Vacuum leak detector question

BTW, I have done many giant strides with an Aquatica housing while snorkeling with Whale Sharks. I tried to hold it high near my head to minimize the surface shock, but had no issues at all. I'm sure the Nauticam is equally good for doing entries with housing. My opinion is it will be even safer under negative pressure. It would take a helluva shock to knock a port loose with a vacuum system and I have actually never seen a flood caused by a "damaged" housing/port.

 

It's always an o-ring not seated or a port coming unscrewed, both of those occurrences are exactly why you want a vacuum system.

I always put a vacuum on my Aquatica housing now and it just recently saved me a flood when I inadvertently unscrewed my flat port during some decompression stops in heavy seas. I did not notice until I was on the boat. I have no doubt in my mind the port would have come off considering the sea conditions if I had not had it sealed with a vacuum.

I use now more than 2 years two Hugyfot housings and made approx 200 dives with their vacum leak detector system called HugyCheck.
I never had any problem with water entring inside and it is impossible to open the housing while it is vacuumized.

I belive that the neagtive pressure inside the housing sucks the o-rings in their position providing a better seal on the surface

where non vacuumized housings may have the o-ring not perfectly sealed, what is the reason that the leak on the surface.

Any slight seal will trigger the alarm after about a half an hour and as i load my housing at home before i leave to the harbour

this is enough time that the alarm will trigger.

Chris

Hugyfot was one of the pioneers in the vacuum check arena. I don't recall hearing any negative comments about their system. I am currently using a Backscatter electronic system on my preferred U/W rig (Aquatica AD800), and have been very pleased with it.

There are differences between the nauticam vacuum system, the backscatter airlock and the leak sentinel. Whilst the airlock has a gauge on the pump the other two systems don't. This means that with the backscatter system you can take the housing down to 350+ mbar or 10hg and effectively lock the system, the nauticam system and the leak sentinel give you a green light at 200 mbar or ~5hg which is sensibly less. This is still sufficient to avoid a port to drop but is not sufficient to keep the housing closed if you accidentally hit the locking hatch that most of medium and smaller nauticam housing have. This latch system is very secure however you could hit the red button and rotate and the torque easily breaks the nauticam housing open. Probably if you pump enough vacuum it will become very hard however the nauticam system itself will not tell you the actual pressure inside the housing and it is not recommended to pump more vacuum as the system is temperature controlled so creating more vacuum does actually make the in water alarm less effective

The nauticam system currently is the most advanced leak detector and with the integrated circuit is 100% reliable in water. The backscatter does not have an in water alarm and the leak sentinel can give false reading in case of heating up of the equipment inside the housing. My nauticam housing can't be retrofit but if it could i would get their system.

Leak sentinel had also a temperature sensor but currently this is not used by the software

We have a leak sentinel on our Amphibico Genesis housing. As said earlier in this thread, you haven't got a rats chance in hell of opening the back of it without applying a serious amount of brute force and ignorance once the pressure has been reduced.

I can’t possibly open a Nauticam DSLR housing when the green light is on. Unless I use a crowbar.

The DSLR housing have multiple closures mirrorless and compact have a single latch with a rotary and if you hit it it cracks open. Other housings with clips and no rotary mechanism will stay close. As I said is the torque that cracks it open. If you have normal latches or clamps it is entirely a different story

The op in this thread has an em5 that if recall as a single rotary latch that if hit on the red button will crack open

I agree with Alex you would need a pry bar to open the housing and just because the green light comes on at a lower level does not mean that you can't pump to a higher level. The green light comes on at about 12 to 15 pumps with my NA-EM1 housing and I continue to pump to at least 25 pumps.

I agree with Alex you would need a pry bar to open the housing and just because the green light comes on at a lower level does not mean that you can't pump to a higher level. The green light comes on at about 12 to 15 pumps with my NA-EM1 housing and I continue to pump to at least 25 pumps.

The em5 has the same mechanism of nauticam compact housing and will crack open if you hit the red button. I thought the em1 was different but it isn't

As I said a more traditional system with clamps that don't exert torque on the opening will most likely stay closed if you pump enough vacuum.

The em5 has the same mechanism of nauticam compact housing and will crack open if you hit the red button. I thought the em1 was different but it isn't

As I said a more traditional system with clamps that don't exert torque on the opening will most likely stay closed if you pump enough vacuum.

I am not familiar with the amphibico housing but looking at the picture the rotation only secures it doesn't actually open it? The nauticam locks it but also has a torque that opens it . So I can easily open my housing once the vacuum is there. The DSLR nauticam housing instead have a latch that secures but didn't actually open it so that should stay in place. I have once erroneously pressed the lock button instead of the movie button so it's not so unlikely to happen. I have a recsea housing and the latch is the same however it is flush so you can't accidentally hit it to open you need to put a finger inside so safer from that point of view.

I am not familiar with the amphibico housing but looking at the picture the rotation only secures it doesn't actually open it? The nauticam locks it but also has a torque that opens it . So I can easily open my housing once the vacuum is there. The DSLR nauticam housing instead have a latch that secures but didn't actually open it so that should stay in place. I have once erroneously pressed the lock button instead of the movie button so it's not so unlikely to happen. I have a recsea housing and the latch is the same however it is flush so you can't accidentally hit it to open you need to put a finger inside so safer from that point of view.

No, the rotation opens/closes the door on the Amphibico Genesis

Good for you then. The nauticam rotary instead opens and quite easily too

Actually interceptor, my Backscatter system DOES have an in water alarm. It continues to flash green as long as the vacuum is maintained, but will flash yellow once the vacuum drops below 6 inches Hg, and flashes red below 3 inches Hg.

Actually interceptor, my Backscatter system DOES have an in water alarm. It continues to flash green as long as the vacuum is maintained, but will flash yellow once the vacuum drops below 6 inches Hg, and flashes red below 3 inches Hg.

The Hugyfot HugyCheck vacuum alarm has a vacuum alarm and a water alarm too

Water alarm will whistle if humidity/water is present inside the housing.

For your convinience below some information how the HugyCheck works:

- soon as the HugyCheck system detects a pressure between950 and 850 hPa, the red LED will blink once each second.

The Vacuum will be provided by a battery driven pump and i use it as long the green LED blinks 10 times.

Nice. I saw their video and it didn't show any of that.

6hg is 200mbar so all those systems are similar. The gauge though allows you to load it much more and know where you are. Ultimately it is a matter of preference the leak sentinel led is very hard to see once you are in water

I have the leak sentinel and I don't know where I said anything about hugyfot??

Personally I can't see the led of the leak sentinel I know miso is working on an improvement to adjust the position of the led as this may less visible depending on the position of the valve

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51371&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1. Post nr 7 explained how to adjust the position of the led.

Miso emailed me

The LED orientation can be adjusted by opening the valve body after the installation and rotating the PCB so that the LED faces the desired direction. This may not be so obvious as I tought it was, so I might add this to the user’s manual. If you still have the link to the thread

For me it wasn't needed.