing and also not quite sure ofa simple power source.

However that was a while ago and I have new things here so maybe I'll try to dig them out and see how long they'd run on a toy-helicopter li-po battery. I'd like one on the inhale side and one on the exhale. I don't remember the response rate but even a mean-to-mean plot would be interesting.

I'm interested in CO2 readings but not multi-thousands of pounds interested.