SPGs on CCRs

What sort of tank pressure monitoring system do you use on your CCR?

  • Stock SPGs, Front Mounted

    Votes: 35 53.0%
  • Stock SPGs, Back Mounted

    Votes: 8 12.1%
  • Wireless transmitters

    Votes: 9 13.6%
  • Wireless transmitters and SPGs

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • Button SPGs

    Votes: 6 9.1%
  • None

    Votes: 5 7.6%
  • Other aftermarket SPGs

    Votes: 1 1.5%

  • Total voters
    66

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Note: I am a newb on CCR.

How does that help? It seems like if I'm doing a lot of up and down, that is what is going to burn through my dil - filling and dumping my wing. And loop - though, looking back I think I was mostly controlling my buoyancy with the wing

I'm running a separate drysuit inflation bottle. I pretty much always have helium in my dil, so I wouldn't normally use it for drysuit inflation.

You will appreciate removing dil from your inflation sequence when you use helium. Why would you pump helium into your wing only to then dump and refill your wing over and over. You seem to have made the connection to not waste expensive gas on inflating your drysuit, why not do the same for wing inflation. I too am new to CCR, more so than you, but the rig I choose played into my thoughts being pretty damn smart for a BM unit. Inflation for wing and suit is accomplished by an "inflation" bottle that normally rides in the spot of a dil bottle. Then I have the matching bottle of O2 on the other side. I sidemount my dil, so not only do I carry my bailout with me, I also have a huge amount of dil. I fill my bailout from empty with one expensive fill and then I just top off from there, simple and cheap.

EDIT : I will say that this may not be the best configuration for ALL diving nor would I proclaim it to be. This is designed specifically around cave diving, but with some tweaks the Fathom can also do sweet boat water dives. But, even in boat config you would not use your dil for inflation.

Inflation.JPG
 
I too am new to CCR, more so than you, but the rig I choose played into my thoughts being pretty damn smart for a BM unit. Inflation for wing and suit is accomplished by an "inflation" bottle that normally rides in the spot of a dil bottle.

I would be concerned about having a single source of inflation gas for both your primary and your reserve buoyancy. Even on OC doubles, dry suit and wing inflation generally comes from different regulators. With a CCR and the risk of developing a significant increase in negative buoyancy with flooding, that seems like a bad idea. Yes, you could orally inflate your wing in an emergency, but I wouldn't set yourself up for that being the only option in case of a failure of that inflation system (reg failure, hose leak, running low on a small unmonitored tank, etc..)
 
Stuartv

If you can, keep minimal loop volume on ascent, you will find it does help your buoyancy control. If you are saw toothing i.e. in and out of a hold, then perhaps not. Dumping C/L gas on ascent, means you inject less O2 to maintain the PO2.
One thing you will learn, is to go round things rather than over. (I had an OC buddy many years ago that religiously did this).

To be clear, my "sawtoothing" was on purpose - for the purpose of getting practice at buoyancy control.

When I did my MOD1 training, my instructor told me the best thing I could do to master my CCR buoyancy is to go dive somewhere shallow and spend my time going up and over stuff, rather than around. She said if I spent 30 hours doing that, I would have it down and controlling my buoyancy would be second nature.

Well, I can't say she was completely correct.... :) I've got more than 30 hours now, but I definitely still need to get a lot better. However, I think I AM getting better. When I was diving in NC last month, it was all at 110-115'. Some wrecks with 20 - 30' relief and sometimes spending the whole dive on the bottom. Regardless, I felt like at those depths my buoyancy was pretty decent. I definitely felt comfortable. I know some people think it was wrong to be doing photography on CCR with so little time on the loop, but it definitely worked out just fine for me. I felt very comfortable. I was using the NERD and I believe I was monitoring my vitals pretty continuously. By the end of the week, I was getting through all my dives only touching my wing inflator maybe once or twice (or not at all) during the dive, after my initial descent. I generally made a point of trying to hover for getting shots, versus planting myself on the bottom.

So, maybe my shallow sawtooth practicing is bearing fruit. :D

And getting back to being OT, I didn't feel a need to check my cylinder pressures much or at all during those NC dives. But, when practicing in the local lake, I would/will run my cylinders down much further than I would on a "real" dive and, on those occasions, I like being able to monitor pressures pretty closely.
 
