The "Weekender" mod
By Mike Petro
OK, Bap shamed me into getting off my .... and finally doing this. This is my first mod ever so please excuse my fumbling.
Also, THIS IS MY FIRST mod, so I do not claim any expertise whatsoever, nor do I recommend you use this as a guide to build your own Mod. This is just a document of my own journey!
My Objective:
My girlfriend and I live about 3 hours apart, so we trade off weekends at each others place. I am trying to create a Mod that will last me the entire weekend, hence the "Weekender". Its just another Box Mod but with a lot of juice! The enclosure is quite roomy, next time I will look for something a little more compact.
In case of emergency I added a 1 amp USB charger circuit since I always have phone charger cable handy. The battery holder I selected has over/under voltage protection, and over/under current protection. While the Holder appears to be rated at 5amp continuous, the current protection kicks in at about about 9.5amps. I figure that I can get a full 20w down to about 3.6v on the batteries and still only pull 5.5a. In reality, I probably wont push it that hard, I am mainly after a SOLID 15-17 watts. I am using Panasonic NCR18650Bs because of the fact that each can only deliver about 3a, or 6a with 2 in parallel, thereby limiting the current to less than the over-current protection. In other words, these batteries cant deliver enough current to get me in trouble, and thats by design. I dont need 10amp bats in this build, not with 2 bats in parallel.
Specs:
List Of Materials:
Aluminum Enclosure 38m x 51mm x 110mm (Cut down to 95mm L) ($7.33)
DNA20D by Evolv ($36.25 in a Co-op)
DNA20D Screen Cradle ($5.66)
5V micro USB 1A Lithium Battery 18650 Charging Board ($7.00)
1S2P 3.7V 2x18650 Battery Holder w Protection ($4.15)
Floating Pin 510 connector ($4.41)
Tactile Switch SPST SQ/SQ BLUE ($3.66)
KSJ Series Spherical Tactile Switch ($0.77 x 2) (How can they make these that cheap?)
Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh ($15.68 for 2-pack)
Various other Materials used:
Got it all laid out and ready to start.
First I had to prepare the 510 connector. It is actually a top cap for a mechanical tube mod but I had no way to attach it to the top plate, so I made a M22x1.5 jamnut out of aluminum (couldnt find one off the shelf readily). The center pin is spring loaded but just press fit together, so I took it apart to solder the Positive lead to the bottom so as not to melt the delrin. I made the jamnut big enough so I could solder some wires onto it to use as a chassis ground, used the AL-Solder 500 and a really hot iron. Checked continuity and it worked well.
The enclosure was little too tall at 110mm, so I cut 15mm off of both halves. I then made all my holes for the screen, the two Up/Down buttons, the fire button, and the USB port. This was pain! I used a drill and a Dremel cutting disc to make pilot holes then used jewelers files to fine tune the shape.
I found that a 13/64 hole for the Up/Down buttons was soooo perfect that I can probably press fit those buttons in without having to glue them. They, as well as the big Fire button all had 4 leads on them, I cut off the two I didnt need. The fire button is a nice VERY slim tact button. I drilled holes to allow the wires to pass through the enclosure then used Plastic Weld to glue the button onto the enclosure surface. Had to use heatshrink on the leads to keep them from shorting to the chassis.
Used plastic weld to glue the DNA screen into the Bapgood/Mamu screen bezel. It held fine but I would use some other adhesive next time. The plastic weld caused the screen tint layer (the one you can peel off if you dont need it) to pucker up a little bit right at the glue joints. Its not bad at all really, but bad enough that "I" will notice it every time I look at it! You can see it in the photo, its a little swollen area at the top and bottom of the screen moving from center out to the right.
Mounted the battery holder with some good double back tape. Used Plastic Weld to glue the USB charger to the enclosure just below the batteries. It all looks a mess right now but the wires will route nicely when I am done.
Thats it for today, need to walk away from it. Tomorrow I complete the other half of the enclosure and solder it all up!
To be continued...........
By Mike Petro
OK, Bap shamed me into getting off my .... and finally doing this. This is my first mod ever so please excuse my fumbling.
