Nautilus rebreather??? Anybody see one? Try One?

[Furcata]

I've been on rebreather world and read some of the threads on that site, but I was wondering if anyone here has tried one?

Thanks,

Dave

[4ster]

I took a look at the Nautilus in Cabo San Lucas a while back and did a write up on RBW. I did not have a chance to dive it but spoke with someone who does. My main concern was the counterlung location and construction didn't seem optimal for work of breathing, and I like back mounted counter lungs. The Nautilus diver said work of breathing was very good.

It is a very unique design and I would love to try it. It is obvious that a lot of careful thought went into the design.

I think a try dive could be arranged with a little notice - I gave them none. The folks at Nautilus went out of their way to make it available for me to look at it but there wasn't a qualified diver around at the time for any wet work.

Steve

[wallyc72]

Dave,
Just can't wait till December to play with one?

[Furcata]

Excellent, thanks guys. I guess I'll have to wait until December to try one out.

-Dave

[Joshua Smith]

Looks kind of interesting:

http://www.divenautilus.com/index.html

But I've never actually seen one in the water. What is it about this one that has you so excited? Is there going to be a demo day in December, or something?

[Tom Nic]

I believe Tacoma Scuba will be carrying them, and delivery or training or both will be done around then.

[CaptnJack]

Looks kind of interesting:

http://www.divenautilus.com/index.html

But I've never actually seen one in the water. What is it about this one that has you so excited? Is there going to be a demo day in December, or something?

Is this the unit with the 3yr+ release delay? I'm also curious what all the hoopla is about, I only skimmed the website.

[Burntchef]

Looks kind of interesting:

http://www.divenautilus.com/index.html

But I've never actually seen one in the water. What is it about this one that has you so excited? Is there going to be a demo day in December, or something?

Is this the unit with the 3yr+ release delay? I'm also curious what all the hoopla is about, I only skimmed the website.

i believe you are thinking of the apoc unit.

[Joshua Smith]

Ha. Yeah. Unlike the APOC, the Nautilus actually exists.

[John Rawlings]

Ha. Yeah. Unlike the APOC, the Nautilus actually exists.

What on Earth do you mean???? Santa and the Easter Bunny use APOC rebreathers regularly!

[CaptnJack]

Check on Santa Claus!

So what's the dealio on the Nautilus? Other than some of the fancy sounding optical connections why would you want one vs something else?

[camerone]

No good reason AFAIK. It kind of looks like a garage product when most other people have moved to professional engineering teams to deliver product. It also looks quite out of date; perhaps a good idea at the time, but completely eclipsed by much better units.

They also appear severely undercapitalized, which means delivery will be sketchy at best...but that's just a guess, from what I can read and have heard through the grapevine.

[spatman]

topic moved to No Bubble Zone forum.

[CaptnJack]

Hmmm I dunno about garage or not, but the console is rather unique looking. I'm not sure, but it also sounds like they think 19cf of dil is a suitable volume of bailout.

[Joshua Smith]

Hmmm I dunno about garage or not, but the console is rather unique looking. I'm not sure, but it also sounds like they think 19cf of dil is a suitable volume of bailout.

What gave you that impression? All the divers in the pictures on that site seem to have OC bailout...

[spatman]

Hmmm I dunno about garage or not, but the console is rather unique looking. I'm not sure, but it also sounds like they think 19cf of dil is a suitable volume of bailout.

What gave you that impression? All the divers in the pictures on that site seem to have OC bailout...

"INTEGRATED BAIL-OUT SYSTEM

The Nautilus provides an integrated regulator on the wings inflator. With this, it is not necessary to carry a separate cylinder of gas for the open circuit bailout during shallow dives or it can also work as a backup bailout."

http://www.divenautilus.com/why_nautilu ... ather.html

though they do say "shallow" dives.

[Joshua Smith]

Hmmm I dunno about garage or not, but the console is rather unique looking. I'm not sure, but it also sounds like they think 19cf of dil is a suitable volume of bailout.

What gave you that impression? All the divers in the pictures on that site seem to have OC bailout...

"INTEGRATED BAIL-OUT SYSTEM

The Nautilus provides an integrated regulator on the wings inflator. With this, it is not necessary to carry a separate cylinder of gas for the open circuit bailout during shallow dives or it can also work as a backup bailout."

http://www.divenautilus.com/why_nautilu ... ather.html

though they do say "shallow" dives.

Thanks, missed that. Seems like a....questionable practice.

[Sockmonkey]

So this guy seems to admit that he spawned out of Peter Readey's shop? Scary. It doesn't get any more handcrafted than a PRISM... a local dive buddy of mine and his wife own 3 and they call them snowflakes.

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake!" -Tyler Durden

-Eric

[4ster]

While the units I looked at had a little bit of the "handcrafted" look like a Prism, I thought it was done in a manner that made mass production possible. (As much as any rebreather is "mass produced".)

The electronics are really unique, robust and easy to "grok". It looked like flood recovery was excellent. I would really like to try one of these in the water.

[camerone]

The electronics are really unique, robust and easy to "grok". It looked like flood recovery was excellent. I would really like to try one of these in the water.

What is "unique" about them? Or even appears robust? Two SPGs in a rubber puck? Looks antiquated with the huge, power sucking LED graph of the cells. Reminds me of a treadmill at the gym, circa 1990. Optical fiber cable instead of wires? AP Diving did that with the HUD drivers almost six years ago and it is of seeriously dubious value.

In finance, we talk about a risk reward curve. I'm failing to see any real innovation here to reward me, but a lot of risk, especially compared to the excellent, well capitalized, well proven models already put there. For the record, I'm 100% for innovative products and for pushing the envelope, but As someone who's been a rebreather diver since dive #2 post-open-water, I'm left scratching my head and thinking "why would anyone bother" with this thing.

[4ster]

What I'm saying is I would like to try it. As I said earlier I have some reservations.

I like the optical fiber idea, I worry about broken wires or water ingress into the sheath of my cables. In fact I had this very problem in the "legacy" version of my rEvo po2 monitors. In the Nautilus the fiber optics run from the head to the display pod, then are arranged in a way that makes it very easy to monitor what's happening. I have no experience with fiber optics (other than the kitchy "flower" displays at Spencers or reading they are part of the internet backbone) but it seems like a neat way to get around water intrusion issues by keeping the fully potted electronics in the head. Yes, it is very "90's" but then I think my digital microwave would be improved by throwing out the keypad and display in favor of power and timer knobs.

I have no horse in this race, I happily dive a rEvo and don't plan on changing. But I enjoy seeing how others meet the same design challenges in different ways. Overall I thought there was some pretty solid design responses to common problems. I also get the impression that they are undercapitalized, and that is one reason I liked rEvo, which is well capitalized. But I also relate being undercapitalized at the moment myself.