USB mod with pneumatic switch

[yo han]

Yo Han, that's beautiful! What kind of cord are you using? Version 2 is on hold until I find a good cable. I'm on the hunt for a thin and flexible wire with 2 leads in it.. basically one side of a thin headphone wire would be good. The thinner and more flexible the better.

Thanks. Finding a suitable cable was indeed the most difficult part I ended up ripping one from a USB toy. Normal cables always have too many wires which make them twice as thick and not suitable to use in these situations.

[jdrancor]

here's video

http://www.reddingk.com/img/esmoke.mov

[Bastage]

Still working beautifully big guy ... Electrical Tape is kind of get used, but if it gets too junked up, will just strip it and retape!!!

Cool. one thing you can do is get you some shrink tubing that's just a little bigger around than the ecig, cover the whole thing tape and all with shrink tubing and carefully heat it up with a blow dryer. It makes the surface like hard rubber.

[Grumpysanta]

jdrancor have you considered buying a really cheap USB mouse ? you'll get a nice cable from that.

[Grumpysanta]

Well my first external battery mod is done, it's not pretty so I wont insult you with pictures. I'm using 3 AA rechargeable batteries, real cheap, 3 for a pound so they are only 800mAH 1.2V batteries. The doner battery got busted up real bad as it's the first one to be taken apart so its a manual switch jobby. I took the liberty of measuring the current drawn and for future reference it's 900mA or 0.9A . anyway I'm in vaping heaven.

So some points to watch out for, 900mA is clearly higher than what a USB port is capable if delivering, especially most laptops. If you are going to mod for USB I suggest using a Current Limiting Circuit. I'm considering knocking out a circuit to do just that and protect the USB port from overload by short circuit. As and when I complete the circuit I'll post up for you. Anyone modding their e-cig for external power should make sure the cable they use is capable of taking at least 1 Amp .

Bastage : I think that explains why the retractable USB didn't work very well.

Anyway I hope this information helps.

[jdrancor]

I actually have a miniature USB mouse with a nice cord on it - the cord is what I'm looking for, but there are 2 problems: 1) it's not long enough 2) I use the mouse alot, and don't know where I can find another. My current solution is a pair of cheap headphones.. I'm going by the 99 cent store today and buy a pair.

[Grumpysanta]

Having used my toy for a couple of day I now understand why bastage prefers manual rather than an automatic switch. I still want to try with an auto switch but using manual certainly stops backwash. Once you've got used to external power yuo'll never want to go back to those tiny batteries.

[jdrancor]

No kidding. I went back to batteries for awhile and it was wiiiiimpy.

Unfortunately, my USB power source wasn't strong enough. I'm now sourcing a 4 AA holder to try instead of the 2 AA that I currently have. Bigger batteries are the future. The screwdriver is effective because of the big battery. Without the big battery, it's just a kissbox. A more functional kissbox, sure, but it's the big power that gives it it's kick.

[Bastage]

No kidding. I went back to batteries for awhile and it was wiiiiimpy.

Unfortunately, my USB power source wasn't strong enough. I'm now sourcing a 4 AA holder to try instead of the 2 AA that I currently have. Bigger batteries are the future. The screwdriver is effective because of the big battery. Without the big battery, it's just a kissbox. A more functional kissbox, sure, but it's the big power that gives it it's kick.

Sometimes USB hubs don't provide as much power to the atomizer, especially the cheaper ones. If you had that problem with a hub, try it directly to a PC or laptop. For battery power, 2 batteries isn't enough, and 4 is too much. You really need 3 batteries to make it work right.

[yo han]

Depends what batteries you're using. If you're using 4 rechargeables you get 4x 1.2V = 4.8V which is still 0.2V lower than USB power.