Info Scubapro Announces the new updated MK17 first stage, the MK17 EVO 2!!

[lexvil]

The current Mark 17 is the 17 Evo, well, until they put the Evo 2 in a catalog and who is to say they may not give us Amurikans the darn thing anyways . You must not keep track of camera models , especially OM Systems, talk about confusing, like OM1Mark 2 III IV, like what? The Mark 19 of course has a turret that makes it as big as a battleship and nearly as heavy, so without a turret it could not be a 19? In which case it would be the Mark 19 Evo 2 Compact 1! WTH!

Scubapro, would you just please give me a Mark 11 Evo Ti please and put a titanium air barrel in the G260 and I will be happy. If you did, does anyone need a kidney? I am tired of hauling around boat anchors.Call it whatever you want. A sealed diaphragm regulator in anything but the very coldest water, why??? The only thing exposed is the spring and I like seeing that pretty blue Evo coated spring .

While I do like my sealed diaphragm I could totally go for a MK 11 EVO (on this style body) and in Ti it would be very hard to resist, it would do great in any water I would ever dive in. even in brass I would like it, something like this

 

[BoltSnap]

who is to say they may not give us Amurikans the darn thing anyway

I'd say no mk17 Evo 2 for you mericans! You guys just complain, complain, complain none stop

 

[Mobulai]

You must not keep track of camera models , especially OM Systems, talk about confusing, like OM1Mark 2 III IV, like what? The Mark 19 of course has a turret that makes it as big as a battleship and nearly as heavy, so without a turret it could not be a 19? In which case it would be the Mark 19 Evo 2 Compact 1! WTH!

I think I decided not to keep up with camera models for similar reasons, I use a dinosaur of a Minolta and when I tried to look into newer ones I failed miserably

Earlier today I was actually thinking that maybe sp should move to a 3digit system for their 1sts; 170,171,172 for all gens of mk17 and so on…

Ah well, regardless of the name, it defo looks cool

 

[rsingler]

It's been fun reading this since @BoltSnap did the reveal. It's fun to see all the speculation.
EVERYTHING Scubapro does is incremental. Just enough to tease the FOMO on the latest and greatest. So let's dissect this, shall we?

On the engineering front, it's bound to be superb. SP has the capital and history to do things well; just not quickly. Another thing you can count on is that Scubapro will use old parts. You can save a lot of money if you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes it means you keep making the same mistakes (see below).

But Scubapro appeals to the broad diving population, not the niche. That's where the sales are. So the Mk17E2 is A LITTLE lighter. A LITTLE smaller. If weight savings were your determining factor, you'd have a forged Hollis DIN DC-7 or a Zeagle F8, or even a new Mares 22 Abyss, all of which have NO excess metal, at the cost of less cold resistance. But the Mk17E2 needs to be EN250a, so there's more brass heat sink. And more weight.

Nothing wrong with two springs. Less height, and the Poseidon 300 did that 50 years ago.

Sealed reg is nice for maintenance, but here is where I have some heartburn. IF the environmental seal is the same as the Mk17/Mk19E, then Scubapro missed a chance to be better. That seal consistently does not hold, and 75% of them bubble up, causing a 3-10' delay in ambient pressure sensing on descent. But you can't see it, because Scubapro hides the seal under a bumper cap. Maybe SP thickened it a hair, but if not, count me disappointed. Virtually everybody's env seal is better than SP.

As for the HP ports, meh. If you mount your transmitter direct to the reg, you'll see an improvenent. And the fight over "failure points" has been going on for years. But after returning last week from 47 panga dives in Anilao, where the crew "helpfully" yanks your entire 50lb rig from the water up over the gunwale so you don't have to climb the ladder with it, what are the odds that 47 times out of 47, the crew would grab the tank valve and first stage, and NOT your transmitter? Jes' sayin'. My transmitter goes on an 18" hose, bolt snapped to my waist (with a mini button gauge) so there's no signal drop-out to my computer, and there's no "handle" to tempt boat crew. Why the pony button gauge and extra failure point? Because now the crew can see my tank pressure when they've set up the gear for us before we climb on board. 2 of 47 tank valves were not tight when they carried them to the panga, and they had to switch in the boat's spare so I had a full tank for those two dives. With no button gauge, they'd have had to wait until I arrived with my computer to confirm that my tank was full and good to go.

So we'll have a great reg, I'm sure. Mk17 guys will have something new to buy. And now SP has both turreted and plain current models. Great performance; very stable IP matching (unlike the DC-7, which is "overbalanced"). The Mk17E2 is just not as light as it could be. And then there's that env seal. Yawn.

If only they'd seal their Mk25EVO...

