BaKx (heating principle) inspired desktop vape

[Hippie Dickie]

what is the MOSFET gate voltage from the pwm? i can't tell if it is 3.3v or 4.5v from the description. should be eq or above 4.5v (for the one i use) or the source to drain resistance can skyrocket and burn it out. mine used to get wicked hot before i learned this.

 

[highvaper]

The pwm is connected to the mosfet breakout board which is optically isolated from the pico:

LR7843 MOSFET Control Module - ProtoSupplies

MOSFET module uses the LR7843 N-Channel logic compatible MOSFET with ultra low 3.3mΩ Rds(on) for high current low-side switching applications.

protosupplies.com

From the pico the pwm voltage is 3.3v and higher current/voltage side has 12v (it needs between 6-28v) so think all ok and just my shorted out element was the issue.

 

[CaleidosCope]

Hello...It's quiet here. Let's talk about the topic.
In the meantime, I've taken on an old cherry tree that has been with me for almost my whole life. We cut it down five years ago. I stored the trunk upright during that time. The wood is a disaster, rotten and worm-eaten. But I was able to save a small part of it. And what I saved really has character. So here is my ‘cherry tree vaporizer’. The pid housing is also made from cherry wood, but I can't get round to it at the moment. The device is a tiny bit sluggish. And it's great fun to play with the inertia. I took the PID apart and installed an SSR relay. A mechanical relay would drive you crazy There are other pictures on Instagram (FRiES.Vaporizer). Have fun.

https://imgur.com/a/SPffeE7

Here a short usage video ...

https://streamable.com/x7kwts

 

[highvaper]

A couple of months in and Im still using mine as my daily driver - not got around to doing much with batteries yet nor made another heater part with a smaller diameter tube.

I have now got a nice routine going with it - i start off vaping some fresh material at about 170 not too much maybe similar to an amount for decent sized stem for a tinymighty. This lasts for a couple of 5 min sessions slowly upping the temp to about 200. I then just blow the contents of the straw out into my abv jar.

At the end of the day or when i want a more sedating but less tasty session i fill up about 2-3 loads of the abv and take the temp up to about 220 to for another couple of 5 min sessions - it is a bit hot but just about ok without a water piece - for the left overs from that i then collect up and once in a while i use the screwball with water thing at 260C as there is still a but left to extract but needs to be cooled.

I do need to figure out a better way to get the straw part of attach to a 14mm female part of a j-hook or water thing as it just fits but is a bit fiddley and needs to be held when using it.

 

[Darth Gram Gram]

A couple of months in and Im still using mine as my daily driver - not got around to doing much with batteries yet nor made another heater part with a smaller diameter tube.

I have now got a nice routine going with it - i start off vaping some fresh material at about 170 not too much maybe similar to an amount for decent sized stem for a tinymighty. This lasts for a couple of 5 min sessions slowly upping the temp to about 200. I then just blow the contents of the straw out into my abv jar.

At the end of the day or when i want a more sedating but less tasty session i fill up about 2-3 loads of the abv and take the temp up to about 220 to for another couple of 5 min sessions - it is a bit hot but just about ok without a water piece - for the left overs from that i then collect up and once in a while i use the screwball with water thing at 260C as there is still a but left to extract but needs to be cooled.

I do need to figure out a better way to get the straw part of attach to a 14mm female part of a j-hook or water thing as it just fits but is a bit fiddley and needs to be held when using it.

Depending on the ID of your straw, there are a few WPAs out there with o-rings to fit a stem like the TM. If not, maybe a silicone adapter?

 

[Robindean]

I am honestly digging the idea of a DIY of this.
I have so many rda's tanks, and other stuff, I am wanting to dig around and find all that, and see if I still have any kanthal or ss wire around, find some glass tubes, and get to creating.
Got me seriously thinking about what all I can do for myself. Granted making a housing is kinda out of my league, but like a PC without a case, it'll work.

 

[highvaper]

I have no housing around mine - it lives in a glass jar when not in use and i hold the top of the tube or the solid core copper wire on the side - once in a while like, really only a few times, i touch the exposed coil briefly and not had any nasty burns or anything yet.

Its pretty simple to make - i suspect you could do a non pid/regulated version and just have the test tube + nichrome wire and some kind of switch - you will probably end up combusting but you could make something like that very easily.

 

[Robindean]

I want to thank you for replying. So here is what I thought:
IF, I can find my old RDA's, or at least anything with a rebuidable deck, which I own somewheres.
I have my GeekVape Nova, with a Sai atm. (Both BAF and TAF, Glass tip yeah)
Anyways, I have more, but packed.
If I can also find my kit I have the coil shit, and coils pre made, and coil wire. I should...
I want to find the trident rda I own, I think that would be the most awesome one to build with, big ass base, but damn, three wires?

