Dive Propulsion Vehicle

[cool_hardware52]

SLA batteries have been the choice for long Fresh water cave dives for a number of reasons.

SLA batteries will continue to work even when flooded.

SLA batteries are fairly easily recharged.

SLA batteries can be burn tested without significant harm to the batteries as long as one does not discharge to very low voltages.

OTOH.....

Flooding is not the fault of the battery chemistry, and the X scooter design provides an additional level of flood protection not found on most other scooters.

NiMh batteries are much fussier to charge, particularly in the poorly designed series / parallel packs used in some dive lights. In the early days of NiMh large cells were not available, large packs could only be built using series / parallel packs.

The X scooter uses a well designed series only pack, and recharges reliably, at least in my experience.

Burn testing of Nimh batteries must be done very carefully, to avoid damage due to discharging the batteries to too low a voltage.


Battery reliablity has to be viewed as an integrated system. In my experience spontaneous failure of either a SLA or NiMh battery is very rare.

Are SLA batteries really more reliable than NiMH? If one has a flood prone scooter, needs to use series parallel battery configurations, and can only determine capacity by frequent burn testing, SLA will prove more reliable.

Tobin

 

[ShakaZulu]

I've used the Seadoo Seascooter VS to do some recon dives of the La Jolla Shores Canyon. You can cover a lot of ground with them, especially if you help it with a slow kick. Don't use for anything else than recreational dives.

 

[mweitz]

Well, 90 minutes burn, at about 200' per minute would give you roughly 3.5 miles. I don't dive that way though. I would use it for two dives, and wouldn't find myself a mile offshore with a scooter. You have to have enough gas to swim back in case of a scooter failure.

Effective range for the first dive, I would say 1/2 mile. It is about 1/4 mile to Bird Rock at Lobos, so that is about 8 minutes from the ramp and 70'. Another few minutes and you are at 110'+ and out at Beto's reef or Three Sisters. For a second dive, I would do something in the 1/4 mile range, Middle Reef, Granite Point Pinnacles, Cannery Point Wall, that type of stuff.

I do want to do Bluefish Cove on the scooter, but will have to play it by ear. I haven't been able to schedule a scooter class with the instructor I want yet, so I have to take it easy

http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/scuba/divespots.html

If you want to do places like Butterfly House, Monastery, and Carmel River Beach from the shore, I would look at an X-Scooter. Not only are they lighter, but their is much less of a learning curve with them. Sort of just point and shoot.

Mark

What would you consider your effective range on it? What average speed will it last for 90 minutes at (say for a typical diver in doubles w/o stages)? On a nice day there's lots of great diving within 1/2-1 mile of Pinos, Cypress, and Carmel points. Soberanes would probably be a blast but it's a long walk and you'd need ropes to get to the water.

Brian

 

[Law5Guy]

Does anyone here have experience with Jetboots? The article in Divernet talks very highly of them. I'm curious to here from those who have experience with both jet boots and tow behind scooters to find which one you would choose if starting over?

They look really cool in the movie....

http://www.jetboots.com/jetboots2.mov

 

[boomx5]

I do want to do Bluefish Cove on the scooter, but will have to play it by ear. I haven't been able to schedule a scooter class with the instructor I want yet, so I have to take it easy

http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/scuba/divespots.html

Mark

I heard Bluefish Cove is a fun scooter dive. Hopefully if I can get back down there in the next month I can go play on that side of Lobos. I also like playing out at the Granite Point Wall and Granite Point Pinacles area. Betos Reef is also a fun scooter run as well as some of the other areas further out. Lobos is truely a divers playground if you've got a scooter and kind of makes you feel bad for those who don't have one.

 

[Dan Gibson]

It must be raining again. Tobin's up to something again

NiMh batteries are much fussier to charge, particularly in the poorly designed series / parallel packs used in some dive lights. In the early days of NiMh large cells were not available, large packs could only be built using series / parallel packs.

...a well designed series only pack, and recharges reliably, at least in my experience.


Tobin

 

[SeanQ]

It must be raining again. Tobin's up to something again

DSSScooter?

If you add a few more S's it could be the mirror image of GUE's dive planning acronym!

 

[boomx5]

DSSScooter?

If you add a few more S's it could be the mirror image of GUE's dive planning acronym!

That was a SADDDDD joke.

 

[cool_hardware52]

DSSScooter?

Nope, DSS replacement Li-Ion battery for the X scooter.......

In my opinion the X scooter is currently state of the art:

Brushless Motor
Soft start
Electronic clutch
very few hull penetrations, basically just the prop shaft.
Clever Seperate battery compartment
Rugged, lightweight, manueverable.
Form factor of a single cyclinder, for easy boat rack management
Big, Big, FUN

Not much I'd change, but more runtime without any weight penalty, is a good thing.

Tobin

 

[waynne fowler]

By "Two Hour Battery" I mean 2 hours, full pitch trigger time, i.e. 2.3 times the current capacity........


Tobin

Yowza.... I will have to get ahold of Ben and AG first thing in the morning and see what I can find out about that.. :yelclap: though it'll probably be spendy. what the hell I got nothin better to do with my money then to spend it... it goes to the banker on way or the other.. theirs or mine..

Thanks Tobin.:god: