Even Petzl warns us about this thing!

[zeebeezoey]

petzl missed a trick by not using the tagline: "Neox: It's _wheely_ good"

[paulgaras]

Petzl should be paying you for this. I have more confidence in this device than when I saw their marketing video

[ZerolinGD]

The idea of the Neox is to basically be a more perfect version of what the grigri is supposed to be. A belay device where only have to hold the tail loosely, which makes it a lot more pleasant to belay for a long time. An "assisted" breaking device does not mean a device that will catch you in case you aren't holding the brake strand, it just means a device that literally assists you in braking so you don't have to pull down on the rope with any force while holding the weight of a climber.

[evanbarnes]

I literally saved a dude from his own belayer once because his belayer thought he could just pull the lever on the Grigri to gently lower the climber without holding the brake strand. Fortunately I was right there and quickly grabbed the brake strand, because the dude was basically in freefall. I think it wouldn't be a fair criticism of the Neox to say it's not good because you have to hold the brake strand, because the same is true of all belay devices, including the Grigri.

[Pygex]

"I put it in like a USB stick, 3 times to make sure it's right" why is it always like that 😂😂😂

[jonathankibler]

In the fire rescue world we call that sound, “the sound of progress”. Most of our devices make noise when hauling up through them. The sound of progress mean we are moving the load up.

[MattRogersdesigns]

Try to simulate a slow fall. Like where there is a lot of rope drag and the forces are not high or fast - just let the dummy weight on the rope without a fall with some friction at the top, like a lead climber is "taking" at the top of the route. Seems like that it might not catch if it is slow enough and could let the rope pay out, and if there is no knot in the tail end, could pull through.

[damnination]

I think the clicking sound that you were hearing while doing your something-to-1 pull test and using it as an ascender is coming from the internal mechanism of the wheel. Inside the wheel, there's a mechanism where when the rope gets loaded, it pulls the wheel off-axis and engages the internal mechanism, which prevents the wheel from spinning, and allows the camming braking action to engage. which is why the wheel didn't spin freely when you were trying to pull rope through the device while it was under load. The wheel spins freely while the system is not loaded so that you can feed rope through smoothly, but once you load the system, the wheel locks up.

If you watch the video labeled "NEOX 3D video" on Petzl's product page, you can see this mechanism at 0:45. I'm pretty sure that clicking sound was that tab on the insider of the wheel (seen at the top of the wheel at the video timestamp) running over the internal mechanism, and each time the wheel rotates the tab back to the top, it has to run over the locking mechanism again, making the repeated clicking noises.

[Spder]

It reminds me of how the seat belt catch works but for a rope. I like that it would slowly slip the rope under high loading without desheathing and relieving the tension gracefully. Great tests. The way it works is really clever. Excellent video! 👍

[greeboart]

1:19 is an example seen a lot in the US of how not to give slack with a Gri-gri.

[Drugio]

it be interesting to do this with the Elderids pinch as well

[SchmidtymeTimbers]

SAR volunteer here looking for test data - at 8:16 was the Neox slipping at 4.4KN consistently while brake strand was held? And the peak force of 8.9KN is what it started slipping at, or am I reading it wrong? Also, what was it slipping at without the brake strand being held?

[ErikKloeker]

I had mine out yesterday, feeds more smoothly than any belay device I've ever used and still locks up when you want it to, not sure what else you'd want in a device.

[benspeicher]

Understanding that you’re not supposed to do any of these things, it would be interesting to see it tested as a top belay device, top rope solo device, and lead rope solo device.

[seekelectricity]

i dont understand the glib remarks like "yeah i dont have to do that with an atc..." etc. -- when (i thoguht) the whole point of an ABD is to add a layer of protection if the belayer becomes incapacitated. if you trip, pass out, or a rock hits you while belaying with an atc, isnt the climber 100% fucked? whereas with an abd, theres a good chance it will catch? so whats with the glib attitude toward ABDs

[ShuRugal]

@ 8:20 - i feel like this is the perfect result. The device is allowing the rope to feed SLOWLY, right at the edge of the load which would strip the sheath off the rope.

I'm not a climber, but this seems like the best-case scenario for a device like this: you get unmistakable feedback letting you know you're overloading the device, but you do NOT get a sudden catastrophic failure that leaves you tryna figure out how to cast 'feather fall' before you hit the ground.

Is my assessment here wrong? Like i said, not a climber, but this looks like a failure mode i would want on a safety-critical tool.

[LarsLarsen]

I've never once held a grigri open to get slack out, you feed the loose end into it while pulling out the climber side.

[prhistoric]

@HowNOT2 on your store, under "progress capture devices" you have the neox listed as well as still having a TEST listing further down. Have a good one mate!

[dimalitvin]

The MAIN difference on the safety side compared to an ATC is imo not the break assist but the indifference of the Neox and all Grigri versions to where the brake strand is directed/orineted.
You can be holding the brake strand completely parallel to the load strand and it will still brake, while with an ATC you're left with the Rope bent around a karabiner 180° and literally no baking effekt.

[marenb]

I know the lead rope solo community is excited at this things potential. I'd love to see some lrs fall testing and inverted fall testing