lairdb
Contributor
- Messages
- 872
- Reaction score
- 375
I've seen a fair amount of speculation about what's "inside" the Divevolk housing; since I have a dead one (see my post about Divevolk's excellent customer service for background) I thought I'd take it apart and post some pictures and comments.
I didn't knock the hinge pin out to remove the door, but this is pretty much everything else taken apart:
The main body is basically a box shape, open almost completely on the back, and for about 2/5ths of the way on the front. The front opening is where the window glass fits; the glass is about 5mm thick in the main area; about 2.5mm thick around the perimeter. The body is molded to accept the glass pretty precisely, and includes a recess to accept the rectangular gasket ring; both are then clamped in place by the metal frame, secured with the 12 screws which screw into the plastic main body.
The back large opening has the goo-filled membrane. I've seen assertions that the membrane extends into the oversized handgrip area for some sort of pressure compensation: this is not so. The membrane is only what it appears to be: filling the opening area, and welded to the perimeter all the way around. You can see the waffle pattern of the welding.
There is a metal frame for this, held in place by 6 screws that go in the top and bottom, but I don't see that this is providing any pressure integrity; it looks to be just durability and cosmetics. The water integrity is entirely from the membrane being welded to the case.
On the right hand end, the handgrip fitting conceals a bulkhead that closes that end of the case. No fancy pressure compensation, no tricks, just a molded piece with an o-ring, secured with 8 screws into the case.
The handgrip also has no trickiness; it's a two piece assembly with two cantilever snap fit arms. (You'll see a fragment in the picture; as is often the case it's harder to get things apart when you can't see how they are secured, and I broke off one of the beam hooks in the process of getting it apart.)
(The designers clearly didn't think of it as removable; the beam arms are very short and there's no easy way to reach in to release them once it's assembled -- which is too bad; now that it's proven not to contain any functional elements, I'd like to experiment with some alternate 3d-printed grip shapes and perhaps accessory mounts, but even seeing how it's assembled, it will be tricky to remove non-destructively.)
LMK any questions.
I didn't knock the hinge pin out to remove the door, but this is pretty much everything else taken apart:
The main body is basically a box shape, open almost completely on the back, and for about 2/5ths of the way on the front. The front opening is where the window glass fits; the glass is about 5mm thick in the main area; about 2.5mm thick around the perimeter. The body is molded to accept the glass pretty precisely, and includes a recess to accept the rectangular gasket ring; both are then clamped in place by the metal frame, secured with the 12 screws which screw into the plastic main body.
The back large opening has the goo-filled membrane. I've seen assertions that the membrane extends into the oversized handgrip area for some sort of pressure compensation: this is not so. The membrane is only what it appears to be: filling the opening area, and welded to the perimeter all the way around. You can see the waffle pattern of the welding.
There is a metal frame for this, held in place by 6 screws that go in the top and bottom, but I don't see that this is providing any pressure integrity; it looks to be just durability and cosmetics. The water integrity is entirely from the membrane being welded to the case.
On the right hand end, the handgrip fitting conceals a bulkhead that closes that end of the case. No fancy pressure compensation, no tricks, just a molded piece with an o-ring, secured with 8 screws into the case.
The handgrip also has no trickiness; it's a two piece assembly with two cantilever snap fit arms. (You'll see a fragment in the picture; as is often the case it's harder to get things apart when you can't see how they are secured, and I broke off one of the beam hooks in the process of getting it apart.)
(The designers clearly didn't think of it as removable; the beam arms are very short and there's no easy way to reach in to release them once it's assembled -- which is too bad; now that it's proven not to contain any functional elements, I'd like to experiment with some alternate 3d-printed grip shapes and perhaps accessory mounts, but even seeing how it's assembled, it will be tricky to remove non-destructively.)
LMK any questions.
