Recent content by TommyDee

Can you see how much current you are drawing? Slower heating suggest you can loose some coil wire length. You just want to limit the wattage to something reasonable. I prefer ~60W. It will be different for every cap but you want a average.

You want about 22" of coil wire for 2S @Dns18_05 . You will read the two chokes that are in series which are in parallel across the coil's pads. That is sub-ohm IIRC. Ground to positive will only read the LED ohms at around 1.2K... again IIRC.

You want the TO252 formfactor. You also want the highest voltage rating. I hit it up at 100v. The power we draw is always under 10 amps so this is almost moot.

I got a couple of different FETs to test. Installed one pair and that worked. I didn't do any analysis to see how it compared though.

The only thing I've ever lost was a FET. Never had a replacement fail though. These things are DC-AC converters. The coil is a sort of regulator. Without the coil, there is no voltage limit which is what burns out the FETs. Better FETs is the way to go. I don't have the appropriate...

Correct, this trace is the mains power which only goes to the center of the two coils. The trace leads down to power the LED and drive voltage for the gates, which are capacitive in nature. Therefore, very little current through the switch. You need to account for the additional power...

Yes, just wrap the extra wire on the outside of the coil. This solves the problem of having two live induction 'legs' that maintain a field between them. Basically managing the wire 'responsibly'. Normally, you want those two legs to be parallel and close together. And yes, the shorter wire...

I did the over-wraps to add the extra length. But yes, you are right, narrowing the coil narrows the field. It is most intense in the center. The little indicator is back a ways inside the metal, meaning it is somewhat shielded. I think the hint is indeed to keep coils short. You could...

Nice work @waungus Indeed, that low voltage switch is to enable to enable the gate circuit. Without that, the circuit will not oscillate. The FETs remain open even with power applied. By default, both the power circuit and the control circuit (gate circuit) are enabled simultaneously. I...

Hey @Dns18_05 I haven't fired up the Tempest yet. I'll probably be using the Wand to start. I need to see where it lands on the power draw compared to my caps. I haven't played with ball vapes but the idea you can heat them more aggressively seems likely. I'm still open to the idea of using...

Tempest delivered to Oregon. No duties due.

USPS notified me.

I was notified that my order hit stateside and is now with USPS.

Etsy number 1370617408 for the Brute

Interesting trick on the sim. That 60 watts comes in when you use the FET along with a PWM... they get really hot when you lower the pulse width. That's one reason we don't regulate onboard. If you look carefully at the startup pulse, it seems to be 1-1/2 cycles long... that's where things...