Anyone got any experience of these ?

Picked one up for pennies on eBay although of course with the usual proviso of it being untested and not having a charger.

Looks like it can take AA battery pack, although these of course cost silly money despite just being a bit of plastic.

Likewise the main and car charger cradles cost silly money.

The back of the unit has two exposed terminals and suggests max 12v 1.275A charger.

Shall I just whack a bog standard 12V 1A adapter against the terminals and see what happens then ?

:flowers:

Put some charge into it, but monitor it with an ammeter as they can be cooked if over-charged.
I have one of these and had it for years. It is a very tough monitor as long as you don't get the sensors wet. Rain all day is ok but don't submerge! 😮 Sensors can be replaced but not cheap, and one is extremely expensive (the flam sensor I think).
The spring clip on the back is not the strongest as I found out :curse: Best to use the loop to tie it onto you or if you need a rope to lower it down a shaft etc.
If the self test says that it is out of calibration don't waste money getting it tested. There is no calibration as such, it's just a calendar that counts down a warning to generate cash. They can't go out of calibration, they "either work or they don't" as per the self test. O2 sensor out of range? Go out into fresh air and "long press" the ON button to enter the sub menus to reset the O2 to zero.
If it works ok and you need a charger then I may be able to lay my hands on one....PM me when you know either way :thumbup:

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Yeah it looks a lot more robust that the flaky thing i've struggled on with for the last few years.

Any ideas which terminal might be +ve and -ve ?

Ha! You've got me there! Erm...Google a circuit diagram?? Don't know mate my charger is in work so I can't check it sorry. Can get to it Monday if you haven't sussed it by then! I'm sure that it would be polarity protected? Shouldn't harm it..... :angel: I would probably risk it, the ammeter will tell you if you have them the right way around?

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Just tried it by with a couple of nails and an old 12v adapter from a cable modem.

Lit up, played a little tune and the battery charging symbol started flashing.

Think I might have just saved £165 :lol:

:thumbsup:

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If you are intent on going down the bodge-up-a-meter route, which will have the usual hand wringers twitching, I suggest you get something which has a support/parts/repair network which is feasible.

People **** themselves when they hear about some nutter who is trying to cut costs and do it themselves. Because they are concerned with Elf and Safety, they are even more wary that you don't have a capability or compliance certificate. Reasoning with these people can be difficult. On hearing how dodgy my explorations sounded and that I might be putting myself at risk, one of the local rescue chaps donated a 4 gas meter with a blown O2 sensor. I decided that I would get a sensor, the software, some calibration gas and do it myself and the regional sales chap was in total disagreement. He wasn't having any of it and that was the end of it. It didn't matter that I had post grad experience of setting up analytical chemistry machinery from first principles, or actually taught other people to. I DIDN'T HAVE THE CERTIFICATE AND HE COULDN'T SELL ME THE PART.

Anyway, I found someone else who did. If you have a meter like you do which you have bodged into life, you will need an interface to allow you to calibrate it from a computer (choose your calibration gas/ranges/etc) or know which buttons to press on the unit. My Microclip one was about £45. Calibration gas is about £85. An oxygen sensor (yours is separate....those neotronics ones aren't and are about £300) are about £70 a shot. Contrary to popular belief, they are very very very simple to repair and calibrate.

I do suspect that you may run into problems with having to get stuff for it, which may be pricey.

I have a "BW Gasalert Microclip" 4 gas meter and it runs out of calibration on the 20th of this month. I will be buying a cylinder of gas and doing it myself. If anyone has one of these, I will calibrate it for a small fee. BW wanted £40 to just see my unit. Unreal.

In my estimation and experience with various detectors, BW come in top for what a mine explorer with an eye on the budget and a bit of can-do needs. :thumbup:

Living in an area full of chemical works and steel plants, theres actually no shortage of local companies who have been more than happy to calibrate and repair my previous "bodged" meter as you put it.

I've had my previous one 4 years and had two new 02 sensors and two callibrations, but its really on its last legs now.

If people are pooing themselves because some 'nutter' is going into a mine with a fully working 4-gas meter, pray to god they don't find out about all the people who don't have one at all. :blink:

Fantastic. That sounds great!

Industry has made an interesting contribution to "caving" but some of it's techniques and dogma as well as resulting hysteria are unwelcome and unnecessary.

It's an interesting debate as to how "caving" has developed from a bunch of innovators really pushing the capabilities of themselves and their equipment, to a set of principles which must be obeyed and getting all upset when they aren't.

To raise this golden cherry, in my opinion industrial input into rescue has meant that their dogma, fiddling and procedures get in the way of someone staying alive....

Anyway, a meter is a handy thing to have. Sadly, I think mine has worked out about £20 a trip so far. ( I have only taken in on about 4 trips).

Anyway, a meter is a handy thing to have. Sadly, I think mine has worked out about £20 a trip so far. ( I have only taken in on about 4 trips).

Well, if it gets you out of a pickle just once its worth every penny.

Was using 'old flaky' the other weekend and saw the oxygen drop from 21% to 13% just by climbing over one collapse.

That was totally genuine as my lungs concurred, but I suspect the 200% explosive gas it was reading at the time was wrong. 😞

Link to downloadable X-am-3000 manual. It may help. 😉

http://e-h2s.sokoguru.net/pdf/xx.pdf 

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200% of LEL would be LEL x 2. Whatever that is for methane....10.something% ish.

Explosive limits are something else. 9.6% is the most serious, IIRC, (might be 9.4%) but that's in non depleted O2. As you go increasing the CH4, you go lowering the O2 which pinches the EL points and makes the peak less serious.

Landfill sites and shafts which have had oil slung down them interfere with your flammables sensor and make it haywire IMO.

Mine is just buggered, it does it in the living room.

Chris, do you know anyone up your way who would just sell an O2 sensor, rather than charge for fitting?

(I'll try the Stokesley one on Monday).

Euremica at Guisborough might. Worth asking.

Looks like i've lucked out with this one.
After attaching my 'charger'
[photo]Personal-Album-859-Image-82492[/photo]
Powered up and seems to be 100% working.
[photo]Personal-Album-859-Image-82493[/photo]
Oxygen sensor responding when breathed on, CO and LEL alarms triggered by the gas cooker. Don't have a handy household source of H2S though.

......Don't have a handy household source of H2S though......

After the curry we had last night we might be able to help you out there..... :angel:

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Has anyone had their gas detector go wildly out of calibration when they've not had it calibrated for a while? I've got a four gas QraeII that was due to get its first calibration a few months ago, but I've still been using it underground.

With my 4 meters I've had, the only problems I've had with them being irregular has been down to buggered O2 sensors and the rest being user error/something confusing them.

Similar stuff can confuse the sensors and make them read wildly, as well as flashing the unit up in a different to 20.9 ,0 ,0 ,0 atmosphere.

Someone flashed a dodgy old Peugeot 306D up in Killifreth carpark the other day and the gas meter almost laid an egg!

My Draeger X-AM-2000 insists on calibration every 6 months by refusing to switch on after this period. H&S expect 6 monthly calibrations but 12 monthly used to be the norm, so if mine would let me I would be quite happy with 12 months. Having said that I would get it done every year, after all I like to think my life is worth £50 of anybody's money. 😉

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