Mike n Tibs DNA Mods!

[SlickWilly]

Lots of info here near the end of the thread where Mike P did the upgrade to his "weekended".

The "WeekEnder" | Page 62 | E-Cigarette Forum

And, pictures!

My experience, so far, with a DNA40 is that it indicates low battery at about 3.3-3.4 volts. That's fine for a LiPO.

Incidentally, when I said "more than one battery" I meant two, or more, in parallel.

Thanks guys! I'll read that through, I glanced at it quickly. Now that I see the pics of Mike's mod I remember seeing a pic of it some time ago and Mike saying it was a weekender but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. I'm excited! This will keep me busy until the other stuff comes in, I've been itching to build/tinker. I wonder if I could fit one of those round lipo's in the ZNA I put a 40 board in I'd have to recharge those outside the mod but that's not a big deal. I've been using the ZNA a lot lately while on a drive, don't want to scratch up my 200 mod. I get frustrated when a battery runs out, I never remember to take a spare battery with me. I thought I'd look for better 18650's then what I have for both the ZNA and the Hana box, but now I'll look into lipo's.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

As others mentioned, the charger you are used to using will work and the low voltage cut off should be find. I do use fuses when using more than one cell:

Note the two fuses stacked on each hot leg...then shrink wrapped:

 

[Squonk_me]

@SlickWilly More info for you for that project you're doing,

The "Girlie" Mod | E-Cigarette Forum

Lots of pictures and parts info to go with them.

 

[awsum140]

FINALLY!

I finally got the whole thing done! It's not perfect, but fairly close and I'm happy with it although it is a little heavy. One of my main goals was no visible screws and still have battery security. That added some time to construction as did making that mistake with the display offset in the wrong direction. I ended up cutting the box out to allow the whole display to fit into the cutout and making a brass trim piece with a window the right size. It's all finished with a satin or brushed look from 220 grit wet/dry paper.



It's kind of crowded inside, but it all fits. That 12 gauge on the output is a bear to work with and the 14 gauge on the battery isn't a whole lot better.



Maybe, if I ever feel ambitious, I'll make new buttons out of brass stock, but for now the aluminum will do just fine.

 

[SlickWilly]

FINALLY!

I finally got the whole thing done! It's not perfect, but fairly close and I'm happy with it although it is a little heavy. One of my main goals was no visible screws and still have battery security. That added some time to construction as did making that mistake with the display offset in the wrong direction. I ended up cutting the box out to allow the whole display to fit into the cutout and making a brass trim piece with a window the right size. It's all finished with a satin or brushed look from 220 grit wet/dry paper.



It's kind of crowded inside, but it all fits. That 12 gauge on the output is a bear to work with and the 14 gauge on the battery isn't a whole lot better.



Maybe, if I ever feel ambitious, I'll make new buttons out of brass stock, but for now the aluminum will do just fine.

That came out nice! I like the two tone of the face plate, I'd be temped to leave the buttons silver as it add's to the two tone but everyone has different likes. Job well done with the problem solving, if you didn't tell anyone they would think the face pate was planned! I like the way you think outside the box, the designs and solutions you came up with, I'd be proud of that!

 

[Phone Guy]

FINALLY!

I finally got the whole thing done! It's not perfect, but fairly close and I'm happy with it although it is a little heavy. One of my main goals was no visible screws and still have battery security. That added some time to construction as did making that mistake with the display offset in the wrong direction. I ended up cutting the box out to allow the whole display to fit into the cutout and making a brass trim piece with a window the right size. It's all finished with a satin or brushed look from 220 grit wet/dry paper.



It's kind of crowded inside, but it all fits. That 12 gauge on the output is a bear to work with and the 14 gauge on the battery isn't a whole lot better.



Maybe, if I ever feel ambitious, I'll make new buttons out of brass stock, but for now the aluminum will do just fine.

Nicely done. Something to be proud of for sure!

 

[BlueridgeDog]

So is that solder, jb weld or brazing?

 

[awsum140]

The brass parts are soldered. That means the retaining clips that hold the sled in place are soldered onto the main brass support. The cleats for mounting the brass support (the one seen in the photo and two more on the bottom), battery retainer bracket, front brass trim and the cleats to prevent the buttons from rotating are all JB welded. Lots of time spent waiting for JB to harden completely.

