The Pipe Bomb - My new e-cig mod

[dablackanarch]

I finally have it completed. My new battery powered e-cig mod that I call the Pipe Bomb.




It's made from solid copper pipe (3/4 in. dia.) and end caps. I took the threads from a 901 battery and placed them in one end with a spring soldered into the center conductor. Inside is a 2500mAh Li-Ion battery (18650). The pushbutton is a regular N.O. SPST switch from Radio Wack.

The atomizer end cap is sealed on but the switch end I can pull off to charge the battery. Based on my usage with the 110mAh 901 battery, I expect to be able to use this battery about 2 days before I need to charge it. I'll keep you all updated.

 

[Singalo]

Wow! congratulations!!

 

[Trumpybloke]

Excellent Job Anarch ... I am toying along similar lines, except mine will have 3 X 1300 mAh Li-polys in parallel , I'm also contemplating a 2X 18650 version ... I'm definitely thinking about the ultimate once a week charge model lol

 

[Frankie]

Add one spare atomizer, make the name one word (e.g. PipeBomb, shortened PB) and you can start selling them for $ 160 apiece.. he he he

 

[Satire]

Good choice of names! You should have it etched into the side of the device so if you ever get confronted by any authority figures (airline baggage handlers, policemen trying to enforce the no-smoking policy, etc) you can just say "no dude, its just the new Pipe Bomb! I made it myself! See, here is the battery and here is the heating component and... hey what's with the guns?" <bam bam>

 

[spyderuk]

2,500 mah, mwhuhahaha.

I got my magnum type led flashes from Hong Kong already. Faster than some UK Ebay sellers. Maddy, Maggy mod coming up.

 

[dablackanarch]

Add one spare atomizer, make the name one word (e.g. PipeBomb, shortened PB) and you can start selling them for $ 160 apiece.. he he he

I will leave the selling of these things to my friend Trog. He does it way better than me.

Seriously though, manufacturers had better listen to us. We need batteries that will last and deliver a good charge to the atomizer. 150 mAh is a joke. I think that a lot of the problems with e-vaping is not the atomizers but, the batteries. If I can use the same 901 atomizer that I bought 6 months ago with power from a USB bus, up to 1A, then I know that the atomizers have potential. I would like to see a manufacturer step up to the plate and deliver a real usable, sturdy and long lasting battery with their e-cigs.

Trog said it best when he said that the problem is that the manufacturers are trying to make them look like cigarettes. I used a copper pipe and end caps as a proof of concept. However, I could have shaped my e-cig like a swan if I wanted to. I don't give a damn about a cigarette looking e-cig. I care about performance for both light and heavy e-vapors.

 

[Bastage]

hell yeah,. great job on the pipe bomb. I've made a similar one out of a husky LED flashlight that I converted to use the 901 atomizer and an 18650 2500mah battery. It's based on Madog's mod but set up a little differently. The only problem with it is that it's huge (about the same size as the pipe bomb but I'm guessing not as heavy) but I've used it for 3 days and still on the same charge. I just finished modding a AA sized husky (pics and thread soon to come) that's much smaller and is powered by a 14500 AA size) 900mah 3.7v battery. The mod to the small husky was super easy and I will be doing another one. I'll try to take pics and detail the process for everyone. The 14500 batteries are the best bang vs size for these cigs IMO. It should last me all day without a recharge, and I bought 4 batteries for $11 so I can always carry spares and replacements are a cinch. Be careful taking that sucker to the airport you WILL be detained and questioned with something like that in your bag. I agree that the 130-150mah batteries are junk, the batteries just don't last long enough. If I didn't tinker with things and improve them, I would likely have given up on ecigs a long time ago. Luckily for me I have made 2 USB dongles, a heavy duty 18650 battery, and a smaller more practical battery, the 14500. A detailed thread will be posted later on about the 14500 conversion but for anyone interested, the Husky black AA flashlight is the PERFECT base for an ecig mod. One of the best things about it is that the lamp side doesn't flare out, it's a great cylindrical shape and VERY easy to take apart, modify, and put back together without breaking anything. It looks exactly like this one:

 

[ZambucaLu]

I really wish people would start selling some of these mods. They are sooooo cool!