 

[Ez E]

I'd say no mk17 Evo 2 for you mericans! You guys just complain, complain, complain none stop

Hey. If not for us mericans paying top tier pricing for all SP stuff, they wouldnt be able to sell to you guys in europe for rock bottom pricing.

 

[Mobulai]

IF the environmental seal is the same as the Mk17/Mk19E, then Scubapro missed a chance to be better. That seal consistently does not hold, and 75% of them bubble up, causing a 3-10' delay in ambient pressure sensing on descent.

Ooo I wanna know more about this, is it something I can observe in a bathtub with a pony and the bumper cap removed or a pressure gradient dependent thing?
Is it something that can maybe remedied with better clamping?

 

[rsingler]

No bathtub required. Pop off the bumper. Is the seal concave like it should be? Or does it bulge?

If it's bulging, then the seal lost its tiny vacuum. When you applied the seal with the reg pressurized, it was flat. When you turned off the tank, it got sucked down 3mm and is now concave with a slight vacuum in the environmental chamber. In any case, the seal is touching the transmitter. When ambient seawater pressure is applied, it presses directly on the transmitter and the IP responds.

If your seal was imperfect, a little air trickled in and the vacuum was lost. Now there's an air pocket between the seal and the transmitter head. Rinse and repeat. Now the seal is bulging. When you dive this, ambient pressure has to decrease the size of that bubble until the seal touches the transmitter, and only then does IP respond to depth. Three feet? Ten feet? Not hugely significant, but IMO, a mechanical device should perform as designed, every time.

Easy fix. Pressurize the reg, remove the env cap, reapply the seal. Boom, done. But nuts! I have to do that with my Mk19 EVO every three months. Seal needs to be thicker, since you can't tighten the env cap beyond metal to metal.

 

[lexvil]

No bathtub required. Pop off the bumper. Is the seal concave like it should be? Or does it bulge?

If it's bulging, then the seal lost its tiny vacuum. When you applied the seal with the reg pressurized, it was flat. When you turned off the tank, it got sucked down 3mm and is now concave with a slight vacuum in the environmental chamber. In any case, the seal is touching the transmitter. When ambient seawater pressure is applied, it presses directly on the transmitter and the IP responds.

If your seal was imperfect, a little air trickled in and the vacuum was lost. Now there's an air pocket between the seal and the transmitter head. Rinse and repeat. Now the seal is bulging. When you dive this, ambient pressure has to decrease the size of that bubble until the seal touches the transmitter, and IP responds to depth. Three feet? Ten feet? Not hugely significant, but IMO, a mechanical device should perform as designed, every time.

Easy fix. Pressurize the reg, remove the env cap, reapply the seal. Boom, done. But nuts! I have to do that with my Mk19 EVO every three months. Seal needs to be thicker, since you can't tighten the env cap beyond metal to metal.

Have you tried doubling the enviro seals ? Just a random thought

 

[Tanks A Lot]

[...IF the environmental seal is the same as the Mk17/Mk19E, then Scubapro missed a chance to be better.[...]

I really should have not done my prior look into this from my phone, I did miss a couple of things on the small screen.

The part number did indeed change, the MK17 EVO 2 has the outer diaphragm (10.117.119P), while the MK17 EVO has the (10.117.119). That being said, the (10.117.119P) is already the diaphragm that is in use on the MK19 EVO.
Similar the MK17 EVO 2 has the inner diaphragm part number (10.117.107P), while the MK17 EVO has the diaphragm (10.117.107).
But again, the (10.117.107P) is already the diaphragm that is in use on the MK19 EVO.

But these diaphragms from the MK19 EVO will now find their way into the 17 and 17EVO as well, as I doubt ScubaPro will include several diaphragms in their kit and the kit encompasses all of them now. Up until now the MK19 EVO had its own service kit, which changed now. I have no personal experience with the MK19 EVO, so I can't say if it has the same problems with the diaphragm you describe, or if its improved diaphragm fixed things. If it does fix things, that is good news for owners of the MK17 and MK17 EVO, as they will get this diaphragm going forward now.

Now that I dug a bit deeper into it, I see that the MK17 EVO 2 has the exact same body as the MK11 EVO. So it seems that the MK17EVO 2 may just be a mix between the MK11 EVO and MK19 EVO.
Take the MK11 EVO, put the environmental seal from the MK19 EVO onto it and you got the MK17 EVO 2.

While this won't be something completely new, I do believe it fills a gap that ScubaPro had

 

[BoltSnap]

What specific question(s) concerning the diaphragm do you folks want me to ask SP tech. people? Just send me the exact concise/precise question I should send them.