I made a calculator

[SLIPPY_EEL]

well done! and thankyou verymuch! im always using it

 

[Dampmaskin]

As long as you people continue to use it, I will continue trying to improve it.

New in the coil calculator (advanced mode)

• More details about the physical dimensions/properties of the wire/coil.
  • Mass
  • Density
  • Surface area
  • Cross section area
• Heat flux per Volt/Watt
  • In other words: How hot the surface of the coil will become.
  • Ignoring the effects of wicking and airflow. Still better than nothing?
• Heat capacity
  • In other words: Lag time.
  • The heat capacity of the juice and wicking material is naturally not taken into consideration. Still better than nothing?

New in the battery drain calculator

• Nominal voltage input.
  • This is used to calculate battery runtime (and estimated number of puffs).
  • Default value is now 3.7 V instead of 3.6 V, as this seems to be the standard.
  • Since the value is now adjustable, you can also estimate the run time of other types of batteries, like 7.4V batteries and non-Lithium batteries.

 

[State O' Flux]

With all the features... in the not too distant future, conversations on ECF won't be about this RTA or that mech, but how much better the vape is with the heat flux/lag time of coil 'X' vs. coil 'Y'.

Might seem like I'm kidding, but... not so much.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

Hey! Dampmaskin How long does it take to add things? is it easy enough to add something like say the resistance of 2wires twisted together and an option to add more wire so say you want 3 wire braid... sorry I don't know how you calculate this so don't know how hard it is .. Thanks

 

[Dampmaskin]

I use geometry and some trigonometry to model the shape of the coil. I can do the same with a twisted pair of wires. I did a test a few days ago, but I simplified it too much. It did not turn out very accurate, so it did not make it online. A better version of the feature will probably be added in the not too far future.

I don't think will add support for three strands or more, though. I suspect that a higher number of strands might make the wire too chaotic to be modeled with sufficient accuracy.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

No problem, im sure I can get by just fine, was just trying to find your limits(jk) ..




you are a genius

 

[Dampmaskin]

Okay, in addition to "round" and "ribbon", there's also "round twisted double" and "round twisted triple". Tomorrow I guess I'm going to add dual and triple parallel wire (same as twisted only it's not twisted... just, uhm, flat). Gotta get some sleep now. I just hope I didn't produce too many new bugs.

Update - beta version

• Twisted 2, 3 or 4 strand wire.
• Non-twisted parallel strands; as many as you'd like.

Here is the beta: Coil wrapping | Steam Engine | free vaping calculators

If you have previously saved the calculator state, you might have to reset the calculator in order to get sensible default values. The beta and full version share the same save data, so if you switch back and forth between them, you might want to reset it every time you do so.

 

[Dampmaskin]

In the coil calculator beta, a couple of small UI bugs have been weeded out, and it is no longer in beta.

A text describing the inner workings of the calculator has been added to the bottom of the page (the text shows up in advanced mode only) click "How it works" on the bottom left to see the text.

If the native English speakers among you spot odd prepositions, bad grammar, or general "Bad, Simple English" in the text, I'd be glad to receive a PM about it, so I can correct it.

The same goes for bugs, of course.

 

[Dampmaskin]

From now on, the outer diameter of the coil is being used, instead of the neutral axis diameter, to calculate the wrap count. This compensates for the wire stretching and gaining resistance when bent.

With thinner wire and/or a large ID the difference is small. With thicker wire or a smaller ID, it makes more of a difference.

This change to the logic should yield a more realistic wrap count for most or all coil builds.

If anybody has some thick resistance wire to test this theory with (I don't have anything thicker than 28 AWG myself, but with 26 or thicker the difference really begins to show), I would appreciate some feedback on which logic works best for you.

 

[Dampmaskin]

When you have modeled a build, you can now export it to a link that can be saved as a bookmark, or shared with others.

Go to Menu -> Export as link. You will get a url that can be copied and pasted.

An example of such a link: A dual coil build with dual parallel strands of 32 AWG Kanthal D, and a target resistance of 0.5 Ω.

 

[Dampmaskin]

New version out today! It is somewhat premature, but an external service that I had been using suddenly stopped working, so I had to update it anyway.

From now on the Americans among us will have to choose imperial units manually, because I can't easily get your country code anymore. (Did that ever work, btw? I could never test it properly, because I don't have access to any US IPs.)

