The Bud Toaster - (currently: Model 14, version 3)

[Hippie Dickie]

Would save you a lot trouble in production

actually, production is not the problem ... federal law is the problem ... i really like where i live (for 41 years) and don't want to move.

you might offer it as a kit

it would make me very unhappy to think there is a box of parts in someone's drawer that never became a working Bud Toaster, 'cause, really, it is fucking killer (just got some dispensary herb, and oh! my!) ... plus it would hurt the brand.

[rant] you've all heard this before, but i think: in a world economy that has been racing to the bottom price - where only free with unlimited warranty is an acceptable price - brand is what makes a business viable. at least that's what i see when i look outside my basement office window.[/rant]

not to mention returns and repairs

now i know, with just 3 (hard) working units of this model, over the last several years, i can't truly evaluate long term reliability, but it sure looks rock solid.

the production setup i have in mind will easily do 100 cubes at a time (not sure about tool change requirements - bits probably get dull pretty quickly). my concept of warranty is to put two cubes in the package, so there is no down time if one dies while waiting for the replacement. there will be two battery packs. and redundant power cables.

i just want my BT to work ... my customer should expect no less ... but it ain't gonna be free.

 

[JackBrus]

Thanks for the update, @Hippie Dickie . Regarding federal law (USA, I suppose?), could you learn anything from other producers? Some are based in the USA, right? If I'm beating a very dead horse, just ignore this post, I'm a newbie here.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

from some reading of state law on norml.org, only Oregon has a waiver for cannabis paraphernalia ... not ready to go there, yet ... but the Feds still have over-ruling juris-mydick-stion. ("no lieutenant, your men are already dead" - i just love The Matrix).

 

[Creeper]

I was thinking about this the other day, any news?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

@Creeper - hi!

okay, i've got my bump on, maybe i can get into this ... i'm sitting here at work (amazing to actually have some work to do in this retail economy, but, here it is!) which only requires about 5 minutes of effort every 25 minutes for the next several hours ...

so, on my way to jury duty at the end of March (one month of duty, first call up) i miss the bottom step going down to the mans room, smash my heel into the bottom of my left tibia, and fracture the back bottom end (posterior malleolus) - based on the CT scan, the tendons of the heel are holding the fractured piece in place, so, no cast. Doctor says to not put weight on it, so i am levitating while working ... but before this turns into a country song ... (speaking of song, the jury case was about littering - man! i was singing Alice's Restaurant all day - who could make this shit up?)

i noticed recently that my cube was only heating up at 25°F per second, and then when plugging in the cube, the blue power led blinked - loose solder joint, so i called CS and got an RMA ... 10 minutes later, the Deans on the motherboard had been resoldered and the cube was back to heating at 36°F per second. sweet.

This problem would be solved by a redesign of the motherboard to have a cutout like on the battery board. Then the high current paths will all be rock solid.

meanwhile, we have Jeff Sessions. The "good people don't do cannabis" attorney general Jeff Sessions ... makes me wonder what he would be willing to do to people who are not "good people".

so, while we all wait, i am exploring alternative retail on my real life website.

and that's the news. thanks for asking.

 

[Creeper]

Bummer about the injury, thanks for the update.

 

[Rumble Duck]

Looks awesome Hippie! I had to stare at your pictures for a while before I realised some of the things I was seeing were reflections (almost thought you soldered the thermocouples onto the coil)...

Recently I also have been experimenting with my temperature sensor mounting. I now have it so it is pushed against the class by the nichrome wire, kinda like you did. Before the sensor was just held onto the coil with a piece of PTFE isolation.

LOL I was scrolling through this thread and I noticed your profile picture ;D

 

[Hippie Dickie]

i should have posted this pix on 4th of July - in a mood of patriotic synchronicity ...

so the case design is, i guess, done ... except for a minor tweak on the template for cutting the leather.

Note: production cases will all be single color, i was just using up some leather scrap to test the accuracy of the template. although, i do like the red, white and blue.

... still just waiting for congress to do the right thing, which, i guess, is an oxymoron, eh?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

it is hard for me to believe, but i think i'm actually starting to enjoy working with leather ... quite a change from the electronics and software side of this equation.

Anyway, here is my new(est) iteration of Case version 45, in gray leather:

open the lid and see:

and then the top of the lid folds under the case, thusly:

and remove the vial holder:

and here is a close up of the multi-purpose vial holder:

next step is to make two more cases using this design - in black leather and pink leather ... i have finally figured out how the case hinges should work - i am very happy with this ... however, fit and trim, particularly on the corners, is still a bit ragged, but i am sure that with more practice this will work itself out nicely.

so, come on congress, do the right thing ... it's all about the jobs, remember???

