DT Box knock-offs on E-bay

caveseeker7

They're online now.

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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.'!"

edster

Just a few notes about my experiences so far with the box.


Manifold
You need a manifold support which doesnt come with it, you can see the brown plastic one in the gallery that I made up, and it is held on with the screws that go through the black case, and redundant cable ties. Not a difficult job, but necessary before you can do much.

Hoses
I found that I needed to re-configure the hoses coming out of the dil side of the manifold so that some came out of the top of the box, and some out of the side at the top (see photos). It would be tricky to get them all out of the top. There is another cutout in the side of the box so that you can route a hose directly out of the manifold end and out the box if you wish. (See below about cylinder positions though). I have put cable wrap around the hoses to protect them against the case (which is actually very smooth and well finished) and have a second layer to put on which twists in the opposite direction so should provide good protection and the metal won't separate the spiral. I cable tied the current ones to hold them in position and hopefully not separate.

Scrubber
There is just enough room for the scrubber, and it is worth binding it in tightly as the righthand handset cable could be squashed by the lid if you let it hang back in the box.

Cylinders
Because I have made the hoses come out the side of the top, they slightly get in the way of the top of the dil bottle. This means it is hard to hold it in position, tighten up the cam band, and leave much gap under the valve without it contacting the frame at the base. The same applies to the O2 side (see photos). I'm about to try getting a double banding system in place, possibly backed by rubber / neoprene, to hold them where I want them. My current setup doesnt seem to really grip them tight enough to stop them slowly sliding down. If I was to move the bottles further back, this wouldn't be a problem, but I'm doing this so that they are as close as possible to my body.

Handle
No handle supplied, I have tied a little bit of webbing to the bottom D ring (see photo) and then threaded it through some thick, blue water pipe. This then goes back and off to the side where its temporarily held in by some D-ring retainers. I'm going to route it down to the D ring, but my bit of webbing wasnt quite long enough. It does mean doing this that you can pull the handle right down out of the way when not in use.

Weight
It's noticeably heavier than the plastic box, and less bouyant. In fresh water I have knocked off about 4.5kg, so that has helped my trim adjustment quite noticeably! The lead pocket on the top of the box needs to have the plastic plate removed to fit, but you can take the lid off with the lead in situ without any problem.

Fitting
No problems, the holes are all in the right places.

Summary so far
I like it. Not perfect, and lots of fiddling still to do, but good value i'd say

cheers

Ed

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decoweenie

Correction:

If anyone is looking for a nice travel-frame which started off as a combined design of the DT-box and Weenie-frame, but might ended up looking more like the Jan-box.

We will have more information in a few weeks.

The MAIN criteria is weigh less than 2-kg (4.5-lb) and fits in carry-on luggage.

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edster

I'm interested - cant take this one to the Red Sea in Jan/Feb, and I'm not sure about turning my yellow box into a Gorgonzola.....

cheers

Ed

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decoweenie

I will post more as soon as we are closer to production, but things are progressing very nicely.

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PCDiver

Has anybody played with the idea of replacing the entire scubber cannister instead of creating a new frame?

decoweenie

Like even smaller than ~2-kg as in my Evolution scrubber ?

I don't know how feasible/easy it would be, but making a frame is easier for me personally since I don't know any sources who could work with plastic...

Also, the Evolution is providing me with a full 2-dives/day for 2-day week-end nicely already so not sure I want to reduce the sorb amount even though the scrubber monitor told me that 1/2 of the sorb is still active after 4.5 hours in the water.

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"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM

PCDiver

I was thinking about replacing the plastic bottom part of scrubber cannister with a metal one so bottles could be attached directly to the scrubber. One problem I see is the different expansion from the head compared to the SS/alumunim of the scrubber body causing leaks.

decoweenie

Huhmm, interesting idea... We'll see... :grin:

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"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM

PCDiver

Did I miss something?