I had my N-19 cut off on me twice. Then, I had Rodney remove the electronics and install the relay from a UV 26. Why, you ask? Well, call me old fashioned, but I would prefer replacing batteries to drowning.
"Have you ever noticed
When you're feeling really good
There's always a pigeon
That'll come shiat on your hood?" John Prine 4-7-2020
"Into the blue again; in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones; there is water underground" Talking Heads
New battery technology is great in my cell phone,and running my wife's car,but neither do I take in a cave.Originally Posted by OFG-1
"Not all change is improvement...but all improvement is change" Donald Berwick
Well, I don't know about the fancy cell phones, but you can take a old nokia , stuff it in the pocket of your undergarment, and dive Morgan with it, it will work fine. A bit hard to get out of the dry suit when it rings though.
"Have you ever noticed
When you're feeling really good
There's always a pigeon
That'll come shiat on your hood?" John Prine 4-7-2020
"Into the blue again; in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones; there is water underground" Talking Heads
Now I know why you were hard to understand,it was all that helium,but you did make more sense though.
"Not all change is improvement...but all improvement is change" Donald Berwick
My N-19 did that to me on 3 dives, before I gave up on NiMH scooter batteries. The worst was a mile back in Manatee. My buddies had blasted ahead, and didn't notice I wasn't with them. Luckily they finally looked back, and realized I wasn't right behind them..
The Magnus did that to me too, Lucky Forrest with with me to save the day, it's why I'm looking for a back up.
Personally it would only take once for that to happen to me and lose trust in it. If I need a backup to a scooter because of a failure,then I would question the primary. As much as there is new and great technology out there,this is over head,and it kills when there is a failure-sounds like SLA is my best friend.The Magnus did that to me too, Lucky Forrest with with me to save the day
"Not all change is improvement...but all improvement is change" Donald Berwick
Scooters are highly suspect pieces of equipment. I almost always take a tow scooter, and I always have a buddy, and sometimes he tows a scooter, as well. Propulsion is important.
Exiting is more important
But,I agree,scooters are the weakest link.
"Not all change is improvement...but all improvement is change" Donald Berwick
Not to be argumentative with you, but once is not enough to establish a pattern, As long as I only have one scooter, I won't allow myself to get into a position to where loss of it would be anything more than an annoyance, probably be that way with two of them too.
Anything man made can fail, can in fact be counted on to fail eventually, even SLA battery scooters as there is more to a scooter than a battery, the reed switch and or the motor could fail, actually with a brushed motor all it would take would be for a brush to stick, shoot even the prop could fall off. I'm pretty sure my failure wasn't actually the battery, but an electronic failure, but that has not been absolutely established, yet. I carry a spare mask, and a bunch of lights and a complete separate source of breathing gas, why not a spare scooter?
I'm not smart enough to calculate it, but it, but if one assumes scooter failure to be a 1 in a 100 event, the odds of having both scooters fail on one dive is calculable. Is that a word? Then determine just how much of the dive would be at risk if the scooter failed anyway. BTW, when mine failed, even if I had been by myself and had lost 1/2 of my remaining gas, I would have made it out.
Point is I guess, I'm not willing to get into the water with 200 lbs of scooters in the hope that their big old batteries increase the level of safety.
SLAB batteries in scooters have gone the way of point and condensers in automotive ignition systems I believe.
Doesn't mean that they don't work though
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