My experience it that the glass-tipped caps heat up almost twice as fast as the Ti. Time to compare stopwatches?
VapCap Induction Heater for Desktop and in Car Use
- Thread starter Pipes
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- dynavap induction heat vapcap
Basically, Induction heating causes an electrical current in any conducting material. This electrical current is what actually causes the heating - lets call this resistive heating.
When we heat the VC with a torch lighter, thermal energy is passed to both the cap and the tip (more or less. to be more precise, the cap actually gets much hotter from the torch, and passes heat to the tip by conduction)
Induction heating the glass VC, ONLY the tip gets heated, and it takes longer to heat the glass as the glass is only getting hot by touching the cap.
Heating a titanium model tip, BOTH the tip and cap are heated since they both conduct - they are both getting hot by resistive heating.
Stainless steel should work very similarly to the titanium tip model, they will BOTH get hot from resistive heating. Very small differences due to other magneticmumbojumbomagic properties, but I suspect negligible difference in actual heating capability between the Ti tip and SS tip.
SS and titanium have other differences though, like how quickly the heat spreads and dissipates (how quickly the tip cools down - like how many hits per heating), the same differences that would exist if using a torch lighter though.
So, by all means, assume the SS and TI tips to work just as well with induction heating. But like me, in the name of science, I suggest you all experiment for yourselves to find out exactly how different they behave. That's at least my justification to getting an M - in the name of science yeah
My experience it that the glass-tipped caps heat up almost twice as fast as the Ti. Time to compare stopwatches?
I haven't tested my glass cap in the induction heater yet, but I'm not surprised that the cap itself heats up quickly, time to click at-least, but I'd assume that it would also initially cool down much quicker as the glass steals it's thermal energy. The Ti tip would cool down a little slower as the tip itself would get hot along with the cap, and steal less of it's heat.
What I suspect though, if you could heat the OGs cap quickly enough, that first hit would be more convection heating as the air would get hot from the cap before the glass is hot enough to cook your bud.
Last edited:
I should clarify this. I meant that the click comes quicker with the glass, not necessarily that the load comes up to temp faster. With all the energy being absorbed by the tip (the glass doesn't interact with the induction heater) it is logical that the click comes quicker than it does in the Ti model.My experience it that the glass-tipped caps heat up almost twice as fast as the Ti. Time to compare stopwatches?
grokit
well-worn member
This makes sense to me, I think my screen is in the middle position on my ti woody (never adjusted it) and I try for 1-to-2 hit extraction so I like to lean on it a bit. I go 3-4 seconds after the second click with ti, 4-5 seconds with glass. So as I said just a bit longer. I'm looking forward to compare how the ss behaves.I should clarify this. I meant that the click comes quicker with the glass, not necessarily that the load comes up to temp faster. With all the energy being absorbed by the tip (the glass doesn't interact with the induction heater) it is logical that the click comes quicker than it does in the Ti model.
little update..
I've cleaned up the code a lot in the time I've had, added watchdog timer, eeprom, and some timing libraries to keep things readable.
Then I went back to experimenting with the circuit a bit Not the dead one soldered on board. The messy one thats on my desk with digital stuff on a breadboard.
So @hardboiledfrog your suggestion to drive the gate resistors works pretty well! I've got an NPN->PNP pair, and it has the functionality I want (on when pin HIGH).
Instead of using hardware PWM, I'm bitbanging the output in an interrupt routing called every 100uS with up to 200 steps 1/(200*100*10^-6) = 50Hz.
Why bitbang? It gives me more control over frequency counting! Yep yep. just got it to work. I put a low pass filter on the gate input, connected to an NPN that drives a GPIO input. I have a rising edge interrupt and count the cycles. I can then derive a frequency, which rises as I put a work piece in! So, if I run my bitbanger at 0.5% (1 step), the thing draws just a few milliamps, and this will be a ready-idle state. , and can reliably detect when I insert the vapcap, which can activate the PID and increase duty cycle accordingly. when I remove the vapcap, the frequency drops again and I am back in idle with PID off. I haven't implemented all this yet - but it does detect insertion
The LPF and transister is a bit fiddly. I had to use a potentiometer to get the right values. I'll soon have an optoisolater with a hysteresis which should work better.
