The Nomad From Morwood

Dan Morrison said:

This finished convection Heater Module (HM).

This example is steel and brass but the final version, as stated earlier, will be silver. Obviously no glue used here, just silver solder. Once assembled, the HM cannot be disassembled. The insulating disc shown here is cocobolo.

Each part is locked in place mechanically, so it's quite robust, you don't have to worry about it rattling around in your pocket. It'll definitely be fine if you drop it.

The all mighty wave heater.

The wave form creates airways of exact size between each peak so that the air is forced through uniformly. This also gives massive surface area in contact with the air. And no "dead spots" where air can slip around the heater.

Since there are no lead wires, there is less wasted energy.

Any heat conducted away from the coil by the central pin and shell is in direct contact with the incoming air...so there is a sort of cooler effect where the heat cannot travel down to the air inlet side of the module and all available heat exits the heater.

With this design, I've found that even a low consumption of around 25 watts will get you ~3 second heat up time and plenty of heat, more than enough actually.

After use, the heater can be handled immediately, it barely gets warm. Unless, of course, the heater is kept on without any airflow.

The air inlet end. I am still playing around with the shape of these air holes... One idea I have is to sandwich a thin perforated metal disc between the brass pin and wood disc.. you can turn this metal disc to adjust the inlet air flow from fully closed to fully open. This will really give you the ability to micro adjust the heating characteristics of each HM.

I could also play around with making holes on an angle to spin the incoming air into a vortex... I doubt there will be any performance gains, but it sounds cool.

In the production units, these holes will most likely be curved slots cut out on the mill.

The battery and heater module are connected directly to each other via a copper bridge, spring loaded with adjustable downwards pressure. Very secure. Yet, with one hand, you can just swivel the bridge with your thumb and remove the battery or heater module. No fuss.

When you want to lock the unit for safety, just swivel the bridge to disconnect, no need to remove the battery or HM.

In the production RM-1 I will be making this bridge out of a different metal, and maybe a different shape.. not sure on that detail yet...

The tension adjustment screw, shown here in brass, is only used for adjusting the pressure of the contacts. It doesn't spin with the bridge, so the threads will not wear quickly. In any case, the threads go deep into the main body with a steel thread insert. So the brass screw will wear before the steel thread, and then can be easily replaced.

Because the downwards pressure of the screw is applied at the center point between the two contact pads, the two contact spots work against each other to evenly distribute the force... And if one battery is a bit taller than another, the bridge is able to tilt slightly and still give equal solid pressure on both contact pads.

Also shown here is a verawood spacer/insulator under the bridge screw, but this will most likely be black Delrin or African blacwood in the production units.

Now I just have to finish the sleeve and bottom plate and we're pretty much there!

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Dan Morrison said:

I assume that your concerns are with battery venting. I figured.. if your battedy is venting, it will shoot gas out the safety venting port, and not up into the airway. Also... if your battery is venting, you've got a big problem.

Thoughts?

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VaporSipper said:

I'm not a battery expert, so I wonder if battery venting is an all or nothing thing or do batteries sometimes vent "a little"? My concern is that if batteries do indeed vent "a little," you would likely be sucking in those fumes if the paths aren't separated. Especially if the battery is inserted as shown, with the vent holes in the same area as the air intake...

Maybe the bottom cap could have a notched separation at the swivel point of the bridge and this notch could be lined with a felt material to form a seal? Not completely airtight, but maybe good enough?

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Puffers said:

Battery venting is all or nothing. If a battery vents you won't be left wondering if it vented out or not it's unmistakable. There's a burst ring or cap that when catastrophe strikes and that burst cap goes..... it goes. It's a one time, irreversible occurrence that ends with you buying a new battery.

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Dan Morrison said:

@PPN , This was a design question of mine as well... I could seal them off from one another.. but it would take an extra gasket part that would really be a pain in the ass...it also means that the seal has to be made around the copper bridge... do-able, but the bridge needs to be stationary for the seal to work... so you cant swivel it to give you the safety "OFF" position...

In use, the air inlet is away from the battery, so the flow of air does not touch the battery area.

I assume that your concerns are with battery venting. I figured.. if your battedy is venting, it will shoot gas out the safety venting port, and not up into the airway. Also... if your battery is venting, you've got a big problem.

Thoughts?

@Shit Snacks , @mephisto , Thanks for following along, and all the support guys!

@nosmoking , An ideas? What's your favourite method currently?

@KeroZen, Thanks! And yes.. it does take from the cigarrette lighter design a bit! It's similar in geometry to catalytic converters... My thinking was... the catalytic converter was designed to put as much surface area as possible in contact with as much gas flow as possible...

Haha, i always like your nitpicks! I would just call that constructive criticism, and it's the whole point of showing your work! Keep it coming!

And the battery placement is up to the user...but i'll tell ya why I put it this way. For one, the 'high point' on the positive side is the metal contact pad, which is above the wrapping. The high point of the neg. terminal is the wrapping itself. So much more likely to snag the wrapping on the neg. side.

