Vapian, I just modified the quote and left any questions or sentences relative to a question intact, and answered in red. Thanks for going into so much detail, it allowed me to touch on some things I have yet to go into detail about.
(Doug - does that spring "loosen up" a little after a few fills?)
Yup, after it gets used a few times it will smooth out, but never use a metal needle, this is more to prevent air from getting in, than for fear of juice leaking from the ball seal. Please see the video i just uploaded.. it's on our website now(really sorry i could not have it up sooner, it tuned into a nightmare with the camera settings)
With fingers I couldn't get it seated like it was before loosening, so used a tool again to snug it up just a bit.
I snugged them in place with a coin before shipping to prevent the tanks rattling around in the unit, as they can move around a bit without a carto installed. So yah, you would have needed the assistance of a coin to undo that torque
I'm guessing maybe the the brass drip tip/carto collar provides the ground path between the steel carto body and the BB's chassis.
Yup, you got it
First (metal) drip tip I grabbed didn't fit inside the ring. So grabbed another (metal) tip, and IT was too big, too. But the third one (a knock-off stainless Ming tip) fit just fine, as did many of my Acrylic/plastic/Delrin tips.
Thank you for letting me know about this. This is exactly the feedback I need as I set up the final tooling that will make the pre orders. I tested each one with my largest diameter drip tip (a thickly anodized aluminum one) to make sure that it fit. I know the metal ones are often slightly larger than the plastic ones, but your largest tip is apparently bigger than mine. I will adjust the tooling for this asap and send you one that will work for your larger metal tips. You too ian, Bamrz, any one else who asks.
There are a couple of questions that come to mind. I do not know they are issues with the BB but it would be nice to know more about a couple of safety-oriented things that are not obvious to me at first glance:
- Does the design account for venting if the batteries should out-gas or (heaven forbid) explode?
YES, and well. The Billet box is not air tight, even if the air intake vents on the side are covered with your finger you will still get air flow throughout the entire lid area. If a battery ever did gas out it would exit from the air intake vents. If a battery ever exploded it would first have swollen and would crease the lids bottom to create an exit for the force, not even including the vents. Though i do not recommend the following as you will get juice in the inside of you billet box (not much, so go for it), you can blow on the drip tip while firing the unit and with the vents closed with your finger to see the areas that vent. You would notice one right under the batteries.
- Does the electrical design provide any safety features such as over/under voltage, reverse polarity, over current protection, etc.?
Yes. The Voltage regulator is overkill for for the amount of voltage it can handle. It will handle up to 12 volts input, but will never get it. It is reverse polarity protected, it will simply not operate or do anything at all with the batteries inserted in reverse. Over current is at 3 amps.
Finally, there are a few design ideas that might be considered for a future revision:
- It does not appear that the positive carto contact will work well if the center pin of the carto is recessed, which may affect some cartomizers. An adjustable screw or spring pin might be worth considering. I have never seen a recessed model 510 before, i will look into this. Or are you referring to regular boge type 510's that have some manufacturing error? If so the pin in the carto can be pulled out with the help of a small screw driver or other little tool, and should be easily re centered too. I may make a video at a later date about dealing with 510 manufacturing errors, some are fixable...
- I don't find the drip tip/cartomizer collar particularly finger-friendly. I REALLY like the look of the rounded edges but a couple more notches might make it easier to turn with finger pressure. A slightly knurled or otherwise textured finish might be worth considering (either included or as an optional replacement/retrofit piece).
I really did consider making more groves in the brass screw, I will make one with a few grooves and see if i can make it look good. It was never designed to be operated with fingers alone to achieve final tightening and untightening of the cartomizer. However, when i unscrew it more than a few turns i do like to not use the coin and know where you are coming from on this point.
- Most of my metal drip tips do not fit in the drip tip collar only a couple out of several that I tried. All of my plastic/acrylic/Delrin tips fit, but some are extremely snug. I would recommend reviewing the I.D. of the collar to see if it could be made just a bit larger without sacrificing seal.
You will have one in your mailbox sometime next week=)
- An option for textured or "grippy" front and back panels might be worth considering. While I never dropped it, the body did seem to take on a slicker feel after a couple hours of handling.
This is where we can have some fun later down the road. My work day BB is wood plated and is not slick at all. Other materials would fit the bill as well. Some users will be able to change their own face plates at home, not everyone will want to tackle it but it can be done... or shipped to us to change them when we are able to offer more of a selection. I always envisioned the Billet Box having wood plates, but in my product testing I vaped in the shower a few times and the wood warped a bit (not bad enough to change, but still..). so wood was out for the time being until I get a vacuum process set up for impregnating the wood with a resin or cyanoacrylate ester to stabilize it.
, not to mention that i will have to stay up all night to try my luck to get one of the Billet boxes and then wait another 7-8 days before it reaches me in India.
One of the questions I had in my mind was would it cut off at a preset voltage or not, and I found mine to cut off at about 2.5v. That's a little lower than I usually like to go with my batts, so I'll have to pay a bit more attention to the vapor output, which did start to decline right before it cut out. Sadly I can't say how long the batteries would last on a full charge yet, since the ones I put in first were already partially discharged.