Here's the (very) sloppy code I threw together in a few minutes to see if it works. At this stage, it keeps the unit at 5% and jump to 30% when I insert the VC.
I'm very happy this works, as the photointerruptor I had didn't really work when I put it on the outsides of the glass tube. Besides, I like this feature much more
On Wednesday I should get my mouser shipment, then I'll rebuild the oscillator on my prototype board, improve the frequency meauseremt, hook it all up, and it should be good to go Now.. zzzzz
#include <TimerOne.h>
int controllerCounter = 0;
int myPwm = 10;
#define PWM_STEP_MICROS 200
#define PWM_RESOLUTION 100
int onsteps = 0;
long count = 0;
float freq = 0;
void setup() {
pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
Timer1.initialize(PWM_STEP_MICROS);
Timer1.attachInterrupt(output_controller);
attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(7), counter, RISING);
Serial.begin(119200);
Timer1.start();
}
void loop() {
delay(1000);
Serial.println(String(freq,3));
}
void counter() {
count++;
}
void output_controller() {
int stage = controllerCounter % PWM_RESOLUTION;
if (stage==0) {
count = 0; onsteps = 0;
}
if ( (stage < myPwm) || (freq > 400000.0 && stage < 60 ) {
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
onsteps++;
} else {
digitalWrite(6, LOW);
}
if (stage==50) {
freq = count*1000000.0/(PWM_RESOLUTION*onsteps);
}
controllerCounter += 1;
}
I've cleaned up the code a lot in the time I've had, added watchdog timer, eeprom, and some timing libraries to keep things readable.
Then I went back to experimenting with the circuit a bit
Not the dead one soldered on board. The messy one thats on my desk with digital stuff on a breadboard. So @hardboiledfrog your suggestion to drive the gate resistors works pretty well!
I've got an NPN->PNP pair, and it has the functionality I want (on when pin HIGH). Instead of using hardware PWM, I'm bitbanging the output in an interrupt routing called every 100uS with up to 200 steps 1/(200*100*10^-6) = 50Hz.
Why bitbang? It gives me more control over frequency counting!
Yep yep. just got it to work. I put a low pass filter on the gate input, connected to an NPN that drives a GPIO input. I have a rising edge interrupt and count the cycles. I can then derive a frequency, which rises as I put a work piece in! So, if I run my bitbanger at 0.5% (1 step), the thing draws just a few milliamps, and this will be a ready-idle state. , and can reliably detect when I insert the vapcap, which can activate the PID and increase duty cycle accordingly. when I remove the vapcap, the frequency drops again and I am back in idle with PID off. I haven't implemented all this yet - but it does detect insertion The LPF and transister is a bit fiddly. I had to use a potentiometer to get the right values. I'll soon have an optoisolater with a hysteresis which should work better.
Here's the (very) sloppy code I threw together in a few minutes to see if it works. At this stage, it keeps the unit at 5% and jump to 30% when I insert the VC.
I'm very happy this works, as the photointerruptor I had didn't really work when I put it on the outsides of the glass tube. Besides, I like this feature much more
On Wednesday I should get my mouser shipment, then I'll rebuild the oscillator on my prototype board, improve the frequency meauseremt, hook it all up, and it should be good to go
Now.. zzzzz#include <TimerOne.h>
int controllerCounter = 0;
int myPwm = 10;
#define PWM_STEP_MICROS 200
#define PWM_RESOLUTION 100
int onsteps = 0;
long count = 0;
float freq = 0;
void setup() {
pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
Timer1.initialize(PWM_STEP_MICROS);
Timer1.attachInterrupt(output_controller);
attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(7), counter, RISING);
Serial.begin(119200);
Timer1.start();
}
void loop() {
delay(1000);
Serial.println(String(freq,3));
}
void counter() {
count++;
}
void output_controller() {
int stage = controllerCounter % PWM_RESOLUTION;
if (stage==0) {
count = 0; onsteps = 0;
}
if ( (stage < myPwm) || (freq > 400000.0 && stage < 60 ) {
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
onsteps++;
} else {
digitalWrite(6, LOW);
}
if (stage==50) {
freq = count*1000000.0/(PWM_RESOLUTION*onsteps);
}
controllerCounter += 1;
}
grokit
well-worn member
More clarification from me now...
