How to: Build the Puck

[Stosh]

Mine are at 1 whether the button is pushed or not. Guess I'm going back to RS in the next few days.

Anyone got any tips on getting this JB Kwik loose without breaking the case?

Woo Hoo !!! found the problem!!!!!

now when you replace them, tin the wires (put enough heat to just melt a little solder on to the ends) then tin the switch posts also, NOT too much heat).....now to join should be easy and take just enough heat to make the joint

 

[JewelzBagz]

Woo Hoo !!! found the problem!!!!!

now when you replace them, tin the wires (put enough heat to just melt a little solder on to the ends) then tin the switch posts also, NOT too much heat).....now to join should be easy and take just enough heat to make the joint

Woo Hoo Hoo! I have one working puck! And I could NOT have done it without you guys and all your awesome help and advice!

Just to be safe though ~ my new switches became buddies with electrical tape. I was not gonna risk another stab of disappointment. Now, the led is still not working. I have no idea why not. I'd like to know why, but honestly it won't keep me awake at night if it remains a mystery.

Original puck failure remains a failure however. I replaced the switch but still no love. When I press the switch I get a reading of 3.84 on the pin that would connect with the atty. I assume this means there is power there. But the atty is not firing. If you could help me figure that one out, I'd be eternally grateful.

 

[Stosh]

For your original puck, (assuming 4 batteries) 3.84v is a fairly low reading, like there's a whole battery missing from the circuit.
Try tracing the circuit with the meter in the battery box, with one lead on the end of the first connection and go one battery at a time, you should see the reading go up in voltage as you go to the next point for each battery.

 

[JewelzBagz]

For your original puck, (assuming 4 batteries) 3.84v is a fairly low reading, like there's a whole battery missing from the circuit.
Try tracing the circuit with the meter in the battery box, with one lead on the end of the first connection and go one battery at a time, you should see the reading go up in voltage as you go to the next point for each battery.

Thank you for making me test Original Puck again. I had been using alkalines I had in my desk for testing. But after reading your post this morning, I grabbed my energizer nimhs to do the re test with. Read 5.20 this time. Decided to twist on my tank and guess what????

Original puck works!!!! Again with electrical tape on the switch. And the epoxy on the switch is curing as we speak. I'm so excited!

But guess what? LED doesn't work on this one either. Is there a way to test the LED and/or resistor to see if they are bad?

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you puck helpers!

 

[alanselo]

Way to go Jewelz. Hanging in there until you got it working. Bet you feel good about it. I like this community of good folks ready and willing to help each other out, so thanks to all. I learned something from everyone's input.

My LED never did work either. I messed with mine, moved the connector up higher and messed it up. I will stop and get supplies and get it going again.

While working the bugs out on mine, yuk pucks and all, dripping seemed the easiest way to trouble shoot. Lo and behold I really like dripping on my Puck now.

 

[JewelzBagz]

Way to go Jewelz. Hanging in there until you got it working. Bet you feel good about it. I like this community of good folks ready and willing to help each other out, so thanks to all. I learned something from everyone's input.

My LED never did work either. I messed with mine, moved the connector up higher and messed it up. I will stop and get supplies and get it going again.

While working the bugs out on mine, yuk pucks and all, dripping seemed the easiest way to trouble shoot. Lo and behold I really like dripping on my Puck now.

You know there was more than a few times I said to myself "You know with all the money you spent on supplies and tools to build this damn thing, you could have just bought a mod." But I'm a tenacious little twit-and I liked the idea of readily available batteries for the puck, the whole concept is great. Plus, with everybody raving about how easy it is (and yes I have read every single post on both of the puck threads) I just could not let myself fail at this! Now mind you-were it not for all the wonderful people in this thread helping me out, I would have been a total failure! Pucksters rock!

As to the dripping. A while back I read a recommendation for pump carts to use for dripping. I picked up a package of those in preparation for my puck. I've been DIYing the past few days so once I get another juice I wanna vape repeatedly I'm going to load one of those up to try. But I've also been making tanks from the homemade syringe tank mod thread, and now I'm thinking hhmmmm, will my 808 cartos fit my puck without an adapter? Cause if they do I'm making tanks for the pucks too.

I am so thankful for all the help and information I've received from this thread and this forum. I'm unemployed and living off savings -which are quickly running out. I was getting nervous that once my batts started to die I wouldn't have the money to replace them. My ecigs are going on 5 months old soon and I'm expecting the die off to start any time now. But now that I have two working pucks I don't have to fret over that. And with the syringe tanks the cartos are lasting a really long time. So I'm thinking that I'm set with supplies and equipment long enough to get me over this rough patch till I find another job. All thanks to you guys and gals on here.

 

[Stosh]

Hmmm, DIY tanks, and now Pucks....sounds like modumust fever!! Check in with nurse Crachet here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/192284-dear-gummy.html#post3316758 and the doctor may be able to help.

In the meantime to test a led, with nothing connected to it, simply put you meter on ohms and touch the leads to the led, if you get nothing reverse the leads and see if it lights... (a led is polarity sensitive, that's why you may need to reverse the leads.. )

 

[JewelzBagz]

Hmmm, DIY tanks, and now Pucks....sounds like modumust fever!! Check in with nurse Crachet here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/192284-dear-gummy.html#post3316758 and the doctor may be able to help.

In the meantime to test a led, with nothing connected to it, simply put you meter on ohms and touch the leads to the led, if you get nothing reverse the leads and see if it lights... (a led is polarity sensitive, that's why you may need to reverse the leads.. )

LOL-approaching stage 2 maybe?

