Newb question! Looking for a simple electronic board for a diy mod.

[AdrianF88]

Hello to everyone! I'm so happy i found this forum right in time! My ego-t battery died a couple of days ago and since i've replaced 3 ego-t batteries in my 2 years of vaping i was wondering if there's no other option (cheaper!) for powering my ecig! So i started looking for a mod. And even if i liked most of them, they were still kind of expensive. I though that by using a mod, I could just replace the control head if it broke, or just the battery cell... But the starting price was just to much... But then i had an idea. What if i could use standard AA Ni-Mh batteries? So i began searching the online stores for mods that accept AA Ni-Mh batteries. That way i didn't need to buy a battery, or charger... Just the mod. But to my surprise not a single store sold AA Ni-Mh mods... That was curious. I mean, the voltage is there (if you stack them), the power is there if you use a resistance of 3 - 5 Ohms, so why are there no mods? But then i had an idea. Since i love DIY-ing and i know my way around a soldering iron, why not build one? So i started searching deeper and deeper. This time for DIY mods that can take AA Ni-Mh batteries. And i found one! The Puck that so many people love! But i believe it's kind of spartan. Just 4 batteries, a switch and an LED. So before i started building one I started to dig even deeper! I then found this forum and i've been reading for the last couple of hours! BTW great job and keep up the good work!

Now to the problem at hand. I want to build a spin-off of the Puck. Same principle but with a control board. I thought of these simple requirements

- Protection for the atomizer (so to avoid the power surge when i press the button)
- Protection against a short (I know many atomizers leak and i don't want to short my batteries)
- A charge indicator (something simple like the ego-t, 3 LED's should do the trick)
- Something to get a constant voltage from the batteries so to avoid the voltage drop (I know Ni-Mh start charged at somewhere around 1.35V and die somewhere around 1.1V [i've had some that died at around 1V but the cells were unusable after that, they wouldn't charge back up]. That being said, a pack of 4 would start somewhere around 5.4V and die somewhere around 4.4V). So something to get a constant 4.5V would be great.
- A cut-off at 4.5V in order to avoid over draining the batteries. When the battery pack reaches 4.5V the control board should cut off the power and an indicator light should blink.
- On/Off function by pushing the button a few times

I don't want VV or VW. In my opinion both of them are nothing more that watt-hours consumers.

So. Do you know any control boards that meet the criteria? Or even if someone else built something like this?

 

[retird]

Sounds like you need a 5 volt mod..... Madvapes has them cheap.... I'm sure there are other 5 volt mods out there as they were all the rage before vv/vw came along... also there are 5 volt pass throughs out there for home/office use... Google is your friend...

 

[AdrianF88]

Hi there! Thanks for the reply but it's of little or no help to me, since 4 Ni-Mh baterries have a nominal voltage of 4.8V. And also, google may be my friend but not on this one. I did a fairly extensive research on the subject and came up dry. I know how easily new members are dismissed and sent to google, so trust me when i say this... I did my research before i opened my mouth!

 

[asdaq]

From the way you describe how you want this mod to work, it sounds like a buck converter would be in order to work. These would not be good with NiMH, as they typically need a difference of 2v or greater between input and target voltage.

If you go with a boost converter, this would be a bit better but it would use 3 cells to work at its optimum. Also, if I were you, I would have a look at eneloops, or even NiZn.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[AdrianF88]

I know about buck and boost converters but i don't really think they suit my needs. The buck needs as you say at least a 2V difference and the boost... well, boosts... which isn't quite what i need either. Freshly charged batteries start at about 5.4 and die at about 4.4. I just need 4.5 stable voltage. If you think about it it's been done a million times! Literally! Every Ego type battery has a control board that meets my needs. When you take an ego out of the charger it's about 4.2V and when it's drained i suppose, well i guess it's about 3.3V or even lower. And the control board supplies a continuous voltage of 3.3V no matter the charge state of the battery. And i actually thought of recycling one of those bad boys, but the electronics takes a maximum voltage of 4.2V Nothing near the 5.4 needed with a freshly charged pack of Ni-Mh

 

[Rickajho]

There's just not a lot of love out there for the concept any longer. You can find a handful of threads in the modding forum making puck mods with four NiMh cells, but they aren't bothering with a regulation circuit. Modding Forum In the scheme of things it's just too much of a nuisance dealing with swapping four batteries at a time to get nearly the same voltage that you have from a single Li-On cell. That, and all it takes is one of those four cells to go under voltage before the other three and you have voltage drop & reverse battery polarizing problems going on.

I know you want to keep costs down, but even try to find decent AAA NiMh rechargeables that perform anywhere near their MaH rating or last longer than a couple of months. That proposition alone can get really expensive. I just gave up trying to find decent NiMh AAA cells at this point. The package is just too small for them to have decent mAh output, or decent life span, or both.

 

[AdrianF88]

Yeah... About that... I want to use AA cells that have a rating of 2700 mAh And i do have some great and cheap cells lying around. I am a professional photographer and i have a box full of high quality AA Ni-Mh batteries that i use for my flash, triggers, extensions an about anything else... They are really the industry's work horse and because of that i refuse to pay for another Ego-T battery and/or a Li-Ion mod. I have the power, i have the chargers, all i need is a 50cent battery holder, some wire, solder and apparently a circuit board for control. I believe i can make a battery pack with less then 5$. So instead of buying a 50$ Li-Ion mod, or even a 30$ Ego-T battery i will continue my pursuit of this untill i figure it out. And also, eneloop AA baterries are around 20$ around here. With 1800 recharge cycles, i believe i can have a more rugged, dependable, cheaper vaporizer with a longer life than any mod around here. Let's just take a look at the costs of power solutions out there. Shall we?

