So far I've used the AIR 2X's nice breathing regulator. Someone posted the 2nd stage as looking "mouth heavy", that maybe be right. After a dive with the LP at the right and 1 at the left it does feel unbalanced, "mouth heavy" on one side either way. That doesn't happen with the 156 which is probably too heavy for that little weight to be felt. The AIR is much lighter, perhaps with both installed it'll balance out and feel like a 156 with 1 elbow switch assembly, or not. The next dive will be the alpha sea trial of the full setup in final per-test configuration. I removed the swivel from the 2nd stage on the right tank. It gets in the way of primary's move, also one less failure point that is in the way isn't going to missed. These are the test dives so far.
8-12-2021 Test dive solo Beach Pond less than 10min
Used the AIR as primary reg ,works great better than I remember. The weeds have taken over the pond. In 10FFW I can only swim at 5' without "getting into the weeds". I can see fish moving along the bottom thru small breaks in the weeds. With all the boat traffic 5' doesn't feel like a safe depth.
Ended the dive after 10min max.
Dive 2103 8-16-2021 Green Bridge Newport solo
Did a very nice dive at GB 20'+ vis in the cove and 15' outside, no surge or white caps. Small rollers breaking over the rocks. Snorkeled out to the mouth of the cove and with the bottom visible I descended into 15' of water and headed S towards the eastern rock formation. When the water got about 25-30FSW deep I turned W and toured the south side of the rocks until I hit 1500psi when I turned N and headed back to cove. After I entered the cove I stayed under until I passed the first big rock at the north end of the cove where I spotted Mrs.AD snorkeling around. I stalked her using my snorkel for 5 minutes before she spotted me. Good thing I wasn't something else!
EDIT UPDATE
The post service of the MK5s look good, I am very pleased and the results are encouraging. There are 4 MK5, 2 have S.P.E.C ambient chamber caps, 2 have standard ambient chamber caps. By some stroke of luck each the S.P.E.C MK5 have the same IP Hi and LO each MK5 with standard ambient chamber caps also have the same IP as each other Hi and LO but are different pressures from the S.P.E.C MK5s, and as such easy to tell apart!
The 2 SPEC Mk5s are now primary (left) and secondary (right), both have 130psi IP @ LO and HI pressures. If everything I know and read about the A.I.R. 1 is correct then with both inline valves open both tanks will drain at about the same rate, without any action(s) by me.
The standard ambient chamber caps MK5s should/may/will also drain the same way depending at what pressure the IP drops on each MK5. Both this have 120psi LO and 130psi HI
Then there’s the unknown will and how much does the IP change after a few dives? So far the primary has 1 short mini dive and 1 full dive.
I soap bubble tested my primary regulator set in single tank configuration
And found one bad O ring on the LP hose connection to the inline, it was a very small leak that caused a 50psi drop after closing the valve over a 15 minute interval. After changing the bad O ring I re-tested, no bubbles, then shut the valve and left to pickup my 50’s and go shopping with Mrs.AD. Three hours later when I got back the SPG showed a slight change of maybe 50psi, good to go.
These 50s are VERY buoyant when empty, so IMO they need some non-ditchable weights and what better place than on the back between the tanks? So I used a piece of 2” webbing, folded it in half so that there was just enough room for a 5/16” DIA hole at each end with 2 three lb hard weights on the strap. Then I used an awl to punch thru the strap and then a hot tapered drift tool to make it 5/16”DIA and also melt the edges to prevent fraying. I don’t throw much away so I have some washers from when I used SS bands, they are concave/convex from tightening the bands. I used 4 washers, 2 with the convex side facing up at the top and bottom of DTA, then placed the strap on top pushing the threaded rods thru the holes.
Then placed the other 2 washers convex sides down and tightened both nuts down until the threaded rods was flush with the nuts.
There is also about 16lb of ditchable weights, maybe less. This time of year I use 3mm farmer John bottom and a 7mm jacket so I use less weight with any of my configurations. Sometime during Oct I change to the 7mm farmer John bottoms and a little later if I’m still diving a 2mm hooded vest so the weight goes up.
