Lightest and most popular RB

[JohnnyC]

I had a HUD on my Meg, it was fine in the dark, but as soon as there was any sort of light, it was next to useless. I don't have one on my Pelagian nor SF2, and thus far haven't had an issue with it. Because it's got the hardwired controller and a Fischer, my options are either run a second handset that gives me live deco and all the other fun stuff that comes with it, or run a second handset standalone and get a Fischer HUD like the AV HUD-AF. Same for the Pelagian.

The AV HUD is pretty cool, direct plug into Fischer so no box to deal with, although I think using it for specific monitoring of PO2 is a little too complicated with it's display scheme. Smithers definitely would be better. The coolest HUD I've seen was a home build with a little OLED display that actually showed PO2, no code deciphering required.

Ultimately, I'm not gonna pursue a HUD option. I just don't see a need. I'd rather have redundant deco monitoring, and it wouldn't serve the intended purpose for the way I dive. Tom's way would work really well, if I was diving at 1.1, but I'm almost never there. I'm either at a 0.8ish in the cave because I'm there for a long ass time, or I'm at 1.2 or 1.3 for open water since run times are much shorter. Running it that way the HUD would be distracting, and a HUD shouldn't be distracting unless it's displaying a failure state. If it's too obtrusive, you'll just end up disregarding it completely.

 

[tbone1004]

@JohnnyC and @DA Aquamaster I do wish that the NERD's were available as DiveCAN controllers *yes I know REVO has one, but no one else does*. I think that would be the real sweet spot IMO for those that like to use HUD's. Unsure if the weight would be an issue on the sidemount units, but on the normal loops it would be nice.

 

[kensuf]

I dove a NERD for a week. Personally, I found it too busy and wound up selling it to Ted. He loves it.

 

[rjack321]

One of my frequent team mates has a Sidewinder and it works well for him, but it is heavier over all than my Sidekick, takes up more space to pack and is much more involved to assemble.

With my Sidekick I can bubble wrap the O2 reg, MAV, Petrel and DSV and pack them in the scrubber, which is inserted in the counter lung. I separate the MAV and hose from the O2 reg however to prevent TSA from regarding it as a blunt object that could be swung. That leaves just the two loop hoses which lie along side the rebreather in a 22" x 9" x 9" carry on bag with 5" to spare in the width dimension. That leaves room for a de-valved 2L O2 bottle and the dilout regulator. The dilout bottle and, if needed, a stage are sourced on site.

The Sidekick is also flexible in terms of being able be used as a Sidemount CCR with the dilout sidemounted, or as a sidemount CCR with the dilout carried as back mounted doubles (independent or isolator manifolded) using something like the Nomad XT with stabilizing plates.

I was actually suggesting the backmounted version, the orca spirit lte. I am not a fan of bringing sidemount gear on a boat and arranging for even the simplest stuff like a suit gas bottle on a SM CCR is harder than it looks. Or redundant dil. So unless the OP really really wants a SM CCR, or dives a ton of caves, I would suggest he (or she) start with a backmounted unit. The Orca spirit LTE is just about the most travel friendly lightweight backmounted unit there is. I only brought up the sidewinder because its based on the same components.

Edit: and the orca spirit lte can (somehow, with some additional parts) be converted to a sidewinder in the future if the OP wants to try a SM CCR. I don't think either are that popular in the grand scheme of CCRs however.

 

[tbone1004]

@rjack321 one nifty thing with the sidekick/sf2/liberty etc. that @DA Aquamaster brought up though is that you can dive a single tank backmount rig for your dilout and plug it into the rebreathers that are slung as a bailout bottle. Most people in the backmount breathers have one stage of some variety for bailout anyway and the single tank rig with a sidemount breather is actually easier

 

[JohnnyC]

I think the easiest SM rebreathers off boats that I've seen are the SF2, and the Sidekick with a Gambel sphere setup. Diving dil with an h-valve generally solves the redundant dil/bailout issue. O2 strapped to the canister on the SF2, or on the bottom of the unit if the Sidekick has the sphere.

I'm not really interested in SM rebreathers much, but a unit with as much stuff self-contained as possible would be pretty cool. I've seen some pretty cool homebuilds with built-in O2 as a minimum.

 

[rjack321]

I guess I assumed the OP was interested in deeper dives >100ft with some sort of trimix dil, a deco gas (possibly 2) and a suit gas. Sure you can rig up H valves (good luck finding one while travelling) and multiple bottles with a SM CCR. But SM CCRs are a lot more finicky than strapping on a BM unit. Hence the suggestion (unless the OP has a specific need) to look at a lighter weight BM CCR that is capable to 200ft-ish. In addition to the Orca spirit LTE, ISC's pathfinder is another capable yet fairly lightweight travelly unit.

 

[tbone1004]

@rjack321 I thought I saw somewhere they were discontinuing the Pathfinder...

 

[rjack321]

@rjack321 I thought I saw somewhere they were discontinuing the Pathfinder...

Shrugs wasn't part of the criteria

Plus that's why you buy a used one for half price!

 

[1c3d1v3r]

Have you checked the Triton front mount rebreather. It's compact and simple. The fastening system for hoses and scrubber lid is brilliant.

I have test dived it and liked how it breathes. It could be a little bit thinner in size.