# Project Boxmod



## ET (11/10/13)

hello all, ettiene here. my silly ego stopped working and as finances are a little tight right now i decided to mod it a wee bit. was originally just going to make a little passthrough mod to plug into my usb hub but the longer i faffed around the more complex the end goal has become. right now the aim is ending up with a nice new vape tube that takes rechargeable batteries in form factor AA, 14500 and the longer 14650.

got an old twisp ecig from a mate a while back and tried to fix it and managed to nuke the battery, but kept the rest for parts. also have the bits for my 1100 mah ego clone. paid the extra few bucks on ebay for it, tube was longer with 650 mah battery inside. swine!
got an old aluminium tube flashlight from another mate, had an old battery that glued itself in there. so first off was clearing the tube and cutting it down some to make it manageable.

next is getting the old twisps 510 connector seated properly and flush with enough space for the switch and battery. since i will be using the tubes body as my ground i wanted to make darn sure the positive connection of the battery, switch or carto connector wasn't going to touch any part of the body. decided on a wooden dowell insert. should be able to carve out spaces for the switch and wires and i can use tiny wittle screws later to securely mount the wood into the tube.

just copied and pasted this from the e-cig forum, busy working on converting an old twisp into my 14650 battery clone to go inside






and here is what happens when you raid a decent laptop batttery for some more unprotected bats


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## Gizmo (11/10/13)

Those laptop batteries what size are they


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## CraftyZA (11/10/13)

Gizmo said:


> Those laptop batteries what size are they


They are the normal 18650 size that is unprotected. (thus a few mm shorter than a protected cell)
The laptop battery pack, has it's own protection built in. So these laptop batteries work great for regulated mods like evic, svd etc... They should best not be used in mechs.


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## ET (11/10/13)

that is what i heard also yeah. i now have a grand total of 16 bats, still have to test most of them to see if they are viable. what i found was this guys test procedure :

1. measure cell voltage. if it's less than 2.5v, throw it away.
2. charge the cell. if it gets hot during charging, throw it away.
3. measure cell voltage off the charger. verify it's between 4.1 and 4.2v.
4. wait 30 minutes
5. measure cell voltage. if it's fallen less than 4v, throw it away. Otherwise record the voltage.
6. store cell for 3+ days in cool, dry place.
7. measure cell voltage. if cell voltage has fallen more than .1v from the recorded voltage, throw it away.

Any cell that hasn't been thrown away by the time I'm through with step 7, I keep and put into my regular cell rotation.

luckily my evic seems to have short circuit protection and all that so i don't feel too scared to put them in the evic

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## Derick (11/10/13)

> luckily my evic seems to have short circuit protection and all that so i don't feel too scared to put them in the evic



I'm sometimes amazed at how advanced some of these devices already are and this industry is still so young - wonder what will the future hold? - cellphones with a 510 connection?

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## CraftyZA (11/10/13)

Derick said:


> I'm sometimes amazed at how advanced some of these devices already are and this industry is still so young - wonder what will the future hold? - cellphones with a 510 connection?



Already there. Cant find the link now.
Iphone case with build in charging battery pack, and 510 connection for your convenience  will try and find the link.
It was on ecf somewhere.

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## CraftyZA (11/10/13)



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## Derick (11/10/13)

HAHA awesome

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## ET (17/10/13)

ok broken ego has to wait now as the broken evic gets priority. since the evic's circuit board is toast, well half of it grinded away now so yeah toast, i shall post a few pics of how this badboy is getting converted into normal tube mod kinda thing by bypassing the dead circuit board

basically all i'm doing is instead of the positive battery connection going via the circuit board and all the electronics in there i used my rotary tool to sever the pushbuttons connection to said circuit board and also enlarged the hole where the battery centre pin connected to the circuit board. now all thats left to do is solder the positive wire from the atty connector onto one of the pushbutton switches pins and the other button pin gets soldered to the battery centre pin. this should sort me out i think. anyone see any flaws in this cunning plan? apart from no more battery kaboom or v/v but i think i can live without if i'm cautious

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## ET (19/10/13)

got hold of a properish soldering iron and finally finished fixing my dead evic. i am now the proud owner of a custom ecig

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## Vaping Jakes (19/10/13)

Well done, and congrats!!

