Fluxer Heaters, induction heaters for Dynavap

[mr_cfromcali]

Thanks, @Terpenetime ! Trust me, the March 28 version of this would have come back to me for repair, anyway .

The version on my bench at the moment looks pretty fucking good. It's been completely stable so far. Still waiting on more TVS diodes for comparison testing, but the current ones are making a good case for themselves. Hope to get this part settled soon, tbh. I have a lot of people waiting for a good version of this thing, and I am eager to provide it.

 

[RushVaporTrails]

Hey @mr_cfromcali ,

I as well don't have any understanding of all the technical info you provide in this thread but it is great to see how you are able to solve issues as they reveal themselves.

I know you are in the process of working things out with the diode testing, but was wondering if there is a way to estimate where one would be on the wait list.

for example, i got an email back from you march 12 and you said 160 people ahead of me, any idea where it may be now.

and just to be clear, i don't mind the wait or any delays, i am just curious and definitely looking forward to having one when my turn comes up....

 

[mr_cfromcali]

Hey @RushVaporTrails ,

Please send me an email and I'll look it up*. You are in my waiting list database by your email address.

But the short answer is you are probably in a similar spot as you were back then, because I lost a lot of ground in March and April. I had to slow waaaay down on new builds to deal with repairs and also figure out what the hell was going on w/my heaters, and how to make 'em work reliably. I believe I have these problems cornered and all but solved now, and I hope to start making new heaters again very soon.

I also have some Flux Deluxes that have failed that I need to repair, however, and they will get my attention first. As soon as I feel confident this TVS diode fix is the right one, I will repair those and send them back to their owners. It will be soon.

*I am very behind in my email, and I'm truly sorry, but something had to give. I hope to get caught up tomorrow and over this weekend.

Thanks.

 

[RushVaporTrails]

I had to slow waaaay down on new builds to deal with repairs and also figure out what the hell was going on w/my heaters, and how to make 'em work reliably. I believe I have these problems cornered and all but solved now, and I hope to start making new heaters again very soon.

no worries about any delays.

I am sure those who don't currently have an induction heater desperately want one because of how great they are, but i think it goes without saying that any kind of delay to ensure a safe functioning heater is first priority and anyone who reads a thread like this should understand that a one dude operation is going to have set backs since if the one dude is sick or has other life emergencies, operations will obviously slow down, sometimes to a screeching halt.

on the other hand, you can make a comment on a thread like this and the one dude making a product you are interested in actually writes you back personally, gotta love that.

and of course the 100% transparency.

 

[mr_cfromcali]

Hi all,

Quick update: The TVS diodes continue to perform well, and I haven’t had any failures in the current voltage range. That’s great!

I have the SMD parts I need for building new heaters, but I am still waiting on the right “through hole” TVS diodes to arrive to repair existing heaters. They should be here by Tuesday. and then I can finally repair some heaters and return them to their owners.

This whole investigation has been “involved,” and taken a lot of time, but the device is a lot more stable than it was before, especially the 14mm and 15mm versions. Thanks for your patience while I worked through these issues!!

Anyway, just wanted to share that there haven’t been any recent setbacks, and the solution is stable and moving forward to being “released”.

Cheers,

 

[Squiby]

I also have some Flux Deluxes that have failed that I need to repair, however, and they will get my attention first. As soon as I feel confident this TVS diode fix is the right one, I will repair those and send them back to their owners. It will be soon.

^^^^^ This is the essence of great customer service. The first priority should always be to take care of the existing customers. This is so very refreshing compared to vendors who take our money then avoid any further contact.

I'm sure we are all willing to wait for the build to be proven solid and the existing customers taken care of first. This practice will ensure confidence and attract more customers in the long term. Your open and regular communication is the epitome of integrity and that's the type of person I like to do business with.

 

[lookhigh]

^^^^ eloquently put by the VapCap goddess.

 

[mr_cfromcali]

Hi all,

OK. I have the right fix now - no, really! - and can finally close the book on this MOSFET and diode failure stuff. The higher voltage diodes are working very work. I will be using them in both repairs and new heaters. Huzzah!

Repairs: If you sent your heater to me for repair, I am now in the process of repairing it and returning it to you. I will be in touch w/you shortly. I began repairing heaters last night (Tuesday), and expect to be finished with the repair backlog by Thursday or Friday.

To everyone with a Flux Deluxe: If (or when) your heater needs repair, please contact me and we will arrange the details. I have plenty of the right parts on hand to fix these heaters. The repair takes ~30 minutes, and the heater should be well protected against voltage spikes and similar events afterwards.

Technical details: They're below. No need to read if you don't want to - it won't be on the test - but I know some of you appreciate this info, so here it is.

I tried several different TVS diodes in the heater.



In the end, the 27V TVS diodes did a the best job of protecting the circuit while also staying out of the way until needed.