Lu

 

[dablackanarch]

hell yeah,. great job on the pipe bomb. I've made a similar one out of a husky LED flashlight that I converted to use the 901 atomizer and an 18650 2500mah battery. It's based on Madog's mod but set up a little differently. The only problem with it is that it's huge (about the same size as the pipe bomb but I'm guessing not as heavy) but I've used it for 3 days and still on the same charge. I just finished modding a AA sized husky (pics and thread soon to come) that's much smaller and is powered by a 14500 AA size) 900mah 3.7v battery. The mod to the small husky was super easy and I will be doing another one. I'll try to take pics and detail the process for everyone. The 14500 batteries are the best bang vs size for these cigs IMO. It should last me all day without a recharge, and I bought 4 batteries for $11 so I can always carry spares and replacements are a cinch. Be careful taking that sucker to the airport you WILL be detained and questioned with something like that in your bag. I agree that the 130-150mah batteries are junk, the batteries just don't last long enough. If I didn't tinker with things and improve them, I would likely have given up on ecigs a long time ago. Luckily for me I have made 2 USB dongles, a heavy duty 18650 battery, and a smaller more practical battery, the 14500. A detailed thread will be posted later on about the 14500 conversion but for anyone interested, the Husky black AA flashlight is the PERFECT base for an ecig mod. One of the best things about it is that the lamp side doesn't flare out, it's a great cylindrical shape and VERY easy to take apart, modify, and put back together without breaking anything. It looks exactly like this one:

Bastage, that 14500 idea is hot. I could do big things with a AA size battery. As a proof of concept, the PipeBomb isn't designed to haul around everywhere. Hell, it was the first major electronics project I've ever done, other than my USB mods. Now that I understand the basics of how an e-cig is built, I'll be able to do some cooler things. The 14500 would let build my Schrodinger's Box (Battery case e-cig mod) and do some other cool stuff.

I do have a question about these flashlight mods. The switch inside is a clicky switch. Do you mod the switch as well or do you just click it on and off? Figuring out the switch for the PipeBomb was a ....., even after getting the rudiments from a SD thread.

I have no electronics experience and have been studying while building my mod. Don't let 'Idontknowitis' stop you from trying, people. Get online, study, buy cheap materials (my entire mod could be built under 20 bucks) and practice. Ask informed questions here and you'll get help. Good luck!

Edit: Bastage, the first thing my missus said when she held the PB was, 'Damn, it's heavy!'. It's pretty heavy. The 18650 batt is HUGE and on top of the solid copper, yeah, I could curl the thing and get buff...lol

 

[Frankie]

The most beautiful mod ever was made by the great innovator himself and uses this: DealExtreme: $3.32 Shock-Your-Friend Pipe (Practical Joke) . When my first two batteries die (almost 7 weeks hard work in them, should be soon), I would like to use this as a base. But I have no idea what battery to place in the pipe. Anybody help me out with this, please?

I would also like to know if higher "mah" means better performance or just *longer* performance. I have a cigar that is not really great performer. It uses 350 mah AA separate battery. If I buy higher mah same form factor, the vapour etc. should get higher, too?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BadSeed]

Higher mah means longer performance. The mah measure is how long the fully charged battery would last in hours if a steady current of 1 milliamp was drawn from it.

