Mares Regulator Service Manuals site

[Zef]

A great thanks to @lowwall for his time and effort getting things hosted and uploaded, and for making the links work.

The original idea was to create a Mares super-reference.

We noticed that the Mares service manuals available at various corners of the internet is one continuously updated/added to document that Mares publishes.

New manuals are provided to shops to add to previous ones and sometimes refer to procedures in previous manuals, like "see F12 for adjustment procedures" as a hypothetical....F12 is a page in an earlier published 1st stage manual (F = 1st stage; S = 2nd stage).

The above scenario was a bit frustrating and I got busy collecting as much Mares stuff as I could find and started splitting the PDF files apart into individual pages and then re-combining them in contiguous/consecutive order.

The goal was to have a single manual divided into sections with all the info available for 1st stages, another section for 2nd stages, and yet another for tech bulletins.

To get things started @lowwall and I started making a spreadsheet that listed what page numbers and what models could be found in each year's service/dealer/tech manual that we could find. The purpose of doing that was to make it easier to locate the pages for the super-reference as we started to combine together the correct page numbers.

The SNAFU is that by splitting things apart and recombining them, while for personal use is fairly ok, but to publish it for download could be argued it is beyond what constitutes and is covered under fair use of Mares' intellectual property.

"For my personal use" I am still combing what I can get a hold of into a super-reference, and for "my personal use" I am splitting each model into its own stand-alone PDF.

We would like to be able to add to the reference list that @lowwall uploaded, if anyone has anything they are willing to share.

Please contact us privately through direct message if you have anything that would aid our endeavor.

Cheers,

-Z

 

[lowwall]

FWIW, we could probably bolster our fair use argument by building reg-specific guides, as "transformative" use is one of the fair use criteria.

My concern is more about potential liability exposure from pulling pages out of the manuals to make our own mini-guides. Mares often puts general info and warnings at the start of the manuals that should be reviewed before attempting self-service. And even more important, as we don't have all the manuals we can't be sure that anything we would provide would incorporate all necessary information such as recent service bulletins.

 

[BoltSnap]

Is anyone else getting this error? Here's the URL if you want to cut and paste:

http://lowwall.eu5.org/index.htm

It is a free hosting site. Perhaps not 100% reliable.

The link doesn't work in Firefox but works in Chrome, strange.

 

[BoltSnap]

I apologise if I misinterpreted the intent of your question. Given your often expressed negative appraisal of Mares regs and the fact that the answer to your question appeared obvious (as only two people were mentioned in my original post), your post appeared to me to be an attempt to derail the thread before it even got started.

My negative view of Mares (regulators or anything else) has nothing to do with you and isn't personal, I don't hold a grudge against you personally at all. You have the right to choose whatever equipment you want to use even sub-optimum gear from Mares

I thought you were referring to an "organization" for some reason. I missed the reference to Zef


I am curious however, why? Why are you so into Mares? Are you a Mares dealer or work for one or have any relationship to Mares? What is your connection?

 

[lowwall]

I've tested in both on a cellphone and PC without problem.

 

[BoltSnap]

I've tested in both on a cellphone and PC without problem.

I am curious however, why are you so into Mares? Are you a Mares dealer or work for one or have any relationship to Mares? What is your connection to Mares?

 

[Zef]

I am curious however, why are you so into Mares? Are you a Mares dealer or work for one or have any relationship to Mares? What is your connection to Mares?

Not a Mares dealer or work for one...if that were the case we would not be scrounging around the interweb looking for Mares service reference material. No connection to Mares at all other than me owning a couple MR22 1st/Abyss 2nd stages.

What attracts me to Mares, at least the MR22 1st stage and Abyss 2nd stage is the relative simplicity of the devices. No frills, no excessive features, no particular special tools necessary to take apart and rebuild, and a workhorse like design.

Mind you, I have no personal interest in purchasing any of the stuff they are currently producing as they seem to currently be prioritizing form over function.

While there may be some 2nds stages that perform better, there is something to be said for the overall simplicity and metal construction of the Abyss 2nd stage. In as many years that it was produced the only major change was the design of the faceplate, which to my understanding are interchangeable if one want to change the appearance of whatever version they have.

There are other regs that I have considered, but the more time I spend evaluating changing to a different product, the more I find myself finding that what I have is solid and more than adequate for my needs.

One of the things I enjoy doing is researching and understanding the differences and similarities between the models and what has changed from year to year. This project started for me as a way to understand whether I would achieve any gains by buying a more modern version of the reg set I own, as well as trying to date the version I have...I bought both my Mares reg sets used, so had no info on how old they were. Looking for diagrams and other info had me happen upon the service manual for what I own.

I know that is a long-winded response, but my mentality towards my MR22/Abyss regulators is very similar to my mentality towards the Campagnolo Record parts on my road bike. I wouldn't purchase the stuff Campagnolo is currently producing but the older stuff is just a dream to ride and work on.

Hope that provides some insight as to "why", at least for me.

-Z

 

[iain/hsm]

Sterling work doing this many many thanks to you both.
My only suggestion would be for any new additional information and listings to consider using a different colour than the original blue to denote additional information added.

 

[lowwall]

I am curious however, why are you so into Mares? Are you a Mares dealer or work for one or have any relationship to Mares? What is your connection to Mares?

No connection. My first set of regs was a Mares MR32 Proton on closeout. The package was half the price of what I was expecting to pay for comparable quality regs (according to the Scuba Diving magazine reviews I could find at the time). I dove them for years without any troubles and I really like the compact dimensions of the Proton and the lack of a need for external adjustments. But after 12 years or so of use, I got them serviced and a few dives later (and 9,000 miles away from the shop) my first stage started honking. This got me interested in finding out more about how they worked internally. As I tried to research them I found organized info was scarce. Like Zef, I enjoy learning new stuff so I kept looking. After getting a basic grasp of their history, I decided to write the reg guide to help others in my situation and get feedback to fill in some of the gaps I still had.

I currently dive with a MR22t I bought for $120 as new old stock from a liquidator in Italy and a pair of Proton Metal seconds I bought from @TN Traveler. The Metals do seem to help with dry mouth and this setup is well suited for cold water once my kids are old enough that I can take weekends off to dive. And of course, chrome is its own reward.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Nice job and thank you. I just picked up an MR42 and appreciate the effort.