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## Gizmo (20/10/13)

Lets see some pics

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## ET (20/10/13)

looks exactly the same as before  the custom part is now it's working again minus the light up part of the switch or the dual voltage selection and stuff. but it works, i can vape. good enough for me

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## ET (26/10/13)

http://www.mantech.co.za/Stock.aspx?Query=momentary+switch+3Aand

i see i can order from these guys instead of overseas, happy days. my question to the more learned members out there is this : for general modding of ecig stuff, what switches can i use? ok pretty sure it needs to handle at least 2A so it doesnt fry like my last switch, but voltage? or are these the wrong kind of switches altogether? also looking at making myself a usb passthrough mod to plug into my usb hub

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## CraftyZA (26/10/13)

Look at rs as well. Most of my amp was built between rs and mantech.
Rs has nicer stuff, but can be pricey. As in R300 a switch pricey!


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## iPWN (26/10/13)

Communica also has a wide range of switches. http://www.communica.co.za/ProductListing.aspx?cid=49dc55d1aa5145f1950c9a4fa2f2e5cb


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## Johnny2Puffs (26/10/13)

denizenx said:


> http://www.mantech.co.za/Stock.aspx?Query=momentary switch 3Aand
> 
> i see i can order from these guys instead of overseas, happy days. my question to the more learned members out there is this : for general modding of ecig stuff, what switches can i use? ok pretty sure it needs to handle at least 2A so it doesnt fry like my last switch, but voltage? or are these the wrong kind of switches altogether? also looking at making myself a usb passthrough mod to plug into my usb hub


 
No denizenx. Use Ohms law. V=IxR (just remember the word VIR)
So from that you get I=V/R
If your bat is 3.7v and your coil is 1 ohm 
Then your current is 3.7amps. Your button needs a higher rating than this so I would suggest a 5 amp minimum.
A 6 amp will last longer though.

Hopefully your usb hub is powered externally for increased power as the usb 2.0 ports on computers and laptops are 0.5 amps max and will not fire the coil. Even the charging usb port is too low at 0.9 amps.

Also remember to use the thick usb cable as the thin one is for data tranfer and the thickness of the wires are rated at 2.0 amps max. The thick cable is for charging and will work.

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## ET (26/10/13)

already got an older thicker usb cable lined up. it will be an external usb hub when i get the power cable back from my one mate, but my tablets usb wall charger puts out 5v 1 amp, same as usb hub ports i think


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## ET (26/10/13)

forgot to say, since 5 volts could also be a wee bit too hectic for some coils so i was happy when i found this little nugget on the e-cig forum
"Placing a 1N4004 rectifier diode in series with the positive power lead off the USB to the atomizer dropped the voltage by a comfortable 0.8v."
that sounds like a plan. throw in an on/off switch and i can make that dual voltage


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## Johnny2Puffs (26/10/13)

5v is perfect. No need for a 0.75v diode. Your 1 amp is too low. You need about 5 amps. Even if you use a Y cable and use 2 ports, it will still be too low.
Most cellphone chargers are 5v/1 amp and use 3.7v bats. You will be going directly from the voltage source to the coil thereby bypassing the bat so the voltage is irrelevant. The current is restricted to 1 amp so you stuffed. If the charger does not have a current limiter then you will blow it.
I suggest you leave the bypass alone.

Your computer has a Power Management circuit that will not allow a drain of 5 amps anyway.

The bypass worked for some old 1'st generation e-cigs but will not for the monsters we now use.

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## Johnny2Puffs (26/10/13)

Just worked out that you can do it with a 5 ohm coil. No less as it will draw more than 1 amp. The vape will suck though.

