What I've been up to... My Magnum mod

[Frubbish]

I picked up all my parts from harbor freight, radio shack, and home depot last night and should be finishing it up tonight! I plan on using a penstyle setup rather than the 901. Does anyone see a problem with this?

Also, the mag lights are still $3.98 and they had a whole box of them at the one near my house. If this one works out, i plan on stocking up on the flashlights and making one for each ecig type i have.

Also, if you do not have a multimeter, they have a basic model on sale for $3!

I will post my results as soon as I am finished.

 

[nicowolf]

I picked up all my parts from harbor freight, radio shack, and home depot last night and should be finishing it up tonight! I plan on using a penstyle setup rather than the 901. Does anyone see a problem with this?

Also, the mag lights are still $3.98 and they had a whole box of them at the one near my house. If this one works out, i plan on stocking up on the flashlights and making one for each ecig type i have.

Also, if you do not have a multimeter, they have a basic model on sale for $3!

I will post my results as soon as I am finished.

Using the penstyle shouldn't be a problem.

Where do they have a multimeter on sale for 3? And where is the flashlight 3.98? And is it the led flashlight or the Maglite brand?

 

[Frubbish]

Both at Harbor Freight Tools. The flashlight is the same model D-Struct used.

 

[D_Struct]

ARGHHH! I re-soldered all my connections, checked every piece over with the mulitmeter adnd still nothing. Out of frustration, I ripped out the circuit board and tried just running wire to the atomizer from the batteries... nothing. However, just one time, the wires were all jumbled up and somehow, the atomizer fired up bright red! So there's hope... I must be missing something obvious.

It's probably something staring you in the face.

That's how it was with me.

If I wasn't skin bald, I probably would've ripped all my hair out a few times. lol

 

[D_Struct]

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

I got my cr2's and charger from Deal Extreme. Now I'm just waiting for my 901 atomizers to make it.

 

[Frubbish]

Wow I have really hit a brick wall. I have spent HOURS at this very last step! I get everything setup (following D_structs instructions), I use the multimeter to test the inside and outside rings of the battery adapter, everything is fine, show's 6.4volts. Then when I screw on an atomizer, it cancels the charge! I get no voltage what-so-ever. I unscrew it and test...it's fine again, full 6.4volts. Any ideas? I have tried this with a 901 battery adapter as well as a classic penstyle...same result. Please help!

 

[D_Struct]

Wow I have really hit a brick wall. I have spent HOURS at this very last step! I get everything setup (following D_structs instructions), I use the multimeter to test the inside and outside rings of the battery adapter, everything is fine, show's 6.4volts. Then when I screw on an atomizer, it cancels the charge! I get no voltage what-so-ever. I unscrew it and test...it's fine again, full 6.4volts. Any ideas? I have tried this with a 901 battery adapter as well as a classic penstyle...same result. Please help!

Hmmmm...

That's quite puzzling.

I'll be thinking about the problem, and I'll get back to you. I really want to see someone else get there's up and rolling. How is your ground set up?

 

[eskimoroll]

Hmmmm...

That's quite puzzling.

I'll be thinking about the problem, and I'll get back to you. I really want to see someone else get there's up and rolling. How is your ground set up?

I'm wondering about the case ground myself. With the multimeter, I wasn't picking up that the ground current was flowing through the case. I wonder what it's made of. Instead I just extended the ground connection all the way to the top. Oh well, I'm out of town for the weekend and I'll be thinking about it. Detonator will be working by sometime next week.

 

[BeRight]

Only some food for thought-pure speculation on my part.

I would inspect the physical mating of atomizer to your device connector. It does seem like a short between inner and outer sections of the atomizer.

I would take the batteries out and inspect visually and with an ohm meter to try and find the short.

Hope this helps.

 

[D_Struct]

I'm wondering about the case ground myself. With the multimeter, I wasn't picking up that the ground current was flowing through the case. I wonder what it's made of. Instead I just extended the ground connection all the way to the top. Oh well, I'm out of town for the weekend and I'll be thinking about it. Detonator will be working by sometime next week.

Having a completely exposed copper wire leading from the switch and being pinned between the case and the PVC battery worked for me well.

 

[Frubbish]

Having a completely exposed copper wire leading from the switch and being pinned between the case and the PVC battery worked for me well.

