Colkan Eagle

decoweenie

Was the BioPack-60 designed to be used u/w ?

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Scuttle

In the 4th picture you can see one of the sliding clips.

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MHD

Close but no cigar

the units are based on the abortive Cobra O2 unit. It certainly had commonality with late Biopak 60 etc, but was designed as an underwater unit (to answer phi's question)

I'll post some shots tonight (assuming they came out OK) that show some interesting design bits

Matt

Attached Images

molecular1.jpg (41.7 KB, 558 views)

Underwaterbear

My understanding is that Colkan secured the rights to develop the centre-section of the Biopak units for u/w use. But I heard that 12mths ago at least...

Calling Koputai...Come on Jas, where are you with the dope for us all?

S. Marc

Center section lid looks exactly like the Biopak 60 and 240 lids, as does the scrubber which looks like a slightly larger 60 scrubber but smaller than the 240 one.

Personally I like my biopaks, with the exception of the restriction in the exhale center section tube.

Nice plumbing job

SteveL

Well kids I am one of the bunnies doing the in water development dives so will keep you posted as we get it wet. In the mean time

A few more tit bits

Yes - It is loosely based around a biopak 60 - although the scrubber has been changed (increased) so it has an assumed 4 hrs duration - so more the size of a biopak 240- but it's not one.

There is a new scrubber and lid on the drawing board that will allow just under 4kg sorb about 8.5lbs but getting the unit as seen right first is the priority.

The operation / flow of the scrubber if you know these units is like the MK series Rebreather's - axial but in a big donut

Both the constant add version and the full electronic version use the small K1 sensors. The electronics either for monitoring or controlling SP are ultimatly from Sub Sea Systems.

If you know the operation of a 15.5 then you will understand the operation of the Eagle.

For the electronic version the setpoint is not changeable u/w - like the Mk series you set it at the surface then the unit is either on or off u/w - personally I like this but know that can generate into a pissing match in less than a second - so move on......

Calibration is simple - flood the loop with O2 then push a button in the back of the secondary and your done and push a button for the primary and your done. Simple - the Eccr also has a HUD

Both primary and secondary are seperate systems with seperate batteries.

The restrictor is not a problem and can (and will) be removed if it is a problem. The wob on my 15.5 and 5 years of an inspo will be the benchmark.

The plumbing is all stainless steel aka MK series - the first stages can have a main spring failure and the whole system will tolerate a high pressure spike - there are flow restrictors in line in the case of the electronic version so PPo2 will rise but it wont happen in a second.

The manual add valves are on the end of braided stainless hoses and can be placed wherever is convienient. They are also based around time proven schrader valves.

Yes the unit is small and light - but exactly the kgs - not sure its even been on scales yet

Phlosophically - yes the Eagle has Biomarine genes - Colin has been around this type of rebreather for many many years so it is not surprising. The MK series is a hallmark in design and the biopaks are used worldwide in mine and hazmat operations.

So while it is not either of these units the Eagle has a well proven linage upon which the military and many rescue organisations rely.

So to get a unit like this for a "civilian" price is nice indeed.

Just for the record I have NO financial involvement with Colkan at all - I and a few others (SteveP) will be doing the in water testing in the next few weeks or so.

Reports to follow in time.

Regards,

Steve L

Skipbreather

How close is this? I knew I’d seen this basic rig before- took quite a cull on the HD to find it.

I suspect it goes back even beyond the Cobra.

The CCR 25 was Biomarine’s attempt to build a marine version of the BP60 and sell it to the military. IIRC it never went anywhere. When Rexnord bought the BP designs, they tried to briefly market it to the public as a pure O2 Rebreather. One “unique” feature was that it came w/ a float tethered to the rig that enforced a 25 FSW depth limit in your basic crude-but-effective way.

Add a diluent tank, OTS gas controls, a BP240 scrubber & dome, and some very nice modern electronics and I believe this is essentially what we have here. If the *highly* restrictive ‘half moon’ choke point of the BP60/ 240 center section has been corrected (all you guys who’ve tried converting a BP know what I’m referring to), this has the potential to be a nice little mass market recreational rig.

Ken

Attached Images

	Seapak 7.jpg (91.1 KB, 520 views)
	Seapak 8.jpg (82.1 KB, 519 views)

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RonMicjan

from what I gathered from the seminar at Oztec and my own incredible observation skills

the unit is made from the "truckloads" (their word, not mine) of carleton parts that the manufacturer has laying about as well as some locally manufactured parts. The unit is converted from a SCBA used by firefighters with an additional cylinder G-snapped on the bottom. (should make it rather butt heavy and top light) The calibration of the PO2 secondary has to be done by removing a water tight screw cap from the back and pushing a button when you believe the loop is 98% O2. one part I didnt like was that you have to decide prior to the dive, whether you want a backlight on during the dive and that is selected using the same button under thecap.
uses K1d cells, has two setpoints, low and high that have to be selected prior to the dive. the HUD uses Green=Good, Red=bad logic, which of course isnt logical, considering some other discussions here on Rebreather World about good alarms vs bad alarms.

