New DPV - Dive Xtras

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Instead of having a dozen different weights for all the different battery options, could someone get the Blacktip trimmed out really nice and give a dry weight? Of course we need to know fresh or salt water. Once we have that figured out it is just a matter of reaching that weight with whatever battery you use. The displacement will stay the same regardless of what is in the tube.
 
If you are managing your diving somewhat with a Sierra now, are you really planning on doing multiple dives a day that are 6x the run time you do now?

I must say I'm being enlightened more about the P1,2 and 3

To answer your valid points, perhaps its would be easier to explain our current use

Mainly we dive in the Strait of Hormuz which is rock walls and pinnacles, we charter a Arabic dhow once a month for 10 of us for 2, occasionally nights. 3 dives a day, all 1 hour.

The Musandam is known for its current - that's why we go. On easy current dives, yes you'll mooch out in the blue on speed 2 or 3, no problem. Speed 3 or 4 is perfect for hanging out with the whale sharks, and mobla

(trival fact, whale sharks and giant Barracuda are attracted to the whine of a scooter and will come over to you)


However when it gets stronger then we'll spend a lot of time at the higher speeds to gain the extra thrust. On a few sites when its "blowing" then you're picking your way around the back eddys and down currents. So we're not interested in outright speed as m/s but in outright thrust

Currently we have to swap batteries between dives, & let them cool down before charging - so we all have at least 3 batteries (and we have 3 chargers each), so we keep them charging and use them in rotation.

Our ideal would be to have a Scooter that we only have to charge at the end of the day, or make 1 battery change during the day and has more than enough "grunt" to cope with big currents with power in reserve. Weight isn't an issue because, well we're used to the Sierras, and we've mentally put aside $8k per unit
 
Sounds like some great diving. I'll try to be impartial :)

If It were me in the situation you describe, I think it would come down to comparing the worth of the following general styles of DPV that might work for you. Im sure you do some additional diving to that you describe, so this may further influence you.

A) A larger scooter I never had to open during the day, but most likely couldn't travel with.

B) A smaller scooter that I may have to swap batteries (probably once) during the day.

For some people its black and white. If your always out on a RIB in the cold and wet, opening a scooter to change batteries is a huge NO NO. Some people travel a lot, or live somewhere that shipping large lithium and dealing with all the hazmat issues is not possible, So having a scooter that was travel friendly is mandatory.

Sales hat back on:
Sounds like a P1 will easily get you 2 dives with massive improvements over the Sierra, but probably not 3 dives. So I would need to swap batteries after the second dive. But if your OK with the modular Piranha infrastructure, its low risk as you can always add a battery module to create a P2 at a later date and then you would never have to open the scooter.

Be a little careful comparing spec sheet numbers. They are not always true for some manufactures. The original Tahoe group are pretty solid, SS, Logic etc, I don't have much data on Bonex other than the Aqua prop I own.
Generally when testing scooters I've found quoted run times are correct, but max thrusts are overstated. Its also generally reliable to compare lithium battery capacity. A 500Wh scooter will generaly run for 2x the time of a 250Wh scooter.
 
Here is a pic of my Blacktip cap showing how much shot I use. I usually dive in British Columbia and it sits almost perfectly neutral. in the Puget sound it is just slightly negative. This is with the Dewalt DCB612 12ah batteries.
Aha I may be wrong here but I believe the answer for weight should have been 2 pounds 4 ounces. As I took your 2 and a half pounds to mean 2 pounds 8 ounces (16 ounces = 1 pound). So I may be close to 4 ounces over with my current weight of 2 pounds 8 ounces. I will start there
 
As for questions about trim. For the record, and I believe this is written on the Dive X site, this scooter will not trim. You can get it neutrally buoyant but you will not get it trim. The nose (for me anyhow) pretty much sits straight up. I knew this going in though so not a big deal. If I need to stow it I will do as Aaron did and place a snap on the shroud and I can clip that off on my left side D-ring. If I need to stow for a long time I placed a snap on the nose too, so I can sling it like a tank, if need be.
 
Aha I may be wrong here but I believe the answer for weight should have been 2 pounds 4 ounces. As I took your 2 and a half pounds to mean 2 pounds 8 ounces (16 ounces = 1 pound). So I may be close to 4 ounces over with my current weight of 2 pounds 8 ounces. I will start there
I just have a cheap Amazon food scale but I'm pretty sure it's set to decimals of a pound. So 2.47 pounds which is pretty much two and a half pounds.
 
Sounds like some great diving. I'll try to be impartial :)
Ben

Thanks again for your good advice and valid point and input,

I'm more than aware that my requirements and desires based on teh logistics and way we dive will be completely different so someone else, so appreciate I'm cant get a perfect product but will accept one that gets as close as I can with the minimum of negative (to me) points

4 of my friends were able to purchase VRX on teh back of an extremely large order and benefited from a great price - I'm able to "calibrate" the manufacturers published data against their actual performance, and again using the knowledge from our Sierra's think I've got a pretty good data set so that I can take the published data and have a good idea on how that will perform in real life in our enviornment

So thanks once again, good food for though as i mull things over some more
If Dive X ever want to do some proper hot weather testing, come over with a spare and we'll go have some fun :)
 
I removed the steel plate from the nose and, with 12AH batteries, the scooter is maybe a couple of ounces positive. This is perfect for me.

I also have a set of Waitley 9AH batteries, which are significantly lighter (887g each vs 1.45kg). It needs about 1.1kg of ballast with the lighter batteries.

Edit: I glued some rare earth magnets to the thin plate inside the cap so I can quickly add and subtract the heavy steel plate as needed. With the plate in, it should be close to the required weighting for the lighter batteries.
 
Hello all :)
Im looking to buy my first DPV this summer, and the Blacktip caught my interest. I will be using it as transport to and from wrecks off the coast here in Norway. So in other words, we are talking about cold water diving, drysuit, D12 and further down the line - stages. Will this DPV fit the bill? The best "bang for buck" batteries I can get is the DeWalt XR 9ah, which are half the price of the 12ah. So I am thinking I can buy a pair and even another pair of batteries for those dive-trips where we dont have access to the grid for charging

Thoughts? Can it drag a 200lbs guy in a drysuit and D12s with a stage (or three)?

As another note, a lot of the guys I dive with use the Suex VRT/VRX and tells me it should be enough. But I am unsure how it compares to the blacktip. I could of course buy the Suex, but I like the idea behind the Blacktip and the battery solution
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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