Automatic Buoyancy Compensator

[JoshuaHeard]

Thanks for your replies. This automatic BC is fairly simple and would be an advancement on current BCs. It basically uses the change in water pressure to increase or decrease a volume, which allows a diver to automatically maintain neutral buoyancy throughout the dive at any depth. With current BCs a diver must manually adjust the volume in the BC in order to maintain neutral buoyancy. This is, at worst, potentially dangerous for new divers, and, at best, a distraction for advanced divers. A device that automatically maintains neutral buoyancy for a diver would remove the chore of manually monitoring and changing the air volume in a BC and would allow the diver to concentrate more on the enjoyment of the diving experience. It would also be safer and more efficient than current technology.

 

[mala]

how would this work during decent or if the diver wanted addition lift?

 

[drbill]

As a videographer, I don't see any use for this. I frequently have to adjust my buoyancy based on the subjects I'm filming (mid-water horizontal, mid-water vertical, on the bottom) and when on the bottom I evacuate my BCD to increase stability while filming. Of course it may have some value to non-imagers.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thanks for your replies. This automatic BC is fairly simple and would be an advancement on current BCs. It basically uses the change in water pressure to increase or decrease a volume, which allows a diver to automatically maintain neutral buoyancy throughout the dive at any depth. With current BCs a diver must manually adjust the volume in the BC in order to maintain neutral buoyancy. This is, at worst, potentially dangerous for new divers, and, at best, a distraction for advanced divers. A device that automatically maintains neutral buoyancy for a diver would remove the chore of manually monitoring and changing the air volume in a BC and would allow the diver to concentrate more on the enjoyment of the diving experience. It would also be safer and more efficient than current technology.

A diver sometimes wants to be negative, sometimes wants to be positive and sometimes wants to be neutral. How does the BC sense these desires? How does the BC "know" when the diver sets down a negative tool, or picks up a negative bag of lobsters? How does the BC know when the diver wants to descend negatively and possiblu ascend without kicking?

 

[Scott]

In the event of a malfunction in the BC "system". How are you going to incorporate the ability to manually inflate?
How is the "sensor" going to determine what is a depth change and an ascent?

 

[ams511]

A diver sometimes wants to be negative, sometimes wants to be positive and sometimes wants to be neutral. How does the BC sense these desires? How does the BC "know" when the diver sets down a negative tool, or picks up a negative bag of lobsters? How does the BC know when the diver wants to descend negatively and possiblu ascend without kicking?

How did divers accomplish this in the days before BCs? I think you and some of the other posters are being overly critical. I do not see a major hazard unless the diver is over-weighted and cannot swim up to the surface. That can even be overcome with a blast from the past, a CO2 detonator like my old SeaTec BC had.

Where the design may fail is if it is constantly inflating and dumping.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

How did divers accomplish this in the days before BCs? I think you and some of the other posters are being overly critical. I do not see a major hazard unless the diver is over-weighted and cannot swim up to the surface. That can even be overcome with a blast from the past, a CO2 detonator like my old SeaTec BC had.

Where the design may fail is if it is constantly inflating and dumping.

Not sure I understand? Do we want to go backwards. I got a workable BC soon after being certified and always dive with one. I can precisely control my buoyancy with little effort... definitely don't want a CO2 cartridge!

 

[scubamarketing]

There's been one of these that's been vaporware at the last few DEMA shows. Consistently panned by attendees, lack of demand or technical issues has prevented it from getting any traction.

"This is, at worst, potentially dangerous for new divers, and, at best, a distraction for advanced divers."

All diving related activities are, at worst, potentially dangerous for all divers. Advanced divers can really only call themselves such once the "distraction" of adjusting buoyancy isn't a distraction.

 

[ams511]

Not sure I understand? Do we want to go backwards. I got a workable BC soon after being certified and always dive with one. I can precisely control my buoyancy with little effort... definitely don't want a CO2 cartridge!

Divers have done everything you mentioned in your previous post without a BC. So it seems to me that it is technically feasible to do the same thing with an automatic BC. Also I do not see where I advocated diving without a BC.

The CO2 cartridge was an emergency device only, the BC had a normal inflator. As a matter of fact the BC is still being manufactured and sold today for the military market. Seatec-Original Military Manta

 

[TSandM]

I think it would be an interesting and not terribly easy job to design a system that would have good enough homeostasis to be useful, without being so sensitive that it would be annoying. You have to remember that one's buoyancy changes with breathing, so even a stable diver is rising and falling slightly in the water column. A good diver uses changes in lung volume to maneuver over obstacles, so a device that was constantly trying to defeat that would be irritating.

You could so it, but it would take some work to make it sensitive enough to depth changes, without being oversensitive, and to allow an override for easy maneuvering. I wouldn't buy one, nor, I think, would any experienced diver I know.