I am not able to thread-sit today, but I have a few minutes now to respond, and there are a ton of questions/comments, so I'll address what I can. Sorry if my replies short change anyone.
If you do decide to post a poll
@mr_cfromcali can you include a 'smallest possible iduction heater' as one of the options please?
I ask as I'd love a tiny IH for extreme portability.
I know there are technical obstacles which may prevent anything smaller than the Flux Deluxe but if it can be done I'd be very keen.
Even if it needed to be charged daily.
It'd be interesting to see what proportion of respondents would also want a tiny IH.
The FD is as smallest IH I can make it with 18650 batteries. A smaller IH requires a smaller power source, like the compact 12V drone batteries some have used.
I looked into this over the summer, as I was scoping out projects and trying to decide what I felt I was capable of making. I don't mind revisiting this topic now that I have a better sense of both these devices and my own capabilities now. For the overall size and performance, though, I'm not sure I can do any better than the FD.
What about a recessed hole where you place the vapcap deeper into the heater would that work? Forget it if I'm talking gibberish I'm very medicated and I'm not the most mechanically minded man.
??? Can't really go any deeper. I'm sure you had an idea in your head but I'm not sure I have anything useful to say in reply. Sorry.
The deluxe is as far as I know the most compact IH out there. It's going to be tough getting it any smaller, the bulk of it is the 3x18650s, a model with a small rc lipo battery would be the only way to reduce size ofcourse at the cost of battery life.
The larger mother fluxer wouldnt be of much interest to myself personally without wider temp control options or plug and play coil sizes (if at all possible). I have found that with the 16mm coil I have to heat a couple of seconds after the click for my desired hits but on the other hand it is great for the dip and sip method. Being able to switch between the 16mm and 14mm coil would be perfection.
Yeah, an ideal IH would be one with both coil sizes, or a heater with a 15m coil that achieved both the aggressiveness of the 14mm and the more relaxed, laid-back-but-still-effective 16mm coil. so yes, I agree, and it's on my radar.
Perhaps mounting the LED inboard so the light bleeds out the IH hole also illuminating the hole as others IH makers have done? I just turn the LED so it points away from me, but then it’s a longer reach to use the FD.
Thanks for the suggestion. I am looking into something like this for the future. I had some reasons for not adopting this initially, but I feel less strongly about those reasons now, so I am more open to this as a future possibility. Thanks!
Since the subject of size has come up, and the idea of scrapping the MF, I gotta speak up.
I think the Deluxe is a brilliant bit o’ kit, I’ve greatly enjoyed the many fine illustrations, the thorough and patient narration of the process, the development of the design. I hope it’s tremendously successful, as it really seems perfect bullseye.
OTOH I find myself *not* interested in a portable IH solution. Semi-portable is really what I’m after. If I can move it from place to place on the table without it hurting my thumbs, that sounds fine to me. I have a mobile solution that doesn’t require IH, as I find the vapcap to be excessively fiddly when I try to use it on the go, in ways that a different heat source won’t really change at all. I prefer my vapcap when I’m sitting reading, or listening to music, or both, and I can take my time, so chairside/tableside/move-to-the-TV-room-side is the choice for me.
The Mother Fluxer sounds perfect to me, I hope you teach it all your cool tricks, and I hope to have one (I even like the pic you shared of the original).
With what I have learned about the 14 vs 16 coil tubes from you, I find myself wondering what it would take to put one of each diameter on the MF. A can of worms, I imagine, but it sounds luxurious to me, I can easily imagine liking both a lot and wanting both available I’d rather have both coil sizes than have interior space
taken up by *storage*. It would be great in social situations, too, to have a second coil available.
Again, to echo my comment from earlier in this reply:
I agree! The wheels in my head are turning the idea over, and I already have some ideas, so...yeah, it has genuine promise and I like it. Stay tuned.
. I was initially hoping for that, but not a deal breaker for me to stay committed to the 14mm.
Yeah, believe me, it sounded like an ideal setup to me as well. I tried it and it showed a lot of promise, but it only worked one time and almost boiled one of the power relay's MOSFETs in the process. I will continue to evaluate temp control circuits, as I'm sure there's a solution out there that's more capable and robust, but it may take me a while to find it and implement it. In the mean time, the 14mm coil does work quite well, but there's currently no good option for it to do its business more slowly.
Question: Regarding the safety switch, is it possible to keep the switch "AS IS" in its current form with the addition of creating an opening in the housing above to that you can access the switch with a pen or better yet, the skinny part of the Dynavap Cap.
Actually, I've ordered some other switches in the same switch family with longer actuators (aka, batons or bats). It is possible one of them may allow for very easy way to give users an external switch if they want one. I'll have more on this next week when the switches I ordered get here.
Question: During your own testing, are you using the SS tips or the Ti Tips?
Yes, I have an Ti Omni XLS and a 2018 M. There are subtle differences between them, and I alternate...usually choosing the one more recently cleaned, lol.
:
Given the limitations you have with the temp control, you should probably have this as a distinguishing feature for the Mother Fluxer. I also don't think the Mother Fluxer should be designed with Space Saving in mind since that is what the Deluxe is for. A feature rich device that is meant to run off of A/C power with battery capabilities would be ideal.)
I'll see what I can do.
Well, after sleeping on it and giving it lots of thought while shoveling my driveway (twice) sign me up for the 14 mm. This will be my first IH so I'm sure I'll get used to whatever I get and I like my VC hits on the hotter side anyway. A closer fit just makes sense logically, too, that it'll be more efficient. I like stuff that makes sense.
Your enthusiasm for the smaller size didn't hurt, either. Thanks again.
If you like it hot, go for a 14mm tip. If you prefer to take a lot of cool hits, stick with the 16mm.
I have some video I'll post later today that shows the differences in ABV after 4 heating cycles in each coil. It may help...or just make things more contentious.
Gotta run for now. More later.
) power options
) when operated at the extremes of its range. It's fine, however, when operating in a narrower-but-still-effective range, and that is what I am offering with this control.