I cheated with the balance connector and used the board mount for a remote instead. Just soldered onto the pins and used some heat shrink on each one.

 

[turbocad6]

wow that's tight, really nice job you did there, love the internal battery holding solution too. that's what I like, no wasted space and as compact as possible. very nice

 

[awsum140]

You know it's funny. I didn't start out trying to make it compact, in fact when I got the box and battery it looked kind of roomy. Then reality set in and it became a challenge. The bottom of the board sled is held in alignment by to pieces of brass angle stock that form a channel for it. Originally, they went top to bottom inside, but when I went to install the board, wired, the Dremel came out and I had to remove a bit to get enough clearance for the wiring. The same thing happened with the cleats that hold the main support rail. They ended up getting tapered down to provide more room for the wiring. Funny how an eighth of an inch here and there an make a big difference!

 

[SlickWilly]

You know it's funny. I didn't start out trying to make it compact, in fact when I got the box and battery it looked kind of roomy. Then reality set in and it became a challenge. The bottom of the board sled is held in alignment by to pieces of brass angle stock that form a channel for it. Originally, they went top to bottom inside, but when I went to install the board, wired, the Dremel came out and I had to remove a bit to get enough clearance for the wiring. The same thing happened with the cleats that hold the main support rail. They ended up getting tapered down to provide more room for the wiring. Funny how an eighth of an inch here and there an make a big difference!

Yeah, wiring really dictates a lot, even more so when you try to make it look clean and leave extra wire in case it's ever needed. I like to use at least the recommended size and the maximum if I can, I used 12 ga wire on the 510's, that was a real challenge. I look at the tiny circuit tracks on the board, if they can carry the load why do we need wire ten times larger? When I replaced the 510's on my 30W iStick's I couldn't believe how small the wire is feeding the 510, it is a solid core wire but even so it's tiny, made me wonder why the wires I was using for the 200 builds was necessary. But I leave that to the experts, Evolv, I'm sure they have their reasons. It would just be a lot easier if we could use smaller wire...

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Sharing my happy experience wit the Billow V2. A dual coil tank rig. The build in the image is a few weeks old, not pretty at this point, but it really rocks. It is stable resistance wise, with a firm coper center pin. It is a RTA that really puts out some vapor.

 

[awsum140]

I think part of the reason for the large wire sizes, beside current capability, is impedance/resistance to make sure the chip actually reads the atomizer correctly. I can certainly be wrong about that, and give the questionable connections of a 510 connector, I'm not sure just how important it could be.

Actually, that's the second time I wired the 510 connector, an FD V4. The first time I tried keeping everything as short as possible and quickly found out I couldn't assemble the thing, it needed some extra to allow getting the parts assembled. Another thing I learned was not to use rosin on the wire when tinning it. The rosin allows the solder to migrate too well and makes the first 3/8 or 1/2 inch like a copper rod. That makes sharp bends just past the board impossible.

 

[awsum140]

Man, did I get a nicotine buzz fooling around with the DNA200! I wanted to see what the Foggers I use were really capable of. I use, mainly, V6 on most of my stuff and have one Big Fogger that I'm using on the DNA200. I chickened out at 70 watts, with both of them, 'cause that was way too hot for me. Heck, even 50 watts is too hot for me, but I ended up "blasted" from the added nicotine and vapor in the process. Think I'll stick to lower power unless I reduce the nic further, below 4mg, in my mixes.

 

[Tpat591]

The CoOp thread? Closed?

EDIT - Open again - must have been a glitch?

 

[tiburonfirst]

ecf is good for a surprise quite often

 

[Pdizzle]

So I've decided in building a wood box. Not out of a solid block as I don't have a router. But instead out of a sheet of 1/4" poplar hobby wood. Would you guys suggest cutting my faces for the box at 45 degree angles or flush when glueing everything together

 

[awsum140]

Monkey wrench time...how about dove tailing or ship lap?

 

[Pdizzle]

Dove tailing would look nice but I'm making all of my cuts with a mitre box. No power tools lol. Also while I'm using wood, I still want it to be a small box

 

[awsum140]

Keeping it small and mitering the joints would b a little "touchy" and if you touch in the wrong place it wouldn't be fun. I'd stick with .... joints, and maybe some internal cleats for strength, to keep it simple and safe. Maybe some small quarter round or square stock for the corner cleats.

Now, if you had a radial or table saw....