MaxVapor E-Nail - 2018 Version

SilentJ

SilentJ

Well-Known Member
maxvapor710 said:
Right now as far as integrations go we have IFTTT, Alexa, SmartThings, Slack and you can mirror our MQTT broker to your own server if you have your own.

I believe the guys are currently working on getting Philips Hue support but I will ask about HomeKit.

Just from looking at the page, we would have to be in the MFi program to be able to sell the unit with that feature but they offer it for Hobbyists and Makers so we could probably offer it as a non-standard you have to download and install yourself or something.
Click to expand...
That sounds great and about what I would expect, utilizing the ones that have easy to dev for APIs. I know they recently changed the requirement to no longer require a hardware chip but you are right that you’d still probably have to be a part of their MFi program. I’m sure somebody could always try and make a Homebrisge plug-in to integrate with HomeKit too. Thanks for being so open with the info BTW.
 
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
As long as you can hit our REST API with your device serial number and http auth or an api token you can develop anything you want on your own and use our site as a gateway to your device so hopefully someone can fill in for all the smart home stuff we aren't familiar with or can't legally integrate with in a commercial product.
 
Monsoon

Monsoon

Well-Known Member
It looked a lot smaller in the videos compared to how I imagined it would be after checking out the website. You should try to find a way to highlight that on the website since it's a big plus for me and probably others.

Would there be any issues running it off of a non-pure sine wave inverter like those found in 100W AC battery packs? If that worked you could probably even make a sleek add on pack to make it portable.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the updated, properly calibrated one performs as well as a rundown of the app. I like the screen, it's simple but it displays what's needed and the wheel should make for quick setting changes. I liked that on the Auber but it feels more natural on the right side having grown up with a clock radio. But I will probably use the app most of the time though.
 
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Monsoon said:
It looked a lot smaller in the videos compared to how I imagined it would be after checking out the website. You should try to find a way to highlight that on the website since it's a big plus for me and probably others.

Would there be any issues running it off of a non-pure sine wave inverter like those found in 100W AC battery packs? If that worked you could probably even make a sleek add on pack to make it portable.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the updated, properly calibrated one performs as well as a rundown of the app. I like the screen, it's simple but it displays what's needed and the wheel should make for quick setting changes. I liked that on the Auber but it feels more natural on the right side having grown up with a clock radio. But I will probably use the app most of the time though.
Click to expand...

The dimensions of the unit are (l)97x(w)80x(h)40mm. If you are familiar with the MiniNail its dimensions are 100x55x32 respectively.

I think I mentioned in one of my original posts that we have an internal prototype which runs off USB-C power (battery or otherwise) but we are waiting for a few of the chipsets to mature before we explore releasing a device based on those designs.

The power supply for the micro-controller requires about 3 watts @ 120V so as long as you can keep that sustained I don't see a problem running it off an inverter. This is the power supply we use if you are interested in exploring it further: https://www.cui.com/product/power/ac-dc-power-supplies/board-mount/vsk-s3-series
 
pxl_jockey

pxl_jockey

Just a dude
Hogni said:
That's pretty small - nice. But having this in mind how tiny then is the display?
Click to expand...
Too small for me unfortunately. I have been thinking on this and now with the actual dimensions, it’s settled. IMO the display should have been most of the front panel, it isn’t like the real estate isn’t there.
I know everyone wants tiny these days, I’m just not cool and my eyesight isn’t going to improve...:cry:

*Woman wailing from the back* “Won’t somebody think of the aging enail users? Please?!” :haw:
 
Elemen0py

Elemen0py

Well-Known Member
As far as unit size and screen goes, my tastes aren't quite so new-school. I'd prefer a big, solid, industrial looking thing with a large touchscreen display and full on-board functionality a la Hex-Nail Skynet but I can concede that those who share that opinion and are willing to pay the extra for such a device are probably in the vast minority.

As for functionality this seems to tick all the boxes. Although, I'm still waiting to see just how much you can fine tune timings and temperature ramping. If you can set it to ramp for a user designated time at user designated temps then I can't really think of anything else within reason that I want. I mean, it would be nice if it made a good cup of coffee too but you have to draw the line somewhere...
 
Hogni

Hogni

Honi soit qui mal y pense
Totally agree with that! W/o knowing how small the controller is I asked for a bigger display before. It'd look much better if filling most of the front panel regarding design only at least. But at this size (what is it? 30 x 15mm?), there is a practical need for a bigger display IMO. Even if the front panel would be filled with a display it'd be pretty small but currently it's much too tiny.
Don't forget us older tokers with weaker eyes, Sir! :myday:

I'll wait for the next revision with a bigger display I guess ;)
 
Last edited:
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Hogni said:
That's pretty small - nice. But having this in mind how tiny then is the display?
Click to expand...

The display is a 1" OLED, there just really isn't the physical space to include a much larger display without increasing the size of the chassis in the current design. The next size up in display that I am aware of is 1.44" which would requires us to make the unit larger and doesn't really offer much more pixel density.

As far as a unit with a large touchscreen, that probably isn't the direction we will be taking the unit.

As I mentioned before the hardware is open for exploration, there are i2c and SPI headers right there on the board for you to connect to if you want to shoehorn the electronics into something that suits you better.

I really do want to encourage people to tinker with the hardware. I am sure one of you guys with a 3d printer can whip up a design in no time and I would be happy to have one of our developers help you getting it up and running as far as the display driver goes.
 
