Altaros Booster / compressor

[lovern98]

Folks,



Just received my new Altaros compressor and have a question hopefully some one can answer. When adjusting the air proportioning valve, what exactly are you adjusting? The time it takes for the main piston to cycle?

It mentions a 60/40 split, but what is that in reference to?



-Eric

 

[bpf]

I just got the booster a couple of days ago

Are you referring to page 4 of the small 'book' titled "Compressor Booster Unit". This is the only place I read "60/40". If I understand correctly, this is the duty cycle of the external (shop) compressor, they want to avoid this compressor to run for a long period of time.

I tried both filling methods: 1) drive air coming from the source bottle, 2) drive air coming from an external compressor.

Since my target bottle is small (500cc), and it doesn't reach a pressure lower than 125 bars (or so: my Aliexpress gauges seem to have a -10/+10 bars 'accuracy'), it is filled in a short amount of time to 300 bars.

My source tank is a 15L tank that can also go up to 300 bars. However the diving station supposed to fill it up to this pressure seems unable to go over 250 bars (yet another reason to get the Altaros B2B compressor).

When I used method(2), I ran the shop compressor until it filled its own tank, paused a few seconds, then ran the Altaros booster by powering it with the USB cable, at some point my shop compressor restarted and the job was completed in a few seconds, so I don't think it caused any trouble to my small shop compressor.

However if your target bottle is big and the difference between the source and target bottle pressures is important, the shop compressor may run for a long time and probably overheat so it has to be paused by either playing with the screw that tunes the amount of air exiting from it, or, be turned off regularly to cool down.

There is no such problem with method (1) but the amount of air used for the 'drive' seems to be significant. However method (1) is quicker and simpler than method(2). For instance if you want to shoot the whole week-end and know you'll go to the dive shop on Monday, if the source bottle is filled enough to allow for a week-end of shooting, I would not bother with method (2).

At the moment my current opinion about the Altaros compressor is the following:

- the purely mechanical 'auto-stop' main gauge should be improved: sometimes the pressure hand gets stuck with the 'stop' hand. A digital system would be much better.

- hoses are long, which is handy, but a lot of air is wasted when bleeding them.

- the casing isn't on par with the overall idea. However their product works, seems more efficient than others and the price is acceptable due to the current (lack of) competition on this devices. 

- slight open the source bottle to avoid the main gauge hand to 'jump' into the 'stop' hand. (sorry, English is a second language for me, there is probably a better way of describing this).

- everything else is positive! I can go up to 300 bars in a short amount of time, hence the 'babysitting' time is acceptable. Providing two methods to use the booster is brilliant. In case of a failure, it will be just a matter of changing o-rings (theoretically at least...), we should not wait for other parts.

If the limiting gauge is replaced by a better / digital one then the Altaros device is perfect for whoever has dive shops at a reasonable distance (which is my case).

 

[Eaglebeak]

For a simple answer to your question. The proportioning valve that you mention is only to regulate the input flow to prevent the overheating of the drive compressor. The 60/40 split means that you should adjust the knob until your drive compressor's duty cycle is roughly 60% work and 40% rest, for example, 2 minutes run / 80 sec. rest. I wouldn't recommend using a drive compressor with an output of less than 6 CFM or 180 LPM. All this should be explained clearly in the user manual.

 

[Chickenthief]

The "knob" only adjusts airflow to the main piston not to the boosting piston.

It is purely (as stated) to slow down the speed of the main piston thus max air usage.

Most hobby shop compressors are'nt made to run 100% and would die in short order. Thus need for the 60/40 or 50/50 duty circle.

A good pro shop compressor can be run (way) faster than the Altaros can use air so they should be good.

Ours at the shop will run my Altaros flat out for @5 hours to fill a 6,8liter bottle from zero to 300bar+.



Most know this and maybe neglected it but pressure is KING!

The main piston is happy to work 100% at some 5,5-6bar~80-85psi.

But if you supply 10-12bar~154-175psi then the boost piston recieves double the amount of air for each stroke and you speed up the booster by some 100%. No pixie dust or magic, just high pressure supplied and lots of it!

 

[Roachcreek]

These Altaros Boosters are wonderful.

I run at 125 psi and have set mine as low as 70/30, it keeps my compressor cylinders a cool,85F and cools down my cylinder heads to 85f between cycles. However as you can see I also run a 12 inch fan directly onto each compressors heads.

All this keeps you from making a lot of water and your compressor or compressors last longer as heat kills compressors. You will need water filters in addition to the one on the booster to separate the water you will make from getting into your air supply.



Henric, I have one of those filters you suggested, I have a 2nd one on order and will run them end to end using a 1/4 npt FF. I had trouble sealing the one pictured but finally used my old standby sealer, JBWeld.


Both compressors run independently filling their respective tanks and dump into the 10 gallon tank under the bench. Those two CaliforniaAirToolcompressors are so quiet, I have to put my hands on them to feel for vibrations to make sure they are both running. The real clue is the start up feature that bleeds air when they shut off after filling. I have no trouble keeping them in sync as long as I turn them on at the same time. I have set for hours testing temperature with my laser temperature gauge.as it is a one off untested system.

So guys, you use that knob to try for 40% shop compressors run time with 60% compressor at rest time. Heat is the killer of compressors. Check your compressor temperatures very often, and water filters often. Once you get it running well you can let it run unattended.

Regards,

Roachcreek