Ego-T battery - 30$ (in my experience that is 30$ every year. Since i haven't had the pleasure of meeting a battery that lasts longer than a year. Either i drop it and it breaks in half and in the best case scenario i have to resolder everything or in the worst case scenario the metal battery tube dilates and the electronics doesn't have a tight fit anymore meaning that even if i touch it it just breaks in half again, or the liquid slips inside the battery and it shorts, or the cells die and i can't vape for more than an hour before i need to recharge)

+ Shipping 5$ = grad total of 35$

Cheapest commercial Li-Ion mod:

Mod - 20$
Battery - 15$
Charger - 10$
Shipping - 5$

For a grand total of 50$. And that is with the cheapest everything.... Which means nobody can guarantee that the cheap cell won't explode while charging in the cheap charger...

But let's see over all costs. If i drop it and it breaks i"m looking at 20$ + 5$ shipping for the mod everytime. If the cell dies, I'm looking at 15$ + 5$ shipping everytime. If both die, I'm looking at 35$ + 5$ shipping in replaceable parts.


Puck mod:

3$ worth of components. Switch, battery holder, LED and resistance for the LED
20$ a set of 4 high quality Ni-Mh rechargeables

If i drop it and break it? Pffff... Just 3$ to rebuild.
Liquid inside? Open the box, clean it and i'm on my way. (But since there's such a thing as a hot glue gun, i can seal anything and everything in it. Heck! I could make an underwater puck if i want too!)
Batteries dead? No prob! I live next to a shopping center (Carrefour (Like target in US, or walmart)), and i do mean next to it. It's less than 2 min away. And buy a new set for about 20$.


Cheapest Li-Ion DIY mod:

3$ worth of components. Switch, battery holder, LED and resistance for the LED
Battery - 15$
Charger - 10$
Shipping - 5$

For a grand total of 33$ and that is with cheapest everything again.

If i drop it and break it? Again just 3$ to rebuild.
Liquid inside? Same as the puck, i could make it waterproof, but if i do have a leak, the battery could explode right in my mouth!
If the cell dies, 15$ + 5$ shipping everytime...


So yeah... there's a reason within the madness.


LE: And even if it's unorthodox and even if i will eventually buy another Ego-t battery so that i won't scare the people around me with the big black box, I believe the puck to be the perfect backup for any vaper around here. Right now I'm sharing an ego-t battery with my roommate. Mine broke and it's really hard to just go back and fourth with the battery. Not to mention that if i go out, i just don't have something to vape with. Or if the roommate goes out... If i already had a puck i would have just popped 4 batteries in it and just vaped on, and on, without any worries.

 

[retird]

Good luck in your quest using your flash batteries (2700 mah rating, but what is the C rating of your batteries?).....a good source for a regulator that you search for can be Digikey...they have pages of regulators.

just find the one you want....

As said before a cheap 5 volt mod at Madvapes is available and it is 20 bucks and uses 2 14500 batteries....but I understand you are wanting to use you batteries....

As said "Google is your friend"...search ECF for 5 volt or Puck as the thread title....there is a lot of reading that may be helpful..many threads go way back to 2010.....or earlier.... and here is a link from my "45 second Google search" that might help ya out...

http://puckecig.com/2011/12/added-variable-voltage-control-to-your-ecig-mod/ you can just set the potentiometer to the voltage you want and forget it....or just replace the pot with the proper resistor value for 5 volts and you are done...

http://www.madvapes.com/helpdesk/ ...click on " how to build a 5 volt mod"

From your original post you stated your needs:

Now to the problem at hand. I want to build a spin-off of the Puck. Same principle but with a control board. I thought of these simple requirements

- Protection for the atomizer (so to avoid the power surge when i press the button)
- Protection against a short (I know many atomizers leak and i don't want to short my batteries)
- A charge indicator (something simple like the ego-t, 3 LED's should do the trick)
- Something to get a constant voltage from the batteries so to avoid the voltage drop (I know Ni-Mh start charged at somewhere around 1.35V and die somewhere around 1.1V [i've had some that died at around 1V but the cells were unusable after that, they wouldn't charge back up]. That being said, a pack of 4 would start somewhere around 5.4V and die somewhere around 4.4V). So something to get a constant 4.5V would be great.
- A cut-off at 4.5V in order to avoid over draining the batteries. When the battery pack reaches 4.5V the control board should cut off the power and an indicator light should blink.
- On/Off function by pushing the button a few times

This is not a simple mod as your requirements require a lot of electronics...and safety features and is not a cheap design....and involves voltage regulation..

Good luck and please post a picture of your completed mod when ya get-er-done...

Personal note....I don't use any mod that places batteries in series....too many variables and possible safety issues for me, but that's just my preference....

 

[Nikkel]

The Nomod and its cousin, the Almost Nomod, are cheap and versatile and would satisfy some of your requirements.

The Nomod consists of a VV or non-VV batteryless USB passthrough plugged into 4xAA battery box which has a USB jack.
$5.58 Variable Voltage USB Passthrough for E-Cigarette at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping
510 high voltageManual USB Passthrough
https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=22874846
Battery holder: AA x 4 with USB interface connector and Belt clip ("On" / "OFF" power switch) - RoHS Compliant
4 * AA Battery Holder Box 4.8-5.9V DC USB Output [BB-03] - $5.20 : LU Solar & Electornics

The Almost Nomod consists of the passthrough with its USB plug cut off and replaced with a 9-volt style snap connector, paired with a AA or AAA battery box which has a snap connector.
https://www.google.com/search?q=aa+battery+snap+connector

 

[ForeverDiving]

@AdrianF88, check this 4xAA holder with USB from RS. I'm getting one to build my "puck". I also have NiMHs in all sizes and amps.