About a week ago I started a cross-over ccr course for Pascal Eeckhout from a Revo to an Inspiration. We took the units to the Red Sea on an Emperor boat which is not all that special if it wasn’t that also Michal Hearn came along so we could go and test dive both guy’s new baby: the Camelion. (
Naamloos document)
The reason for that location was also triggered by the fact that both Gentlemen asked me to give as much critic as possible on the unit, so Aaron Bruce, manager of Tekstream in Sharm seemed to me one of the better choices for joining in as he is nearly daily in the water on different rebreathers.
The Camelion was taken down for some deep air breathing to find out what the resistance was at depth, and to see what the humidity in the cell holder department would be by high work level. The first impression was that it's harder breathing then the original inspo, what is quite normal as the counter lungs where back mounted on this version. This higher resistance was also caused by the fact that the lungs where a bit to high mounted on the unit, coming right up above the shoulders, and by that giving also a slightly to much head up position in the water for my taste. Opening the cell holder after two +60 minutes dives showed a compartment with not one spark of water in it! There was nearly no color change to be seen in the separated dive sorb compartment. I know that is not a reliable technique to proof scrubber life time but it does give at least a first impression about what is happening inside the machine.
After over a week test diving everybody left with a Happy feeling about all, and most important useful information to improve the unit. I am quite sure Michel already redesigned his living room into a half work shop by now
We are looking forward to the next try out with the modified machine!
Some underwater photo’s will follow soon,
Greets
Yves Christiaens