 

[Bastage]

Anarch, the clicky switch is not very practical for ecig use. I picked up a few pushbutton switches and a few tactile switches from radio shack. I've got a message out to a switch company trying to buy a few switches that will be perfect for the ecig application. They are small tactile switches but they have big soft pushbuttons on them which is exactly what I want to use. For the flashlights the method is different for each kind of light, but the concept is the same. the clicky switch shorts the battery spring to the frame of the flashlight case whenever it's in the "on" position. You'll need to take the endcap apart and figure out how to hook up a normally open switch from the spring to the flashlight frame, so when you push the switch it shorts the negative battery spring to the frame. It's hard to describe exactly how to do it because each light is a little different. The clicky switch on these has a long metal tab that makes contact with the spring, and one on the side that makes contact with the case. The easiest way to get both sides hooked up to a switch is to click the switch in the off position, put a drop of superglue inside the white plastic button so it remains off for good. Then you want to solder a wire to the pad that makes contact with the spring and run it to the outside of the case making sure it never touches ground. That's your negative. These cases are aluminum and can't be easily soldered so your best bet on the second wire (ground) is to take the small hole that was used for the wrist strap towards the bottom of the casing and drill it out to make just a hair bigger. This will remove the paint and ensure you have good contact to ground. Then you can wrap a wire tightly around the hole and solder it all the way around so it makes a good tight contact with the case. The 2 wires you just set up will be soldered to your switch. Make sure you ohm everything out as you go, you don't want your spring wire grounded to the case unless the button is pressed. I have a larger switch on the end of my pipe bomb style battery and it works fine, but I do prefer the tactile flat switches because I like the switch being on the side of the case as opposed to the end. Once my 14500's arrive I'll make sure it works as expected and take some pictures to share with everyone. The Husky 2-Pack flashlights are 2 for 7 bucks, and they really are perfect for what we are doing.

 

[Bastage]

Here is a good size comparison between the 14500 and the 18650. It's much more pocket friendly and lighter. I'll still keep the larger one and use it around the house because the battery life is just outstanding. It's been 4 days now on the same charge with no sign of decreased performance. At 20 times the capacity of a standard ecig battery, the 18650 should provide about 40 hours of use (averaging 2 hours per standard battery X 20). The 14500 version should last about 10 hours per charge, which is still 6x the capacity of a standard ecig battery. I'm willing to sacrifice some capacity for size, because I don't really need a 40 hour battery. If I ever go on a week long camping trip I'll take the 18650. I could vape an entire 10ml bottle with one charge I'm sure of it. lol - BTW I will be posting battery life tests for both mods once my 14500 batteries get here. I'll charge one up all the way and just that one until the battery dies, then I'll test the other one. I'm guessing 5 days on the 18650, and 2 days on the 14500 with normal use. If you use it constantly all day long, the 14500 would need to be recharged every night but spare batteries are cheap so you can keep a few charged and ready to go. The battery life of the 14500 should be comparable to the screwdriver. I challenge anyone out there to do a "puff count" with either of these two mods. haha

 

[dablackanarch]

Higher mah means longer performance. The mah measure is how long the fully charged battery would last in hours if a steady current of 1 milliamp was drawn from it.

QFT. My 2500 mAh battery will last longer than a 110 mAh battery because, while the actual voltage will be the same (2.7v-4.2v) there's more capacity for power over a longer period.

If it helps, think of mods like the PB and SD as adding an extra large gas tank to a Yugo. It's still a Yugo, it'll just go farther between fill-ups.

You electronics pros correct me if I'm wrong but, won't a higher capacity battery also deliver the higher voltages for longer? IOW, if my 901 atomizer works really well at between 3.7 and 4.2v, won't the higher cap batteries deliver that higher voltage for a longer period before dropping off?

 

[Bastage]

ninja edit.........

 

[Bastage]

here are some new pics of a soft touch switch installed on a flashlight mod. These things are great! The buttons are easy to press like you would find on a remote control. I'll do a review on this mod once my batteries arrive. For some reason in the pictures, the heat shrink tubing I used to mount the switch appears much lighter than it is in real life. When you look at it in person it looks much better because the color matching is a lot closer to black.