The following oscilloscope graph shows the circuit's response to the higher "onset" voltage TVS diodes (27V) when the tactile switch is opened and the voltage spike is generated. The yellow line is the system voltage, and it is OK if it runs high; as shown previously, when unprotected it can run as high as 100V+ for fractions of a second. The purple line is the voltage on the Source pin of the MOSFET, and it has a max of 40V. It is measured downstream of where the yellow line is measured, and the difference represents the power dissipated by the circuit. If a TVS diode is present, that power can easily dissipate through it, otherwise, it dissipates through the circuit's other components, and they aren't very good at doing that.

The important things to notice are the maximum voltage values, which are very safe, and the smoothness of the post-event response, which is great:

Response of 14mm coil when tactile switch is released. NB: In the above image the two lines are using different scales, and the voltage represented by the yellow line is 4x greater than the purple's.

The bottom line: These 27V TVS didoes should work very well and provide voltage spike protection when needed, and stay out of the way the rest of the time.









Once I complete these repairs - another day or two - I will be moving ahead with the next batch of heaters. I have a new jig I made for drilling the cases that is going to save me many, many steps per case. More on that, and some hinted-at new features, in an upcoming post.

Thanks for following along. If you are on the waiting list, I hope to build a heater for you soon!

Cheers,

 

[caliganja420]

Hi all,

OK. I have the right fix now - no, really! - and can finally close the book on this MOSFET and diode failure stuff. The higher voltage diodes are working very work. I will be using them in both repairs and new heaters. Huzzah!

Repairs: If you sent your heater to me for repair, I am now in the process of repairing it and returning it to you. I will be in touch w/you shortly. I began repairing heaters last night (Tuesday), and expect to be finished with the repair backlog by Thursday or Friday.

To everyone with a Flux Deluxe: If (or when) your heater needs repair, please contact me and we will arrange the details. I have plenty of the right parts on hand to fix these heaters. The repair takes ~30 minutes, and the heater should be well protected against voltage spikes and similar events afterwards.

Technical details: They're below. No need to read if you don't want to - it won't be on the test - but I know some of you appreciate this info, so here it is.

I tried several different TVS diodes in the heater.



In the end, the 27V TVS diodes did a the best job of protecting the circuit while also staying out of the way until needed.

The following oscilloscope graph shows the circuit's response to the higher "onset" voltage TVS diodes (27V) when the tactile switch is opened and the voltage spike is generated. The yellow line is the system voltage, and it is OK if it runs high; as shown previously, when unprotected it can run as high as 100V+ for fractions of a second. The purple line is the voltage on the Source pin of the MOSFET, and it has a max of 40V. It is measured downstream of where the yellow line is measured, and the difference represents the power dissipated by the circuit. If a TVS diode is present, that power can easily dissipate through it, otherwise, it dissipates through the circuit's other components, and they aren't very good at doing that.

The important things to notice are the maximum voltage values, which are very safe, and the smoothness of the post-event response, which is great:

Response of 14mm coil when tactile switch is released. NB: In the above image the two lines are using different scales, and the voltage represented by the yellow line is 4x greater than the purple's.

The bottom line: These 27V TVS didoes should work very well and provide voltage spike protection when needed, and stay out of the way the rest of the time.









Once I complete these repairs - another day or two - I will be moving ahead with the next batch of heaters. I have a new jig I made for drilling the cases that is going to save me many, many steps per case. More on that, and some hinted-at new features, in an upcoming post.

Thanks for following along. If you are on the waiting list, I hope to build a heater for you soon!

Cheers,

Thanks for all the hard work you have put in for all of us. These past 3 weeks without my fluxer were painful, since i had to steal my sisters psm several times a day, which has to be charged several times a day lol. I hope that you get caught up soon and everyone gets to enjoy a fluxer in there hand. Have a good day and week ahead Jeff.

 

[AcidFlashbang]

Are you going to be responding to emails soon?

 

[mr_cfromcali]

Are you going to be responding to emails soon?

Yeah, but I'm a one man band. I have been responding to critical emails throughout this most recent development process, and I have been giving priority to existing customers with heaters that need repair. If you are one of those and I missed your email, please email me again ASAP and I will jump on it - I am sorry!

I add people to the waiting list when requested. If no reply is necessary, none is given.

For other inquiries, I have a backlog and am getting through them when I can make time to do so.

Thanks for your patience.

 

[MothChewMoth]

Yeah, but I'm a one man band. I have been responding to critical emails throughout this most recent development process, and I have been giving priority to existing customers with heaters that need repair. If you are one of those and I missed your email, please email me again ASAP and I will jump on it - I am sorry!

I add people to the waiting list when requested. If no reply is necessary, none is given.

For other inquiries, I have a backlog and am getting through them when I can make time to do so.

Thanks for your patience.

I've got an email out to get added, but I see that you're a very busy guy! No rush, just making sure we're all good there. I had a couple questions attached, but let me know if they might be more appropriately posted here.