Also, THIS IS MY FIRST mod, so I do not claim any expertise whatsoever, nor do I recommend you use this as a guide to build your own Mod. This is just a document of my own journey!
My Objective:
My girlfriend and I live about 3 hours apart, so we trade off weekends at each others place. I am trying to create a Mod that will last me the entire weekend, hence the "Weekender". Its just another Box Mod but with a lot of juice! The enclosure is quite roomy, next time I will look for something a little more compact.
In case of emergency I added a 1 amp USB charger circuit since I always have phone charger cable handy. The battery holder I selected has over/under voltage protection, and over/under current protection. While the Holder appears to be rated at 5amp continuous, the current protection kicks in at about about 9.5amps. I figure that I can get a full 20w down to about 3.6v on the batteries and still only pull 5.5a. In reality, I probably wont push it that hard, I am mainly after a SOLID 15-17 watts. I am using Panasonic NCR18650Bs because of the fact that each can only deliver about 3a, or 6a with 2 in parallel, thereby limiting the current to less than the over-current protection. In other words, these batteries cant deliver enough current to get me in trouble, and thats by design. I dont need 10amp bats in this build, not with 2 bats in parallel.
Specs:
- 4" Tall x 2" Wide x 1.5 Deep"
- 6500mah
- 20 Watts max
- 6 amps max continuous
List Of Materials:
Aluminum Enclosure 38m x 51mm x 110mm (Cut down to 95mm L) ($7.33)
DNA20D by Evolv ($36.25 in a Co-op)
DNA20D Screen Cradle ($5.66)
5V micro USB 1A Lithium Battery 18650 Charging Board ($7.00)
1S2P 3.7V 2x18650 Battery Holder w Protection ($4.15)
Floating Pin 510 connector ($4.41)
Tactile Switch SPST SQ/SQ BLUE ($3.66)
KSJ Series Spherical Tactile Switch ($0.77 x 2) (How can they make these that cheap?)
Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh ($15.68 for 2-pack)
Various other Materials used:
- Misc hookup wire I had laying around 20-22g
- Misc heatshrink I had laying around
- Whatever solder I had laying around
- Spectape ST501 Double Sided Adhesive Tape
- Harris Al-Solder 500 for soldering my ground wires to the aluminum.
- Versachem Plastic Welder
Got it all laid out and ready to start.
First I had to prepare the 510 connector. It is actually a top cap for a mechanical tube mod but I had no way to attach it to the top plate, so I made a M22x1.5 jamnut out of aluminum (couldnt find one off the shelf readily). The center pin is spring loaded but just press fit together, so I took it apart to solder the Positive lead to the bottom so as not to melt the delrin. I made the jamnut big enough so I could solder some wires onto it to use as a chassis ground, used the AL-Solder 500 and a really hot iron. Checked continuity and it worked well.
The enclosure was little too tall at 110mm, so I cut 15mm off of both halves. I then made all my holes for the screen, the two Up/Down buttons, the fire button, and the USB port. This was pain! I used a drill and a Dremel cutting disc to make pilot holes then used jewelers files to fine tune the shape.
I found that a 13/64 hole for the Up/Down buttons was soooo perfect that I can probably press fit those buttons in without having to glue them. They, as well as the big Fire button all had 4 leads on them, I cut off the two I didnt need. The fire button is a nice VERY slim tact button. I drilled holes to allow the wires to pass through the enclosure then used Plastic Weld to glue the button onto the enclosure surface. Had to use heatshrink on the leads to keep them from shorting to the chassis.
Used plastic weld to glue the DNA screen into the Bapgood/Mamu screen bezel. It held fine but I would use some other adhesive next time. The plastic weld caused the screen tint layer (the one you can peel off if you dont need it) to pucker up a little bit right at the glue joints. Its not bad at all really, but bad enough that "I" will notice it every time I look at it! You can see it in the photo, its a little swollen area at the top and bottom of the screen moving from center out to the right.
Mounted the battery holder with some good double back tape. Used Plastic Weld to glue the USB charger to the enclosure just below the batteries. It all looks a mess right now but the wires will route nicely when I am done.
Thats it for today, need to walk away from it. Tomorrow I complete the other half of the enclosure and solder it all up!
To be continued...........
