Dive 1: 48m for 32min run time 78min + 12 to clear Andrews VR3
Despite the fact I hadn’t dived the unit I put two fresh batteries in the hand sets the night before the dive. 1.5V Energizer Ultra + Alkaline. I put the master in go to sleep mode no problem and I did all the checks for corrosion and dodgy 0 rings. I still haven’t got hold of any the recommended conducting grease, so for now I had to make do with cleaning everything.
I then wasted 5mins trying to find the "go to sleep” setting on the secondary hand set. Then it occurred to me it didn’t need one so I switched out the batteries any way.
I replaced cell 1 with a cell new in September 05 and opened in April. Cell 2 & 3 were brand new. I did 5 or 6 02 flushes to be on the safe side and checked the milivolt readings which ranged from 48 on cell 1 to 42 on cell 3. I thought 42 was a little low but the calibration went well.
The wrist straps kept the hand sets out of trouble clipped off to the top of the loop so transportation was nice. First thing I normally do on the boat is my pos and neg tests (again) and calibrate the 02. With the HH I did my tests and then did a quick 02 flush and checked the hand sets. 1.0 across the board. Very nice. I felt the need to recheck all the gas lists and settings as well but they were all just as I had set them before the battery change so that was no problem.
Kitting up was easy because we dive with a max of 8 on the boat and the benches are fantastic so no problem with stages and other kit. I laid the units out sidewise with my bailout reg, torch and suit inflator and kitted up before putting them on.
Clipping the wrist straps together once kitted and with 3mm gloves on proved very difficult and the units felt large on my wrists but it was nice to have them neatly stowed and not dangling like the old units.
I set the PP02 to a custom 1.3 and the unit settled down on a 0.4PP02 whilst I waited to get in the water. Pre breathing went better than I thought. The unit keeps switching its self off so I can’t close my eyes and go into Zen mode but it wasn’t a deep dive so I wasn’t too bothered.
As usual there is a 5 min wait after team one hits the water. This lets them get down and tie in the shot. Again as usual I spend that time monitoring the hand sets. They were OK but some 0.05 discrepancies were creeping in.
Once in the water I check the sets at 7m and I find that as promised they have switched through 1.0@ 3m and on to 1.3 set point at 6m. I hadn’t noticed any buoyancy problems and regular checks on the way down didn’t show any spikes.
On the wreck at 50m I did a sanity check dill flush (15/50) and PP02 set point recovery and everything seemed fine. Only thing of note was that the HUD didn’t show any green. It flashed read to warn of a drift in set point but apart from that it appeared dead.
We had 8m viz with a lot of plankton string in the water made it a bit dark at times. I found reading the hand sets with a torch a little harder than the old Insp and this was mainly because they were to close to my face. Using the back light worked no problem but I wanted to avoid that.
I noticed irregular tracking between cells 1,2,3 on the master and the secondary was showing PP02 between 1.2 and 1.25 ?? so slightly lower than the master. The HUD was pretty useless so I had to spend a lot of time watching my hand sets. This was a PITA as they kept flopping around my wrist and had to be turned back every time
. I needed to sort out the straps. In the end I took the Master off my wrist and used it classic stile. This worked well.
We started up the shot and the HH gave me a stop at 21m. The VR3 wanted a 2min stop at 32m and I decided to clear that rather than force the VR3 into use table mode.
After the VR3 deep stop things were pretty close with the VR3 always trying to get me shallow quicker than the HH set on 20/80GF so there were no problems. The deco on the HH was about 10mins more than the VR3 so I decided to up the GF setting to 25/95.
This worked and I was now showing 12mins less than the VR3.
I got a few red flashes on the way up from the HUD but the lighter it got the harder they were to see. I really liked the staggered last 4 -5 stops given by the HH a nice curve. The 9m stop was strange. It asked for 3mins but almost immediately started showing 1min? However it took a good 3mins to clear. 6m stop was OK. I found it a little irritating when the screen seemed to change JUST when you decided to check your TTs but apart from that it was fine.
I did a drop to 1.8m on pure 02 to check the cells. They were ok ish with one showing 1.8 and the worst 1.75. The HUD was flashing red but I had to cup my hand over it to actually see this. I cleared the unit just 3mins behind Darren diving a Vision on 10/50 using 25/85GF (I think). The VR3 had 12mins to go and Andrew had about the same so we sat that out at 6m.
Back on the boat, I had to remember to take the wrist unit off before de kitting. Fortunately a kindly Meg owner reminded me
So dive not too bad but HUD a disappointment / not working.
That night I prepared for Dive two.
Fresh lime obviously but I also decided that I wasn’t happy with the PP02 tracking so I would recalibrate the unit. 5 -6 dill flushes later I was in trouble.
42mv 42 mv 35mv, Cell 3 failed
This was a new cell? I striped down the head dried it all off in case water on the cells was a problem and I re did it. No change cell 3 had failed.
I swapped it for my last remaining new cell.
And it failed again this time on 39mv
I swapped the cell 3 for cell 1 to see if it was a wiring issue.
Cell 1 failed to 39mv
In the end I swapped it for the 13month old cell I threw out last month
50mv on cell one no problem but brand new cell 2 now failed on a flickering 39/40mv?