 

[lazylathe]

@Hippie Dickie

Amazing!!! Absolutely amazing!

 

[stark1]

Could you "cloak" the device by renaming it as strictly an aromatheraphy aid @Hippie Dickie,
explicitly stated not to be used for any other purpose, legal or illegal. A disclaimer.

Have it made/marketed in a legal state?

Or sell the proof of concept outright to a manufacturer, before we all are pushing daisies.... Please.

Can I please "contribute" to the development of an " efficient aromatheraphy heater ", and git one?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

@stark1 - thanks for the comments ... however, the Bud Toaster is designed strictly for cannabis - and never been tested with other herbs ... i don't want people to get the wrong impression.

i am still looking for a legal manufacturing location, and not finding any. Maybe WA state allows some sales in dispensaries, but not online ... wtf? this is a federal government issue.

no manufacturer will touch it because it can not be patented - i scream at Shark Tank whenever they ask about patents - again, wtf? China proves patents are worthless, eh? It's all about the brand these days.

And all very frustrating - this is an infinite market opportunity, forestalled by congress.

no BTs for sale until after i make 100 of them, and i'm not ready to do that yet.

 

[stark1]

The gospel, according to @steama ( quoting him ):

"From a vaper's perspective a dry herb vaporizer can be used for completely legal plant matter like, mint, chamomile and tobacco. Vapes are legally used this way every single day. Calling it an aromatherapy device is accurate and honest. It is truly up to the user what kind of herb they put into the device."

Knowing how the federali move, we could all be pushing daisies, and chamomile before the
"Aromatherapy Toaster" sees daylight....

Now,where did that carrot go?

 

[Hogni]

Yepp, such a phrasing is just for avoiding law issues anyway what it's intended/supposed to be used with.
Your clear declaration for use with cannabis shows your clear point of view - respect! - but it isn't very smart if you want to go commercially unless you want to be a kind of 'Don Quixote'.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

but it isn't very smart if you want to go commercially

the rule of the house is when PayPal accepts payment for cannabis vaporizers, the production starts.

and yeah, well, money and me ... my gf never accuses me of being smart ... i can be patient ... after all, i've got the cube to keep me satisfied.

 

[Hogni]

PP will not change their politics on canna products I guess. At least not under uncertain federal politics and use of federal laws under Trump.

What's about bitcoin? They seem not to have such probs?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

What's about bitcoin?

OMG! don't get me started ranting about bitcoin ... well, maybe just a little bit ... i think there will be a great bitcoin war, and as my guru (Carlos Castaneda) used to say: "don't be an innocent bystander" - the whole bitcoin concept is clever, but flawed. i'm reading Bitcoin Revolution but it sounds like a hippie utopia manifesto from California of the late 1960s ... which was very enjoyable at the time, but a bit insubstantial, based on results over time.

the only reason bitcoin exists (imho) is to soak up all the excess cash that can't find any other investment vehicle that has a >2% return. and, yeah, a 100% return in 6 months sure looks great - to them (investors), not to me. ya got to know when to hold 'em and know when to sold 'em --- bitcoin economics is a different field, too much effort to be competent ... as they say on Shark Tank -- i'm out.

PLUS there is the paper trail, and by that i mean, at some point you have to launder the bitcoins into real money, and that is going to be traced. sure, the ledger is encrypted, so what?

PLUS there is no security - uh, hackers anybody ... already $500 million stolen (diverted), sometimes by remotely stealing the cell phone associated with the digital wallet.

i don't know squat about bitcoin, but i know enough to not get involved.

Nope ... i want legal sales for use with a legal herb.

using legaleze to try to skirt the law is a bad plan (for me) - the device and purpose has been on the inter-tubes for far too long (since 2009) - too long to get a patent, too long to deny the intended purpose.

PLUS it's much more fun this way ... kind of like writing haiku - artificial limits/structures on a creative form.

okay, today is a work day, so time to get my labor on.

 

[Rat0]

@Hippie Dickie sorry for stupid question, but are all the links from the first post dead?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

@Hippie Dickie sorry for stupid question, but are all the links from the first post dead?

Good question! Yes, those links are dead - OneDrive seems to think moving stuff is A-Okay ... i would need edit access to that post to update the links to the new location, but haven't gotten around to it.

Here is the public folder with the pictures, schematics and software:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AFxoNk_X9bMCcg

The pictures are out of date, much better pictures half-way through this thread ... software files definitely need an update for the ribbon heater to improve temperature stability ... it's in the To Do queue ... but the daily fight for food is taking priority these last several months. Facebook - business page - marketing ... give me a fucking break ... oh, don't get me started ...

