After a nearly sleepless night, rolling around while thinking about various pressure, electrical and gas issues, I brought the system up to 2psi today, with most connections, including coolant hoses, connected and running. Despite sealing off the helmet's exhaust valve, I was still losing pressure there (so my seal was no good). I think I'll remove that hardware; leaving just a hole in the helmet will give me a lot more options than I currently have with the extant valve, which has been a problem from the start. Removing the valve without damaging the helmet will be a challenge. I also have to finally replace the suit gas pressurization fitting as it leaks very, very slowly. I've recently read that all pressure vessels have leaks; pressure suits, aircraft and even spacecraft have leak rates and the issue is simply to get that rate down low enough that it's sustainable. Right now my leak rate, through the unsealable helmet vent and suit pressurization fitting, isn't survivable...so in short I've slipped backwards a bit, though at least I know exactly what I need to do next. The good news is that my use of epoxy to seal through-fitting plugs for electrics and the coolant hoses actually worked, which feels good.
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