I was out of options. I filled the counter lungs and didn’t quite fully deflate them so I got cell2 to show 40mv and I calibrated the hand sets. It was either that or no dive. I considered reassembling my old head but I preferred to see my milivolt readings. I deflated the lungs to ambient and the hand sets showed 0.97 across the board. I could live with that.
DIVE 2 56m 39min 90min run time 25/85GF
On the boat and pos neg over, I checked the hand sets. They are reading high? so I check the Milivolt output and its showing 45mv across the board????
Perhaps my new cells have woken up after a night in 02? I recalibrate both hand sets and prepare for an interesting dive.
I have re designed my use of the hand sets and left the tabs available for pulling tighter in the water. This works quite well but in the water the tabs float over the screen which is irritating and they need to be pulled tight a few times during the dive to keep the units in place.
I spike the 02 at 6m and its showing 1.6, I push it to 1.75 at 7.5m which is cool and then dill flush with 15/50 before the final decent. 1.3 PP02 switch goes well again and on the bottom PP02 is pretty good and a dill flush confirms cell readings so I am good to go. Thank god because we have 20m viz on a stunning wreck.
The dive went without much issue. PP02 tracking was OK but not as solid as I would have liked. The HUD was useless so I spent the dive watching the hand sets. I could have gone right over the bell, I wouldn’t have known
About 40mins later and on the shot I decide to follow the HH out so I skip the 39mstop asked for by the VR3 and head to the 27m stop required by the HH.
I tried switching the HH over to PP02 display on the HUD but this confirmed it wasn’t working / I couldn’t see it so I switched back to set point.
Deco went well. I did the usual drop to 8m and it was again between 1.8 and 1.75 across the cells. No visible warning on the HUD.
Then with 6mins deco to go and 14mins showing on the use tables VR3, the HH rebooted and told me I had no bottom time and no deco.
I was a little surprised to say the least. Fresh batteries and two 90min dives + 45mins of faffing about with calibration the night before and the batteries were dead.
Fortunately I had the VR3 so I counted out the 6mins and confirmed that my buddy (on similar gas 10/50) was clear on his vision and we got out of the water.
CONCLUSIONS
First the good news
The head design is excellent. Switching around the cells was a dream compared to the faf of the classic head. Had I needed to remove and fiddle about with the cells on the Classic head it would have taken forever and driven me mad. The display is pretty easy to live with if your used to a VR3 or similar computer, The vision boys felt it was similar to their units. It certainly looked similar to the Shearwaters on the Meg's.
The GF deco is excellent I really like it. The dill flush check device is also fantastic. Press a button and it tells you what your PP02 should be for the preprogrammed dill at the depth your at. The menu driven system is tolerable especially as the buttons are so nice to use. However having to push the button 80times to get you to a low fraction of 02 is a tad irritating. The solenoid is LOUD which is cool as for the first time I can actually hear it firing all through the dive. The back light is fine and the ease of use of the unit in the water is excellent in all areas except wrist mounting which is OK but not brilliant.
The bad bits,
HUD is just not working the way I expected, which is odd as the unit had just been serviced before I bought it and the HUD and internal wiring was still in a heat sealed bag when it was delivered. I will be cleaning the connectors and retrying it. I tested it today and I found the buzzer works fine and it does flash red but you have to be looking directly at the end of it to see it. I will be taking the advice I got from J and making a shroud for the end.
Battery life is crap. Not just bad but totally crap. I have done dives longer than 180mins and it begs the question can I do them on this head unless I use the 3.6V lithium. On the other hand it might be the infamous non conducting grease thing but I never needed it in the Classic so why should I on the HH. I cant get my head around the fact the unit has touches of brilliance but seems totally let down by not having a battery monitor warning you of imminent shut down.
The nickel plating on the hand sets is not good at all. After only two dives both non penetration and hardly any serious wreck rummaging, the right hand hand set is chipped on the edges and showing the ali underneath. When I get into some serious spidging I can see the very posh hand sets looking decidedly second hand very quickly indeed.
CONCLUSIONS
So far I love it but its badly let down by the way it munches through batteries and the nickel plated hand sets. Ill hold back on criticism of the HUD as I think I need the proper mounting bracket. At the moment I have it cable tied to my old HUD mounting bracket and its just off the right side of the mouth piece. The angle of the stalk is great in that it puts the dome in front of my right eye but it shows me the side of the dome and the light is only clear looking head on to it. I think this is the reason it appeared not to work rather than any connection issue.
Tracking and set point stability can’t really be commented on until I get the cells sorted. Getting max 45mv from my brand new cells is rubbish especially when one of them puts out 39mv. Ill be talking to AP and see what they say but I am told I should be getting 50-60mv from a new cell.
Right now I have them soaking in a bag of 02 to see if I can wake them up
The battery issue is a serious concern. With two dives in good viz I hardly used the back light during the bottom phase of the dive. Admittedly I did a lot of switch pushing to go through the menus especially fafing with the calibration and stuff and fiddling around on deco but not so much as to justify eating two new cells in two dives. I will try the unit with Duracell’s on the next two day gig on the 19th June. If they last two dives ill be happy but I will defiantly have my VR3 backing me up on deco.
ATB
Mark Chase