Hammerhead vs Vision

mwl145q

Hi All

I have a 'Classic' Inspiration and figure its time for an upgrade and was wondering if Hammerhead would be a good way to go rather than the new vision (which is way more expensove). Would like to hear from both Vision and Hammerhead users and and anyone who has used both.

Thanks Paul

divetheworld

They are both very capable systems, each with their own...erm....personalities.

Might I suggest that they are so very different in some ways that it is difficult to make a direct comparison. Sure thay both have HUD's and integrated deco and stuff but redundancy and physical construction are on different worlds.
Is one really better than the other or is it a case of it suits different divers better with different features.

Kevin is on this board and there is a wealth of information on here about both. I'm sure if there is something you need which is specific in your search for an upgrade, there are the very best on here to answer that question.

In the mean time, just incase you dont have it, here is th elink to the HH manual -> http://www.electricfilm.com/HH_manual_30.PDF
And here for the Vision -> Ambient Pressure Diving Ltd.
With simulator ->Ambient Pressure Diving Ltd.

If that manual is not the up-to-date one for the HH then Kevin or Joe Radomski are on here and I'm sure they will point you in the right direction.

Best of luck with your search.

Brent.

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Dave Young

The latest HammerHead manual is version 1.0c and the link for it is here: http://www.rebreather.us/Site%202/HammerHead%20Electronics%20User%20Manual%201.0c.pd f

It's also worth checking out the Juergensen Marine, Inc. site: http://www.rebreather.us/

Hope this helps,

Dave

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woody

The new Hammerhead has had most of the construction material bugs ironed out and is now a robust piece of kit, I would recommend that you buy only the latest type from Kevin

It is a truly independent controller and monitor of your PO2 and has a good hud with a vibrating alert you can not miss!

There are good and bad points on each unit. The service from Kevin J was excellent when i needed it.

The USD is weak against the UKP at the moment so the HH represents good value.

Hope this helps.

Mike

PS: The set point control on the HH is a very strong feature.

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Mark Chase

Hi

I dive the Hammer Head and have had all the latest upgrades. If the conection problems are a thing of the past its a stunning piece of kit.

The only thing the Vision has to offer is the temp stick which is of very limited benifit to me. On read sea trips where i am pushing the scrubber to save on lime yes but for my normal diving I rarley do more than one 2hour+ dive on any fill.

I dont like the single hand set on the vision. Its suposed to be OK but look at Nigles recent incident whewre it froze and he had no second hand set to compare PP02 readings with. Two hand sets is a bit of a PITA to rig but its my idea of proper redundancy.

The head is very easy to work with and mantain and the hand sets are intuitave in use. One or two dives and your skipping arround the menue like a pro. Cell swaping is a brease and its realy simple to rig off board in line deco with a forth cell space and cable conector designed into the unit as standard.

For the price of the Vision I ended up with two virtualy new HH units and a classic body. The vision is not reliable enough on its own for me to risk only having a single head so i am much hapier with the two HH's to cover my many multi day trips.

I was going to keep my clasic head as a back up but in the end i just hated the idea of going back to dive the classic so I got another HH.

I also aquired a third unit when i baught the Inspo. This has just been given the latest upgrades. Its got 4 hours diving on it. If your interested i am selling it. Its still in the bubble wrap.

ATB

Mark Chase

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See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!!

Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08
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mwl145q

Thanks for all the replies especially to Mark for his time on the phone, very surprised not to get any feedback from Vision owners.

Paul.

Gill Envy

I for one, have a hard time comparing two things when i've only used one.

My general impression is that the hammerhead electronics are touted as being more stable while the vision electronics are more state of the art.

I've gone through ups and downs trusting the vision electronics. I now have, what i believe, is a solid sense of what issues to look out for, mostly sudden voltage drops that can sap the timers of juice and throw off the decompression and CNS timers...and with really inadequate batteries may even render the battery hand off mode disfunctional...leading to a total power failure. As i've said in other posts, i've created many of the timer issues, flashing screen and power failure when testing a bad batch of batteries at the surface...even with a good battery in B2. This was fixed by installing fresh batteries without a fresh software install, and on an old version of the software.

