Bend-O-Matic

[Tortuga68]

I just picked up a couple of the aforementioned dive computers...

Calling it a computer is a bit of a stretch...

A bit OT but I have a customer who brought me his in to show me. It has never been dived and is still in its original box with instruction manual. Any guesses as to what it might be worth?

Look on eBay, there's usually a few for sale there. Given that they're totally useless for their intended purpose, they're worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for them. I think I paid <$50 for one I bought as a curio for a friend Scubapro Automatic Decompression Meter with Scubapro Case | eBay

 

[fp5849]

With my "SOS's Decom Meters", I found that I first had to remove the Dial Assembly from the metal/plastic case.
This was because the rubber Grommet/Gasket, which is held in by compression, and the Dial Assembly were stuck together (due to age?).

I used a wide blade slot-tip (standard) screwdriver/small paint scraper and worked my way around the Grommet/Gasket from the outside edge.You need to be very careful. I put a hole in the Gas Bag while doing this.

Once the Grommet/Gasket is up a little bit, you may be able to pry the Dial Assembly out the rest of the way with your fingers. The Grommet/Gasket should just pop off, once the assembly is out.

The Gas Bag is glued to the Dial Assembly housing and also held by a wire.
If all you want the do is clean out the Dial Assembly face, you don't need to mess with removing the Gas Bag.

To remove the Dial Assembly Lens, this is what I did.
I gently held the Dial Assembly housing in a padded bench-vise.
Be even more careful if the Gas Bag is still attached.

The housing has two plastic "tabs" on opposite sides.
I used these to block the housing in the bench-vise, with the Dial Assembly facing up.
The "tabs" prevented the housing from moving (turning as I unscrewed the Lens, counter-clockwise) .

To turn the Lens, I used a pair of needle-nose pliers, opened so that the points were in the two holes on the face of the lens. It took a lot of pressure to the turn the Lens (25-30 lbs).

Be careful with whatever you are using to span the two holes on the face of the Lens.
If it slips out of the holes while you are trying to turn the Lens, you may scratch the Lens.
(I won't tell you how I know this.)

Also, you might what to wear gloves and a face mask, especially if you remove the Gas Bag from the Dial Assembly. Whatever was in there smells really bad and my hands itched for a long time afterwards.

Also, watch for some "mysterious" parts inside the Dial Assembly, when you open it.
After re-assembling the Dial Face and the Lens in the housing, the Dial Face was no long fixed in place.
The Dial Face would move forward and backward when I tilted the assembly.
I wonder if the black flakes were part of a "spacer" between the Lens and the Dial Face.

Hope this helps
Frank




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[Bob DBF]

Thanks Frank, I had gotten the unit out of the case OK. However, I put a lot of force trying to unscrew the clear cover, but it wouldn't budge. Since I was getting into the "It's going to come apart or my name isn't..." territory, I figured I should rethink the problem before I have ten pieces instead of two I'm aiming for.



Bob

 

[Angelo Farina]

I did own it when young. Here in Italy (where I think they were manufactured) it was called "decompressimetro" (decompression meter) or DCP. There were two versions, one metal chrome, the other black plastic. The interiors were the same.
It worked quite well, showing you the amount of Nitrogen in your body. But it was modelling just ONE of body's tissues, having an hemi-saturation time of 20 minutes (if I remember correctly).
This is not always the critical tissue for decompression, as for long dives in shallow water the critical tissue is usually one with longer hemi-saturation time, whilst for very short dives at huge depth the critical tissue is one with a shorter hemi-saturation time.
Hence the DCP was not considered very safe, and its usage had to always be associated with good, old US Navy tables, depth meter and watch.
I eventually sell my one, as in practice most of the time I was following the decompression tables and not the DCP, so in the end it was useless.