Built like a car?

[slopes]

I've always wanted to make a mod that operates like a car does... once the ignition is turned on it 'idles over' - ready for the accelerator peddle to be pressed where it engages to becomes fully active.

Not knowing a lot about electronics, it's impossible for me to approach such a project from that angle. But I wonder if a simple mechanical design is a possible (and even a best) solution?

Here, a longer coil would not be able to draw enough power to fully vaporise liquid, but would be warm enough to 'simmer'. But when the tactile switch is pressed, the circuit is shortened to only half the coil (ie: the usual length) - providing it with enough power to fully vaporise the liquid in the wick.

I would like to know if the modding experts think this simple design would work?

 

[JazzyTech]

I think the reason this hasn't been done is because battery life, waste of resistance wire and fluid. Short answer: yes it can be done.

Probably a better solution for the "simmer" would be a very high resistance coil; one that wouldn't bring the fluid to boil, but keep it hot. Something like a dual coil; one with high resistance, the other low.

 

[asdaq]

Electronically, the Tayvoy regulator does this, it pulses the coil once every ~15 seconds to keep it warm with a PWM. Mechanically, I am not so sure how to do it, unless you build in a simple clock-- you did say 'ticking'

A terribly inefficient way would be to have two sets of wires for the positive, one with high resistance (or a resistor) and one that lets the current through unhindered.

 

[BenB]

I'm pretty sure a manual PV is the Prius of smoking devices. Not sure how much farther you could take it. I would like a Camaro PV when I drink though.

 

[perlionsmitnick]

It could be done but at what energy cost? I know of a similar circuit in the air conditioning world of the brand that rhymes with train. They're circuit uses the start winding of the compressor to trickle a charge through it to heat the compressor when the unit is off. They have a capacitor in series with the start winding and a resistor that acts to trickle current from 220 volts. When the compressor is on, it bypasses the crankcase heater trickle circuit.

I suppose this could be emulated for ecigs, but it would be energy expensive.