Any comments on the Drager Ray?

[landfish]

no i have never gone to 200 feet with the unit but i will find out what the guy who did used and has done
160 is the max i have been to with the unit so far but i have not had the oportunity to go anywhere deeper at this point.

 

[deepblueh2o]

I've been diving a Ray for about 2 years, although I admit it doesn't look much like one anymore. Same problem as the Dolphin, no hardclamp for your bottle setup. I tried a 50cf on it, needed a seperate bailout, so I went to a double 30 setup. Then I figured out that the way the breathing bag is made allows you to bolt through the whole thing, and put it on a frame with a backplate. Much happier. Air bags work for me and I have large lungs. I've been down to 150', no problems. Please note that I carry seperate bailout and calculate full bailout at max depth and time. The half sized cannister can mean less waste. I took two of them, cut off opposite ends and had them plastic welded together. Now I also have a six pound cannister. Putting the Oxygauge in the bottom of the cannister was 'GREAT', I NEVER have a problem with the sensor. My unit is always evolving and there is plenty of ways to go with a Ray.

 

[deepblueh2o]

A P.S. to the last message. Before I switched the unit over to a manual closed circuit, I had my own gas blends mixed depending on the dive plan and using a small jet. You can enterchange the bypass valve with the dolphin. I haven't seen this 32% setup. I never needed it, I went by O2 useage and inserted a loop flush on the inhale bag. That help, or am I rambling? The bubbles do that to you.

 

[gkndivebum]

I own and dive both a Dolphin and a Ray (well, technically, the Ray belongs to my wife). I have both
the 40% and 50% dosage devices for it, but in practice only use the 50% orifice and select a gas mix
that matches my intended dive profile / workload. TechMe in Germany makes some nice bits to adapt
the Uwatec Oxy2 to the Ray; I've given up on the Oxyguage.

Both my wife (she's the photographer) and I find the Ray more comfortable to breathe in all positions in
the water. This is directly attributable to the counterlung placement (over the shoulder). Downsides to
the rig are: no seperate bailout (there's a second stage where you can breathe off of your Nitrox
supply) and the unit seems to be more buoyant than you would expect. I dive it with 5lbs more weight
than the Dolphin. Cleaning the counterlungs is also more of a pain than the Dolphin.

The small scrubber is both a plus and a minus -- a plus since you won't waste the scrubber if you're
only going to do a couple of dives, but a minus if you're going to be doing more than, say, 2 dives.

I've been giving some thougt to adding a seperate bail-out; anyone have any mounting suggestions
they'd like to share?

 

[deepblueh2o]

email me. I have a couple of bad pictures. You can decide if that is where you want to go. divendeep@netzero.netWrong e-mail the first time

 

[gxdoyle]

TechMe in Germany makes some nice bits to adapt
the Uwatec Oxy2 to the Ray; I've given up on the Oxyguage.

?

I have just got a new Ray and would like to add an oxygen sensor. My interest is mainly in quite shallow diving for photography and I have dived lots of rental units in the past but none ever had a sensor (in fact I don't think I've ever seen a unit with a sensor attached)

I was not sure about about the oxygauge because I thought it might be hard to get it and to get replacement cells (over here in Singapore at least). Your post seems to suggest that there are other problems with the Drager sensor -could you elaborate?

Also, do you have a contact / web link for TechMe - I googled and yahood but could not find them. Any other info on where to buy the oxycheque or other Drager spares over the web would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Greg

 

[caveseeker7]

Also, do you have a contact / web link for TechMe - I googled and yahood but could not find them. Any other info on where to buy the oxycheque or other Drager spares over the web would be greatly appreciated.

Tecme's website is at http://www.tecme.de/zubehoer.htm
For Dräger parts try Watersafety at http://www.watersafety.net/eindex.htm
Both companies are in Germany.
For sensors and other bits visit Oxycheq in the US: http://oxycheq.com/index.html

 

[gxdoyle]

Tecme's website is at http://www.tecme.de/zubehoer.htm
For Dräger parts try Watersafety at http://www.watersafety.net/eindex.htm
Both companies are in Germany.
For sensors and other bits visit Oxycheq in the US: http://oxycheq.com/index.html

Thanks - this is very helpful

Greg

 

[gkndivebum]

My main problem with the Oxyguage and the Ray is the placement of the sensor -- on the
*bottom* of the scrubber cannister, which is both wet (condensation) and O2-depleted.
You have to do some arithmetic with the reading to get your "real" PPO2. Because of the
wet location I've had the sensor go bad very quicky (~3 dives). Doesn't do it for me.

The Oxy2 sits on your inhalation hose, giving you a reading of what you're breathing,
though you do need an Air Z O2 (or Air X O2) wrist unit.

TechMe is here: http://www.tecme.de/zubehoer.htm

Best regards -

 

[extreme]

I was looking at the ray configuration and realized that it would not be that difficult to remove the BCD that comes with it and attach a backplate and wing with single tank adapter for the scrubber canister and mount bail out and main air bottles to the backplate. The breathing lungs could be encased in some sort of nylon with zippers for access. Has anyone done this and if so could you post any photos of your "creation"

Thanks.

Extreme out.