The bridge swivels and clears the wrapping without touching it. Sure you could snag it by accident by applying downwards pressure as you swivel..but i don't see it happening often. I've rounded the bottom edges of the contact pad as well. So it doesn't really have the ability to snag, only glide across.

But the most important thing would be safety in case of critical battery failure and venting. You need the gas to be able to vent outwards into an unrestricted space. It vents from the pos. end.

And yep, it's fully functional without the sleeve/bottom cap. But, everything is a bit exposed for my liking. The main function of the sleeve/bottom plate is to provide protection for the internals.

Click to expand...

Dan Morrison said:

Now I just have to finish the sleeve and bottom plate and we're pretty much there!

Click to expand...

Dan Morrison said:

@PPN , This was a design question of mine as well... I could seal them off from one another.. but it would take an extra gasket part that would really be a pain in the ass...it also means that the seal has to be made around the copper bridge... do-able, but the bridge needs to be stationary for the seal to work... so you cant swivel it to give you the safety "OFF" position...

In use, the air inlet is away from the battery, so the flow of air does not touch the battery area.

I assume that your concerns are with battery venting. I figured.. if your battedy is venting, it will shoot gas out the safety venting port, and not up into the airway. Also... if your battery is venting, you've got a big problem.

Thoughts?

@Shit Snacks , @mephisto , Thanks for following along, and all the support guys!

@nosmoking , An ideas? What's your favourite method currently?

@KeroZen, Thanks! And yes.. it does take from the cigarrette lighter design a bit! It's similar in geometry to catalytic converters... My thinking was... the catalytic converter was designed to put as much surface area as possible in contact with as much gas flow as possible...

Haha, i always like your nitpicks! I would just call that constructive criticism, and it's the whole point of showing your work! Keep it coming!

And the battery placement is up to the user...but i'll tell ya why I put it this way. For one, the 'high point' on the positive side is the metal contact pad, which is above the wrapping. The high point of the neg. terminal is the wrapping itself. So much more likely to snag the wrapping on the neg. side.

The bridge swivels and clears the wrapping without touching it. Sure you could snag it by accident by applying downwards pressure as you swivel..but i don't see it happening often. I've rounded the bottom edges of the contact pad as well. So it doesn't really have the ability to snag, only glide across.

But the most important thing would be safety in case of critical battery failure and venting. You need the gas to be able to vent outwards into an unrestricted space. It vents from the pos. end.

And yep, it's fully functional without the sleeve/bottom cap. But, everything is a bit exposed for my liking. The main function of the sleeve/bottom plate is to provide protection for the internals.

Click to expand...

Dan Morrison said:

I am still playing around with the shape of these air holes... One idea I have is to sandwich a thin perforated metal disc between the brass pin and wood disc.. you can turn this metal disc to adjust the inlet air flow from fully closed to fully open. This will really give you the ability to micro adjust the heating characteristics of each HM.

Click to expand...

VaporSipper said:

Maybe the bottom cap could have a notched separation at the swivel point of the bridge and this notch could be lined with a felt material to form a seal? Not completely airtight, but maybe good enough?

Click to expand...

nosmoking said:

What is the enail heater module? It sounds like you already have this one thought up or something from the way you just casually bring it up. I like the way it sounds!

Click to expand...

Dan Morrison said:

@PPN and @RelaxedNow, I actually tried to go the cap route, with a cap that simultaneously bridged the connection and also sealed the battery off.

As with any design choice... You gutta weigh the compromises to benefits.

The difficulty with a cap design is in the mechanism for easy removal. I considered magnets, but with the available space, the magnets wouldn't provide sufficient downwards pressure. Remember that contact resistance is dependant on contact force. A screw attachment is needed.

With small screws, you always have the issue of using a tool for removal. And there just isn't enough room for a thumbscrew, even a tiny one.

There are other attachment methods that came to mind, but all had issues.

Also, an extra switch is just not ideal. It adds contact points (circuit resistance) and would take up far too much room.

With the swivel contact bridge as shown in my photos, there are just less compromises when compared to alternatives I've been able to come up with. The main one being, no separation between air inlet area, and battery area. My conclusion was that this was a compromise I could live with.

Also keep in mind that I am designing for future compatability with accessories and heater modules. The more complex this bottom area becomes, the less able it is to conform to future add ons.

And with this design the vape can be used without the sleeve/bottom plate. This is required if you have the vape in the upside down position, in a watertool, and you're using the e-nail heater module.

On some heater module designs, the contact pin can't be in the center, so the contact point must change position. With the simple change of a single part, the contact bridge, you can accomodate different types of heaters. This wouldn't be as easy with a more complicated setup.



This is exactly the solution I had in mind. I think it would be worth it to ease any anxious minds, I'll try it out!

@nosmoking, Thanks man! That's super helpful. That area is definitely murky waters to me.. But I've got some ideas in the back of my head...

@GreenHopper , Yep! that's what ill be doing. with the sleeve/bottom plate on, the vape will sit upright on a flat surface.

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tepictoton said:

How about using threaded ceramic rods for the enail option? Then one could use any type of dish that can be threaded on there...? a bit like the 510enails

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