Mech Mod with charger build

[Eric Hartwig]

Hi everyone. First of all, I just joined this forum but have enjoyed learning more about vaping, building and about the products available out there, through this forum, for about 2 years now. I've remained primarily tobacco free for that time thanks to the vaping community. This has allowed me to smell better, feel better and enjoy tinkering around with building coils etc. Forums like this one are a great resource to anyone starting out and are a great resource on different products out there, many of which fly under the radar to the general public, vaping being still a fairly new field. SO again, thanks!

I am wanting to build my own mechanical box mod because I am tired of running out of battery so fast. While I have been on VW boxes for a year now I want to see what I can make! The main reason I have switched to boxes is because they have a charging port, because I'm all about convenience. Although I still enjoy dripping on my sapor (no drippage) and occasionally a higher airflow atty like the mini mutation X.

With that drawn out intro I want to know if I can buy or build a mechanical dual18650 box mod with a charger built in.

Or instructions to build one, which would be fun. I hope to be able to refine this build into a very small form factor. Because I like the size of my sigelei 75W.

The point is I want more battery life + want to build my own.

Can anyone refer me to a build guide for dual 18650 box mod with a charger?

There's this, but honestly, idk where to start with it. Input/ advice needed (2x 18650 mech box with USB charger)

Thanks, Eric.

 

[Needo]

I suspect you have already been reading the Modding Forum . I would look at how to build 1x 18650 with a built in charger and then modify it to use two 18650 bataries in parallel. Charging time will be a little longer. I would suggest making a protection against having 1 battery upside down. Things happen.

 

[TheKman]

If you don't intend to swap out the batteries, have you considered LiPo? They're available in a ridiculous array of shapes and capacities. Charging process is the same, though many support much faster charging with the right equipment. It's also possible to draw a lot more current without ridiculous voltage sag.

There are a few additional precautions to be aware of, but i'm inclined to go this way personally.

 

[Bunnykiller]

I thought convienence was the ability to charge batteries while still using the mod and not having to vape it with a wire attached

 

[TheKman]

I thought convienence was the ability to charge batteries while still using the mod and not having to vape it with a wire attached

Maybe 'convenience' is vapping it all day and plugging in to charge overnight? Like your phone? Each to their own.

 

[Bunnykiller]

and what if the battery poops out in the middle of the day?

 

[TheKman]

I'm sure I have a couple of 5.8Ah LiPo cells around here somewhere... Oh wait, they're 8.4Ah... Sorry.

 

[Izan]

From the genius Steve Martin:
"
“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”


Is a mech with a USB charging port STILL a mech?
hmmm chinny reckon?

Cheers
I

 

[Bunnykiller]

just gave your idea a bit more thought... and... the box mod would have to be rather large to hold a charger capable of charging doing duals... unless you use a premade charger modified to use just a whip lead to the mod but then you would need enuf circuitry in the boxmod to separate the batteries while charging.... all of the multibay chargers Ive opened up have each bay set up to charge batteries singly ... kinda difficult to charge a set of parallel batteries evenly if both batteries are at an uneven charge rate or voltage...

 

[TheKman]

difficult to charge a set of parallel batteries evenly if both batteries are at an uneven charge rate or voltage...

Not, actually. Series is difficult, but in hard wired parallel there's no balancing to worry about. Effectively you have a single cell with twice the capacity, twice the current potential and twice the charge rate. You could do the same with any number of cells in parallel, it's the simplest way.

 

[Bunnykiller]

why is it so easy to charge a car battery.... its got 6 cells in series

 

[TheKman]

Very difference chemistry and energy density. Even a car battery can benefit from cell balancing, but the manufacturers do a very good job of matching the cells. More importantly, abusing a lead/acid battery results in some slightly noxious gases or a door stop. Abuse a lithium battery and you'd wish you were wearing asbestos gloves.

Take a 3s LiPo for instance. If one of the cells has a lower capacity than the others, this cell will be discharged further that the others. Of course, without a balance charge you will also over charge this cell. Each time you repeat this cycle the cell capacity is reduced and the problem gets worse. Too much stress and you have a thermal failure... Insert asbestos gloves here.

If cells are permanently hard wired to gather in parallel - and this assumes sufficient current capacity between cells - they will always be exactly the same voltage. Providing you use the same chemistry you could happily use cells of different capacities. Using difference cell capacities in series... Very different outcome.

Parallel is *easy*.