Charging mats for box mods

[scalewiz]

Just brainstorming here...got an idea, but I'm not yet smart enough...bummer.

I use box mods, as do a lot of people here. One thing I always try to do is make a charging port in my boxes, that way I don't have to open the box, remove the batteries, change/charged the batteries, and put it back together.

I've seen the charging mats for cell phones. Anybody here ever try something like this on a box mod (naturally, you would probably want to stick to devices using NiMh batteries) or maybe have the knowledge of methods, or even web sites to visit to learn how this might possibly be accomplished?

Simply laying your box on a charging mat would simply be the ultimate!

 

[perlionsmitnick]

That would be cool but you would need electronics to control it in the boxmod. You could mount a barrel type power jack to the box and use a lipo charge board like this one to charge it.

 

[DevilFishPhil]

Holy crap I would love to see that! I can only imagine the joy of getting home and plopping my Reo Woodvil on a charging mat.

 

[interestingfellow]

Those charging mats are coreless transformers. In a regular transformer you have your primary (supply power) wrapped around some sort of core, and then your secondary coil (power out) gets wrapped around a certain number of times. More winds is higher voltage, lower current, and fewer secondary winds gives you more current with lower voltage. The mat has the primary coil in it, and the device has the secondary coil; when you set them next to each other it makes a coreless transformer (of sorts).
The few problems with this is knowing the coil count, voltage, and current output of the mat, and then calculating the requirements of your devices' coil. But then you also need the appropriate charger for the battery, and most likely a switch to go from vape to charge (unless you made it a PT circuit, or use a hall effect sensor (hall effect sensors are magnetic switches that turn on or off when N or S pole is close to it (and the mat coil would produce a small magnetic field, so it should work))).

It's a good idea though, I'd love to see someone run with this.

OHH, for a round mod, you could also make a custom "mat" in the shape of a tube to drop your ecig into???

 

[scalewiz]

These ideas for round would probably work well too. They use that technique with cordless toothbrushes quite often. The only problem is that I don't have a mat. I guess if I ever get my hands on one to play with, I'll try winding little coils, laying them on the mat, and measuring the voltage and current output capability. It should be fairly simple to make a circuit to take the AC, rectify it, and just make a simple trickle charging circuit. Probably would not be realistic to try to get lots of current out of one of these methods. I never have tried to wind an air core transformer to plug into the wall outlet as I'm sure my first attempt will be a reinvention of the hot plate! Since I use NiMh batteries as much as possible, I feel that this method will probably be safe to use. Mat owners, Begin!