Vintage Double Hose

Argonaut Kraken 14-021 Hangin' out with its new DSV buddy off Kona, Hawaii. Mark

84 minutes of jaw comfort....

love using regular mouthpieces (Comfo-Bite), and very enjoyable on the surface to close the valve.

Thanks Bryan!

rhwestfall wrote:84 minutes of jaw comfort....

love using regular mouthpieces (Comfo-Bite), and very enjoyable on the surface to close the valve.

Thanks Bryan!

Feedback like this makes it all worthwhile! Thank you

DSVs Diving Fortune Pond...

- That's me SurfLung on the left and SwimJim on the right... Diving our DSV equipped Argonauts at Fortune Pond last weekend. We took them down to 80 feet and dove them comfortably enough to forget they were different. Jim demo'd the clearing feature to me but this was my first dive with the DSV so I stuck to basics. VERY clean design, smooth operation.

Bryan,

I just got mine and of course I took it apart and put it back together. It's a beautiful piece of work.

Well done guys.

Couv

My boss will not be happy with my performance today, and I can unashamedly blame it on Bryan and Luis. DSV just arrived, counting minutes to get out of the office and try it out.

First impressions:
- from the pictures I thought it was going to be bigger. It's actually fairly compact
- rotation to open/close is smooth, it does feel like high quality precision engineering.

Well done guys!

luis wrote:I will be posting a new thread soon on how to take full advantage of your new Argonaut DSV with the flow diverter.

You can just use it as it is, but by adjusting the Argonaut you can truly kick the performance up a few notches. There is nothing magical to the adjustment, most divers should be able to do it.

It is the same basic adjustments to lower the cracking effort down below 1 inWC (close to 0.7 inWC) and then the most important is to increase the venturi flow.

Increasing the venturi flow effect is easy. You just need to block the two side bleed holes on the second stage. It is really that simple.

Today I have been adjusting several regulators and I have been taking a lot of pictures. I will post this pictures when I have a chance.

Hey Luis
The DSV is awesome and another milestone in double hose design, but when are you going to share this wisdom with us? I am particularly interested in the recommended way to block the two side bleed holes on the second stage.

I just got two more yesterday (nice weekend sale Bryan!). Hoping to get one installed on my Kraken asap. I have had an interesting experience of "over breathing" this reg as it really has a strong venturi. On instances, I have had a bypass flow after the pause of an inhale. Luis told me that the DSV likely will put an end to this as the diverter he designed in it will address this. I've really liked it on my Phoenix DA, and I can't wait to try it on the Kraken!

Can't imagine what is being developed next. Keep it up!

refrat wrote: Hey Luis
The DSV is awesome and another milestone in double hose design, but when are you going to share this wisdom with us? I am particularly interested in the recommended way to block the two side bleed holes on the second stage.

The write up is easy, but I want to have some good and accurate pictures to go with it. Coming up with good picture that accurately show what I want is a bit time consuming. I am working on two regulators for friends this weekend, so I hope to have good picture by the end of the weekend.

The primary change to improve the performance is actually very easy and simple. If everything is tuned properly, the only change is to block both of the side ports. That alone will induced a very good and very repeatable venturi flow during inhalation.

The venturi flow in combination with a low cracking suction will sustain the air flow while there is any demand. The diverter will not allow any air flow to be waster out the exhaust. But I have observed that the inhalation effort is nonexistent once flow is initiated.

For those who want the ultimate in performance, there are a few checks that the owner may want to make, to optimize the regulator. Some things are easy to check and adjust, like lever height and IP. The cracking effort is not hard to measure if you have the right set-up.

I hope to have more next week.

Thanks

That's great! I looked at the side ports on my Kraken LP and they are very close to the LP clamps- one looks like the port is partly occluded by a clamp already? Also there is a little lateral movement (rotation) in the LP body- is this normal?
What I would really like to know is how best to actually obstruct the side ports without any potential of compromising the functioning of the second stage?
A longer screw on an LP clamp and a thicker washer to obstruct the port?
Maybe a small self tapping screw straight into the open port?
Looking forward to hearing?
Cheers

refrat wrote:That's great! I looked at the side ports on my Kraken LP and they are very close to the LP clamps- one looks like the port is partly occluded by a clamp already? I will post a picture showing the ports blocked.
Also there is a little lateral movement (rotation) in the LP body- is this normal? A little motion is normal, but you can reduce it by pushing the D shaped washer hard against the second stage. And then tighten the screw.
What I would really like to know is how best to actually obstruct the side ports without any potential of compromising the functioning of the second stage? I just put some plastic washers under the D shaped washer so that the flat side of the "D" blocks the bleed air.
A longer screw on an LP clamp and a thicker washer to obstruct the port? I just stack a couple of thin plastic washers under the "D".
Maybe a small self tapping screw straight into the open port? NO, don't do that.
Looking forward to hearing?
Cheers

I will post a picture her in a moment.

Here I am showing one side blocked




Other side:




Both:











This gives you an indication of the lever height, but I will expand on this more later. You should not need to do anything with the lever height. It should be fine, but I will explain how to check it later. I am just using the scale as a straight edge.




I am pressing a bit with my Mistral tool. Again, more later.




The nozzle points down the full diameter horn. The nozzle flow forms a cone. That is why I designed the can with a full circular tube horn.




The vintage metal cans are attractive and they work well, but the rectangular horn base is not ideal to develop maximum venturi flow. They are good enough for most flow rates, but the Argonaut can was optimized for all flow rates and the DSV flow diverter is essential to take advantage of the maximum venturi flow.




This can was optimized for production (with the soldered or brazed horns) not for flow performance. The rectangular horn base is the same as in the early Broxton regulators with no induced venturi flow at all.

A full sized circular tube horn would have been much more difficult to attach with a clean transition on this can.




I will be adding more later and I will probably separate this post into a new thread talking about optimizing the overall Argonaut performance, but I needed to provide some advance information.

I hope this helps.

Luis, thanks for those photos, I am sure they will help the guys understand what you mean by blocking the bleed ports. Fine tuning/super tuning of both the Argonaut and the Phoenix is a worthy thread itself though a lot of it has been covered in Phoenix HPR threads here and there, having one thread as a collector for this information would be great and maybe prevent folks from becoming overly inventive.

As I had to explain to a poor fellow with a certain aircraft he was assigned to recently purchased by the Forestry Service and was refusing to fly fire patrol above 104 degrees because the perfromance charts in Chapter 5 of the POH stopped there. He was using that as a way to protest that they had not given him an airplane with airconditioning . Uh, sorry fellow, Chapter 5 are recommendations, Limitations, that is Chapter 2. My point being that such a thread or any such thread, of course are recommendations. Go fly, er, uh, dive but if you put screws in the bleed port and it spits one into your kanoodle valve while submerged, well, you are on your own recognizance. Know your limitations.

Nem

Another vote for the DSV! I used a comfobite on mine. I know some folks dislike that little bridge above, but with it being there, you can just let the whole mouthpiece just sit there without any pressure at all. Didn't need to add any hose weights or adjust the rotation of the hoses at all

Received my DSV for my Kraken and my PRAM yesterday. Can't wait to get the new DSV installed and into the water. Great looking mp assembly. The comfo bite mouth piece will really set this mp up well.