While I heat the og/glass tip longer after the 2nd click,
the time between the 1st and 2nd click is longer with the ti tip.
Which brings the overall heating times closer together.
Makes sense to me anyways, ss up next
voodoo_vape
Vapour RebeL
Wow... jeeee.... feels like final year of my BEng Comp. Engineering analogue mechanics class the we had when we were programming assembly on circuits and taking values with the osciloscope, benchmarking and all that "shit"...!! 
Memories have just been dug out!! I was never a so "deep lvl" programmer but I always appreciate reading some code, comments are missing though 
, and just imagine what could those lines do to the whole project... I'd never thought that I'd see that kind of knowledge and open source style projects going around the FC Forum.... Hail to that dear fellow Stoner Scientists ya'all!!! 
It just feels soooo good that I've become a member of the VC community.. even with the M,for the beginning at least, I'm sure that you can get a pretty good idea about the VC... there so many things about this vape that I just can't stop looking around and getting informed about stems/bodies/tips/custom made stems and this thing can go forever... and in addition to that, an induction heater and in several versions as it looks like.......
I think that we're about to experience a massive turn of the vape community to the VC itself and to such accessories as well. Personally, I won't be going after a 'Jarhead', although I'd love to if I had the $$, since I'm a VC rookie still as well.. so I'd like to see how the vape works for me and when my finances are in a better condition I will definitely put either a jarhead or a Portside on my priority 'To Buy' list!!!
Happy VC R&Ding guys!! You're doing an amazing job for the VC community and those people that read this section of the FC Forum!!
Memories have just been dug out!! I was never a so "deep lvl" programmer but I always appreciate reading some code, comments are missing though , and just imagine what could those lines do to the whole project... I'd never thought that I'd see that kind of knowledge and open source style projects going around the FC Forum.... Hail to that dear fellow Stoner Scientists ya'all!!! It just feels soooo good that I've become a member of the VC community.. even with the M,for the beginning at least, I'm sure that you can get a pretty good idea about the VC... there so many things about this vape that I just can't stop looking around and getting informed about stems/bodies/tips/custom made stems and this thing can go forever... and in addition to that, an induction heater and in several versions as it looks like.......
I think that we're about to experience a massive turn of the vape community to the VC itself and to such accessories as well. Personally, I won't be going after a 'Jarhead', although I'd love to if I had the $$, since I'm a VC rookie still as well.. so I'd like to see how the vape works for me and when my finances are in a better condition I will definitely put either a jarhead or a Portside on my priority 'To Buy' list!!!
Happy VC R&Ding guys!! You're doing an amazing job for the VC community and those people that read this section of the FC Forum!!
So, I believe my side project has grown up a little and deserved a thread of it's own. More importantly, the portside is such an awesome project, it too deserves more of it's own space. Thanks @Pipes for starting this, and thank all you who have supported and helped me move my project along. From now on, I'll be a portside fan and follower here, and my project will move to a thread of it's own - The auto-magic super rZToaster, or something like that..
Update on the Portside.
So sorry, but have another delay. In using it for a while, it became apparent that a battery gauge was really needed. So, I ordered these guys. Will be easy to mount as just need a small hole and double sided thin tape.
Those dang enclosures are still somewhere on route from BC to me... Sat in BC for 13 days with no movement... Grrr....
Decided to re-orient the box so the screw lids are top and bottom. This is mostly do to punching the main hole is a bitch with the thick sided heat finned aluminum. Don't want to screw any up.
The good news is that I'm well on the way to having the wiring and coil orientating all complete. So once the final pieces do make it to my door, assembly will be quick.
