New DPV - Dive Xtras
- Thread starter cathal
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In freshwater I use no weight in the nose with the DeWalt 9.0ah batteries. If I remember correctly, I used the thick and the thin plate that came with the scooter, with a bunch of stick on wheel weights on the thin plate, when using the Waitley 9.0ah batteries. It's been a while since I used the Waitleys. Either way the scooter went nose up. Without a longer tube I don't think any battery configuration will allow you to be trimmed out level.
With a 5 or 6, I think it's still not going to hold level trim. It would just flip up with less authority.
That is cool news about the 8Ah packs. That implies that they are now using 18650 cells inside (or whatever size they are) that are higher capacity than what they had before. Perhaps we can expect a 16Ah now, in the same size as the 9 and 12.
Paging @DA Aquamaster as I believe he uses the smaller battery packs sometimes.
I will say that the nose pointing up isn't THAT much of a bother. I barely notice it anymore. I could see it being a problem somewhere like a cave where it needs to stay trimmed out 100% of the time, but for my diving it hasn't been a nuisance. To the point that I actually also own a Tech Tube as well and it's never been wet...
I will say that the nose pointing up isn't THAT much of a bother. I barely notice it anymore. I could see it being a problem somewhere like a cave where it needs to stay trimmed out 100% of the time, but for my diving it hasn't been a nuisance. To the point that I actually also own a Tech Tube as well and it's never been wet...
I looked before and found that sourcing higher capacity cells wasn't so much of a problem. The problem is that, unless you can find a pair of Dewalt PTBs that are dead and very, very cheap, the cost of the PTBs plus the cost of all the batteries needed makes it not really financially feasible.
Same experience here. The first couple of times with my OG Blacktip I found the nose up attitude problematic, but not as bad as an untrimmed Subgravity Ecos I used a couple of time. In salt water, I started with both nose plates, then took out the thick one, and eventually took out both, and with a big bolt snap on the nose it's slightly positive buoyant on the surface and neutral at depth - but the nose still points up. This is with 12 AH Dewalts. After about 3 dives it seems totally natural too.
I ordered one of the tech tube upgrades when Dive-X was running their special, tried it out once (added both nose weight plates back, but didn't spend time getting the weighting spot on), and frankly, didn't notice a lot of improvement compared to the travel tube. The extra 5 lbs of weight were definitely a negative compared to the svelte travel tube, and I can't imagine carrying the heavier configuration across a long stretch of sand for a shore dive
Another 2 hour dive today. Getting better at tracking cumulative trigger time when I’m on and off the trigger. Even though I’m still at two bars on the PTBs (9Ah) after a long dive, I’m going to continue using 60min (70% of total runtime) as a prudent planing figure. Can’t wait to get home and slap some 12Ah PTBs in there. Might need to start dragging a stage bottle with me.
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