Oxygen System (Roll your own) RV-10

[pa38112]

Yes, I built my own. It is in a 6, not a 10; but the principal and cost should be the same (maybe $200). I bought a Jumbo D new on e-bay for about $80, and a medical regulator for about $50. I piped it to each position where I installed stainless steal quick connect fittings that seal off the line when disconnected. The positions not is use do not use any O2. You use the regulator flow setting to adjust flow for 1,2,3 or 4 people. You could use individual flow meters, but they are ugly, bulky, clunky, and un-necessary.
Give everyone a plus-ox finger meter and adjust the overall flow accordingly.
I?ll post a parts list when I get back to the States tomorrow.

[Paddy]

Here's my budget 4-place solution. Jumbo-D Cylinder, low profile valve, 4-port regulator with CPC connector sockets. The flow meters are from eBay, mounted to an aluminum plate that attaches to the overhead via a modified GoPro mount. Works fine but it's a little bulky. The OxySaver cannulas are OK but not the most efficient technology, not an issue if you have your own fill station but no where near as efficient as an O2D2 for example.

[Subwaybob]

Originally Posted by pa38112

Yes, I built my own. It is in a 6, not a 10; but the principal and cost should be the same (maybe $200). I bought a Jumbo D new on e-bay for about $80, and a medical regulator for about $50. I piped it to each position where I installed stainless steal quick connect fittings that seal off the line when disconnected. The positions not is use do not use any O2. You use the regulator flow setting to adjust flow for 1,2,3 or 4 people. You could use individual flow meters, but they are ugly, bulky, clunky, and un-necessary.
Give everyone a plus-ox finger meter and adjust the overall flow accordingly.
I?ll post a parts list when I get back to the States tomorrow.

Yes! Pictures please.

[Paddy]

After using the portable system for a while, I started looking into a built-in solution but the cost was prohibitive for the install kits on the market. Hence the roll-your-own approach. The performance requirements were light weight, ease of use and much increased duration for a very long trip I had planned. Many of the components can be found online from non-aviation vendors at non-aviation prices
First, the cylinder is a Spiracle EE-Lite carbon fibre unit, capacity 48 cuft @ 2216psi. This was sourced from an EMS supply house. The CPC connector hardware and low pressure hose came from an online plumbing place. The aviation specific parts came from Mountain High Oxygen and are very high quality stuff, the best I've found to date. The MH parts are a PCR regulator and remote pneumatic switch, pressure gauge, fill port and one O2D2 unit.

The cylinder is mounted on the the aft side of the baggage bulkhead on a doubler riveted to the corrugated bulkhead. The fill port and pressure gauge are installed in the lower bulkhead panel.



The upper portion of the baggage bulkhead has a round hole cut in it for access to the CGA 540 valve on the cylinder. The hole is covered by a small door with a 1/4 turn fastener.



The oxygen ports are housed in the center console, 2 on the outside for the rear passengers and 2 inside the console for the pilot and copilot. The front seaters plug into an O2D2 unit inside the center console for maximum oxygen efficiency. The remote switch for the regulator is also mounted inside the center console next to the oxygen ports.



The system is easy to fill from my home-brew fill station with welding oxygen. One fill lasted 2 Atlantic crossings on O2 75% of the time with plenty to spare

[Ted RV8]

Originally Posted by RV8JD

Found these Inogen Aviator units for pilot's use up to 15K' and 18K', depending on the unit. Single-user units. They claim they are "FAA approved".

http://www.inogenaviator.com/products.html

Didn?t see that one! Thanks for the link.

[lr172]

Originally Posted by Subwaybob

That's good stuff. I'm going to use a CGA 540 so I can fill it myself.

I hope to self-fill as well at some point. You can get transfill setups for 870, as well as 540. The advantage to the 870 is the ease of filling if the need arises while away from home. Just need the Rx. Medical refill operations are everywhere and most industrial gas places will fill either 540 or 870, with an Rx.

Larry

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by lr172

I hope to self-fill as well at some point. You can get transfill setups for 870, as well as 540. The advantage to the 870 is the ease of filling if the need arises while away from home. Just need the Rx. Medical refill operations are everywhere and most industrial gas places will fill either 540 or 870, with an Rx.

Larry

It's also easy to build a small 540 to 870 adapter to carry with you - I do that in the tiny jet because the built in O2 system needs filling often....

[Canadian_JOY]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Alvord

I believe the one we used was an Inogen G3 Portable with Pulse Oxygen. It was designed as a Single user system, and we simply attached a Y connector and attached two oxysaver cannula's from Aerox. The system worked great while we were flying from Washington to Detroit this summer at 16.5k (favorable winds gave us GS 220+). We did have a pulse oximeter and were checking regularly. I believe we had it maxed out at 5lpm and our target was to simply keep OT sat above 92%. It had plenty of battery charge to get us there but we also had the 12V power adapter. I was lucky and work in the Health care industry and the local Medical Equipment supplier let me "Borrow" it for the week.
When I first bough the plane I lived in AZ and the airport FBO would easily fill my canister, however after a trip to New England and being unable to get canisters filled anywhere (rental canisters that had to be returned not just exchanged) I will probably invest in an Inogen in the future.if I have going to cross over the West a lot. otherwise I don't think I would carry the weight.

Hope that helps.

Thank you, Jonathan, that's very helpful info indeed!
I think I've found a lightly used Inogen G3 locally... that may be the path we end up going.

[Carl Froehlich]

I had the following objectives on my RV-10 Oxygen install:
- Must be a portable system. I want to be able to remove it, and refill it using a shared refill rig we setup at the Airpark (we all have $40 a refill cylinders in a daisy chain charge rig). A $40 refill lasts for a couple of years.
- Have enough capacity for two people for an east to west coast round trip assuming cruise altitudes of 10k to 16K.
- Be easily accessible to the pilot.

I selected the Mountain High pulse demand system with the AL-682 cylinder. The system comes with a nice cylinder case with tie down straps. I modified the tie down straps to have two crisscross straps anchored under four tunnel top screws. The straps have a clip so it is only a few seconds to pull the cylinder. The cylinder is mounted just aft of the front seats on top of the tunnel. The pulse demand module is mounted with Velcro on the side of the tunnel just forward of the co-pilot seat.

This setup has met all my design criteria.

Carl

[rocketbob]

Originally Posted by Paddy

Here's my budget 4-place solution. Jumbo-D Cylinder, low profile valve, 4-port regulator with CPC connector sockets. The flow meters are from eBay, mounted to an aluminum plate that attaches to the overhead via a modified GoPro mount. Works fine but it's a little bulky. The OxySaver cannulas are OK but not the most efficient technology, not an issue if you have your own fill station but no where near as efficient as an O2D2 for example.

What are the makes/models of the regulator and flow meters?