DIY Induction Heater Builds and References

[TommyDee]

To add to @badbee 's good words, you want to limit the amperage to around 1-1/2 amps for the charging supply. The best ones are true CVCC (constant voltage - followed by - constant current) that have a green light when the charge cycle is completed.

The circuit board is a battery management system (BMS). It doesn't do well with limiting power to the cells. You need to limit the available power by the wall-wart model you choose. 10-12 watts @ 12.6V is enough. It has to be 12.6V since you seem to have a 3S BMS.

 

[Clp2k]

Thanks for your Feedback, is there a different beetween 12.6v lipo and li-ion charger?

 

[TommyDee]

Lipo and liion chargers are the same. You're welcome.

 

[KarlKlammer]

This has the power to melt your VC into a pile of slag. We normally use 120 W boards, not 1000 W. I would not try this on battery, this board will be crazily inefficient and drain the cells really fast. If using mains power it can probably be made to work, but my guess is that it will be a huge pain to tune and give poor results.

Oh I already guessed so and didn't even try any further when I read through the technical informations...

But I also got my hands on a 120W board. Sadly I am still not able to heat up my anvil fully. After some time the led starts flashing on the board, and the heating stops. I guess that the AC went into some kind of over voltage security shutoff. I first tried it with an 12V 5W AC, but I have the same result with a 12V 10W AC.

Sadly I currently don't even have a multimeter at hand... But are there some easy things to change? 120W should be more than enough for this board, some people in the ratings talking about powering it with just 5 W (of course the heating process will be shorter). Why does my AC cut out? They are both good quality and I don't have any 12V AC left (only a strong 24V 150W AC, but that would probably cook the board).

Does changing the coil in any way help reduce the load? Shorter/longer wire, more/less windings, higher diameter, ...?

 

[RustyOldNail]

Sadly I currently don't even have a multimeter at hand...

That is sad, especially when playing with electronics….

 

[KarlKlammer]

That is sad, especially when playing with electronics...

Oh for sure. Currently moving, and hoped that a prebuilt board would simply "work". Had the 12V 10A AC at hand, and even a fitting female plug. So not much was needed besides a screwdriver. Turns out, it's not that simple.

 

[TommyDee]

Karl - two ways to reduce the power drawn from the ZVS - lower input voltage or longer coil wire/more loops.

 

[badbee]

Sadly I am still not able to heat up my anvil fully

My understanding is that the Anvil doesn't play well with most induction heaters. A typical full 120 W IH is too powerful for the vapcap and most home builders take a few wraps off the coil (from 10 down to 7 or 8) which reduces power. Doing that will likely help avoiding overloading your power supply. Sucessful home builds tend to run at about 70 W, but that's for vapcaps.

Generally when picking a power supply you go 25 - 50% over the load requirement, if the devices needs 120 W you buy a 150 -180 W supply. I would not expect a 120 W supply to handle an IH built for and used at full power.

 

[KarlKlammer]

Karl - two ways to reduce the power drawn from the ZVS - lower input voltage or longer coil wire/more loops.

Thank you! I already kinda guessed so, because of the used physical equations. The longer the wire, the higher the resistance will be. Learnt everything needed at school, but it's quite some time and normally I only fiddle with low voltage stuff

My understanding is that the Anvil doesn't play well with most induction heaters. A typical full 120 W IH is too powerful for the vapcap and most home builders take a few wraps off the coil (from 10 down to 7 or 8) which reduces power. Doing that will likely help avoiding overloading your power supply. Sucessful home builds tend to run at about 70 W, but that's for vapcaps.

Generally when picking a power supply you go 25 - 50% over the load requirement, if the devices needs 120 W you buy a 150 -180 W supply. I would not expect a 120 W supply to handle an IH built for and used at full power.

Sadly all these boards have pretty bad descriptions (at least in Europe). But most (and I guess they are often not that different) they state 60W for normal usage, and 120W max. Having some kind of overhead is of course good, but I though the 120W AC should be enough.

Anyway I don't have a volt meter with me, but my small soldering iron. I wasn't able to spot any bad connections, but I simply reheated every single one (of the non SMD parts) and it turns out: It works!

I currently have 8 wraps and the Anvil heats up in about 35-45 seconds. The AC draws about 70W in the process. I wrapped the coil around an old vape tank glass and soldered on a fitting plug for the AC (so I simply disconnect the Coil currently instead of using any switches). I will experiment a bit with different amounts of loops and probably put everything in a nice case. But first I need to read some of the remaining posts about switch configurations!

 

[TommyDee]

I'm going to make a disclosure here that is for posterity.

It has come to my attention that an invention of mine has been deleted from the public Dynavap Discord. With the crap that is going on on Reddit, this is mine to make public.

There is discussion on how to make a MOD box recognize a ZVS circuit.
I am suggesting that a delay to the second FET gate input resistor would allow for a larger pulse for a MOD box to recognize a ZVS induction heater. The idea is that the delay would allow oscillation to be delayed to allow a higher amplitude of the initial 'short circuit' by avoiding oscillation for the first series of pulses, to manage an appropriate peek load in the pulse time of more mainstream MOD power supplies for 510 connections to ZVS induction heaters.

I want to make damn sure that everyone knows this is my invention as of before this day on 2/9/2023, and of the time this information was shared on the bDynavap Discord and subsequently deleted, and it is therefore mine to put in the public domain for anyone to consider. The device recommended for this operation is a : LTC6994 a one shot delay chip. It will need a 3.3V regulator. Looking forward if someone wants to try this.

If a claim is made on this invention, I expect to be named as part of the invention, period! This is my public notice.

 

[TheThriftDrifter]

Makes one think twice about sharing ideas in the dynaverse.