Hang in there!!!
So sorry, but have another delay. In using it for a while, it became apparent that a battery gauge was really needed. So, I ordered these guys. Will be easy to mount as just need a small hole and double sided thin tape.
Those dang enclosures are still somewhere on route from BC to me... Sat in BC for 13 days with no movement... Grrr....
Decided to re-orient the box so the screw lids are top and bottom. This is mostly do to punching the main hole is a bitch with the thick sided heat finned aluminum. Don't want to screw any up.
The good news is that I'm well on the way to having the wiring and coil orientating all complete. So once the final pieces do make it to my door, assembly will be quick.
Hang in there!!!
YES! Battery Indication is really important specially since the BMS will just cut off the batteries when they get low and it'll be a bummer to get stuck. It's important to note that the batteries have internal resistance, resulting in a lower voltage output while under load. All this means is that to really gauge how much juice is left, the measurement should be taken while under load (while heating). This does not say that a measurement taken while not under load is meaningless, as it still is indicative of the state of charge, it's just important to be aware of. The problematic scenario would be a measurement taken while not heating may say 50% juice left, but BMS would cut you off while in use. Either way, Good move @Pipes !
flotntoke
thoroughly vaped
Hanging in - no problem! I like the idea of battery indicator for safety and convenience. You know @Pipes, we'd rather have a better product with a little more time needed, than something thrown together that is going to cause problems or be updated in 2 weeks. Many thanks for all of your hard, conscientious work on the Portside!
OK guys, my list for the Portside is now FULL.
The possibility of more batches will depend on how this batch fairs.
I received the enclosures yesterday and it was one unit shy. The carton was bashed up pretty bad from shipping and one corner ripped away and was taped back up. Suspect that's where the missing unit escaped. So this batch is 16 units instead of 17. Have opened a ticket with Banggood but have no high hopes there. Oh well.
Have two Jarheads left and can still make more and also have Skeletor units.
Have decided on the method to make the glass tube glow for a heater on indicator for the Portside. Hooking up 3 red LEDs in series around the bottom of tube just under the work coil. These LEDs will be held in place by shrink wrap and the light passes via the tube to the top. Using 2 each, 180 ohm resistors, one on each leg of the serial LED package, for a 360 ohm series resistance.
Pics coming soon...
The possibility of more batches will depend on how this batch fairs.
I received the enclosures yesterday and it was one unit shy. The carton was bashed up pretty bad from shipping and one corner ripped away and was taped back up. Suspect that's where the missing unit escaped. So this batch is 16 units instead of 17. Have opened a ticket with Banggood but have no high hopes there. Oh well.
Have two Jarheads left and can still make more and also have Skeletor units.
Have decided on the method to make the glass tube glow for a heater on indicator for the Portside. Hooking up 3 red LEDs in series around the bottom of tube just under the work coil. These LEDs will be held in place by shrink wrap and the light passes via the tube to the top. Using 2 each, 180 ohm resistors, one on each leg of the serial LED package, for a 360 ohm series resistance.
Pics coming soon...
GreenHopper
20 going on 60
Sorry to hear about the shipping woes, but delighted to hear things are progressing.
The heater lights sound awesome, will it be possible to disable them for stealth? Not that I care but I figured it was worth asking.
Thanks for the update.
Hmm, must admit, didn't think about that.
The light isn't going to be bright enough to draw attention during the day or under modest lighting conditions. But in the evening it might.
Don't think there would be a whole lot of situations that this should be a problem though. The heater could be placed down low or wherever, as you are not bringing it to your face.
Need some examples if you guys think it's a valid "enough" concern.
The light isn't going to be bright enough to draw attention during the day or under modest lighting conditions. But in the evening it might.
Don't think there would be a whole lot of situations that this should be a problem though. The heater could be placed down low or wherever, as you are not bringing it to your face.
Need some examples if you guys think it's a valid "enough" concern.
GreenHopper
20 going on 60
Well I'm personally not all that worried about being able to disable the light. I'll mostly be using the Portside at home.
