diy ccr

Re-learning buoyancy skills or have questions (or answers) about diving a CCR or SCR? The No Bubble Zone is the place to discuss rebreather diving.
Post Reply
User avatar
Burntchef
I've Got Gills
Posts: 3175
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:29 pm

diy ccr

Post by Burntchef »

anyone ever dabble in this arena of diy?
Chin high, puffed chest, we step right to it
The choice is there ain't no choice but to pursue it


"Diving the gas is the easy part, not much to it, plenty of retards are using it safely. " jamieZ
User avatar
Joshua Smith
I've Got Gills
Posts: 10250
Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:32 pm

Re: diy ccr

Post by Joshua Smith »

Ever heard of a guy named Tom Rose?
Maritime Documentation Society

"To venture into the terrible loneliness, one must have something greater than greed. Love. One needs love for life, for intrigue, for mystery."
User avatar
loanwolf
Pelagic
Posts: 945
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:20 am

Re: diy ccr

Post by loanwolf »

Their are a few folks in the area. I at the moment cannot remember his name off the top of my head but he dives what he calls the Kevorkian. A odd looking home built unit. It was popular quite a few years ago but now with the commercial units available it is not so popular to build your own.
Greg
Life is Short do as Much as Possible in as Short of Period of Time as Possible.
User avatar
camerone
Submariner
Posts: 517
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:58 pm

Re: diy ccr

Post by camerone »

Functionally, it's not a hard thing to do. As Greg points out, with the plethora of off-the-shelf units at reasonable prices these days, though, you won't save any money whatsoever building it.

There's a really cool woman in the USVI that built her own CCR setpoint controller and has posted a few times on SB. I've been meaning to try that one myself, one of these days, but it's low on the priority list of things in my build queue. Building an eCCR is a fascinating project as there's a lot of room in control theory, algorithms, power consumption, etc, to play around in virgin territory. Building an mCCR is just figuring out how to trickle oxygen into a breathing loop at the right rate. :)

If you're just looking to experiment, an old Drager Dolphin converts to an mCCR very nicely, with about $150 worth of McMaster parts, a couple of spare Apeks DS4 regs, plus the need to add some kind of monitoring. They come up for sale all the time in the $800-$1500 range, depending on condition and accessories. Before the KISS and the rEvo knocked some amount of off-the-shelf affordability into the CCR market, converting them was a very popular option. See http://www.tecme.de for fancy solutions and spares. (edited to fix URL)
There are no stupid questions, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots...
Post Reply