Vape Machine - Recipe Calculator

[Taledus]

I have been wanting to put together my own recipe calculator for a while now. The ones available are limited in the number of flavors, other areas, or have so much stuff going on they make them difficult to use. I wanted something that is simple and light-weight, yet powerful with what it can do.

HotRod19759 and mrcoolbp helped point me in the direction to fix the issues I was having in the calculations...a BIG thanks goes to them for the help!

I'd like to see if anyone would be willing to try this out. I still have a bit to do, like add the ability to edit the flavors (TFA from WL in now) and the manufacturers (again TFA), but this is working. This is a Windows-based app.

I would like to see how intuitive it is for people before I make instructions for it. Also any errors that are run into so that I may fix them. So if you have a Windows PC and would be willing to test it out I would appreciate it.

Vape Machine.rar - Google Drive

 

[Wraith504]

Id love to give it a shot.

 

[Taledus]

Thanks. I went ahead and just uploaded it to my Google Drive. This is just the debug folder straight from my build, so it has the recipes as well with it (like 6 or so for now).

 

[Marc411]

Can it print on 3X5 or 4X6 index cards?

Watching

 

[Taledus]

I had not thought of printing to be honest. Due to the ability to add an unlimited amount of flavors I am not certain how I would pull that off on 1 card, it may have to be able to print on several of them.

But I will definitely put that on my list!

 

[Marc411]

Thanks Taledus!

The calculator I use now prints them right around 4X6 and I've have mixes up to 10 plus nic, PG, VG and it fits. As weird as it sounds I print them and file them in a recipe box.

 

[Taledus]

Post any bugs, and any recommendations for improvements, but remember this is just supposed to be a light-weight app.

If you try and open a recipe, by double clicking it, it will automatically launch in the editor. You CAN add unlimited flavors to a recipe, so be careful on how many you are adding. Right-click on a flavor in the editor for the option to delete it. Right-click a recipe in the calculator for the option to edit it. That's all I can think of for now.

I'm still working on ideas to sort the recipes on the main calculator, like display by favorite (check box), rating, etc, but right now I have not found anything that seems simple and uncluttered.

Also going to work on the other forms for adding additional flavors, but right now you can edit the flavorings.xml file and add whatever you want.

I will also be working on adding the ability to print these off now

 

[B2L]

I've been looking for something just like this, however I am always on my iPad, any chance of an iOS compatible version?

 

[Taledus]

Sorry B2L, probably not from me, I only code for .Net stuff. However, once I get all this stuff fixed I am going to open source this to build on for people. Until then though, if an iOS developer comes willing to work on this I'll help get it ported over

 

[Capt.shay]

There are a whole lot of us that measure by weight

 

[Taledus]

Capt.shay, I have seen one other app that uses weights and it has different weights (gram/ml) for the flavors, pg, vg, etc. This probably wouldn't be that difficult to replicate and add an extra column.

Right now I am storing the misc stuff (water, vodka, ACV, etc) along with the flavors. That means that the flavorings.xml would need to be modified with a weight attribute as well, not that hard either. Each flavor would also require a weight.

Due to the way this app was setup it would require (once I got the form built) to go in and change the values for each individual misc ingredient. Right now there aren't that many, I believe like 5-6 total, but it would not be on the main part of the calculator form.

If this seems like something that would be useful then I will gladly try to implement it, but before I go through trying to figure out the best way to do it, since I still use ml's, I would be glad to hear some ideas on how it should be layed out, while remaining simple like it is now.

 

[Capt.shay]

Capt.shay, I have seen one other app that uses weights and it has different weights (gram/ml) for the flavors, pg, vg, etc. This probably wouldn't be that difficult to replicate and add an extra column.

Right now I am storing the misc stuff (water, vodka, ACV, etc) along with the flavors. That means that the flavorings.xml would need to be modified with a weight attribute as well, not that hard either. Each flavor would also require a weight.

Due to the way this app was setup it would require (once I got the form built) to go in and change the values for each individual misc ingredient. Right now there aren't that many, I believe like 5-6 total, but it would not be on the main part of the calculator form.

If this seems like something that would be useful then I will gladly try to implement it, but before I go through trying to figure out the best way to do it, since I still use ml's, I would be glad to hear some ideas on how it should be layed out, while remaining simple like it is now.

Since I know absolutely zero about writing programs I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement but it would be a great feature. Mixing by weight is much easier and I think more people are getting in to it but many are held back because only a few of the calculators offer this feature. I actually paid a couple of dollars for the one I use on my android pad that is the device I dedicated to my mixing table because I could not find a free shareware clac. that offered a weight option.

On a personal note, buy yourself a scale, you'll thank me later.

 

[Taledus]

You don't necessarily have to know anything about writing programs, just how you would want to access the settings. To keep things simple I don't want to clutter up the main window with a bunch of various options. Because the misc ingredients would all have differing gram weights, those would need to be an additional attribute in the xml file, which means all flavors would need this as well.