GreenHopper
20 going on 60
A little production progress pic.
And here is the LED placement.
Keep in mind, you will only see the top mm or so.
Heading into the home stretch!
Now that is looking like a mighty fine solution to me.
Can't wait to be able to limit the butane for short trips on foot. The rest of the time my VapCap's getting jammed into the top side of a Portside for the induction ride until I hit the far side.
natural farmer
Well-Known Member
This stonehead will need a Jarhead sooner than later... I vaped a few consecutive bowls of AVB (weak) a couple of days ago and my thumb feels sore from all that twisting! 
Progress report.
All the main modulars are made and tested.
As are the battery holders with BMS wired in.
Along with the Enclosures and Kill switches.
Here is my updated Beta unit with the LEDs added. This is in a brightly lit kitchen.
It shows brighter in living room lighting.
What is still needed to be done.
Looks like I have to punch the enclosures the same as the beta unit after all. Not enough width to rotate the guts. Gonna have to eat my Wheaties to punch those holes.
Drill the power switch holes and hole for battery gauge.
Get the battery gauges in hand. Are in early part of a of 6-20 day transit.
So last hurtle is getting the holes punched. Using a manual twist type punch, so cutting through that thick aluminum is a real pita.
Once that is completed, the rest is a piece of cake.
All the main modulars are made and tested.
As are the battery holders with BMS wired in.
Along with the Enclosures and Kill switches.
Here is my updated Beta unit with the LEDs added. This is in a brightly lit kitchen.
It shows brighter in living room lighting.
What is still needed to be done.
Looks like I have to punch the enclosures the same as the beta unit after all. Not enough width to rotate the guts. Gonna have to eat my Wheaties to punch those holes.
Drill the power switch holes and hole for battery gauge.
Get the battery gauges in hand. Are in early part of a of 6-20 day transit.
So last hurtle is getting the holes punched. Using a manual twist type punch, so cutting through that thick aluminum is a real pita.
Once that is completed, the rest is a piece of cake.
jambandphan03
in flavor country
Progress report.
All the main modulars are made and tested.
As are the battery holders with BMS wired in.
Along with the Enclosures and Kill switches.
Here is my updated Beta unit with the LEDs added. This is in a brightly lit kitchen.
It shows brighter in living room lighting.
What is still needed to be done.
Looks like I have to punch the enclosures the same as the beta unit after all. Not enough width to rotate the guts. Gonna have to eat my Wheaties to punch those holes.
Drill the power switch holes and hole for battery gauge.
Get the battery gauges in hand. Are in early part of a of 6-20 day transit.
So last hurtle is getting the holes punched. Using a manual twist type punch, so cutting through that thick aluminum is a real pita.
Once that is completed, the rest is a piece of cake.
CharmCityVapeGuy
Known to some and enigma to others
It is incredible to watch the development progress on this. It really looks amazing. I hope I'm on that list.
flotntoke
thoroughly vaped
I'm sure glad I am! Was out and about yesterday and daydreaming of the day I have one of these mounted in the car. Can't wait!
Andreaerdna
If God is the answer, then the question is wrong
I recently tryied two new caps with low current PS, they both work great (12v6A CV mode) also stainless steel tip of new M model works without impact on current drain.
New caps are few mm shorter, hence less mass to heat, more feedback are necessary but lesser the mass of the cap lesser the energy to heat iIMnMs, and this is good as this allows to play safer even with battery pack (less watts overall flowing)
Also: new ti tip works the best, clouds are little tamed over a couple of hits more than V2 but abv is always less dark with this couple more of satisfyings hits. I retired old tips for when friends visit
New caps are few mm shorter, hence less mass to heat, more feedback are necessary but lesser the mass of the cap lesser the energy to heat iIMnMs, and this is good as this allows to play safer even with battery pack (less watts overall flowing)
Also: new ti tip works the best, clouds are little tamed over a couple of hits more than V2 but abv is always less dark with this couple more of satisfyings hits. I retired old tips for when friends visit