Anyways, even if I had to use two, or less. I am sure I could. I have some grav glass joints (when they sold cbd joints from the website scattered around somwheres) and a ooze glass blunt tube I have soaking in ISO, I was thinking, if the moons and planets align, and I find this shit. Use Ohms laws calc, and wrap dat glass....I can create something. Am I on a good track? I would love to fucking wrap this bitch with wires on my tri rda. Damn, damn and damn. I know its somewheres.
Thoguhts, ideas or suggestions? I do also have a PDI and 25mm axiel, and 20mm wrap coil. Anything there? (I tried to think of something)

 

[highvaper]

I messed about with my geekvape mod - have a scroll back in the thread - i just about got it working but with my mod having a 10 sec cut off was a hassle.

TCR is good but is very hard to do with stainless steel and after some testing realised it doesnt give the correct temp of the glass tube once thats up to temperature and you need to get a reading from the tube itself rather than the element - if you use tcr or take a reading from the outside of the tube the inner temp slowly rises and doesnt seem to level off until its way above the setpoint even though the outside levels off.

I think you could do a ultra simple version using meat spike type thermometer which you hold against the inside of the tube while heating up - if you do build something its worth getting one of those thermometers to just test and check on temps as you do stuff they are very useful.

 

[Robindean]

I have a thing I have to address. I never learned TCR, Using TC-Ni, It took forever and past the ten seconds to "reach temp" recquiring many (30 secs) wattage mode, Even using the settings I believe I found through FC by a google search for TCR I failed at/ I am using ti bucket for the sai.
I never learned to use it either with nic juice, always just wattage. Even with making my own and having the right coil material etc. I honestly vastly and badly suck at TC or TCR. So I am basing this all off wattage mode ideas.

The ti bucket I can run at 32 watts, up to 35. But I suppose 38 with tcr. If you can help me further into this, i'd greatly appreciate it.
I been in the vape scene for over a decade, but this one thing I never got. LOL

 

[highvaper]

The TCR is basically the mod measuring the element's resistance change as it get hotter - it then compares that against the cold resistance temp when the element was initially installed - there is a lookup table for each element material type built into the mods firmware and from that it works out the element temp ie the resistance & the look table & cold value + maths = element temp

So its calculated and not actual temp but is usually pretty close.

My power supply is a 12v one which can take up to 10 amps so about 120w - i have forgotten the current power im using but the pwm duty cylce is at 60% so i think that about 80w as the mosfet was getting too hot and the extra wattage wasnt making much difference in heat up time (its less than a min to get to about 200 from cold).

 

[Robindean]

Ah, so okay. Sorry, I got lost with what you typed. One hand yes I understood other hand no.
I know there is artic firmware, mine can't use this. Far as I know. I almost had a mod that did support it.
I Think this borderlands movie is getting to me.

 

[highvaper]

I think you will need a custom firmware to get it working with a mod - mine also gave me a too hot error and had to let it cool down before it would let me mess more.

I gave up on using a mod/510 device with TCR and think the termocouple/pid solution is more accurate and think probably simpler too.

 

[Robindean]

Alright, so I went on a trying to find my old mods and tanks bender. I found most of it and kanthal a1 wire, not my ss or my coil builder (Though, when it comes to this, I doubt a builder is needed....)
Gotta clean a lotta shit up.
but to get to where I am going.
I like this themr couple and pid idea.
My question is, and I have no idea what to ask to begin my search, and im sure its in this thread or on this forum.
I got my high five vape ball up and running again, this time until I "combust" and then lower down.

However, I would LOVE to make my own coil, but I am told we can't bend these coils or readjust them....
What coil, or where do I begin to get a coil I can adjust to my own needs around an object of my choice?
Thank you.

 

[highvaper]

If your talking about the coils for vape liquid or concentrates i would think they are a bit too short to be able to wrap around a tube as they have quite high resistance like kanthal

I found the really thin stainless steel flat wire just about got the temps high enough but the nichrome really pumped out the heat - its pretty cheap stuff for a few feet and quite easy to work with as its just a flat wire.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

nichrome can come as wire (round) or ribbon (flat). i use nichrome80 ribbon to wrap around my oven tube. much better than nichrome60 in that it doesn't corrode. i use about 13" with resistance about 0.3 ohm per foot. i have to look it up but i think it is 1/8" wide by 0.01" thick (28 ga).

the pictures in my signature are the earlier version using wire. ribbon gives much better contact with the glass.