I would be concerned about having a single source of inflation gas for both your primary and your reserve buoyancy. Even on OC doubles, dry suit and wing inflation generally comes from different regulators. With a CCR and the risk of developing a significant increase in negative buoyancy with flooding, that seems like a bad idea. Yes, you could orally inflate your wing in an emergency, but I wouldn't set yourself up for that being the only option in case of a failure of that inflation system (reg failure, hose leak, running low on a small unmonitored tank, etc..)
This ^^
All the cave divers here need to stop and go back to the basics for a second. You need 2 sources of buoyancy wing and drysuit and they need to be fed from different sources. Trying to save money by doubling up suit and wing gas with one source of cheap air is seriously foolish on a 250ft wreck dive with a free ascent (or any ocean dive with an overhead).
 
And getting back to being OT, I didn't feel a need to check my cylinder pressures much or at all during those NC dives. But, when practicing in the local lake, I would/will run my cylinders down much further than I would on a "real" dive and, on those occasions, I like being able to monitor pressures pretty closely.

If you only need to add this feature for your shallow water lake sawtooth practice, not sure if you really need to reconfigure the manufacturer's design. Presumably Paul put a lot of thought into it. That's why I'm pretty hesitant to change things around on my CCR.

You won't be doing that drill forever, and if you need to do it and it's at a local lake, just top up your dil bottle with air before you dive. Even if there isn't a handy fill station nearby, getting a used HP 120 and a transfill whip is probably cheaper than the transmitter, right? But of course, if you really are doing it because you don't like the SPGs in front, that's a different story...
 
I would be concerned about having a single source of inflation gas for both your primary and your reserve buoyancy. Even on OC doubles, dry suit and wing inflation generally comes from different regulators. With a CCR and the risk of developing a significant increase in negative buoyancy with flooding, that seems like a bad idea. Yes, you could orally inflate your wing in an emergency, but I wouldn't set yourself up for that being the only option in case of a failure of that inflation system (reg failure, hose leak, running low on a small unmonitored tank, etc..)

Once again, as stated above. The layout that I described would not be the same for ALL environments. I think I even said there is another configuration for boat dives/open water no bottom dives. So everyone pull back from the ledge a bit.
 
Once again, as stated above. The layout that I described would not be the same for ALL environments. I think I even said there is another configuration for boat dives/open water no bottom dives. So everyone pull back from the ledge a bit.
jump jump jump :D

I actually added a SPG to the O2 bottle on my sidewinder. The default setup doesn't bother with an O2 SPG. But I dive sumps with potentially a lot more sawtoothing than the typical FL system and felt like I needed to track O2 use so I could thumb the dive instead of being in a surprise BO or SCR situation. (edit: I have bailout O2 dropped for deco that I could plug in, but I'd have to get back to it)

In that rig my wing is fed from my left BO, my suit is either from the right BO (if not using trimix) or a 1L bottle on my left hip if I am using trimix dil. I'm happy to waste trimix in the wing, suit gas is seriously precious in 42F water though.
 
Once again, as stated above. The layout that I described would not be the same for ALL environments. I think I even said there is another configuration for boat dives/open water no bottom dives. So everyone pull back from the ledge a bit.

Not trying to give you a hard time...! :)

Sure, there are different ways of doing things, and that is why we are all here - to learn from each other.

I personally don't think that there is a significant advantage of running suit and wing off of one source. On the other hand, I do see a significant disadvantage, in any environment. Even in a cave, losing the ability to easily maintain neutral buoyancy can be a problem, especially with a partial flood.
 
If you only need to add this feature for your shallow water lake sawtooth practice, not sure if you really need to reconfigure the manufacturer's design. Presumably Paul put a lot of thought into it. That's why I'm pretty hesitant to change things around on my CCR.

You won't be doing that drill forever, and if you need to do it and it's at a local lake, just top up your dil bottle with air before you dive. Even if there isn't a handy fill station nearby, getting a used HP 120 and a transfill whip is probably cheaper than the transmitter, right? But of course, if you really are doing it because you don't like the SPGs in front, that's a different story...

It is all of the above. I really did not like the SPGs in the front. Too much "stuff" on my chest and too hard to read (compared to reading the pressure from my NERD or a Teric on my wrist).

Also, Paul's design was for 2 rEvo Dreams, each with an SPG mounted to it. The Dreams just show ppO2 readings. And then one computer/controller. We (Shearwater) have moved on since Paul came up with his design. No way I would go back to a setup of 1 Predator, 2 Dreams, and a blinky light HUD.

And, actually, an HP120 plus a transfill whip would only be cheaper than 2 transmitters if I bought used (and got a decent deal). Transmitters don't cost what they used to. Not to mention being fortunate to have been able to buy some at dealer cost when I was working for a shop. :)
 
It is all of the above. I really did not like the SPGs in the front. Too much "stuff" on my chest and too hard to read (compared to reading the pressure from my NERD or a Teric on my wrist).

Cough... JJ.... cough

:D
 

Back
Top Bottom