So, what's new? Lots of new bugs No, sssssh, that's not it. Let me check the log.

• Bug fix: Changing the resistivity used to blank the wire diameter field, leading to some odd results, like the outer coil diameter being equal to the inner diameter. The wrap count suffered from that, but not nearly as much as the heat values did. Those poor things had to cope with zero area to exist on. I solved it by adding custom resistivity as an option for coil material, so that your diameter and any resistivity that does not follow from it, can coexist peacefully - just like humans and fish.
  
• The URL automatically updates as you use the calculator, so you can save or share your build just by copying the URL. Strictly speaking this is not new, but the functions have been refactored in order to make the links shorter and sweeter: If the value is the same as the default value, it's not needed in the link. If the value can be computed from other values, it's not needed either.
  
• Heat flux and heat capacity results are now endowed with color changing icons to reflect how hot/cold and fast/slow the coil will be.

Random thoughts (future development?)

• I made some code that allows you to enter fractions directly in the input fields, but this requires the input fields to be of the "text" type instead of the "number" type, which in turn means that Chrome and Firefox users lose the +/- (up/down) buttons in the input fields. So I reverted it. I might make it an option in future versions, if there is interest for it, though.
• When I refactored the main function in the coil model as part of the "export to url" functionality, that gave a couple of new ideas... it should be possible to model many coils simultaneously. Would you like to build a triple coil build with a combination of 26 AWG, 0.1x0.5 ribbon, and triple twisted 34 AWG? That might just be possible in the Steam Engine one day. I'll just have to figure out which parameter(s) must be kept identical between coils, for a viable build. Probably heat flux per volt?

 

[Dampmaskin]

Does anyone read this thread any more?

Internationalization

Those of you who use a language that is not English, can now find a "Select language" box at the upper right. This is the Google Website Translator Gadget. Machine translation is seldom perfect, so if you are fluent in the language you select, I encourage you to suggest corrections wherever necessary.

And a request

Are there any graphics wizards out there who would like to make a logo/banner for the Steam Engine? I am no artist, but I'm vaguely envisioning something with a ml of steam punk, a few drops of the matrix, and lots and lots of vapor.

 

[Dampmaskin]

A sneak peek at an upcoming calculator: Mod range - for determining the optimal resistance for your mod.

 

[PaulBHC]

Does anyone read this thread any more?

Uh, yep

And I refer posters to Steam Engine all the time for coil and battery tools.

The one thing it doesn't have that causes me a bit of url work or googling is what size things are. I have a webpage for needle gauge equivalents in decimal inches and mm. Another for drill sizes and equivalents. Not a big deal but it would be nice to have something on Steam Engine that either lists common mandrels and equivs, or calculates based on user input.

Why would I need this? I have a genesis deck with a 2mm wick hole, what size drill, toothpick, paper clip, do I use to make a coil smaller than this. Someone posts that the slot on a kanger clone coil head is 1.5mm and I want to fit a needle in there to hold the coil. Things like these.

Thanks

 

[Dampmaskin]

Ok, so a popup window or something, where you can convert back and forth between AWG, mm, inches, drill bit sizes and needle gauges (if that differs from AWG?). That is a good idea.

I think maybe I'll finish the "find the optimal resistance for your mod" calculator first, but a unit converter is hereby added to my to-do list.

 

[Dampmaskin]

I have added a converter to the coil calculator. It's a small tab right above the results/summary.

At the moment, it only does millimeters, inches, needle gauge, and AWG. More units will be added in time.

The color changing icons next to heat flux and heat capacity turned out to be more confusing than informative, so I removed them.

 

[readeuler]

I ha no idea you were the Northerner behind Steam-Engine, and I applaud you, sir. The long, drawn-out "standing ovation" kind.

Seriously. I'm a huge math nerd that dabbles in being inept at physics and programming, and this is an awesome calculator.

I can only imagine the work that's gone into it, and it is THE go-to vape calc.

In the future, I would like to hand-deliver you some beer and guitars.

Alright, enough with the sucking up, but it's well-deserved.

 

[Dampmaskin]

Thanks for that, readeuler.

I just found a Youtube video featuring the calculator, by a bloke by the nick Z Vaper. Figured I'd share.