I did really like the gas lines they were using, SS braid, exceptionally flexible and some smaller kevlar wrapped lines for LP. all with well over 200bar burst pressure (even the LP liines) they claim that thier kiss valve will take the full 200 bar if the reg seat fails, so that is pretty cool. course you will have a big suprise if you hit the valve at say...90 meters, think I would still fit up a OPV on the reg. They mentioned that their production electronics package was going to be ANALOG, not digital.

They are making it in 4 versions, one being a Kiss style and another fully electronic, but I dont remember the other two versions, maybe one an SCR...?
weight estimated at 20 kilos. the SCBA unit was the biopack 240, if I remember my facts correctly, the rest of the above I had notes on.

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Ron
"Life is pain princess, anyone who tells you different, is selling something", The Dread Pirate Wesley.


www.tmishop.com Diving bits etc.

RonMicjan

oh yeah, thanks for reminding me of that ken, they have not corrected the choke point when I saw the rig and said that they would think about it after testing to see WOB. No problem of course as a SCBA with no gas density issurs to worry about, but at depth, potentially a problem. I had asked Colin a bunch of questions about this unit during the presentation, the answers were marketing orientated, not engineering, so im guessing he is the sales man, not the builder. Pricing quoted was 6800AUD for the leaky valve version and 11,800AUD for the E-CCR with no plans to export. Not sure why the no export thing

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Ron
"Life is pain princess, anyone who tells you different, is selling something", The Dread Pirate Wesley.


www.tmishop.com Diving bits etc.

Dave Sutton

<removed a statement about Ron being "testy".... my error.. really I was just frustrated at "let's make fun of it before we have seen it" comments made by the herd.......sorry!>

On to the facts:

Biomarine engineered this as a system of hardware that could be used in either an underwater or topside environment. This is a logical development of the Biomarine "series" (of which the BMR-500 was a dead end, but for other reasons). Biomarine had a series of diving rigs based on the center section and the fact that they never were a commercial success says more about the numbers that they sold as hazmat rebreathers (huge volume) versus the small numbers they "might" have sold as a diving rig. Remember that there was NO mrket for civil rebreathers when they were developing this hardware, only a military market. Biomarine was always a small firm with limited R&D funds. Why develop what you will not sell?

On to the rig:

The electronics are *great*. The primary electronics are the same as I am using in my Mark-15 and are the only digital electronics I have been happy with from a reliablity standpoint. The electronics are digital, not analog, but are "single purpose", meaning that they hold setpoint and do no other work. Add the deco computer of your choice and add a 4th cell to run it. The computer will be obsolete in 20 years... the setpoint controller will not.

The HUD is fine. Green = good and Red = check secondary. Little known fact: You can remove the HUD and plug in a Mark-15 primary and have the entire LED row if you prefer that to a HUD. It only takes a button push during caibration to switch the software between "HUD" and Mark-15 Primary" modes. Colkan makes an excellent LED primary if that is what you want.

The secondary is also the same as what I have been using on my Mark-15 and it is also excellent Leave the backlight on all the time... it does not appreciably affect battery life. Calibrate it every 3 months and forget about it.

The ADV is a Schreader and is the *ONLY* ADV that will allow a leaking or "not locked up" HP seat failure to occur without an ADV freeflow. Kudus! A leaking ADV with low 02 mix just caused the near-accident that is being discussed elsewhere. Leaking ADV's are *bad news*. This is the only rig other than the Mark-15 to use one that I trust.

The use of all HP tubing in the rig, so as to allow a HP seat failure to be tolerated is right out of the Mark-15 series. I would not add an OPV to the system, allow a HP leak to do its thing and you will not lose your gas.

I LOVE the manual add valves, as they are also Schraeder derived. Send me two and I'll add them to my Mark-15 to relocate the manual add valves from the ass of the Mark-15 to the shoulders where the belong (see the 'Boris).

The direct reading secondary from the cells is right out of the Mark-15 and is one of the best safety features a rig can have.

For a simple "Sports" rig this rig compares to the Mark-15 as the Classic KISS compares to the Sport Kiss. I'd love to have one. It's a logical "little brother" to the Mark-15 series.


Well done! Col, you have my address. Export!

Dave

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