Evolution Buildup

Evolution Build-up
By Dave Bewick


This is a fairly new toy for me, so I thought stripping the whole unit down would be useful for me, and interesting to those not familiar with this mini-me CCR. The first attempt to publish this didn't work, but all the photos have been on the site for a few weeks, so some of you may have seen them and wondered what it was all about.


The only bits I didn't break down were to take off the integrated weight pockets, which are bolted through the waist strap, or to take the lung bladders apart.

Starting with making up the case, wing, lungs and harness.

One hose on each side needs to be undone to strip/rebuild the unit. On the O2 side it’s the contents gauge, on the dil side the mini manifold. The 4 photos below show:

• The O2 Contents gauge threaded through the case
• The O2 1st stage connected with the remaining hoses threaded through the case
• The Dil 1st stage in place
• The Dil mini-manifold connected (the 3 hoses coming off the manifold then go through a slot in the back of the case)

The wing, lungs and harness all attach to the case with 2 bolts.


Once all three are threaded onto the bolts the shoulder straps of the harness thread through loops on the inside of the lungs. So the top half of the lung is tight to the harness, there is a strap on the bottom of the lung that snaps to the bottom of the harness waist strap.


Going back to the front, I have the two contents gauges on the inner side of the lungs, there is some Velcro flaps to hold them in place. I have also connected the two manual inflates, the AutoAir and the ADV hose.


Next add the mouthpiece hoses and the exhale top hose.


Now to put the head together. The inside looks like this.


The first thing is to fit the plastic cage that contains this lot – then do a quick check of the controller to make sure all cells are reading correctly and the batteries are fine. It’s a pain to put the whole thing together and then realise you have to come back to this bit again. You see the lead coming out of the cage – that is the PC connection and the Scrubber monitor connection as well.


Drop the scrubber canister into the scrubber, then the ‘o’ ring, then the plastic ring, very similar to an inspiration at this point. The lead coming out of the centre of the canister is the scrubber monitor.


To fit the head to the scrubber connect the two leads together, push the excess back into the head cage, and then push the head into place.


The catches are just lift and turn 90 degrees.


The cylinders are held in place by Velcro straps. You don’t have to fit them before the scrubber, but I do. Then connect the exhale hose and solenoid to the scrubber with the scrubber body much further down than its final position. This gives lots of room for fingers to work. The scrubber then slots into the case and is also held with a Velcro strap.


You now need to connect the buzzer to the ADV T piece, which then allows the inhale top hose to be fitted to the T piece and the top of the scrubber.


So now you can shut the case and tidy up the hoses. (The two untidy ones on the left are the wrist display and dry suit DF.)


The HUD just clicks into the holder on the left of the mouthpiece and then the fibre optic cable clicks into 4 clips on the hose.


After positive and negative checks and a few button presses the unit calibrates and is ready for the water.


The shot below is after a couple of minutes pre-breathe. For further details on the display you can download the manual from Ambient Pressure Diving Ltd.


I didn't show fitting the integrated weights or the emergency cylinder for the wing, both of which I use, but you do need to leave some mystery!

Happy diving.

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