Thanks for posting this @TommyDee

 

[GI]

Hi, there're problem if the tip/cap touch the coil ? Should be insulated, it's ok ?

 

[TommyDee]

Touching no - shorting out, yes.

 

[badbee]

Hi, there're problem if the tip/cap touch the coil ? Should be insulated, it's ok ?

As a one time thing it's fine. The "varnish" insulation is thin and won't stand up to wear so you don't want to be rubbing a cap against it during routine use. A fully hot cap is also pushing close to the thermal limits of the insulation. Shorting two adjacent coils probably will do no harm (it will just act like fewer wraps), shorting the entire coil will kill the IH.

 

[2pumpchump]

I should have ordered from China as I bought from a US seller that is Just that us seller will stock in China ... so planed on posting here b4 now .. but this will me my first IH bild the bild is a desk/ table unit a few parts over kill lol but this may get used as a test bench later lol ....but I will be cooking vapcap products until my fusion arrives that being said I might need this thing to put out ?? I think ..I will be starting with a 12 v DC @14.2 Amp power supply ' a DC to DC step-down box and a 120 w and have glass tube inside the coil but it should be here today or tomorrow .... so any pointers tips or suggestions or anything any one can think of I missed that I need???

 

[TommyDee]

A good momentary switch.

 

[tinctorus]

I should have ordered from China as I bought from a US seller that is Just that us seller will stock in China ... so planed on posting here b4 now .. but this will me my first IH bild the bild is a desk/ table unit a few parts over kill lol but this may get used as a test bench later lol ....but I will be cooking vapcap products until my fusion arrives that being said I might need this thing to put out ?? I think ..I will be starting with a 12 v DC @14.2 Amp power supply ' a DC to DC step-down box and a 120 w and have glass tube inside the coil but it should be here today or tomorrow .... so any pointers tips or suggestions or anything any one can think of I missed that I need???

Feel free to shoot me a message on here if you need help, fwiw I've also got a discord that's setup like a "diy hub"

https://imgur.com/a/wqI3JGK

https://imgur.com/a/M7yfU5q

I built this one in a Raspberry pi 4 case I'm using a digital timer with 7 presets on it, I simply push the button 1 time abs the unit will run for however long I have that particular preset set for whether it's 10 seconds or 10 minutes, it's up to you
People have really been liking them

 

[tinctorus]

https://imgur.com/a/j17WSHf

 

[2pumpchump]

Well I finally got the rest of the main goodies in.
@TommyDee thanks for reminding me about a momentary switch I had not forgotten about it but that did remind me about needing a basic toggle switch for switching the power supply I'm using in and out of sleep mode..
Thanks for the Ida of the timer I get the feeling I'm fixing to add a multi channel lol

I am confused the strip of pcb that was extra in the pack with the heater and coil ! It's a small strip a metal piece and a hole at 1 end ... is this something for testing the coil or you think it's just a peace of bord stock trim ??

 

[TommyDee]

The strip is a break-away piece from the ZVS PCB. It is part of the PCB fabrication process.

Solder that coil on there, even if only temporarily, before ever putting power to it.

 

[tinctorus]

Well I finally got the rest of the main goodies in.
@TommyDee thanks for reminding me about a momentary switch I had not forgotten about it but that did remind me about needing a basic toggle switch for switching the power supply I'm using in and out of sleep mode..
Thanks for the Ida of the timer I get the feeling I'm fixing to add a multi channel lol

I am confused the strip of pcb that was extra in the pack with the heater and coil ! It's a small strip a metal piece and a hole at 1 end ... is this something for testing the coil or you think it's just a peace of bord stock trim ??

Depending on what digital timer you use you may or may not need a button to turn the unit on, in the 1st unit I posted that one needs a button to give a 12v trigger in order to start the timer, on the 2nd one the red unit I posted has the better digital timer board and has a start/stop button built in

If you need any help just shoot a message

 

[TommyDee]

From a safety perspective, I suggest an on-off switch on the main power source. I know... I don't like extra parts but this is because a failed FET is a short. This could simmer for some time and never blow a fuse. When an IH is unattended, power should be removed from the ZVS inputs. Cheers.

 

[2pumpchump]

Depending on what digital timer you use you may or may not need a button to turn the unit on, in the 1st unit I posted that one needs a button to give a 12v trigger in order to start the timer, on the 2nd one the red unit I posted has the better digital timer board and has a start/stop button built in

If you need any help just shoot a message

Lol very good safety concerns the power supply always has a DC ground and a DC 5v refrance I have to send about 1 v DC back to cut the 12v DC on as far as the power supply it can run under full load for days + but no I would never leave power on the heater that long

 

[tinctorus]

From a safety perspective, I suggest an on-off switch on the main power source. I know... I don't like extra parts but this is because a failed FET is a short. This could simmer for some time and never blow a fuse. When an IH is unattended, power should be removed from the ZVS inputs. Cheers.

From a safety perspective, I suggest an on-off switch on the main power source. I know... I don't like extra parts but this is because a failed FET is a short. This could simmer for some time and never blow a fuse. When an IH is unattended, power should be removed from the ZVS inputs. Cheers.

The zvs board isn't powered until i press the button to trigger the relay, unless I'm not understanding you

 

[2pumpchump]

The zvs board isn't powered until i press the button to trigger the relay, unless I'm not understanding you

I believe he is just reminding of safety .
And with good reason!
As they might have been confusing about my power supply needs to be trigger on or off . And adding a timer for it .
US NUBS LIKE TO TALK SHIT LIKE WE KNOW WHAT WE DOING . Some may or may not .
Safety is key. And this was posted b4 I explained my power supply