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Another update post: Last night's activity was making glass inserts, and I figured I should shed some light on this previously unsung part of the heater. These heaters commonly use borosilicate glass (aka, Pyrex) inserts to protect the coils and position the piece being worked for even heat and...

Some updates from the weekend: Hi all, I started building out the first batch of PCBs over the weekend: I had enough components on hand to start ten boards, as seen above, but my supply person (aka: me) screwed up, and I ran out of 10k ohm resistors and 12V Zener diodes after building these...

Hi All, A few things from my own experiences/experiments: lower voltage can mean much longer heating times, and voltages below 9v can take 30 seconds or more from insertion to click, especially when the DV is cold. When I was first looking into making a portable IH I found some ZVS IH heaters...

Hi everyone, A quick Friday afternoon update: It's been a busy week! I spent some time this week wiring up Deluxe battery sleds. It's a very "handsy" process that requires repositioning the work frequently on the soldering mat, and as a result it probably takes the most total time of any of the...

No worries, @Summer ! I’m trying not to thread-sit, but sometimes I end up doing it. Dimensions are 112 x 60.5 x 31mm. (Sorry, I’ve forgetten the US measurements.) With batteries it weighs 661g, or about 13 oz. I’ll go back to soldering battery packs.

Thanks for the kind words! Just want to point out, the 2x 18650 design was abandoned some time ago. That's a full power 3x 18650 heater in the palm of my hand. :rockon: Enjoy reading the thread and getting up to speed on the projects. :brow:

Mid-week update: Good news, folks. I have heard from all of my testers, and the consensus is that this is solid little heater. It wasn't perfect, of course, and the testers found some legitimate issues, as I discussed above. I feel like it has been fairly well tested, all things considered...

Hi all, OK, here's the long-overdue update I promised. Sorry for the wall of text, but I guess that's just how I roll, lol. Flux Deluxe: Field testing continues and is hopefully close to concluding (!) - I want to wrap it up this week, if possible. To date, my field testers and early adopters...

Hi all, Sorry for the long silence, but it has been a busy week. I'll put a longer post together when I have time but I want to tell you all briefly that testing of the Deluxe is going well! I have not heard of any new issues for a few days, and all of the current issues I'm aware of have been...

Thanks, @maxvapor710 ! I'm not able to act on this at the moment - I lack the drawings, for one thing - but I would love to do this in the future! I don't need to make money on every phase of this project for it to be successful - I'd prefer not to lose money, but I'd be very happy to break even...

Thanks, @maxvapor710 ! I absolutely take your word for that! As I said in a post earlier today, the aesthetic I was aiming for was "handsome," and I think I've hit that pretty squarely. If someone really wants something else - be it something unique or something simply more professionally made...

Believe it or not, I did look into all manner of small inserts and filters with which I might fill these holes, so as to prevent the invasion of alien lint bodies, dust worms, and ennui. Ok, maybe not ennui. But I did look into this, and my conclusion was basically that venting is necessary, the...

Thank you for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I don't have a mill, and some operations, like cutting precision slots, look best when done on a mill. Could I hack slots into these with something less precise, like an angle grinder or a Dremel tool? Yes, but I'd rather not do that for a long list...

Unfortunately, while a black Sharpie is close in color, I know from the experience of trying to repair scratches that it is not an exact match. I think if someone were to try coloring the shiny edges with a marker they would likely be disappointed with the results. These enclosures have an...

Hi all, Some updates: Field testing is underway for the Deluxe, and I am already receiving some very useful feedback, which I am applying back to the design. Thank you, field testers! I discussed the new input filter/debouncing circuit in my the last post, so I won't really revisit it here...

Thanks for your kind words. As far as I know, any standard, garden-variety 18650 battery will work. I have had good success with Sony VT6s lithium-polymers, which are 3,000 mAh. They have proven to be reliable and they have a good capacity. Sony explicitly prohibits their use for vaping, so when...

Back with an update, and some good news: As some of you know, I have been absolutely stymied for the last couple of weeks trying to get the VHF filter - aka switch debouncing circuit - to work as expected. My battle with it ate up all of my spare time the last few weeks. It was a truly...

Hi all, Just want to offer a very quick, on-point post about international shipping charges, just so no one is surprised: International shipping is costly. I researched shipping Deluxes to Canada and Australia today. For int'l shipping purposes, consider the Deluxe and its charger will fit in...

Thanks, @maxvapor710 . I try to source my stuff from Mouser or Digikey whenever possible for exactly this reason. My first batch of the Maxim 6816 chips came from Mouser, my next batch (coming Wednesday) will be from Digikey. I don't think the chips I received are counterfeit, just damaged. Not...

Thanks for the kind words, @pxl_jockey ! I'm trying to strike a balance in my communication. I don't want to sweep these issues under the rug, but at the same time, no one wants to read about the frustrations some guy has with his own damn hobby... So I try to keep my complaints and frustrations...