 

[Robindean]

So, i think im on the right path.
https://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_cigarette/comments/77nryv
IIRC dont or cant i find ruby or qurts rods or pills as their called maybe wrap a 2mm or 3 mm pill on my mulcan, question is where can i find em?

 

[highvaper]

Still using mine as my daily driver - but new update recently with some glass balls

I added about an inch at the bottom of the tube and let them heat up for about a minute

When i load the stem i leave about 1/2 inch at the bottom below the herb to allow some space.

When you put the stem in the tube you jiggle it about into the hot balls and so they go up the stem and provide some thermal mass.

It seems to help make the vapour smoother and also increases flavour and evens out the vaping too.

https://imgur.com/a/v4vsSRC

 

[Postlark]

This is an awesome project I am definitely following.

After seeing the praises for bakx and the incredibly simple design, it begged me to question: why are so many vaporizers so underperforming and filled with strange materials?

 

[highvaper]

@Postlark cheers - the main part of the project is pretty much done and proof on concept is working rather well.

I would like to make some nice wooden body for it. Also i have various ideas for some different sized tubes with different arrangements of balls and potentially little holes in the bottom of the test tube for different airflow paths.

But all works rather well in its current form and so far i think is safer than the ballvape heater - not burned myself properly with it yet compared to a rather painful moment picking up a 260C hot screwbally heater with my bare hand - left a very pretty burn though.

One thing happened by mistake the other day and i blew out a fresh load of herb directly into the test tube - so decided to shake it about slowly and then suck it back up into the straw - wow - worked super well with a very thick initial cloud rather than it building up slowly for the first few pulls. Also when its finishing off I am now gently blowing the content of the straw back into the test tube and give it a shake and let it reheat before sucking it back up again.

That technique works really well with avb too and helps get a lot more extracted.

 

[highvaper]

Well about a week ago i dropped it while using - annoyingly i managed to break a new 18mm j-hook, glass straw and yanked the thermocouple so it somehow shorted out. Been too busy to fix as the thermocouple is a pain to rewire with the element and get just right in the hole so its not too far in or out and have a layer of ptfe in place to seal it.

But after a week plus without it and just living with the TM2 and constant battery replacing i spent an hour rewiring and also switching out rotary dial as there was something wrong with it. Forgot how much nicer it tastes. Maybe over xmas ill make myself a spare.

 

[highvaper]

With work on the unregulated version progressing with a new heater i have made a regulated version of it with the closed bottom tube

https://imgur.com/a/y5GvvZt

All connected up to one of the mini pids

https://imgur.com/a/1yVdnUO

Still deciding on giving it a go with the batteries or via my mains power supply. Either way will need to do some work on the pid settings but im getting more of a hang for that and suspect P and I are going to be lower than the current setup.

There is a change to the thermocouple position and its now pressed between the nichrome and outer glass wall it may not be the exact temp but should provide a stable reading from the same position each time.


edit: Just finished wiring it up to the power supply and getting pid tuned - hence some testing occured - works very well - i will be switching over to this one i think - need to rewire as the balance is off but otherwise

for my ref in case i loose it - not right but a stating point

pid_tunings = 0.26, 0.0006, 0 #new heater + 6 coil + nichrome 4mm approx 0.6 to 0.7 ohms - 40% pwm limit - 73 watts measured

compared to other tunings:

#pid_tunings = 0.48, 0.004, 0 #18mm + nichrome 2mm
#pid_tunings = 0.29, 0.0008, 0 #18mm + nichrome 3mm - 60% limit
#pid_tunings = 0.33, 0.0011, 0 #20mm + nichrome 3mm - 70% limit


I do need to look at battery powering it as well but going to get the unregulated one going first as you dont need the regulation with the batteries as much provided you use a sensible length coil and dont be a tool.


Ok after a bit of testing i can confirm this heater arrangement is a big upgrade on my previous one vaping wise - the extra layer of glass reflecting the heat back in really makes a big difference and evens out the heat.

Im the most mashed i have been from this weed compared to all other vapes i have used it with other than the screwball but in comparison to the amount i used with 1 screwball pull i could get maybe 4 x 5 min loads in comparison and am nearly as mashed as with the screwball and enjoyed a lot more flavour.

Its much easier to wire the coil as well without the victoria clips and having to keep the coil taught against the tube - the inner liner tube does the work.

No need for a hole in the inner liner tube for the thermocouple so 100% glass airpath now and also simpler to make (well depending on if open bottom or closed with ... a hole in the glass but at least not in the airpath).