These settings would go in a separate form, accessible from the File menu. The gram weight per ml would be set on this form for each ingredient (I would try to have all the basic stuff input) with options to add/edit/delete ingredients, as well as their weight.

I'm working on printing right now, but if this sounds like reasonable method I will try to get this setup over the weekend.

 

[mhertz]

Actually e.g. ejuicemeup, hotrod's and scubabatdan's calcs and one on-line calc atleast, features weight meassuring so it's not that uncommon anymore.

If you wanted the absolute most simple way of doing it, alltough I personally don't like it, then check out how the online calc e-liquid-recipes does it. You have to select meassure by grams in the options I believe to see it.

That calc has hardcoded densities for everything e.g. I believe it's roughly about: 0.93 for water/vodka/pga, 1.26 for vg and all vg-based nic. 1.04 for pg and all pg-based nic. 1 for pg flavors and 1.16 for vg flavors. The difference is really neglible however, and it's perfectly viable to use such numbers for the measurements, but I just rather preffer adjustable densities greatly, though.

So, as you yourself suggested, I would rather recommend you add a seperate dialog for adjustable densities. Hardcoded densities is why I stopped using that on-line calc, and instead use my own simple xml calc, with my own hardcoded values added.

Also I don't know how much your app resembles hotrod's app, but as far as i've seen pics and instructions, then I like how he's done it with regards to weight meassuring/ingredients, but it's probably not comparabel to yours though, as you're making an emphesis on simpleness I guess

 

[Capt.shay]

I believe several have added a weight option since I set mine up a while ago. The only ones at the time were on line calc.s and I can't get a wifi signal at my table. I think preset densities are fine. The difference is so little on most flavors etc. that it would not matter. Most often less than one drop and that is as small as most can dispense. The one I use has presets with the option of changing.

Ease of use is certainly one of my goals and simplicity is key. Mixing by weight is also more accurate. The smallest amount one can reasonably measure by volume is a drop. That is .04 grams so one can measure one quarter of a drop by weight. It also keeps it simple because you dirty less glass ware. That makes clean up more simple. Yes, simple is good.

Not that it matters what so ever but several of the numbers you used above are off, water is 1 gram. Kind of the basis of the metric system.

Best of luck with the Calc. and I'll be keeping an eye on the thread.

 

[granolaboy]

It should be web-based. No way I'm grabbing a random exe and running it on my computer.

 

[mhertz]

[...]
Not that it matters what so ever but several of the numbers you used above are off, water is 1 gram. Kind of the basis of the metric system.
[...]

I know they're off That's exactly why I stopped using that calc, and I was here reffering to what the hardcoded values that calc was using and not the correct amounts. It uses e.g. 0.93, because vodka and pga is lower than water's density of 1. In my own simple xml calc I use hardcoded 1 for water and 1 for flavors(if mixing for others who uses flavors) and 1.24 for vg 100mg(and also for 72mg, as rounded to two digits behind the point, it's the same), and 1.26 for vg and 1.04 for pg(if mixing for others who use pg).

I always make minimum 100ml, and that 0.93 g/ml for water was bugging me, as I use 20% water in my unflavored vg adv

 

[Taledus]

Thanks guys, I will check into getting something lined up during the weekend.

It should be web-based. No way I'm grabbing a random exe and running it on my computer.

I am a .Net hobby developer, so I don't do web-based apps. I am also willing to share my code with someone, so if you think you can read it to look for whatever ill-contraption you think I have put together, then by all means let me know and I will share a link to the code. I wrote this app for MYSELF...I am just trying to be nice enough to share it with everyone here who HAS helped me out since I started vaping.

Otherwise, should you feel that you do not wish to download it and help with input on development, such as these guys above, then please keep your comments to yourself. If you can prove that I am doing something malicious, just report me FFS.

 

[JimDrock]

@Taledus

I was wondering if is possible/viable to have a calculator program tell the user what recipes can be made based on the flavors said user has on hand?

Now this would, of course, require some work on the the user to enter the flavors on hand and a hefty recipe DB, but that function sure would come in handy when the user (yeah me) is thinking "what can I with only these flavors".

By the way, Thanks for sharing your calculator.

 

[Taledus]

@Taledus

I was wondering if is possible/viable to have a calculator program tell the user what recipes can be made based on the flavors said user has on hand?

Now this would, of course, require some work on the the user to enter the flavors on hand and a hefty recipe DB, but that function sure would come in handy when the user (yeah me) is thinking "what can I with only these flavors".

By the way, Thanks for sharing your calculator.

Thanks JimDrock! To be honest that is going to be out of the scope of this application. However, I do believe HotRod's app does something along the lines of calculating the remaining amounts that you have on hand...I am not sure if he has implemented something like that yet or not.