Megalodon Build up / Break down

Megalodon Build up / Break down
By Stuart Ford


Well I stripped it fully down for a change and was left with this little lot for me to build for you all to see.


It looks worse than it is! But only took about 5 minutes to strip down to that lovely pile of expensive diving bits!

Well the first thing I always like to start with is the head.


Above you can see all components. Including the HUD, wrist mounted computer, sensors, and main body.

Stage one is putting the sensor cage onto the head.


I have labelled the components, the Computers and batteries are located in 1 ata containers outside the breathing loop.

Next up is to secure it all together with the end cap.


Then you check your seals and the operation of the one-way valve for the water drain and when that’s ok, you can move onto calibrating if you have the calibration kit.


First thing you need to do is put the machined cap onto the 'bottom' of the head


and the dust cap and flow reducer on the 'top' of the head


Then it’s just a matter of connecting it to your O2


Turning it on, waiting until the o2 is over 98% (either wait 2 mins or attach O2 sensor with surgical tubing to one way valve) and then hit calibrate, all this and you only use 1 bar of O2 max.


I then check my milivolt reading both in 100% O2 and then when it’s in air eg 21% O2 and make sure all sensors read above 8.5mv


Well that’s the hard (not really!) stuff done now its time to put it all together.

First up is adding the cylinders to the can.


With the Tiger Mounts, it is simplicity in itself. If you are getting a Meg don't even think of being a cheap skate and not getting them, Leon picked them for a reason. Next, it's adding the first stages and hoses (they are mountain bike inner tubes keeping hoses together).


Dead easy this isn't it! Next, it’s adding the wing on and this is where I start to feel proud of myself...


See those arrows, that’s my idea that is, something Leon doesn't do! (although he probably has a good reason for it ;-))

What I do is split my hoses and thread through 2 hoses on each side, so on the left side we have the connection to the O2 manual add and the O2 gauge. On the right, we have the ADV attachment and the gauge for the dil. Doing it this way means you don't have hoses bunching up over the wing and feeding through the fabric handle. So if you go this way or see someone threading their hoses this way - remember it’s the Ford Flow ;-) Not going through the wing is the solenoid o2 (left) connection and the wing inflation hose (right).

Now when we add the Backplate you can see they come over nicely without going over the wing...


You can see the nice handle - it’s a Portland Oceaneering plate - very handy for moving things around. I have a drab olive ali plate for travel with harness setup identically. Ok next up is adding the counter lungs.


It’s just a simple click in and then some Velcro on the back to hold them to webbing (your choice use none or up to 3 straps - I just use one bit of Velcro).

When that’s done its time to look at the ADV


As you can see, it has double O Rings - and operates via the push mechanism. Ok let’s put it in the counter lung...


OK that was pretty straight forward now let’s connect all our hoses....


You can see I run my gauges down the inside of the counter lungs. In fact, you can run hoses however it suits you, the counter lungs come as standard with 6 lots of Velcro - each side - at the top, middle and bottom. You can also run your hoses down the inside of the counter lungs (between the lung itself and the material at the back) - its how Sarah does it. I like mine where I can pick them both up with one hand though.

Next step is attaching the breathing loop...but before we do that let me show you the HUD mounting stalk and how I changed it...


See the stainless steel band - usually the HUD stalk is to the left of that - I moved it to the right and moved the SS clip to the right too as I wanted to ensure the LED was dead in the middle of my mask.

Right then onto the breathing loop....


Above you can see the inhale side connected and the exhale side showing the double O-ring...now let’s connect both sides...


Right then...time to stand the unit up and start sorting out the can contents!


In the photo above you can see the scrubber holder and some water absorbent pads. The scrubber holder / spacer makes sure if you get a leak it keeps it out of the scrubber but more importantly enables the same can to use either the CIS scrubber rf the standard axial one!


Ok spacer all loaded up lets pop it in the can...


That fits nice....


Let’s drop in our scrubber now.


Sorry about that photo! Now its time to put on our electronics housing...


Now let’s clip it up.


It’s the little touches that impress - in the shot above you see the clips are smooth so nothing catches but next to the wing, they have a lip so you can get an easy grip on them. Ok next up is the hoses....


The trick to putting the hoses on is to make sure you put the left one on first, only as your fingers get caught otherwise. Only thing left to do now is put the HUD on.


That’s pretty straightforward - you just wrap the cable around the hose a few times then screw it onto the HUD mount.


Well that’s it! Pretty straightforward huh! I apologise for some of the photos, I am still learning my way around the camera.

Stuart


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