johnman252:
Thanks guys for the info. Camerone, I would be really interested to hear your feedback on the unit after your trip and also the opinions of others on the boat to the unit. Enjoy the Hammerheads.
I'm back - the trip was nice, although I didn't get as much diving in as I planned. Someone brought the flu on board, and it knocked out 75% of the boat, including crew, for about three days. I lost three days in the middle...although I got to dive either end.
Giant Manta Rays are cool...they're cooler when they show up 45 minutes into the dive, there's no bubble blowing types in the water, and they circle around, letting you scratch their undersides repeatedly.
The purpose of my trip, as I mentioned, was to pick up the Inspiration c-card and training. I did that, diving a rental Inspiration that someone had screwed up with a SS backplate and nightmare-esque harness. I also managed to log about an hour of Evolution bottom time during the trip, on one of two prototypes that Cliff, of Silent Diving Systems, brought down.
Prior to departing, I was heavily leaning towards the Inspiration - after all, with the vision electronics package, it's the same price as the Evolution, and you get more; there's more gas and a larger scrubber.
After diving the Evolution, I'm placing my order for one of them instead.
Turns out, after diving the unit, I'm just very, very impressed. The improvements to the head are very nice. The wiring is now protected by a plastic spyder, the battery holder is now sealed with an o-ring, the head now has t-bolts that lock it into place on the canister (instead of the four knurled screws that are all too easy to lose overboard), the electronics are all potted in a block inside the head. and the whole thing feels a lot more solid.
The harness is very comfortable; it's very similar to the Inspiration harness. They're offering the counterlungs in AP-Valves yellow and also in grey, although I've been told that for the right fee, they'll do them in whatever color you want. The D-rings were well placed, the fit was excellent, and, all in all, the unit felt more like a part of me than something strapped on to me.
I'm a smaller guy (5' 8") and the unit fits me really well...better than the Inspiration with the same size harness and lungs. It's also only 44 pounds in weight, charged up and ready to dive, which means that I can travel with it on the airlines without having to pay excess baggage fees. It's also slimmer and more compact than my Drager Dolphin, which is exciting... I wasn't looking forward to the bulk of the Inspiration.
With regards to the scrubber; SDS rates it at two hours. Realistically, we were getting around five hours out of in with light workloads. (We had no current, although the surge was, um, challenging, at times...) The scrubber life gauge really does work, as far as I can tell. I'm impressed... when I dumped scrubber, what it said had "expired" was purple, and what was still good was white - we were using sodalime with the color dye in it, and it seemed to mesh very well with the gauge. SDS's position with the scrubber gauge is, "under no circumstances should you violate your instruments..." implying that the "two hour" rating is probably a bit conservative... and that's what we were seeing.
The single handset with dual displays was really easy to read and has some marked improvements over the old dual handset controllers. I didn't play a lot with the built in computer - a lot of people were diving the unit, so it was complaining about missed deco stops... if you look at the photos I attached, you'll see I've got a VR3 that I'm using to monitor my bottom time...
Internally, the case is nicely redesigned. The bottles "snap" into place, the scrubber locks down better, and the back of the case is now hinged by two straps, so parts aren't flying everywhere as you break down or set up the unit. Very cool. There's also enough empty space around the canister that you could mount a canister divelight (thin, NiMH pack) inside, and just run the head/handle over your shoulder, if you really wanted. Cliff mentioned that they're offering clamps for the scrubber canister that will do just that...
My only complaints about the unit:
The handset itself didn't really fit smoothly on my arm. It's probably me, and my VR3 has the same problem, anyway...my forearms are small, and it's a big, flat box. Still, it's got a pair of straps and always felt secure and positioned like I could read it.
Handset buttons were VERY difficult to press. The unit now auto-switches for you from low to high setpoints and back. You can, of course, override it. I was coming up and wanted to drop down to the low set point earlier than the unit would switch, and it seemed like it took a LOT of pressure to do it.
I didn't find the "dive computer" part of the handset particularly intuitive, but I also didn't read the manual. I'm a big VR3 fan, so that may have something to do with it. On the other hand, the displays for the rebreather, itself, were far, far improved over the dual handset version. Scrubber is easy to monitor, and it's obvious what the two controllers are reading for pO2. The battery meter is a nice touch, and it's also cool that it tells you which battery is being used as the primary. (Did I mention that there's no longer a need to mark batteries "master" and "slave"? It's smart enough to use the stronger battery for the master and keep them balanced...)
Lastly, the HUD wasn't what I expected. I'm sure it's nice, and I'm just not used to it. It was easy to read the LED colors when diving, and non-obtrusive in my field of view. I just prefer to rely on the handset, and didn't really see the need for the HUD at all...more of a distraction than anything else. On the other hand, if I'd built more time on that unit, I might feel differently.
All in all, I'm very impressed with the unit. I can't believe I'd get "less" at the same price, but the convenience and size swayed me. Four to five hours of bottom time on a scrubber is plenty; it's not often I push that in a single day, and so my sorb costs will be lower with the smaller volume. On a CCR, the 6cf difference in dil and O2 cylinders isn't really that significant, either.
I'm a happy camper... attached are two photos of me on the unit (thanks to Jeff Bozanic for snapping them.) On one, a buddy is fiddling with a small bubble problem on my T connection, on the other, it's a back shot of the unit...