Ok when you say "nothing connected to it" do you mean I need to desolder the stuff I have soldered to the led? I'm a little more confused when you say "reverse the leads and see if it lights". If nothing is connected to it, what will provide the power to light it? Sorry to be such a PITA, but I'm a dummy when it comes to this stuff-and you've been so great about holding my hand through all this!

 

[Stosh]

nothing connected to the led, as in soldered on wires, with the meter on the ohms scale (like checking the switch by itself) the meter has a battery inside, with enough juice to light the led. the meter leads are the only circuit you need...touch them to the led leads and if the polarity is correct it will glow. reversing the meter leads will reverse the polarity, it's like flipping the battery around..

so long as there's no batteries in the Puck, the meter will be safe, and it's a simple way to check the led...

p.s. taking a wire off one side will break any circuit, the electric is like water, cut the hose anywhere and it goes dry..

 

[JewelzBagz]

nothing connected to the led, as in soldered on wires, with the meter on the ohms scale (like checking the switch by itself) the meter has a battery inside, with enough juice to light the led. the meter leads are the only circuit you need...touch them to the led leads and if the polarity is correct it will glow. reversing the meter leads will reverse the polarity, it's like flipping the battery around..

so long as there's no batteries in the Puck, the meter will be safe, and it's a simple way to check the led...

p.s. taking a wire off one side will break any circuit, the electric is like water, cut the hose anywhere and it goes dry..

Ok-just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. Remove batteries from puck. I cut the wire and resistor that are connected to the LED inside the puck. I put the black lead from the meter on what I think is the negative lead, and the red wire on what I think is the positive lead. If it's correct it will light. If it doesn't light I switch the black and red leads to the opposite leads on the led. If that lights I resolder the wire and the resistor the opposite of how I initially had it. Am I understanding correctly?

 

[kelleymcm]

 

[Smoking Panda]

reviewing on the puck i mod few weeks ago..... i find the voltages drops abit too fast, where the puck is a 3xaa on a 4aa battery case, running on quite old eneloops ... no ICs ... sigh ....

 

[Stosh]

Ok-just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. Remove batteries from puck. I cut the wire and resistor that are connected to the LED inside the puck. I put the black lead from the meter on what I think is the negative lead, and the red wire on what I think is the positive lead. If it's correct it will light. If it doesn't light I switch the black and red leads to the opposite leads on the led. If that lights I resolder the wire and the resistor the opposite of how I initially had it. Am I understanding correctly?

exactly!! the meter leads never lie or make a mistake.....

 

[Stosh]

reviewing on the puck i mod few weeks ago..... i find the voltages drops abit too fast, where the puck is a 3xaa on a 4aa battery case, running on quite old eneloops ... no ICs ... sigh ....

3 AA batteries would be a bit weak even starting out, I've used 4AA or 4AAA batteries in mine and get most of the day out of a set of AA batteries (about 3 mL) before switching for fresh batteries. Using everready and duracells, no problem.

 

[alanselo]

jewelz comment: "As to the dripping. A while back I read a recommendation for pump carts to use for dripping. I picked up a package of those in preparation for my puck."

What is a pump cart? I did a search and came up with "drip on demand". Would you plz enlighten me.

I redid my control box on the Puck and now my LED is working correctly. I am happy. I also made a syringe tank and so far I like it. I still prefer dripping but only at home since it is not convenient at work or while out and about.

Thx

 

[TomCatt]

GotVapes PumpCart™ Solution : GotVapes.com, E-cigarette Supplies - Atomizers Cartomizers Mods Juice and more

 

[Stosh]

......What is a pump cart? I did a search and came up with "drip on demand". Would you plz enlighten me......

it's a bit like the next-generation smart cart (smart carts are a failure, don't even bother) the DoD / "drip on demand" on the other hand looks very strange and works very well for dripping without a lot of fuss. I tried one as they are a low cost solution for a top feeder and they do work well.

 

[alanselo]

Got it, thanks...

 

[garand555]

I built an AA puck and my mom liked it so much that I built her one. I think my sister is going to want one too. I really like the idea of being able to run to K-Mart, Walmart, Bestbuy, Office Depot, etc... and get new batteries. One thing that I did that was a little different was placing a 1 ohm resistor in it and instead of using the switch in the case as an on-off switch, I attached a (black) lead to the unused terminal on the switch and had one black lead going through the resistor and the other black lead bypasses it. It's now a dual voltage. When I get some real batteries (i.e. NiMH instead of crappy Alkalines) I'll post the voltages across the atty.

 

[JewelzBagz]

exactly!! the meter leads never lie or make a mistake.....

Awesome! I'll be trying that out today.

jewelz comment: "As to the dripping. A while back I read a recommendation for pump carts to use for dripping. I picked up a package of those in preparation for my puck."

What is a pump cart? I did a search and came up with "drip on demand". Would you plz enlighten me.

I redid my control box on the Puck and now my LED is working correctly. I am happy. I also made a syringe tank and so far I like it. I still prefer dripping but only at home since it is not convenient at work or while out and about.

Thx

Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you, my internet was out and just came back online. The link TomCatt posted is the same pumpcarts I ordered. I had come across this video on youtube:
Pumpcart tips and trick Gotvapes.com - YouTube
so I decided to try them when they went on sale last month. I used one for the first time the other night, using the instructions the guy in the video gave. It worked GREAT. I'm really happy with it. Now let's hope the other 9 work just as well. Only thing is, my AA puck blew through the juice right quick-but that's not the pump carts fault. It sure tasted yummy though!

Congrats on getting your LED working! Hopefully I'll be making a similar post soon.