Hogni

Hogni

Honi soit qui mal y pense
Thanks for your reply. But sorry, I'm just a complete layman, so I don't recognize why it technically shouldn't be possible to just use a bigger screen without making the enclosure larger. Isn't it just a flat display in the front connected with some wires?
 
Hogni,
Hogni

Hogni

Honi soit qui mal y pense
You are right regarding the current design cause of the positions of the base parts for fixing the display. Do you mean this? Is this something that couldn't be changed with ease in the future?
 
Hogni,
SilentJ

SilentJ

Well-Known Member
maxvapor710 said:
The display is a 1" OLED, there just really isn't the physical space to include a much larger display without increasing the size of the chassis in the current design. The next size up in display that I am aware of is 1.44" which would requires us to make the unit larger and doesn't really offer much more pixel density.

As far as a unit with a large touchscreen, that probably isn't the direction we will be taking the unit.

As I mentioned before the hardware is open for exploration, there are i2c and SPI headers right there on the board for you to connect to if you want to shoehorn the electronics into something that suits you better.

I really do want to encourage people to tinker with the hardware. I am sure one of you guys with a 3d printer can whip up a design in no time and I would be happy to have one of our developers help you getting it up and running as far as the display driver goes.
Click to expand...
Are you stating that you would be ok with somebody building a new chassis and swapping the internals? Would there be stipulations on selling it, or would it have to be a DIY kit, or maybe someone build a clone with a differing shell and screen? I could see someone might be willing to make a DIY kit or clone.
 
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
If you want to take the chassis apart and swap the internals in to something else that is perfectly ok and I encourage that. We have made the unit very user serviceable as long as you can operate a Torx and Hex driver.

There is a standard ISP programming header right on the front of the board if you want to write your own code also, our microprocessor is even compatible with the Arduino toolkit.

The license to our firmware would likely prohibit commercial sales of a competing product, but we are happy to support the DIY and hobbyists and we actually offered the new board as a $99 drop in upgrade to owners of our previous units a couple of months ago.
 
invertedisdead

invertedisdead

PHASE3
Manufacturer
pxl_jockey said:
Too small for me unfortunately. I have been thinking on this and now with the actual dimensions, it’s settled. IMO the display should have been most of the front panel, it isn’t like the real estate isn’t there.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind this is a smart e-nail controller, you can pretty much program all of those parameters from any screen you want.
 
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Hogni said:
You are right regarding the current design cause of the positions of the base parts for fixing the display. Do you mean this? Is this something that couldn't be changed with ease in the future?
Click to expand...

We are always looking to make improvements to the design but changes to the chassis can be very expensive between engineering, machining and certification so while it might be "easy" a simple change like that can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars in backend costs. CNC machining of a small run niche product is very expensive.

I don't want to promise the world in a future non-existent product but I can say that improvements to the next version will be directly based on user feedback as always, but you can't make everyone happy without making your car look like "The Homer".
 
maxvapor710

maxvapor710

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
scalescliffs said:
Is there information on what the web app/mobile apps look like and do yet?
Click to expand...

I hope to have that stuff posted soon.

Hogni said:
And what is the speaker for?
Click to expand...

The 2017 unit had a simple buzzer speaker which could make beeps, clicks and tones. The new unit has a full audio codec on board and an sd card to store your sound files. You can upload sound clips through our software which get downloaded to your e-nail and you can trigger the clips based on different e-nail events.

We currently have these 9 events exposed:
On Boot, Auto-Off Warning, Auto-Off Triggered, Menu Select, Menu Change, Self-Clean Complete, Uptemp Stable, Uptemp Start, Uptemp Stop.

I have my personal unit play ED-209 from Robocop saying "You have 20 seconds to comply." right before the Auto-Off kicks in. I know one of the developers has been working on adding events for the Accelerometer, he has some pretty good sounds when you drop the unit or smack it around.

While its not currently in the stable version of the firmware, you can use the unit to stream bluetooth audio from another device as well.
 
Monsoon

Monsoon

Well-Known Member
Yeah a bigger screen would be nice but then you have competing units like the Kube and RedQueen which have no screen or buttons at all on the unit itself which IMO goes a step too far me but didn't stop others buying. If you use the app most of the time you don't need much info on the unit itself.
 
pxl_jockey

pxl_jockey

Just a dude
maxvapor710 said:
... but I can say that improvements to the next version will be directly based on user feedback as always, but you can't make everyone happy without making your car look like "The Homer".
Click to expand...

LOL! @maxvapor710 you get bonus points for the Homer reference! I’m very impressed with your attitude and transparency in discussing all the particulars here and explaining the behind-the-scene reasons that come into play when designing a niche product. Very illuminating and understandable.

Also find it refreshing ya’ll made intentionally made it so that the end-user can modify if so inclined.
 
YabbaDABBAdo

YabbaDABBAdo

Well-Known Member
OK great, this unit is looking more more promising since after the silence I have read up through everything, and my questions have been answered just by reading the comments from @maxvapor710 in no way do I see this being a scam or something like the hex. Since we have the ability to basically build our own units using their internals and them being completely OK with that and actually encouraging us is something I really like and will take advantage of!!! My one question I did not get @maxvapor710 is will we be able to incorporate a larger screen if we decide to in a diy. I do like the size of the unit but at the same time the screen may be little too small for the complexity of the unit being able to use the full features without having to open your phone or tablet, just curious how to use the uptemp without using the app? If you even can
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom