First Two dives on the Hammer Head

Mark Chase

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

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Is it supposed to make that noise ?

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schford

Thanks Mark - I love reading you reports :-)

On the Handset sliding around I used to have the same problem on my Shearwater - I would always have to re tighten it underwater when things compress.

I am not sure of the fittings on the Hammerhead but for the Shearwater there was enough room for me to make a custom elasticated wrist strap which self tightens...

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PCDiver

About the HUD. I had the same problem no green no yellow, only red. I tested with the HH of a friend of mine. It was the HUD and not the connection. The unit of my friend is now at JM for a "nickel plated to SS" upgrade, so I sent my HUD with his handsets to JM. I'm now using his HUD and it works great. We will see what Kevin says about the HUD.

The handsets are rather heavy so you have to pull the straps really tight. I keep the secondary clipped off to a d-ring. The cable for the primary is twisted once around my arm. That keeps it better in place.

Mark, if you still have the first nickel plated version, talk to Kevin about an upgrade to the latest version. They are more robust and the SS bezel is far better than the nickel plated one.

Calibration - calibrate at home before the dive trip. I don't calibrate very often (ones per month or so and before a longer trip), but I check the MV cell readings in air and at 6 meters with O2.

Battery problem. I'm using contact cleaner spray because I have not found that conductive grease and that also helps. I had a problem with a battery at depth. I checked the battery with a battery tester and it was still good. I cleaned the battery compartment and the cap threads and continued using the same battery. No problem.

Peter

Claudio

I am using from some month the new HH. The nickel protection of the cases is not good. The life of AA alkaline batteries 1.5 volts is completely insufficient in long technical dives. The use of the lithium 3.6 volts batteries could be a good solution, but I have not found nothing on their duration.
When the necessary modernization that it allows to read the state of the batteries in the handset?

PCDiver

I got 17 hours out of one 3.6 V AA battery. I forgot the brand. The Saft is supposed to give 20+.

diverklondike

Mark,

Couple things....

1) As far as the wrist units go and them flapping arround.... I use rubber tubing that I can easily pull tighter underwater. This and the fact that the rubber tubing does not slide around has worked well...

2) In your post I thought you mentioned a brightness issue with your hud. All you need to do is to make a simple hood or sleeve that blocks the ambient light from the back of the hud. A small piece from a black hose protector works well.

3) As far as the battery life goes I would simply make sure that your handsets are turing off post dive and that you do not leave the unit in a state that would cause it to be in an alarm mode. This will chew up a battery.

I will try and fine time later today to take a couple pics for you of my hud and wrist unit set-up.

Dive Safe...

Mark

ScubaDadMiami

Your report is great and sounds similar to issues that I have found in my sets.

Regarding the slipping hand sets, I purchased wrist slates, and I attached my sets to those. This keeps them stable, and makes it easier to slip them on and off of my drysuit. To each wrist slate, I attached 1 inch elastic webbing that slides through a "buckle" so that I can adjust the length. Now, the process is a dream. I keep the elastic loose to slip over my drysuit cuff, and then I tighten it down. The hand sets stay put after that.

I also had the differing read outs on the nickel plated sets. My understanding is that this has been resolved with the new aluminum sets. I'll let you know once I have enough dives on them to tell.

Regarding the "bad cell," I found that it was the connector on the wiring harness that was my problem when a cell suddenly died on me right before entering the water. You might want to check that again before resting on the idea that it is the cell that went bad.

Concerning the battery life, make sure to change the hand set over the OC after exiting the water. Rinse the hand sets with fresh water, and then put the hand set to sleep rather than just allowing it to go off on its own.

Second, I tend to set my set point at the lower end of the spectrum, more like a back up, and then operate my unit above that using manual injection. Were you letting the solenoid fire using battery power? Perhaps that was what killed your main set battery so quickly. (I am not making excuses here. I, too, wish for a long battery life.)

I went on a live aboard trip last week, using the Saft batteries in my hand sets. I used one set for the four day trip without problems. I put about 11 hours on these batteries in the water, and then you can think of some extra time between pre-dive. No problems.

At this point, I am electing to use alkaline for local day outings, and I will change frequently. For live aboards and such, I will probably use the Safts or equivalent. Just remember to put your main set to sleep before changing the batteries in order to preserve the stored information from previous dives.

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Howard Packer
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Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

PCDiver

Why would you buy an ECCR if you do most of the work yourself

If you can use the "go to sleep" option, you can also wait for the unit to turn off automatically. If the wetsensor is wet or the depth sensor is still reading a depth, the "go to sleep" option will not work.

Mark Chase

Thank you all for the feed back its much appreciated.

Just a note to say I let the hand set control the set point and usually run 1.3 as a bad habit from my Insp training.

The HUD definitely has no other color on offer except red. I am going to clean the contacts with Biox and see if that makes a difference but if not its back to KJ for repair.

I realize I can set it to 1.1 and run it manually and I understand the muscle memory advantages of this but if i had wanted a manual CCR id have saved a shed load of money and bought a KISS so sorry its not for me.

ATB

Mark Chase

__________________
Is it supposed to make that noise ?

I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit.

Join my elite diving teem and get a Tshirt

"Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System

Dinspiration

The best way to mount your HUD on your BI is the DIVA Mount from divematics:

http://www.divenet.com/divematics/divamount/


I heard serveral times the wish to have a battery voltage information displayed on the HH. On my opinion this will be a useless feature. Like on the VR3 it only shows the actual voltage (3.6, 3.5, 3.4 etc.) but you have no guaranty that it goes under the critical voltage 20 minutes after you started your dive! You can only see that the battery is going down, but not when.

On my opinion the only secure solution against empty batteries is to change them on a regulary basis.


DINspiration