Bailout Rebreathers, Yes, that Holy Grail of Unobtanium.....
It's not on my website (which I don't update any longer. Seems that I was taking flak for "bragging" when I ought to be "diving". I got sick of taking **** for putting projects up for people to study, since it seems that articulating the successes achieved here bugged some people to distraction and their response was to criticize everything I wrote about. Finally, some Pea-Brained (or make that Phi-Brained, if you follow these things) whacko publicized on the Rebreather List that I'd "ripped him off" because I didn't send him a part *for free* that I promised to send him "when I got the time to make it". That was the absolute last straw and ruined it for everyone. Now I basically make these projects for myself and a very select group of friends and we keep it to ourselves.... no loss to us!). But in this case, the bailout rig has a lot of appeal and interest to a lot of guys, as there isn't anything else comparable anyplace else in the world, so I relented a bit from my current "fed up with the internet" mode and allowed a little website to be stuck up by a friend of mine. It can be found here:
http://www.therebreathersite.nl/world_smallest_ccr_by_dave.htm
That isn't the final version, but is close. There is now a Draeger Dolphin exhaust valve on the top of the counterlung, and a modified BC inflator valve body in the breathing hose, about 3 inches up from the scrubber, between the scrubber and the mouthpiece. That allows diluent to be injected into the loop by any BC inflator valve. I did away with the offboard fitting as is shown on the website. Basically, I let the small cylinder that's built into the rig keep the counterlung equalized on descent. It's all automatic. If I need to bail out, the first step is to open the open/closed circuit DSV on my main rig, and to get established open circuit for few moments. Then, I take a good breath from the open circuit supply, spit out the old DSV, grab the new one and exhale into the second loop. That's all folks, from then on it's a continuous ascent including deco. In the unlikly case that I needed to add additional diluent to the loop, the little bottle provides enough as long as I'm not piggish about it. If I am feeling piggish, there's always the BC inflator valve in the breathing hose and once an inflator hose is connected to it I have all the diluent I need. The nice thing about the system is that it has neutral bouyancy when half full of gas, and so even with some gas in the bag I can unclip it and hand it to my buddy if he needs is. I've been testing it by wearing a small cylinder on my back, feeding a drysuit and open circuit regulator, and using *only* the tiny bailout rig for the actual dive. It's worked great. A similar rig is being used by a friend who's doing underwater video in a submarine at 190 feet, and that same rig will be going to the Med in September to be used on a special project in 450 feet of water. The major difference between that rig and the bailout ig is that for the bilout system I chose a pendulum scrubbr heats up quicker if cold soaked, IE: sitting dormant on your chest in cold water), while the "intentional" rig uses a more usual cycle-loop system. I dove the little rig on my website all last season with 100% success, to 200-ish feet pretty regularly, and it works a champ. But the bilout rig as discussed here is a new project, and seems to really be the cats' meow for deep diving, as it allows a diver to carry a second loop for bailout with ease. Next is integrated tests with the Mark-15, however that's on hold pending return of that rig from electronics modification.
DS, From the Little Diveshop of Horrors
