The holy Grail: A temperature controlled Nitinol/Kanthal wire E-Cig
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(I'm sorry. I had to.)
For the record, 1KAM, I think your idea sounds pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
For the record, 1KAM, I think your idea sounds pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
Well, if its not for you, its not for you. But I hope I can impress you.
I am working on the first round of tests as we speak. Things are looking well. The end all result that I am striving for is a 510-510 pass through box with a very simple control on it that will screw into your favorite mech mod on one end, and your favorite atty on the other. There won't be any buttons on it, and no fancy display.
The only thing needed is a coil of approximately the right resistance, and your favorite mech and favorite atty will have their temperature control.
Anyway, We'll see how this goes. Happy vaping.
-kam-
I am working on the first round of tests as we speak. Things are looking well. The end all result that I am striving for is a 510-510 pass through box with a very simple control on it that will screw into your favorite mech mod on one end, and your favorite atty on the other. There won't be any buttons on it, and no fancy display.
The only thing needed is a coil of approximately the right resistance, and your favorite mech and favorite atty will have their temperature control.
Anyway, We'll see how this goes. Happy vaping.
-kam-
I just got a free spool of the resistance wire I need from a dusty back room in the Electrical Engineering department. I will be breadboarding and giving a very simple test tomorrow. I will report my findings in this thread when they are available.
So, this is a middle layer that would make mechanicals function in TP mode. Interesting especially if small and can auto switch from coil types.
Before you abandon thread... hear me out. 
My first idea on this doesn't like to work, and I have a reasonably good understanding of why. Its a bit too "Analogy Fancy" but that might not make sense to some users... so lets just say I've been a bit electrically ambitious.
Don't despair, I have ideas. More realistic ones I think. I'm not going to just drop the hat and quit on this. I think that with just a few components I can build something really neat that improves the standard mech mod's behaviors with some simple electronics.
One thing that I noticed today, is a rather simple fact. E cigarettes, in particular mech mods work damn well as they are. What I mean by that is the following:
I've seen some products out there, for example the fancy OLED display thingy previously that has some pretty fancy features, a microcontroller, and a big circuit board with lots of stuff...
But I'm going out on a limb here, and making the judgement that a mech modder doesn't want fancy stuff like that. Its not needed. We are heating a hot wire up by shorting it across a battery...
As such, I've found that I want to do something much much more simple, that still meets our goals in a fashion. Now, instead of using NiChrome wire as intended, I've decided that I am going to change my plans and change my goals.
1- This will work for any mech mod from 3 volts to 16 volts.
2- This will work for ANY resistance coil.
3- This will control "Temperature" of the E-cigarette by controlling the *AVERAGE* current through it.
Now you might say "Whoa!" on number three, because it doesn't control temperature. This is true. in a sense. However... I rather interestingly discovered by means of a thermocouple and a lab bench power supply, that the coil could be made nice and hot... hot enough to make vapor, but not so hot that it glowed, and its temperature held very stable with nothing but adjustment on the power supply outputs.
What this tells me is as follows. I don't think actual temperature control is required. In that sense, its not degrees ferenheit that we are caring about, we are caring about coil longevity, sweet vapors, and warm up times. In fact, to that extent, I don't even think we care about amps or volts, we just want a hot wire.
What I am working on as of right now is a ruggedized circuit that works as a two-state machine. It takes one input, having a voltage applied to it, and controls the coil likewise.
By two state machine I mean this. In the initial state, the circuit provides as much output as it can for a short period of time. This will make the coil nice and hot.
In the second state, the circuit provides a user-settable control based on turning the coil on and off rapidly. This is called PWM. Vary the percent of time the coil is on, and this varies the temperature... in a way.
Using this will be a simple matter of personal calibration. Pick a coil resistance that you like, that won't short your batteries too much. Figure about 10 amps draw.
Wet the vape, turn it on, and adjust the PWM output until the coil seems to be just right.
Use.
I think I am liking this idea more and more the more I think about it.
