[PSUBS-MAILIST] Trustworthy Dive Report

Mon May 5 15:16:16 EDT 2014

Steve,
I actually do exactly that. Drain till about 15% then switch. 
Thanks,
Scott Waters

Sent from my U.S. Cellular© SmartphoneSteve McQueen via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:Scott, thanks for the report and good job!

In regards to your "The benefit of draining one tank or battery bank at a time is so nice" comment.  When I was flying balloons we had a similar practice for changing between propane tanks.  We considered a tank empty (switched tanks) when a tank got to around 15% vs. a complete usage. This would allow us to always have a reserve to go back to just in case.  I plan on using a similar strategy with my psub (if I ever get it finished).

I don't mean to refer that you completely drained your banks before switching but this seemed like a good place to discuss this "strategy".

Steve

On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 10:16 AM, swaters via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
Yesterday my wife Katy and two other friends took Trustworthy out for a series of dive tests. Pictures to be posted soon. We went down 21feet at deepest point for about 30 minutes on the longest dive. We did a total of 5 dives. The dives went into the night and I got a great chance to use my saddle lights, work lights, and head light. The light placement and power on Trustworthy were perfect for lighting up the under water veiws for passenger and myself. The 55watt halogen work lights and saddle lights and the 2,000,000 candle power head light were the perfect amount of light. Unlike Trustworthy's first test this time I was properly weighted for freash water after adding 325lbs in landing skid weights and extra drop weights. I got to do alot of motoring around and after some practice, started to get the hang of it. After spending some time getting used to things, I gotta say I love the Kitteredge motors. They have so much power which is nice when you get caught in current or wind and they respond instantly even with the sub weighing 4,500 lbs. I used my bank selectors (hp air, O2 air, and battery) and I love them. The benifit of draining one tank or battery bank at a time is so nice. The underwater comms worked good with the acception of a loud ringing noise which I believe a squelch adjustment would fix. We did have a few minor problems to note. I had a leak from the autimatic cabin equilization valve. Later remembering all "O" rings on the sub were the high quaility ones from McMaster Carr and this one was a cheap one intended for home plumbing. It worked fine on the first dive last fall, but sitting over winter it cracked a little. Moral of the story, use good "O" rings. We also are having some weird problems with the sonar. It was reading a depth from 8' to 320' wildly so something is wrong. I am thinking it might be a connection between the transducer and screen. Also experienced a space problem when jamming the 50lb tub of sodasorb in the storage compartment. I am going to repack the sodasorb in sealed plastic bags prepacked size to fit in the scrubbers and then it will fit very easily. One new mod I am going to do is put a cabin light in the conn. The two red/white cabin lights in the main cabin work well, but while the pilot is in the conn and it is dark, you can't read check lists well or read the digital depth gauge in the conn. I found myself using a flash light alot.
The siteings on this trip were
*zebra muscles
*rocks
*mud
*a large cat fish
*little worm things swimming to our lights (I think baby fish)
*a little bass
*tons of confused Kansans almost crashing their boats while stareing

Thanks for reading,
Scott Waters

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