Ejuice calculator (added quantity calculations)

[Scottes]

Cool, thanks Dan. I'm glad you're open to this community-based open-source programming.


I'm going to work on the recipes stuff I mentioned in post 85. I don't know how long it will take - or even if I will finish it since my experience with Excel is low. But it's a worthy goal so I'll give it a shot, and I have some time coming up.


And hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew, but here's some other ideas I had, and will attempt:

1) The spreadsheet has a tab with ALL the flavors from 3 companies. I think it would be convenient to make them accessible using drop-down lists, rather than typing them in every time.

2) I'm getting very frustrated with all my droppers being different sizes, and I do not want to convert to identical droppers. The bottles that come with droppers are very convenient. So I think I'll add a "drops per ml" for each ingredient line.

3) I've also been working on the LorAnn's Strength-O-Meter, and started adding Capella's to that thread. I'd like to add that info in, too, and keep all this info centrally located in a single location, this spreadsheet.

4) I'd like to automatically add the "drops per ml" based on the flavor chosen, configured in the Flavors worksheet. That is, have the Flavors spreadsheet contain a column for "drops per ml".

5) To be determined, but it would be nice to have all the flavoring info appear in the drop-down list when you pick a flavor. So my idea for the drop-down flavor list would show something like (as an example only):
LorAnn's Apple (Very Weak) (OK to use) (22 drops per ml)
LorAnn's Apricot (Strong) (Warning: Contains Artificial Coloring) (22 drops per ml)
Capella's Toasted Almond (Insanely Strong) (DANGER: Oil based) (17 drops per ml)


All of this should also provide some consistency in how recipes are shared, which could make for the creation of a great database of this community's recipes.

[Scubabatdan]

Originally Posted by Dale.s

Ive made a few changes to your wonderfull sheet and i wanted to share! Section 5 is now a total juice recipie solution! Goto sheet called "recipies" and input the data for the juices you have made in this format:

Flavor name | Total Flavor % in final mix | Flavor 1 | % of flavor | Flavor 2...

for example:

Jolly Rancher | 30% | Watermelon (Loranns) | 100%

This would give you a juice name of "Jolly rancher" using 30% of final mix of Loranns watermelon flavoring.

Now goto section 5, at the top of this section is a dropdown, pick your juice. This section now fills in with total flavor % to the right (this is the same % you would enter in section 1). Each flavor name, % of that flavor, and ML required of flavor per mix you picked in section 1. - Note, % Flavor in section 1 is not auto filled so you can do this by hand when working on new mixes.
Attachment 4471

Excellent, I also love this addition, I think I will add yours to the bottom section 7 and move scotties up to section 5 and move the VG/PG calculation section to the bottom. That way we can figure the recipe by ratio and it can gives us % that we can record on the recipe sheet and call up any time with your section.

Great Idea!
Dan

[Scubabatdan]

Originally Posted by Scottes

I will - though I might have to steal some of your code. I know VB very well, but not the Excel-specific VB commands, so it's sometimes frustrating to figure out to do things like "go to the first available blank row". I would normally type "ctrl-home, end, down-arrow, down-arrow" to do this by hand, but what the heck is the macro command to do the equivalent? I even recorded a macro, and typed "end down-arrow down-arrow" but when I use those in a macro it always take me to A65536, not the first available blank row!

I'll keep hacking away though.



Let me pass on another idea I had, and see if people think it's useful:

Most of my bottles have built in droppers. For the others, I use pipettes. This means that every drop is a different size.

For experimenting with very small batches this is easy since I'll just drop each ingredient until I get to 2 or 3 ml. But when I want to make 30ml I want to use milliliters - I'm not going to count out 600 hundred drops! But the ratios are wrong since the drop sizes differ.

Dan conveniently made a "drops per ml" configuration item, but this assumes that every drop is exactly the same size.

Would it be useful to have a "drops per ml" for each and every ingredient? This way one can configure 17 drops per ml for pipettes, 25 drops per ml for LorAnn's tiny droppers, etc.

If nobody wants to use this one could set them all to "20" but it does give greater accuracy for those of us who care.



By the way, Dan, I hope that you don't think that I am trying to steal any thunder with such ideas. Heck NO! I'm just hoping to add some features, and to do it in a way that lets you copy & paste code into your spreadsheet. I'm just trying to help.