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## ET (26/10/13)

writing on the tablet charger is soooo small. 5v 2 amps. so lets say just one of those diodes, taking down the voltage to
4.25 volts and a normal 2.2 ohm carto coil gives me 1.93 amp load. sorted

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## Johnny2Puffs (27/10/13)

Those 1n400 series diodes are 1 amp. You need at least a 3 amp rectifier diode. Those in the 1n5401/2/3 range are 3 amp.
Actually you will need 2 or 3 in series to lower the wattage of the coil. One diode will give you 8,2w and 2 will give you 5,25w.
I vape at 3,4w max.
Use P=IxV and now just remember PIV. Now you have VIR and PIV. The only 2 formulas modders must know.
PS. Use 3 diodes and 2 switches and you have a v w mod.

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## ET (27/10/13)

fancy drawing a little diagram for that? and can't i get like a little 3 setting switch for that. bung all the bits on a little circuit board and i'm golden

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## Johnny2Puffs (27/10/13)



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## Johnny2Puffs (27/10/13)

Forgot to add the fire button but you can put it on the bottom line. When the switch is closed on one diode, it will add o.75v as it will bypass the diode. If both switches are closed then you have 1.5v extra.

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## ET (27/10/13)

because the switch offers less resistance than the diode, and electricity is lazy and will always take the easiest way 
awesome and thanks

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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

I've used some T6A100L diodes in a previous amp. They are a little fat though but handle some serious punches. Not sure of the exact rating. I actually might still have some if you are interested. Will check tonight.


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## Johnny2Puffs (28/10/13)

Crafty. Can you think of a single switch that will work for the above diagram?

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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

What about some high amp dipswitches?
THis one supports up to 4A
http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=35M0101


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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

Perhaps, Denizenx.... If you are up for a bit of a challenge... (But I promise it will be fun!)

How much space do you have to build in? If you want to do a box mod from scratch, you can do a pwm signal. They are really not hard to build with some opamps, and a few components. I think you can build it for between 50 - 100 bucks. If you building it into that faulty evic head, that will not be an option. Then I would suggest that 4A dipswitch. I cant seem to find one higher than that.

*edit*
The greyhill series 76 switches support 5A, and that is the highest that Greyhill make.

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## Johnny2Puffs (28/10/13)

He is building a passthrough and using a 5v bat charger so he can build the circuit into the charger.
The switches will be operated only when the circuit is open. ie. not firing so I wonder if the amp rating is all that 
important. Not sure if the amp rating for switches has to do with flashovers or sparking when operated while under load.

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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

That is awesome! I would say that 4amp will be perfect then. And yes, the amp rating is for sparking while switching that causes degradation on the contacts. 4amp will be plenty. As long as the switch contacts does not become hot. If they are clean and make good contact, that should not be a problem.

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## ET (28/10/13)

busy reconditioning my old ego/510 connector so that means i now have 1 x 510 connector and 1 x ego/510 connector so i can do both  box mod of some type would have been next on the list anyhow

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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

Cool! So once you have the passthrough working, we will help you design some stuff for a boxmod.

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## ET (28/10/13)

when i finally build a boxmod i want a touch switch on there. one of those nifty stick finger over 2 metal contacts type touch switches. that's just cool

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## CraftyZA (28/10/13)

denizenx said:


> when i finally build a boxmod i want a touch switch on there. one of those nifty stick finger over 2 metal contacts type touch switches. that's just cool


It is a switch that works on capacitance. Fun fact: the iPhone screen was built on that tech. One thing you will have to look at is protection. That capacitance switch will fire in your pocket as well. So you will either have to be diligent in locking your device, or the fire button should auto lock after 30 seconds. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## ET (28/10/13)

nah you wire a small on/off switch in the system so before pocket time switchy goes to off position. maybe even magnetise the one cover and put on/off switch inside

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## ET (29/10/13)

well colour me silly, forgot that the wee evic easy head doubles as a usb passthrough/charger when plugged into an appropriate device. so wall powered usb hub type thing. well guess its box mod time

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## ET (29/10/13)

right, looks like there's at least 2 of us now looking at cobbling together some kind of easy bod mod. let the mad planning begin

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