My first idea on this doesn't like to work, and I have a reasonably good understanding of why. Its a bit too "Analogy Fancy" but that might not make sense to some users... so lets just say I've been a bit electrically ambitious.
Don't despair, I have ideas. More realistic ones I think. I'm not going to just drop the hat and quit on this. I think that with just a few components I can build something really neat that improves the standard mech mod's behaviors with some simple electronics.
One thing that I noticed today, is a rather simple fact. E cigarettes, in particular mech mods work damn well as they are. What I mean by that is the following:
I've seen some products out there, for example the fancy OLED display thingy previously that has some pretty fancy features, a microcontroller, and a big circuit board with lots of stuff...
But I'm going out on a limb here, and making the judgement that a mech modder doesn't want fancy stuff like that. Its not needed. We are heating a hot wire up by shorting it across a battery...
As such, I've found that I want to do something much much more simple, that still meets our goals in a fashion. Now, instead of using NiChrome wire as intended, I've decided that I am going to change my plans and change my goals.
1- This will work for any mech mod from 3 volts to 16 volts.
2- This will work for ANY resistance coil.
3- This will control "Temperature" of the E-cigarette by controlling the *AVERAGE* current through it.
Now you might say "Whoa!" on number three, because it doesn't control temperature. This is true. in a sense. However... I rather interestingly discovered by means of a thermocouple and a lab bench power supply, that the coil could be made nice and hot... hot enough to make vapor, but not so hot that it glowed, and its temperature held very stable with nothing but adjustment on the power supply outputs.
What this tells me is as follows. I don't think actual temperature control is required. In that sense, its not degrees ferenheit that we are caring about, we are caring about coil longevity, sweet vapors, and warm up times. In fact, to that extent, I don't even think we care about amps or volts, we just want a hot wire.
What I am working on as of right now is a ruggedized circuit that works as a two-state machine. It takes one input, having a voltage applied to it, and controls the coil likewise.
By two state machine I mean this. In the initial state, the circuit provides as much output as it can for a short period of time. This will make the coil nice and hot.
In the second state, the circuit provides a user-settable control based on turning the coil on and off rapidly. This is called PWM. Vary the percent of time the coil is on, and this varies the temperature... in a way.
Using this will be a simple matter of personal calibration. Pick a coil resistance that you like, that won't short your batteries too much. Figure about 10 amps draw.
Wet the vape, turn it on, and adjust the PWM output until the coil seems to be just right.
Use.
I think I am liking this idea more and more the more I think about it.
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Your enthusiasm to improve vaping is fantastic, and is what ECF is all about. However before you invest too much time into "current regulation," think about how that really differs from VW control .. . . with the wire most of us use (kanthal), I think the temperature coefficient is such that the resistance doesn't vary appreciably, so applying the same watts will, in effect, result in the same current. There's a thing called a Kick for sale (from eVolv, I think) that adds VW control to a mechanical mod, pretty small form factor, too.
Results for today:
After approaching this with a "Nothing fancy" mech modder's eye to things, I started building my circuitry with PWM in mind. Now, I know that PWM has been done, so to make this interesting I decided to go right ahead and add a couple of extra features for more flexibility
First of all, Voltage input range is being made WIDE, and I do mean WIIIIDE. We're talking 3.6 volts to 20 volts or so. Circuit is more than happy doing that. 3.5 volts begins to enter the "iffy stage" but a normal 18650 battery shouldn't really be drained so far anyway, maybe is good thing.
Second of all, Max current output is HUGE. New rating: 56 Amps. Why? Part available, and you won't ever need 56 amps. So, you're covered there.
Third: Heat output is very low. Standby current (which is a condition never met, this mod is mech compatable. Turns right off. Regardless, standby draw... 10 miliamps ish? Not much power draw for the stuff. Its pretty happy about doing what it does.
Fourth. One button, one (or maybe two) potentiometer operation. ON, OFF. Set the desired Pwm for your new coil, enjoy.
Intended "Delay line" Feature not installed yet, working on it as we speak.
Fifth: Reliability. New circuit is DESIGNED with heavy abuse in mind. Components running completely cool and happy.