I'm being very vigalent about swapping out batteries and using only duracell ultras or Fijitsu which seem to have specific recycle requirements of the voltage regulation system of the vision. I'm also assuming that should i ever end up with a low battery causing a switch to B2 that the timers might not be correct from that point on, until they have zeroed out the next day.

I have not personally had any issues on a dive with either of our units...though a barrowed head threw a bogus cns alarm right after switching from B1 to B2. I love the temp stick, have full confidence in the oxygen regulation system of the vision. I recommend the vision elelctronics, diving with them is a dream.

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decoweenie

I guess because it has all been said before...

The Vision so far has been the best eCCR controller that I have used.

May be I am lucky, but I do not get any of the issues mentioned here by other Vision owners. However, I don't jump on the latest software release as soon as it arrives. If the last version works for me, I don't see the need to update unless there is something specific that I need. So the issue could be from software bugs of new features (?)

I love the Vision handset button and the Temp-Stick, but still getting used to the continuous-moving deco ceiling instead of fixed-incremental stops. Love the HUD, but wish that there is the option of using Smithers code as well.

In general, it has been problem-free for the last 15 months with the Vision.

In a few weeks, I should be getting my YBOD-Shearwater lid (i.e. another option for you) and will post my comments. In the past, I have used the Classic-KISS-Shearwater and loved it, thus the reason to stay with Shearwater.

The deco works exactly as GF tables (on same settings) on a square dive profiles. Buttons on the Shearwater are also very nice, as well as the menu lay-out.

The only 2 things that could be improved are smaller handset and better screen (i.e. color VR-3). I don't mind changing batteries more often in order to get better display.

I didn't have luck with my Classic-KISS-HH, but to be fair to Kevin, I was on the bleeding-edge with my version of the HH since I crash-tested it at the time. A lot have been changed, upgraded and modified continuously since when I dived it so my experience with it should be a thing of the past. A lot of people seem to be very happy with the latest version of the HH.

New divers coming into the eCCR scene are so sploiled with choices, and most of them are excellent choices as well. Go back 5-6 years and the choices were a lot more limited then, as well as the features.

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Depth-junkie

I have around 82hrs on my vision inspo, had a few teething probs along the way over the last 12 month's but all in all it just works, you swich it on callibrate it and go diving. The few probs i have had are the timer issue on the early software version, and missed deco showing after every dive on version 02.01.02....oddly i dont have any deco software enabled (basic timer version only).

The latest software update sorted the missed deco problem and since then the unit has been rock solid.

I love the temp stick, regardless of what people say it works great E.G did a 60m 84min dive, left the lime for 4 weeks in the scrubber. Then took my wife for a warm up dive before we went on holiday (she had not dived for 4months and wanted a dive before we went away) we did a 16m dive for 1hr and the temp stick started off exactly were it left off 4 weeks earlyer,brilliant.

I like the single handset, and being straped to the wrist i find monitoring easyer and inturn i personly find that you tend to have a quick look a lot more often than when you have to physicaly pick up the hansets E.G on ascent when you are ascending on a reel and SMB for example, the PPO2 info on the handset is there in front of you all the time, you dont have to reach about and bring the handset up as you do on say a classic inspo, so IMHO it makes the whole monitoring proccess a lot easyer and more regular.

The HUD is good, and i find it adds another safety measure for eccr.

The new head layout is fab and swaping cells out etc is a massive improvment over the classic head.

The software again is very user freindly, the auto setpiont change is a great tool and i look at it like AC on a car. You wont miss it until you have had it. Then you would never want to dive it with out it. My personel fave feature on the vision software.

As for vision V HH, i cant really comment as i have never dived the HH but i have a M8 who has owned a inspo HH and has recently upgraded to the vision elecs, I know which one he prefers when he does not forget a certain few parts that fit in the scrubber housing

ATB
Gareth

decoweenie

I think I know who your mate is...

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