The drops per ml is there for people to calculate small recipies, if you use the same dropper/pipet etc then the drops per ml does not change. I use the droppers from loranns that fit into the dram bottles for figuring out my small recipies <10ml for big batches I go by ml of flavoring and not by drops. The drops per ml is there to help in getting the recipie the same everytime. But if you use different droppers then you will have to calculate each flavor based on drops. That is why I went to the Lorann droppers. I also use Cappella so I do understand what you are talking about when you mean different drop sizes. It is more convinient to use their dropper bottles than to open them and us a pipet. I suppose I could play around with the drops per ml per flavor, but then if someone uses a different dropper thean you then the point is mute. I found that the Lorann droppers are at 40/ml so it is perfect for what I need.
Hmmm let me think about it.
Dan

[Scottes]

Originally Posted by Scubabatdan

I suppose I could play around with the drops per ml per flavor, but then if someone uses a different dropper thean you then the point is mute.

My thoughts had been about having this option for every ingredient. My nic-juice bottle is different from my PG bottle, which are different from the pipettes used for LorAnn, which is different from the Capella dropper bottles. Some of these differences might be slight - though your comment about 40/ml for LorAnn is wildly different from the generalized 20 or 25 drops per ml that most people quote around here.

The issue I find is dropping to make a test 2ml batch, and then converting that recipe to measured milliliters for making a 30ml batch.

Imagine a case where one has the calculator set to 20 drops per ml. Let's say they make a 2ml test batch with 5 drops of Bickford using a 20/ml pipette, and 5 drops of LorAnn using a 40/ml dropper.

Assuming that both are measured at 20 drops per ml, the chef would think that there's 1/4 ml of each flavor in that 2 ml batch. In reality, there's 1/4 ml of Bickford and 1/8 ml LorAnn.

Converting such a 2ml dropped recipe to a 30ml measured batch would produce a wildly incorrect flavor. The calculator would produce an equal number of ml for each flavoring, when there should be twice as much Bickford as LorAnn.


I had also planned on it being optional. It certainly doesn't have to be changed every time one makes a recipe.

Originally Posted by Scubabatdan

Hmmm let me think about it.

I think you should continue to work on your BS, which is far more important than this. I'll play with it if I get time, or maybe I won't and the idea can be re-visited in the future.

Maybe a bunch of folks will come along and say it's a crazy idea. Or maybe a bunch will say that it's the most important idea ever conceived. Either one may give us incentive to do it, or ignore it.

[Scubabatdan]

Ok I have added both Dale, and Scottes suggestions!
I moved things around a bit, Section 5 is now Scottes addition and section 6 is Dales addition. Section 7 is now the VG/PG calculation section.
Now you can enter the ratios for figuring your recipes in section 5 and it will calculate the %, and when the recipe is the way to like it, you can record it on the recipe sheet in % from section 5. These can now be pulled up at any time in section 6 to be duplicated.

Here it is V7 of the ejuice calculator

Let me know what ya think!
Thanks alot Dale and Scottes!
Dan

[Scubabatdan]

BTW I have put my own calculator to good use and made 5 different batches totaling 130 10ml bottles and am doing quite nicely as a side business selling unique flavors the to the local retailers here. There is definantly money to be made in DIY eliquids, consistancy is the key. I agree with Scottes that the differences in drops can play a big difference in flavor so be aware of that. Always test your recipies in small quantiys when using someone elses recipes and adjust based on the drops you use. Talior it to your own flavor and by all means adjust the calculator if you need to add on

Thanks to everyone who has contributed, lets continue to make this better.
Dan

PS I can BS quite well har har har

[Scubabatdan]

Originally Posted by Scottes

though your comment about 40/ml for LorAnn is wildly different from the generalized 20 or 25 drops per ml that most people quote around here.

Well I took a 3ml syringe and counted as I squeezed drops in .5ml was 20 drops using the lorann droppers and flavoring. I will test the capella flavors and report back.

Dan

[Dale.s]

Awesome work dan! just one note about my addition, the "Total flavor %" was the amount of flavor per batch like in section one, one recipie might use 20%, another 30% for example, not the total of all flavors added. Might need to find a way to make that clearer. great work btw!

[Scottes]

Awesome Dan!

[Scubabatdan]

Originally Posted by Dale.s

Awesome work dan! just one note about my addition, the "Total flavor %" was the amount of flavor per batch like in section one, one recipie might use 20%, another 30% for example, not the total of all flavors added. Might need to find a way to make that clearer. great work btw!

I understand that, that is why I changed it
You see I was looking at the total flavoring combined should equal 100% that way we can bounce the 100% against the flavoring from section one no matter what % you put in. That way it is divided out accurately no matter how much you add in proportionally.

Notice section 5, when it equals the ml in the amount in section 1 the % in section 5 also total to 100%. Then we can move those % to the recipe page and have it forever. Ratios or percentages wil work no matter the volume.

Make sense?

Dan