After approaching this with a "Nothing fancy" mech modder's eye to things, I started building my circuitry with PWM in mind. Now, I know that PWM has been done, so to make this interesting I decided to go right ahead and add a couple of extra features for more flexibility
First of all, Voltage input range is being made WIDE, and I do mean WIIIIDE. We're talking 3.6 volts to 20 volts or so. Circuit is more than happy doing that. 3.5 volts begins to enter the "iffy stage" but a normal 18650 battery shouldn't really be drained so far anyway, maybe is good thing.
Second of all, Max current output is HUGE. New rating: 56 Amps. Why? Part available, and you won't ever need 56 amps. So, you're covered there.
Third: Heat output is very low. Standby current (which is a condition never met, this mod is mech compatable. Turns right off. Regardless, standby draw... 10 miliamps ish? Not much power draw for the stuff. Its pretty happy about doing what it does.
Fourth. One button, one (or maybe two) potentiometer operation. ON, OFF. Set the desired Pwm for your new coil, enjoy.
Intended "Delay line" Feature not installed yet, working on it as we speak.
Fifth: Reliability. New circuit is DESIGNED with heavy abuse in mind. Components running completely cool and happy.
Circuit is now "fully featured"
Time delay electronics added. Coil can be configured to be 100% on when you push the button on your mech mod for any time adjustable from 0 seconds to 5 seconds.
This way, your coil will be brought up to operating temperature quickly, and the user can configure this time such that the coil is ensured to be at proper operating temperature before the regulation kicks in.
Time delay electronics added. Coil can be configured to be 100% on when you push the button on your mech mod for any time adjustable from 0 seconds to 5 seconds.
This way, your coil will be brought up to operating temperature quickly, and the user can configure this time such that the coil is ensured to be at proper operating temperature before the regulation kicks in.
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Sorry 1Kam, but I haven't a clue what you're solving for here, none of this is making any sense to me any more.
i.e. what does this solve? 'This way you can make sure your coil is Nice and Hot before it is regulated down'
i.e. what does this solve? 'This way you can make sure your coil is Nice and Hot before it is regulated down'
Ah, yes. I was sleepy when I posted that. Basically, the current flowing through the heater element that would be used to maintain the E-Juice vaporization temperature is realistically, far far less than the current that one might want to use to heat the coil up to that temperature.
So if you start your coil on just PWM, it will take a long time to get hot. If you keep your coil on full power all the time, it will get too hot.
So I made this circuit behave in a favorable manner.
By providing two very simple inputs, 1- a PWM output that controls your coil, and 2- a "Hot Start" Time adjustment which gives your coil full power as soon as you press the button on your mech mod and automatically stops heating the coil at full power once the time limit set runs out, I think that there will be more than enough flexibility to make a mech mod and coil atty behave exactly as you want it to.
The way it will work is this.
Press button on mech mod. Coil is recieving full power. This is T = 0. At T = H.S. the Hot start Feature has turned off. The coil is now receiving PWM. T HS is configurable and pwm percent is configurable.
This way, with two very easy twist adjustments, one can set how long they need to have their coil heat up to operating temperature desired, then set the amount of power needed to maintain that temperature.
So if you start your coil on just PWM, it will take a long time to get hot. If you keep your coil on full power all the time, it will get too hot.
So I made this circuit behave in a favorable manner.
By providing two very simple inputs, 1- a PWM output that controls your coil, and 2- a "Hot Start" Time adjustment which gives your coil full power as soon as you press the button on your mech mod and automatically stops heating the coil at full power once the time limit set runs out, I think that there will be more than enough flexibility to make a mech mod and coil atty behave exactly as you want it to.
The way it will work is this.
Press button on mech mod. Coil is recieving full power. This is T = 0. At T = H.S. the Hot start Feature has turned off. The coil is now receiving PWM. T HS is configurable and pwm percent is configurable.
This way, with two very easy twist adjustments, one can set how long they need to have their coil heat up to operating temperature desired, then set the amount of power needed to maintain that temperature.
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