Hello from PRISM Diver in L.A.

astralcat

Hi,

I've been diving my Prism for a couple years. I'm interested in communicating with other Prism divers about Mods. Also, I have the following questions to the general CCR community:

1.) Anybody have a line on an ultra lightweight bailout CCR?

2.)I'm cave certified open circuit but don't have the boyuncy control w/ my CCR that I have with SCUBA. Anybody got any tips on precise boyuncy control using CCR in Caves?

3.) Does anybody have a CAD on a backplate for the PRISM so I can get some Titanium cut?

Thanks in advance!

-Glenn

Chris

Hi Glenn
First off you might want to trim back those breathing hoses

Ok my Mods are pretty simple so far.

Replaced the Dil First stage with a Zeagle DSV, makes for better hose routing

Stripped off the Gimp harness and running the lower half of a Zeagle TecPac whilst still using the lungs for the shoulder, combined with a Zeagle SS backplate for some weight all held onto the PRISM ABS plate with one of Tobin’s "Cool Hardware" Plate conversion kits.

Longer SPG hoses now feed through the back of the lung and just pock out the bottom

I mount the weights in the very top of the lungs as oppose to the pockets I find I need less weight to get trim, I just have a loop of rope that goes over the plastic clasp and the weights are suspended in the lung.

Installed a Manifold and now run a Bungy necklace second stage and a normal inflator as oppose to the ScubaPro Air2, also allows me to plug in off board gas.

Shutoff valve on the ADV

Sidemount my bailout Ala Armadillo style

Planning on removing the analogue secondary and replacing it with a digital from Jason M

Replaced the foam pads in the bottom of the bucket that so nothing to some cut out chamois as they absorb the moisture soo much better

Umm that’s about it so far....

Cheers
Chriso

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DaveC

Welcome to the board... We need more Prism divers up here posting. It seems there is not enough of us.

Just started diving my unit, the wife and I, I mean and have made some mod's to allow these units to be dove in cold water and also distrubute the weight a bit better. Who ever said these units were light in weight lied!!!!!!! They're about the weight of a small set of twins But the bottom time vs the gas used is much goodder then OC.

So far I've added an air block that I managed to get from a Mares HUB this has allow me to flip out the Air2 and go with a normal inflator and put the bailout on a bungie neckles under the chin. Leaving one port pluged for future use. This is mounted to the plate below the bucket area.

Keeping the plastic plate, I've duplicated the same in 1/8 SS ( less the bucket cradle) which gets bolted directly to plastic plate via the bold holes of the head, where the BC attaches (wife uses the stock BC) and where the added 6lb "P" weights to the underside of the tanks get bolted. (they sit between the plate and my back, one on each side.) This adds about 20lbs to the unit coupled with the drysuit bracket that is detachable on the bottom (another 5lbs) for a total of about 25 lbs. Yes we need that much with the dry suit and underwear we wear up here in 40ish water. On here I run a 13cuft bottle which I drive my wing ( a Oxycheq KISS wing for now, but the jury is still out on it. ) I've taken my OC BP and had it modified so that its a little flatter on the unit and the hoses run up behind it just perfect.

The plastic pressure guages have been replaced with brass ones. (I got tired of diving with little hard-ons everytime I turn on the gas) and these sit runing down the outside of the CL's just perfect.

Bailout is caried in somewhat a similiar fassion as to the way sidemount is done. Bottom of bottle is attached down in the area of the drysuit bracket while the neck of the tank is held by a bungie I have on the nipple rings of the harness. I've tried the under the CL "D-ring" but didn't like them.

As I've only got 20hrs on the unit, my bouyancy and trim still leave allot to be desired (coming from OC trimix and cave trained) but I'm getting there. At least I don't hit the silty bottom too hard and can manage to pick up the little cray fish we have without pushing them into the mud. (they really don't like that) But I figure if I can pick these little critters up and play with them without stirring up the bottom then I'm doing pretty good, especially if this is being done in 20' feet of water where the gas shift is the greatest.