This is the method I used.

I have the two wires going to the atomizer physically sticking out of the printed circuit board hole, so the battery adapter is hanging free, just to make sure the battery adapter wasn't contacting anything, still nothing. I am extremely confused on what I am doing wrong.

 

[Frubbish]

Okay so I resoldered everything, and I am still having the same issue with one difference. It registers 6.4volts roughly when the atomizer is not connected, and when it is connected, it is registering 0.74volts, but the atomizer is not powering on. Is it possible that two cr2 batteries are not enough power for a penstyle atomizer? I am drawing at straws now.

I also had one question, are all 'CR2' labelled lithium batteries at 800mah? I ordered the suggested model from dealextreme, but while i wait for them to come in the mail, i just went and bought a few at Target. they were labelled Lithium CR2 photo batteries.

 

[eskimoroll]

Sort of success... I'm in chicago right now away from all my tools and stuff but I did bring along my magnum/detonator to poke around with. By manually holding the specific wires in question together, I was able to get the magnum to fire and got a few hits off of it. I'm pretty sure my problem was trying to do a case ground. I didn't strip my ground wire so maybe the extra surface area helps the current to travel through the case. I'm 99% sure I can get it to work now that I'm sure the rest of my connections are solid.

 

[Frubbish]

Okay I was curious about how much voltage is required to run the penstyle atomizer, so this is what I did...

I set my multimeter to DCV/200 and measured my mod: 6v
Then measured a penstyle battery: 4v
And then for kicks...
I switched to ACV/200 and measured my penstyle USB pass-through: 7.7v

So I guess I am getting enough power...so back to WTF..

 

[D_Struct]

Sort of success... I'm in chicago right now away from all my tools and stuff but I did bring along my magnum/detonator to poke around with. By manually holding the specific wires in question together, I was able to get the magnum to fire and got a few hits off of it. I'm pretty sure my problem was trying to do a case ground. I didn't strip my ground wire so maybe the extra surface area helps the current to travel through the case. I'm 99% sure I can get it to work now that I'm sure the rest of my connections are solid.

That very well might be your problem.

Also, one problem that I had was that I was having an atomizer failing, and, for some reason, it didn't want to power up with the detonator. It would still work with the regular 901 batteries, but no go with the mod.

Not really sure what the deal was with that. Maybe it couldn't handle the raised voltage as it was wearing out.

 

[eskimoroll]

Sweet! Everything is working great. It took me all of two minutes to get it to work. I just stripped the ground wire and it was good to go. Since all the stuff I had done before was okay, I again wired up the circuit board and spring so that everything fits and looks nice. It vapes great (similar to my usb mods) and I'm looking forward to hours of vaping without changing batteries. I'll start a new thread showing pics tomorrow when I have a chance.

Now that I'm confident that I can put these things together correctly, I should be able to churn them out pretty quickly. I've got a few more different flashlights on order to make some more. Thanks d_struct for your help and of course thanks to madog for his videos.

 

[D_Struct]

Awesome! So happy you were able to get it up and running.

Sometimes, it's just a little change that's needed to right the ship.

I hope you enjoy it. I'm just in love with the feeling that it gives. The vapor is heated more, so it gives a analog-type sensation.

Can't wait to see pictures!

 

[Frubbish]

I still can't seem to get power to the device when an atomizer is screwed on. It seems like when the atomizer is screwed on, it is grounding out somehow...I have tried 3 different atomizers, with the same issue. I am at a loss, anyone have any ideas?

 

[D_Struct]

I still can't seem to get power to the device when an atomizer is screwed on. It seems like when the atomizer is screwed on, it is grounding out somehow...I have tried 3 different atomizers, with the same issue. I am at a loss, anyone have any ideas?

I'm sorry you're having problems, Frubbish.

Have you tried using a multimeter to test and see if there's an open leg in the circuit when the button is not being pushed?

There should be an open leg when it's up, and a closed circuit when it's down.

You probably already know that, and I don't mean to insult. It's just hard to give advice when you can't actually see what's going on first hand.

 

[secondson2929]

Is your inside connector on the mod too big? If it is when you screw the attomizer on it will bridge them before the current has time to get to the attomizer. I had this problem with an early tire valve style connection. I had to enlarge the hole in the outside contact. (Or you could make the inside contact smaller.)