1)

The first "tool" is a stable Aluminium chair offered by the Swedish furniture producer IKEA. If not in use, ist easy to stow away.

This chair is light weight, but stable and allows easy access to the inner life of the Inspiration. Using the chair avoids getting lots of sand and dirt from the ground into the unit. We were taught about this tool from our instructor Dr. Max Hahn.

2)

Just in case the whole unit gets flooded, it's nice to not just have direct OC- access to the diluent gas, but as well to the oxygen gas supply. We fitted a 120 cm Poseidon Cyclon 5000 Oxygen compatible 2^nd stage to the first stage of the Oxygen tank. We have cut the interstage hose close to the 2^nd stage and fitted a pneumatic valve, which has been oxygen cleaned and allows us to shut off the 2^nd stage in order to avoid free flow or accidental use of the gas at a too great depth.

3)

In order to store the Sofnolime scrubber Martin provided a self produced plastic lid which fits perfectly onto the scrubber unit. The lid closes the unit airtight with an inner O- Ring, which allows us to store the scrubber in the container between dives. The exhalation pipe can be closed using a ordinary rubber stopper available from chemist shops.

4)

The handsets clipped together. If these are left in their original longer length, the 2 handsets tend to hang down and face in towards each other which makes it less easier to read them.
For transportation you now can clip the handsets behind the inflated counterlungs.

Loop made by the handset cable to take up the slack. The right hand handset loop does tend to get in the way of the O2 line which is behind it, but as i tend to leave the sensor pack on the unit when changing the sorb, i just undo the scrubber canister Velcro, lift the canister towards you and undo the line from the back.

6)

The Inspiration can also be ordered with yellow Counterlungs. The "Yellow-Bellows" do not only look significant better on photos or videotape, they are also much better visible, which can be at least handy.

Yellow - Black - Yellow

7)

The BC-Wing of the Inspiration can also be ordered with 0.4Liter Safety-Bottle. This Option might be the one Your own live depends on, so I recommend that nobody should miss the rescue chance to start with a single one-second (but reversible) action a prozess which will lead to sufficient positive buoyancy, even in whorst case. Eventuelly getting bent is much better than to drown.
 It is no problem to upgrade a Wing which was delivered without a Mounting for the Safety Bottle: A.P.Valves sells the needed spare parts.

8)

I think every Inspiration has the Right to have a Name, mine are named and .
The own Name is not all a Rebreather should have, a Logbook for its Maintainance (Gerätebegleitheft), were you note every-lime-change (including batch- and source-canister-numbers), every fill (where, what, batch-#), every battery- and sensor-change, every other maintenance, every failure and every dive (date, duration, depth, remarks like workload/temperature),   is 'mandantary' too.
 

9)

Warning It is recommended that the condition of the cylinders is assessed at 6 monthly intervals. In particular, if the oxygen cylinder is contaminated with salt-water then it must be cleaned without delay, otherwise corrosion will rapidly occur in an oxygen rich environment.

You might remember that a sentence like above can be found in the rebreathers manual. My solution for the visual check is shown on the picture above: two parts from the plumbers shop allow to unscrew the DIN Oxygen-Valve (3/4") and the adapter on the right side (bought from my local Tec-Dealer) allows to do the same with the Air-Valve (5/8"). Whenever I change my gas-provider I do an extra inside visual, which for example means before and after a holiday trip. The Lamp below is a nice tool to look inside the tanks.

I travel with empty tanks and hand tight valves, so that it is possible for the customs and aircraft-safety staff to take a look inside the tanks.

Make 100% sure that the cylinders are completely empty before you try to unscrew the valves !   Do not overtighten the valves.

10)

You don't need to buy and carry an about 2.5cm thick Piece of Wood with a Hole in the Middle as Stand to hold the Lime Cartridge upright for filling, simply put a robust Glas (or something similar) in the Scrubber-Housing and use this.

11)

The Interstage Pressures can be checked easyly at the Connection to the Counterlung "Inflators" and if necessary adjusted to:
Oxygen 7.5 to 8 bar, ideally 7.5 bar
Diluent 8 to 10 bar, ideally 9.5 bar.

12)

You can buy the Batteries for the Inspiration in about every Photoshop arround the Globe, but at least for the Price you should take a Look what www.mx2.com wants for those batteries.

13)

If you still have the old fibreglas-housing and so not like the scars it gets at the bottom: I once saw a turtle with a metal plate on the base of the unit, but I would have used Rubber for that.

14)

When You think 3 Liter Tanks are too small: there are second surce manufactures (see TEC-Linkpage) that offer "Housings" for other Tank sizes. This means for Example the possibilty to wear 7Liter Tanks as main-feed.

15)

If You think that You need backlit Displays on Your Inspiration: no Problem, "Backlit Electronics" is one of the Options You can order Your Turtle with. Here is how a backlit Display looks compared with a not backlit one. But don't worry, under normal Light- Conditions, or with a litte Lamp at the Mask it's also fine to dive with the not backlit Displays.
The backlight has variable brightness/contrast, which is an adjustment in the Menu mode. The backlight is operated by pressing any slider. If you press the left one, the light stays on for 5 seconds. If you press either the middle one or the one on the right, the light stays on for 15 seconds. The battery life is reduced by using the backlight, by how much depends on how often you push the buttons. Most propably You will not notice any great reductions in usage time.

16)

Just for the case that You still abuse Air-Coded Valves for Oxygen, instead of using DIN-Oxygen (3/4") Valves: here is how the Conversion- Kit for Apeks 1st Stages looks like.

17)

In the Past it was noticed that some People had Trouble with Moisture on their Sensors while others had no Problems. The Reason is easy: there are Situations / Applications which cause Condensation- Water dripping on the active Sensor- Surface. In nominal Divepossition this is impossible, but there are always some Peoples who frequently bring thier Turtles in Coverside-down Positions. Divers who are starting every Dive with well dryed Scrubberhead- to Counterlung Hose and keeping the normal Dive Position will most propably never had Problems. But: good News for those who had to dive a way which the old Sensors did not like: A.P.Valves now uses a new Type of Sensors which simply lets drop out the Water again, so that such Cell-Failures are no longer a Problem to talk about. The new Sensor Type can also be used to upgrade old Inspirations.
  Andy Holman found an Solution which also makes the old Sensors more resistant against getting a "Cell2-Failure" after "bad" Movements: he adds a small Circle of Nylon Pan-Scrubber Material at the right Position.

18)

The BCD "Redwing" can be ordered in two sizes, you should think about the bigger one when you carry heavy weights because of thick drysuit-underwear.

19)

Not a tool or improvement but a reminder:
take care not to overtighten or otherwhise break loose the Scrubber Lid. A loose Lid is a potentially very dangerous flaw since it will allow exhale gas to bypass the scrubber leading at end to hypercapnia, so check your Lid fequently.
Esbjorn Nordesjo http://hem.passagen.se/evision/ has made a page about that matter, click here for the mirrored version.