New (re)breath of life for AP Classic

Ben Field said:
Certify... What the F*ck is that?

Legally unenforceable nonsense- dive what you like and grow a pair ;-)
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If I was to put together a homebuild, would I seek certification on it? Of course not. If I bought another simple unit, a Kiss or an optima for example? I might do a crossover if there was a local instructor, otherwise probably not. A rEvo or something else with all the bells and whistles? Yeah, I'd probably travel to do a crossover.

But if anyone was buying a frankenclassic for their first unit, there's a problem. Not a lot of instructors will train on a non-standard unit, and with good reason too. But I reckon anyone diving a breather should have at least done ONE mod 1 course - it's the distillation of a lot of people dying over a lot of years and how to avoid those common issues.
 
Captain Starfish said:
If I was to put together a homebuild, would I seek certification on it? Of course not. If I bought another simple unit, a Kiss or an optima for example? I might do a crossover if there was a local instructor, otherwise probably not. A rEvo or something else with all the bells and whistles? Yeah, I'd probably travel to do a crossover.

But if anyone was buying a frankenclassic for their first unit, there's a problem. Not a lot of instructors will train on a non-standard unit, and with good reason too. But I reckon anyone diving a breather should have at least done ONE mod 1 course - it's the distillation of a lot of people dying over a lot of years and how to avoid those common issues.
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I wasn't being massively serious...


However it does get my goat abit, in the UK (not sure of the law elsewhere) there is no requirement for any training or any insurance of any kind to dive.

That doesn't stop Nazi boat and tour operators saying you must have X, Y and Z to go on their boat or trip... which p*sses me off as there are several foreign trips I'd like to do but can't as one even asked for "photocopies of all certs" to join the trip! Perhaps I should ask for copies of their Offshore qualifications before stepping on their boats, f*cking hypocrites :-)

What is annoying is the trumped up self-appointed "agencies" inventing new cert levels all the time. When I did OC Trimix I did the highest cert available and the Instructor right said when you can go deeper you will know how but the card says 90mtrs as that's what we covered in class, now you can do level 4, 5 and 6 for a few extra meters each time- its money for old rope, either you can dive you you can't, we only have ourselves to blame for allowing these people to take our money.

Sure- training to start with is brilliant and necessary, as is training for new skills, but Nitrox is Nitrox, once you can do the math and use it you can use it, why 27 more levels for different gases and such like? I have respect for instructors as its a thankless task, having taught beginners in club level for years but I think the treatment of experienced divers borders on fraud at times.

I have a basic CCR cert and a OC Trimix cert, I have yet to see another diver or instructor use some secret technique or exhibit some skill that isn't common f*cking sense so what mysteries am I missing out on not leveling up with £5000 worth of certs I'm diving too but don't own?

:-)
 
Same in Western Australia, no legal requirement to cert but just try getting a fill or on a boat...

Some basic training makes sense. Incremental updates and add ons eg basic, then deco, then mix make sense. A new cert for every ten metres after that, though, is getting a bit of a silly money grab.

A crossover also makes sense - say you trained on a meg, did you know when you later bought an inspo not to ever leave it on its back between dives? But a couple hundred bucks for a look over is one thing, five hundred or more to effectively redo your mod 1 is another, and having to repeat a mod 3 etc is just taking the piss.
 
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Captain Starfish said:
Same in Western Australia, no legal requirement to cert but just try getting a fill or on a boat...
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Never been asked for a cert for a boat in the UK, not sure they would dare or know a legit one if they saw it :-)

A fill, yes in some places... depends if its the owner or just a pump monkey ;-)
 
Yer, there a good base for a homebuild. And they are a good unit - but old. Perhaps now becoming too old.

Matt.
 
Bugger.

Middle of a two hour dive on a local rec wreck last weekend and the "all's well" green HUD lamp packs it in. Today I cut open the loom (sob) and played with CRO and benchtop supply - it ain't the handset, thankfully, it's the HUD. But that means redoing the loom and replacing the HUD.

This is the next stage of "review" - how well does Alexey deal with warranty work... we shall see!
 
Seven hours later, on a weekend, I hear back from Alexey.

There's a new HUD on the way, no argument or hassles at all.

That answers my question about after sales service!
 
Very interesting thread, thanks.

Out of interest, where are all the knackered Classics going for pocket money prices?
 