 

[caliganja420]

What a good start to the weekend, fluxer is back home, very much appreciated Mr. C
I experimented with it as soon as i got it. Noticed the difference immediately. I went from counting 2 seconds after the click, now i pull right at the click. Cant believe the difference

 

[mr_cfromcali]

What a good start to the weekend, fluxer is back home, very much appreciated Mr. C
I experimented with it as soon as i got it. Noticed the difference immediately. I went from counting 2 seconds after the click, now i pull right at the click. Cant believe the difference

Thanks for posting, @Rollingstoned ! I am glad it got there OK and thrilled it's working, and also not surprised that it's working better. I feel like I have delved pretty deep into this issue, and I learned some good stuff along the way, which is part of my motivation for doing this project - I enjoy this sort of problem-solving, provided I actually solve it. This should be the right solution, for you and everyone else. Unlike my first attempt, this one should not place much, if any, add'l drag on the heater circuit. It stays out of the way and only intervenes when the voltage approaches a dangerous level.

As always, let me know if you have any issues with this. Yours is among the first of the repaired heaters to get back home, and while the repair has been 100% stable on the work bench and in my test units, that doesn't mean it works as expected in the real world. LMK, etc.

Other Fluxer Updates:

Repairs: I am almost caught up and only have two or three more repairs to get through at the moment. I am sure there will be more, but I've worked out a good procedure for the update. If your heater needs repair, please let me know - via email, if possible.

New heaters: I expect to start making new heaters again this weekend. I notified people three weeks ago that I'd be starting on their heaters, and then almost immediately got gobsmacked by the "bad diode" issue and had to work through that before I could even consider making any new ones. I feel very good about the heater's design now, though, and am eager to make more of these. We'll see how I do.

Other News: I finally (!!!) received my latest circuit boards yesterday, and am extremely happy with them so far! These incorporate the diode fix as a surface mount (SMD) component, and also clean up some things in the circuit board which I had been meaning to do for some time. They also include a few new features I have been working on - more on these in an upcoming post. I'd like to see at least 24 hours of stability before I say too much more, lol.

I feel like I can finally move past the MOSFETs and diodes (at least temporarily? ), and am looking forward to building more heaters for more people.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Mother's Day a few days early, too.

Cheers,

 

[started@52]

Received my 15mm coil(sent my 14mm back to change to 15mm) unit today and WOW it’s perfect! My 14mm was just too hot “for me”, others love the 14. Received it back all updated with a couple extras too. Thanks Jeff!!

 

[ClearBlueLou]

What a good start to the weekend, fluxer is back home, very much appreciated Mr. C
I experimented with it as soon as i got it. Noticed the difference immediately. I went from counting 2 seconds after the click, now i pull right at the click. Cant believe the difference

Remind us which coil size you have...?

 

[snamuh]

Received my 15mm coil(sent my 14mm back to change to 15mm) unit today and WOW it’s perfect! My 14mm was just too hot “for me”, others love the 14. Received it back all updated with a couple extras too. Thanks Jeff!!

Are those batteries not wrapped?

 

[caliganja420]

Remind us which coil size you have...?

Original 16mm coil

 

[started@52]

Are those batteries not wrapped?

Clear wraps.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

Original 16mm coil

Thank you!

 

[mr_cfromcali]

Hi all,



I am sorry to report that I am still not past this MOSFET failure issue - which means, unfortunately, that it will continue to affect some of you. I am very sorry. The learning curve on this project has been steep at times. This has been one of those times.

The good news - and I am admittedly squinting to see the upside here - is that I understand why my last attempt was a good start but incomplete. I understand what I need to add to provide the additional protection the circuit needs.

In short, my TVS diode fix is the correct approach, but real world use has shown I need to add one or two more TVS diodes to protect the entire circuit. The technical details are that I positioned the first TVS diode to absorb dissipating inductive energy present in the Source nodes of the MOSFETs, as that node is the most vulnerable to inductive voltage spikes. There is another MOSFET node, however - the Gate - and its max voltage is much lower than the Source's. This wasn't an issue when the Source was the node that took the big voltage hit, but now that the Source node is protected, the Gate node is exposed. I had checked it in my initial TVS evaluation and it seemed OK, but I did not realize how exposed it would truly be until now. Now that it's exposed, it needs to be protected by its own TVS diode, one sized and positioned to protect this part of the circuit.

I've ordered several additional TVS diodes for this node, and will have them here tomorrow. I'll report back with the results as soon as I have them.

In light of these most recent issues, I am continuing to delay the next batch of new Flux Deluxes until I have a true fix for this. If your heater fails, please contact me (again , in some cases), and we will work out the details. Not all heaters will fail due to this issue, but I know that some will. I'm sorry.

Thanks for your support,

 

[pakalolo2]

No worries, I’m cool with the delay my man! You ship when you’re ready to and confident that you have resolved all of these “issues” to your satisfaction. I’ve waited for mine for a while so an extra week or two is fine with me.

 

[MothChewMoth]

Yep take your time, it'll make the acquisition that much sweeter.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

“Steady as she goes!”

 

[lookhigh]

I prefer a working reliable heater and i would rather wait for this than have one that i would feel unsure about.

Are the impatient ones canceling their orders