Carleton Viper

Pierre Farrugia

Has anyone heard of this rebreather http://www.carltech.com/diving/sivaviper_e.html lloks very small

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Pierre Farrugia

My wife told me " If you don't quit diving I'm going to leave you"
My reply " God, I'll miss you"

www.atlam.org www.divemed.com

ROB DAVIE

Quote: (Originally Posted by Pierre Farrugia)

Has anyone heard of this rebreather

The Carleton Technologies" Viper is a nice little unit with a massive price tag and a very un-flattering slang name!

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[SIZE=2]"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving [U]WHEN PIGS FLY[/U]!!"--GI3[/SIZE]

caveseeker7

Not quite, but the Viper actually shares some DNA with the PRISM. For a while Carleton and Steam Machines worked together to build a CCR for the civilian market that could also replace the MK16. After they went separate ways Carleton went on to develop the Viper, while Steam Machines builds the Topaz. Both go back to early the same late ninties prototypes (picture at Divenet's 99 DEMA Rebreather Party page).

The Viper has a radial scrubber that's similar in size and capacity to early SMI units, and shares the gas flow direction through it to increase duration. It has over the shoulder split counterlungs with weight pouches underneath. It uses electronics/pod and spheres like the MK16.

The guys from the EDU usually have a booth at DEMA and display a rebreather or two. The picture below shows a Viper they displayed last year. I memory serves me right this is the SC version. At least it's larger than the ones on their website.

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Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'!"

Crazyduck

With balls… that’s rather interesting.. humm analogy.

Was there an open reason that Carlton did not enter the civilian market? I can see if they had a concern with exposing military technology; but to be honest civilian technology has in most cases been the basis for multiple military projects although DARPA might not want talk about that.

Interesting unit… ditch the sphere’s- can you see trying to get those filled or tested-! Yikes.

caveseeker7

Well, imagine the Viper with a purple head and pink cannister ...

Every MK diver deals with spherical non-DOT tanks, pita but can't be that much of a problem.
You'll just have to fill them yourself.

Most likely two reasons Carleton never entered the civilian market:
- liability
- profit

The first one is major, and by selling to the military which does their own testing they avoid that exposure.

Even if they make their units in modified form available to us, how many MK16 you reckon they will sell ... with a $58.000 price tag? The Viper E is in the same neighborhood. Plus the added expense for customer service, marketing and so on.

Throw out the $7.000 piezoelectronic valve and add a normal solenoid and you pretty much have the equivalent of a SM1600 or Colkan155, which sold/sell around $15,000. You get the idea. Huge profit margin when you sell to the military only.

And PRISM is already on the market with longer cannister duration, more modern electronics at about 1/7 of the price, so the eViper would be kind of pointless.

The part that bugs me to no end is that they stopped supplying the companies that once build from that supply with spares. Even at their high parts prices it would be so much easier to maintain (or even build) civilian MKs.

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Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'!"

Crazyduck

Pink balls huh

Stefan, I am with you on the construction and distribution of products that Carlton is doing- makes no sense.

Thanks for the background.

Have a good weekend mate.

Andrew

Stalinsky

The Viper is a great piece of equipment, but just a tad OTT for the civilian market with the current specs, but definitely a nice Rebreather if it did'nt have to come in non-magnetic alloys. Just the "balls" cost about $10 000 each... Insane price tag...

But it is a dream to dive with, perfectly balanced, extremely low drag, and it's pretty light weight, you can carry it with you quite a distance if necessary(been there, done that). Really like the chest mounted counterlungs with weight puches, but is it really wrong according to EU regulations to have chest mounted CL?

Had about 100 dives with this one, the SC that is, and if it was a civilian version of it, it should'nt be that expensive, really simple construction, and it is meant to be easy to maintain wherever you are. No parts you can't fix yourself at all, pretty nice setup.

Any other popular Rebreather's with chest mountd CLs?

Offgas

Who makes these piezoelectric valves used in certain ccrs? A google yields MANY results.

jhaaja

I don`t think there is any EU regulation about the placement of lungs. The Inspiration, Megalodon, Prism Topaz for example have over the shouldert CLs. I guess it is WOB that is controlled when you want a Rebreather under CE-tag. Of course there is more to it, but I am no expert on that.

Our navy has also those Vipers in use.

JH
Finland

AD_ward9

They are not the bee-knees they may seem. If helium gets into them, they stop working. Helium and piezo-electricity have a strange relationship. Just try a piezo microphone or speaker in helium for a while. The only reason the Viper uses them is for low magnetic signature (they can't use a solenoid, or a normal motor).

Alex