Did another 2 hr dive last night (flew manual for 95% of the dive) and have some minor adjustments to make to get my trim so I'm not swiming feet up and looking at the mud all the time But over all, we're getting the hang of it.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Dave

NEwreckdiver

Hi there -

We dive the PRISM in the NAUI Tec configuration -- which is basically a hogarthian harness (continuous piece) type configuration with this backplate system:

http://greywolfinnovations.com/prod_bpcovsys.htm

I personally prefer the short plate system with adapter plate - and you can get this in ss or titanium.

The NTEC rig with traditional tech type harness is more conducive to carrying bailout bottles than the stock rig BC harness. You can use any standard wing. We find that by cris-crossing the counterlung straps that slide along the waist, it pulls the counterlungs in, exposing the shoulder d- rings. I have no trouble hitting the d-rings this way.

I have a ton of pictures showing a "PRISM teardown" and rework into this configuration -- just been swamped and behind in getting them up on our site.

Cheers,
Heather Knowles

jdz

Hi there,
I've also done some messing around with my unit..

I replaced the plastic base plate and use a narrower alum plate with the same slots etc.. (the max width is from the outer tank slots holes)

The clung top attachment clips are from the original supplied Y section and this only is bolted directly onto the plate in the normal fashion.

I am using the original Draeger Atlantis "Donut wing" and is attached around the perimeter of the alum plate. This keeps my profile lower than doubling up on the backplates.

I use a single waiststrap through the base of the alum plate, with sidemount rings to accomodate bailout bottles and two bungy loops attached from the mid/upper side of the alum plate to the underside of the clungs, for attaching the b/out tank necks.

The spgs are extended and fed through the clungs.

There are a few other harness mods, eg crutchstraps, suit inflation bottle for deepdives, etc. and I'll see if I can get some photos up after the weekend...

wrt to CAD, in my experience, the various holes in your plastic backplate are all individually drilled and are not necessarily the same across all units!! there are "slotting" issues involved!! Better off using your plate as the template for your unit..

wrt to cavediving trim... good luck!! I am sure you have encountered all the variables including alum/steel tanks, drysuits, variable depth, unit placement, bc vs suit buoyancy control, etc etc... all I can say is that what I get right for a horizontal cave, becomes different for a vertical cave! However, when I repeat the dive, I get better at the trim each time!

Cheers, JDZ

Bubble Boy

Well pretty much the same as Chriso but not the same

• Tobin plate for any harness - remove gimp harness (not enough pockets or attachment points
• Using lower half of transpac with upper half of PRISM so orignal upper counterlung configuration.
• 2" webbing and drings from top of Transpac over shoulders to provide top mount point for Armadillo style slings
• Crotch strap
• Extended HP Hoses threaded through counterlungs
• AP Valves large capacity red wing with bail out inflation bottle attached
• Added tank connector for Green Force Arrow 12 to harness

items still to do

• Waiting for Jaosn to make my Digital secondary water tight (still preproduction)
• Adding dil injection button to counterlung
• get webbing on Transpac converted from 1 1/2" to 1" so outside clips on counterlungs engage
• thinking about making a stainless steel chassis for the unit to protect the head and provide more cylinder flexibilty

I'll get some pictures taken and have them posted when I get a chance

robinfante

I'm diving the grey wolf tech ss tech backplate, with room for a drysuit bottle. I also use the (ABS?) cover, which is indeed scratched, gouged, etc., a real lifesaver. Ditched the silly air2 and bc entirely, I just use a halcyon 50-something pound wing and inflator. For NE wreck diving I put 4# x 2 in the c-lung pockets, and 4# x 2 strapped to the top of the tanks with some webbing and hose clamps. That covers me nicely in my extreme plus undies. I'm still tweaking the sidemount bailout, it isn't quite where I want it to be yet. I keep the secondary on a retractor, nice and tidy, but am still thinking about wrist mounting it. I have a hose to my dil first stage so I can run more dil in for bailout, but I'm not completely comfortable with the lack of redundancy there. I'd much prefer a swivel or something on the dil injector so I could just plug into there. I also hope to rig up a more sturdy holder for the HUD, that rubber one is just plain cheesy. I always have HUD-holder envy when I see the one the Meg sports.

More to the point of this post though, you can get a titanium backplate from Dave Weber at grey wolf. That would be so much quicker/easier/cheaper than making one yourself.