 

[Stu]

i would need edit access to that post to update the links to the new location, but haven't gotten around to it.

If you would like to update the first post, you can PM the edited version to me and I'll update the OP.

 

[PPN]

For a moment a thought this thread was the new name of the Ghost MV-1 thread

Joke aside I would like to see this vape avalaible one of these days...

 

[Hippie Dickie]

Joke aside I would like to see this vape avalaible one of these days...

me, too! call your congressman and vote, vote, vote.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

So, i am really liking the gray case - everything in one easy to grab case, with great protection for the glassware - and i need to make a couple more cases to smooth out the glitches of applying the leather over the matte board ... here we go on making the black case

all my projects start with a template, in this case (pun), i use MS Publisher for designing since it fits on an A3 size of paper. There are 5 panels for the bottom of the case, plus a divider, plus 2 panels for the cover:

Here are the panels with metal stiffeners attached:

i use 0.012" thick x 0.5" wide strips of stainless steel for reinforcement at the corners to hold the corners together tighter, and along the front and back edges to strengthen where i grab the case to pick it up - feels cheap if the case collapses under finger pressure.

now, clearly, a strip provides no strengthening function - until i bend it into a U channel or an L channel - then it is quite stiff and provides a nice strength to the case ... i have been doing this forming of the strips by hand until i can find a desktop-size sheet metal brake ... a real pita!

the U channels also provide the housing for the hinge pins ... all very sturdy ... typical HD over thinking/over engineering ... there are iterations yet to explore, i'm sure.

here are the panels with all metal strips and wire and clips attached - the five panels for the case bottom on the right, and the divider at top left and the two cover panels below it:

there are hammock clips on the left and right side to hold the draw tube holder (hammock) ... a bit of custom forming that will have to be outsourced at some point:

and here is the left panel with hammock clip and divider mount and stiffener wire on top:

and here are the panels for the bottom of the case, showing the hammock rod and the divider in place :

next up is cutting and attaching the leather covering.

i don't know how you're supposed to make a leather case, but this is what i've iterated to. i imagine that once i get to show these prototypes around, somebody will be able to point me to a leather case manufacturer ... or else, i tool up.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

Gosh! here it is a month later ... i just finished the Case 45 design in black leather:

i think the dimensions are right, but some sloppiness, actually a deformity when bending 0.012" sheet metal into u channels - the long dimension kind of warps up toward the ends - not enough clamping, i guess. but all in all, this one went together pretty much according to plans and templates - so i am very excited that this can be reproducible.

staying with the how-to-use instructions on the inside of the lid - this laminated chart allows the case to slide around on a table top for most convenient position - i.e. out of the way of the cats.

Here are all the pieces that store in the case:

the big tube on the left is 25mm diameter by 6" long, the tube on the right of the cube is 18mm diameter by 6" long. the two vials next to the silver herb can are 12 mm diameter by 1 3/8" long - they can comfortably hold 1/8g of herb - which takes about 7 minutes to vape from a room temperature start.

i'll start on the next one, in pink, immediately - i may even get it done by festivus gift-giving season, i hope, i hope.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

so, after 4 years of using this implementation of the Bud Toaster, it is back to the drawing board! ... a couple of failure modes to design out and some changes for manufacturing ease. plus, the BBQ thermometer has a 1.5v cell battery - only lasts a year (well, i use it 8 times a day), so grab that voltage from the pcb.

based on the success of the battery pcb, with the notch for the Deans plug, this iteration of the BT pcb will have a notch for the Deans plug, which will mount flat on, and through, the pcb ... very solid connection.

i did this design proper, with bill of materials and schematic. i want to get this pcb sent to a place that mechanically places the components and does the oven solder thing for surface mount components. this alone should be much more reliable vs hand soldering.

and new heater coil clips for the nichrome ribbon heater - through hole so the placement will be perfect every time.

changed the two button placements to be symmetrical - the current layout has annoyed me for years.

minor, but the blue LED is too bright - needs a larger value current limiting resistor - easy to spec.

and i went back and tried to re-specify the components - MOSFET, MAX6675 - but they are still available and really still best for this application. plus i know they work reliably.

so, on to Bud Toaster model 15 version 1:

here is the top of the new pcb - has the heater coil and the three LEDs.

the bottom view of the pcb, with all the other components - and notice the cutout for the Deans plug.

i'll do my normal obsession for verifying the layout, then get 20 boards. 3 oz copper, silkscreen labels, a short step before ordering a production run. maybe.