Switch Block Question

[grantctobin]

Gemini switch block from lungfish is UKCA and CE certified

…and retains all of the issues with having two gas sources plugged into the same unit/reg/etc. If someone is hellbent on FFM and switch blocks and the like, so be it, but this isn’t really the forum for it.

 

[Kay Dee]

An old salvage diver many years ago claimed to have invented a protoype pressure activated switch block for OC diving (that he hoped to market to tech divers for their gas switches) that did all the switching for you, both on descent / ascent which was hands free but pressure / depth activated. Take all the 'human factors' out of the equation he said, so what could possibly go wrong (he said).

I graciously declined to test it for him, but he got plenty uptight when I told him, among other things, that I didn't think this 'auto switch' for all your OC gasses would catch on with too many divers. Thankfully, I don't think he went much further with it as never heard from him or about it again.

I just put it in the "another accident waiting to happen" invention box, of which there have been a few, and forgot all about it till this thread.

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

An old salvage diver many years ago claimed to have invented a protoype pressure activated switch block for OC diving (that he hoped to market to tech divers for their gas switches) that did all the switching for you, both on descent / ascent which was hands free but pressure / depth activated. Take all the 'human factors' out of the equation he said, so what could possibly go wrong (he said).

I graciously declined to test it for him, but he got plenty uptight when I told him, among other things, that I didn't think this 'auto switch' for all your OC gasses would catch on with too many divers. Thankfully, I don't think he went much further with it as never heard from him or about it again.

I just put it in the "another accident waiting to happen" invention box, of which there have been a few, and forgot all about it till this thread.

Stumbled onto this thread by accident. Similar devices are already used when doing confined space entries into toxic environments using a long airline with what we would refer to as a bailout or pony cylinder - if the line pressure in the airline falls below a certain point then the valving operates and switches to the small cylinder you are wearing. Drager make one, as does MSA, and probably a few other companies.

 

[Kay Dee]

Stumbled onto this thread by accident. Similar devices are already used when doing confined space entries into toxic environments using a long airline with what we would refer to as a bailout or pony cylinder - if the line pressure in the airline falls below a certain point then the valving operates and switches to the small cylinder you are wearing. Drager make one, as does MSA, and probably a few other companies.

Argh yes, all well and good when on the surface, but.....................

The discussion re the proposed 'invention' I was talking about took place circa 1995 and the device was intended to be used by 'tech' divers carrying gases that could have bent and/or killed them if the device in question did not function automatically, repeat automatically, due to the change in ambient pressure.

That is, on decent the diver could / would have suffered from nitrogen narcosis and/or oxygen toxicity at some point if the device did not switch gases as intended. Or on ascent could cause the diver to get bent or have a hypoxic ‘event’ resulting in drowning / death if it did not switch as intended. Thus resulting in a.......................

The device you mention and the proposed one I mentioned are simply chalk and cheese in 'the where' and 'the how' they operate departments.

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

Unfortunately at the moment we don't have a good system that allows gases to be all connected before jumping that have catches in place to try to prevent mistakes. I've seen some truly hideous complex systems that are a mass of Swagelock bits and valves, but nothing that in anyway has something designed in to help catch mistakes.

 

[Bigbella]

Wanting to purchase a switch block to add to my full-face setup. What is the general consensuses on the Omni Swivel vs Apeks Switch Block?

Thanks for you time.

Wow, the never-ending switch-block bugaboo, exhuming a 2021 thread — even dredging up DGX’s unmitigated BS, for good measure , "Every time we sell a manifold or switch block, we shudder a little bit" (though, ironically, they’re as happy as pigs in scheiß, taking a 500.00 order) reminded me of all of the hand-wringing once associated with nitrox, back in the early nineties, before you couldn’t be caught without a green sticker somewhere — that the casual diver had no real need of EAN; that it took special training, and was far too risky in some unfathomable way.

I have used switch blocks for years with FFMs, and have lived to tell the tale — so too, many friends and colleagues, none of whom have succumbed to them; and I currently use OmniSwivel's "GSB-V2" which is now CE approved / UK compliant, unlike its previous model, whose single switch was somehow, according to the Europeans, "capable" of being placed in an intermediate, so-called “off” setting, potentially cutting off a gas supply, which had never posed a problem in years of heavy use, both for recreational and commercial purposes.

I have never accidentally tripped that switch (which really requires some doing); nor was I ever lacking for air, or even the demon, nitrox, on occasion. You simply switched tanks during the cycle of a breath -- no big whoop.

I even keep that deadly older model on my desk like a live grenade, but don’t tell anyone that it still sees some use.

Look, if you can count to two, throw an electrical switch without confusion or an abundance of salivation, you are fully capable of using a switch block; though I would encourage you to read the manual and keep your gasses straight, before you get wet . . .

 

[Kay Dee]

Just in case my previous post was not clear enough (to anyone), I was specifically referencing / against a (proposed) switch block that used changes in ambient pressure to automatically switch gases, not one that uses diver input (to switch), although I'm no particular fan / see the need for those either, but each to their own of course.

 

[rjack321]

The OP hasn't been seen in 2.5 years so now I want to know if they ever got their switchblock?

 

[lostsheep]

Wow, the never-ending switch-block bugaboo, exhuming a 2021 thread — even dredging up DGX’s unmitigated BS, for good measure , "Every time we sell a manifold or switch block, we shudder a little bit" (though, ironically, they’re as happy as pigs in scheiß, taking a 500.00 order) reminded me of all of the hand-wringing once associated with nitrox, back in the early nineties, before you couldn’t be caught without a green sticker somewhere — that the casual diver had no real need of EAN; that it took special training, and was far too risky in some unfathomable way.

I have used switch blocks for years with FFMs, and have lived to tell the tale — so too, many friends and colleagues, none of whom have succumbed to them; and I currently use OmniSwivel's "GSB-V2" which is now CE approved / UK compliant, unlike its previous model, whose single switch was somehow, according to the Europeans, "capable" of being placed in an intermediate, so-called “off” setting, potentially cutting off a gas supply, which had never posed a problem in years of heavy use, both for recreational and commercial purposes.

I have never accidentally tripped that switch (which really requires some doing); nor was I ever lacking for air, or even the demon, nitrox, on occasion. You simply switched tanks during the cycle of a breath -- no big whoop.

I even keep that deadly older model on my desk like a live grenade, but don’t tell anyone that it still sees some use.

Look, if you can count to two, throw an electrical switch without confusion or an abundance of salivation, you are fully capable of using a switch block; though I would encourage you to read the manual and keep your gasses straight, before you get wet . . .

What gasses do you have plugged into your switch block?