Update:

I added fractional inches to the converter.

Additionally, when you try to match a value to a gauge, it tells you how far off the nearest gauges are in percent. The nearest gauge gets a green background behind its percentage number, the farthest one gets a gray background.

The "metric units/imperial units" setting also affects the displayed values:
* In metric mode, when converting between non-mm units, the millimeters show up in parenthesis.
* In imperial mode, when converting between non-inch units, the inches show up in parenthesis.

 

[100%VG]

Hello Damp,
First off, Thank You for this amazing project of yours. I just found your Coil Calculator today, while looking for something more accurate than the Excel Spreadsheet thing I've been using. I haven't actually used yours yet, but your calculator tells me to use one less wrap than the Spreadsheet, and since I'd often have to remove one wrap, I think yours is much more accurate already. I read the whole thread here, and it's amazing what all you have included.

Your calculator displays info for two kinds of coils: Full Wraps and Half Wraps. Please let me understand this with a picture...

Do I have this correct?

Which would you call an 8/7 wrap? That is normally the one on the left, from what I know, with 8 on top and 7 on the bottom. However, your calculator says that Full Wraps would be called 8, and Half Wraps would be called 8/7 or 9/8. I'm building for an RDA right now, and would use the one labeled Full Wraps shown above, so I just want to get inline with the way you word things.

Your calculator is so much better in so many aspects. With the Spreadsheet, I had to guess at the number of wraps needed, and it would calculate the Ohms of the coil plus lead length to three decimal places (x.xxx). So I'd have to guess at a number of wraps a few times until I got close. Your calculator starts out by entering the desired Ohms and tells the number of wraps to use, so this is much better!!!


The only thing I can see that I'd like added, if you would consider it, would be to calculate and display the total Ohms of the coil plus leads when terminated at the length entered in the calculator. I see that it will calculate x.12 wraps, but I think it would be nice to see that I will get, for example, 1.782Ω and 1.821Ω at my target of 1.8Ω. That way, I could play with wire gauges and coil diameter to zero in and build a more precision Ohm coil (I'm a bit fanatical about it for RDAs). This would ne nice for normal Ohm ranges, but could be extremely helpful for Sub-Ohmers. All I really know at this point is that something like an 8 wrap might be High, and an 8/7 wrap might be Low. And since you display info for Half Wraps and Full Wraps, total ohms for both would be nice.

Thanks again for your fantastic work,

VG

 

[Dampmaskin]

Interface update:

Now that people are suddenly oohing and aahing over some iOs app that shows the heat flux, I decided to move this result from the Advanced section to the Results section to make it more prominent.

I also threw in an input field for adjusting the applied watts.

Please let me understand this with a picture...

Do I have this correct?

Actually, it's the other way around. A "full wrap coil" goes N*360 degrees around the drill bit. A "half wrap coil" goes (N*360)±180 degrees around the drill bit. Well that was probably a terrible explanation, but I hope you get my drift anyway.

If you hover the mouse pointer over the "rounded to ..." labels, you should get a tooltip reminding you which way the legs will be pointing.

The only thing I can see that I'd like added, if you would consider it, would be to calculate and display the total Ohms of the coil plus leads when terminated at the length entered in the calculator. I see that it will calculate x.12 wraps, but I think it would be nice to see that I will get, for example, 1.782Ω and 1.821Ω at my target of 1.8Ω. That way, I could play with wire gauges and coil diameter to zero in and build a more precision Ohm coil (I'm a bit fanatical about it for RDAs). This would ne nice for normal Ohm ranges, but could be extremely helpful for Sub-Ohmers. All I really know at this point is that something like an 8 wrap might be High, and an 8/7 wrap might be Low. And since you display info for Half Wraps and Full Wraps, total ohms for both would be nice.

It would be possible to add something like that, but I believe the calculator has two other ways to achieve what you want:

• You can use the unrounded number of wraps for this purpose. If it says 5.82 wraps, you know you're closer to 6 wraps than 5 wraps.
• Or you can enter a target resistance with you keyboard, using as many decimal places as you want. Once you see that the unrounded wraps show an integer (or close to it), or, for half wraps an integer-and-a-half, you only need to look at the ohms in the "target resistance" input field.

Your idea is not bad, though. and I'll consider adding it. Thanks for the feedback.