It's easy to pick up a classic in working order with an ADV for about £1000.
IF you want I can point you towards at least 1
 
Bear in mind that, by the time you buy a classic, throw some decent electronics in it (eg a shearwater HUD and an AV1), new parts throughout for a major-ish service and so on: you'll nearly have paid for an evo with the extra happiness of everything from one manufacturer working straight out of the box, temp stick and so on as well.

I bought my classic as a "this'll do", low financial risk way of getting into a CCR and have chased it down the rabbit hole to keep it running well. These have been kinda unexpected, unappreciated costs thrown at me along the way of just being able to dive.

If your intention is to get into a cheap, newer generation (integrated dive computer, sorb monitoring etc) eCCR then souping up a classic is probably the most arse backwards, painful and frustrating way you could do it. If that's where you want to end up, just buy one of them.
 
Well, I'm certainly not planning on buying on buying an old Classic and then spending the same again on a new computer right away. I'd be running the Classic as AP intended for a while to give me a chance to try CCR without breaking the bank.
 
Doomanic said:
Well, I'm certainly not planning on buying on buying an old Classic and then spending the same again on a new computer right away. I'd be running the Classic as AP intended for a while to give me a chance to try CCR without breaking the bank.
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Perfect! :)

But it's also good to know that there are options out there when the handsets eventually crap out.
 
I dive a Classic 9 years with no modifications and only a couple of off-boards and a VR3 extra. Classic diving need not be expensive.

But I agree they are becoming old now - so I'd only buy one with a fresh service.

Matt.
 
It's been a crappy year for diving for me with a compressor self destructing, boat changeover, working away and problems with the breather all conspiring to keep me dry.

First up the HUD failed. No worries, Alexey sent me a new one straight away. Then that HUD failed on the second dive. I got in touch and he apologised - in the time it took to get the second one to me (about 3 weeks shipping from Russia to Australia) he worked out where the water was getting in and changed the way he was making them. So that problem should now be sorted for everyone else. I ended up making my own HUD by creating a mould and potting a bicolour LED into it with epoxy. It's worked well since.

Then a switch failed. It happens to users of any computer with piezos - Shearwater, AP, whatever. Rather than wait for a month round trip, I asked Alexey to send me a replacement switch so I could replace it myself. He sent two, just in case, and I replaced them. Turns out the job was a lot less trivial than I thought and I ended up confusing the pressure sensor which became extremely erratic. One day it would be perfect, then the next day it would be reading 140m when it was sitting on the boat. No dives that trip.

About then I spat the dummy and sent it home to its daddy for some much needed love and care. A few weeks later and for very little money, it returned back to me with new switches (Alexey has since found a supplier of more reliable switches), fixed pressure sensor board and cable, new firmware etc and my diving track record since has been absolutely flawless.

In short: there were some minor manufacturing and supply quality issues which it sounds like he's got sorted now. I rushed things, botched a repair and paid for it in lost dives. Alexey's support and service has been flawless.

And the new software is a-f**king-mazing. There's a few dives we do here where we don't bother with tables. We work out TTS on our bailouts including likely deco, ascent times and a fair whack of safety margin and then dive to keep the TTS on the computer lower than what we worked out. Problem was that to see the OC (bailout) TTS you'd have to switch the AV1 between CC and OC modes which was a PITA. I asked Alexey if he could show OC TTS as well as CC on the front screen, and he's gone balls and all on it. You can now set up SAC rates and gas volumes and, during the dive, not only does it tell you both TTS, it also gives a coloured icon for each gas telling you how much you can expect to have left on the surface if you bail out now. Brilliant.
 
I'm glad to hear you're getting that kind of customer service with the av1. Hearing that kind of success makes me wonder what I'll do if/when the controller or display on my vision dies.


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moose_grunt said:
I'm glad to hear you're getting that kind of customer service with the av1. Hearing that kind of success makes me wonder what I'll do if/when the controller or display on my vision dies.

He is not talking about a vision if that goes just send it back to AP there are no real problems apart from maybe a button or depth sensor the classic has had its share of hand set problems and its worth gutting them out but a vision you can just repare or sell???***55357;***56900;***55357;***56900;
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I realize he's talking about a classic, but if it's going to cost the se amount or double to send the vision back to AP to get the handset/controller replaced, then another $600 for the battery box, and STILL have a green backlit LCD....it'd be a tough sell. I would almost be more inclined to get the av1. Of course, this is all theoretical. Captain Starfish's success with the av1 makes jumping ship to a 3rd party system, even on the vision, seem worth considering.


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