Mad Scientist

I think many readily available, small multicell charger chips are 1A. There's a limit to what can be crammed on the board before it gets too big.

Sounds like a blown fuse.

That doesn't make sense. It would be no different than shipping a battery by itself, right? [/QUOTE] I think the regulations are different for flying batteries versus flying batteries in a device. Doesn't make a lot of sense but the people who write the regs aren't engineers and sometimes the regulatory process leads to compromises that just don't make sense.

If I understand how the fire button works correctly, you can use an NPN transistor (2N3904 is fine). With base at or below emitter potential (less than voltage drop of base-emitter junction), unbiased, no current flow. Base forward biased (3.3V is plenty), current flow. Fire terminals would be +12 side to collector as shown and the other side replaces where ground is shown to the emitter resistor. CPU output pin to base resistor (your CPU output pin is simulated by the 0 and 3.3V sources in the screen grabs). Hopefully the simulation makes sense to you. Forward bias current through base of transistor (base emitter junction) and it conducts. Zero bias current, it doesn't conduct. Classic emitter follower. You may have to experiment with what the DNA wants to see at the other side of the fire button. Another approach would be classic open collector / common emitter configuration. See the third simulation screen grab. Some CPUs have at least a few open collector outputs. If yours does, you don't even need a transistor, just a current limiting resistor.

The only way to diagnose is to know your settings. I guess the start would be are you sure the profile you think you're using is the one you're actually using. Next, can you post a screenshot of device manager while the unit is firing -- select at least temp, resistance and power for the graph.

I don't know if I don't fully get the TC paradigm but I'm also in the camp that temp is the adjustment I want to make. To me at least, temp is the power setting and the set temp is translated to power by the device to keep the coil at the average temp I set. Even when evaluating builds, I set the temp I want and watch in device monitor as to how much power is being applied to achieve that setting. As a result, I set a power that's not outrageous for the build but also significantly higher than what I would vape at without TC. The preheat is set at a power level well higher than that. Then I adjust temp to my preference at the moment. I just think doing it the other way around adjusting and limiting wattage sort of defeats the idea of TC and turns into more of a temp protection rather than temp control. To each his own. If evolv would allow a choice of what the bottoms do I would be happy lol.

I think the dangers of dry burning are just hype but there are admittedly still unknowns. A dental/industrial ultrasonic cleaner does a good job. Figure spending about $300 minimum. Or just recoil.

Are you saying each coil is a different material or you're talking about two different builds where neither worked properly? It won't work if one coil is Ni200 and one is Ti.

Not any stores near me. The hardware departments are all in shambles. At my local Home Depot, half the prepackaged baggies of "ordinary" screws are missing a part or two from theft. Even a suburban ace hardware had many empty bins (including all the #0 hardware of course) and all the parts mixed up. People are all selfish, in a hurry and think nothing of the next guy or the future. I need to move to civilization lol.

I'm no expert on the topic but I recall reading that the same issue may have to do with the Wh setting for the pack. How do you have that setting configured and what battery are you using?

If you're having that much trouble, my advice would be to return to a simple single wire, single coil atty. if that doesn't work well, it's very likely the mod. For the firing, you're saying it fired even when locked? if so, that puppy has to go back to Hcigar.

Your clearly superior knowledge and intellect far beyond us plebs has won you a free assessment and Ebook: http://www.dalecarnegie.com/mobile/ebook/communicate-with-diplomacy-tact-assessment/ Congratulations! (P.S. -- I guess we're all guilty of tactlessness from time to time) (P.P.S. -- A 0 cell reading coupled with a 4.59V cell reading for a pack presumably not on fire at the moment leads me to believe there's more going on than the pack and perhaps it's not the pack at all. I freely admit I don't know exactly what that more is.)

My first guess is it's the charger or cable. If the charger is cycling on and off, the DNA will do that. Do you have a known good 5 Watt brick to try?

Vaping Bad, is something else wrong too? Cell three at 4.59V. I haven't broken any of mine (yet lol) so not familiar with failure modes but would guess the voltage divider for reading the cell taps is toast in some way?

Top up the charge often (says captain obvious lol). It is rare that I'm far away from some USB power source. Do you find you can't top it up frequently?

No graphs. It's just a Chinese wrap of one of the big battery house batteries from apparently one of the better grade sort barrels. The info they did provide is a fantasy. Anyway, I'm sure the discharge curve is just an IMR or IMR hybrid. I'm not really into the battery end so my assessment is they don't seem to want to explode and last a while before needing a charge -- good enough lol. As a point of reference, they do seem to perform better than my 25Rs -- the 25Rs do get warm and I don't remember exactly what I get out of them but time wise it's less vaping. Although as mentioned, how do I know the 25Rs are genuine lol. I did buy the 25Rs from "reputable" vendors but they get duped too.

As another perspective, the gauge of the wire determines its surface area and thus the volume of juice it can flash boil at a set temperature. A wire is undersized for an amount of power if basically the heat per area exceeds an amount typically "known" to produce an acceptable result with wick and juice. Steam engine will give you that calculation and display whether from the result a build will be "hot." Thinner wire heats less surface area and so can produce acceptable vape with less power than a thicker wire which will produce more vapor with more power. Thin wire with more power will either be temp limited or, if not temp protected, burn the juice and wick. The opposite is true for thick wire. Not enough power for the surface area makes a weak vape. It's just a function of total heat (power) distributed over the surface area in contact with juice. Clapton wires are interesting because that idea was a clever invention (I believe from the mech crowd) to increase wire surface area without overly decreasing resistance as with just a thicker wire, so it would work on a mech. It also self wicks some juice (although this is just more surface area in contact with juice, so it behaves as a wire even thicker than its diameter). Every conducting metal composition has a TCR regardless of thickness or shape, and for making a wire and building it into a coil, as long as the build is stable, the average temperature of the entire length can be determined by its change in resistance (with a known starting temp). This is true regardless of the thickness or length of the wire. Clapton wires are no exception. They can be unstable, but for the most part are not. The key is to make them so the final result has no resistance change caused by thermal movement. Given I can do it, I conclude it isn't hard to do lol. The average temp delivered may not match an exact predicted set temp for some of the reasons you mention, but it will be consistent and repeatable, not to mention surprisingly close to predicted.

In the theme tab at the temp protected screen, use the drop down to select "show temperature" or "don't show." I agree that the default of a flashing message doesn't really make sense.

I'm using BestKalint (who? what?) I got at Fastech for about 5 bucks a pop. The description says 20A continuous, 40A peak, 2,800 mAh (and a partridge in a pear tree). They will definitely do 20A "continuous" (chain vape timing of "continuous") without getting warm and I get about 2,300 mAh, even at the high discharge rates we use. One thing about high end batteries is it is hard (for me at least) to tell if they're genuine, so I went with a pig in a poke brand no one has ever heard of figuring if they tested unacceptably below the stated description I could return them.

QF 5.25 is . . . 133 mm. Maybe call it the QF 133 (they made mark I and mark II models -- so there's 2 names right there lol).

Your only solution is to make several lol.

I understand what you're doing and I think it's a great idea. I have something similar in mind also. What I plan to do is monitor the DNA output connection through an analog input on my processor (I use PIC chips but most processors these days have analog inputs). On a PIC at least, the input impedance of an analog input is ~= 10 KOhm. A voltage divider with that impedance to an analog input would allow the processor to "test" the DNA mode (like fire for a few mS -- as much as will get past the DNA debounce -- and see if the DNA output has a voltage consistent with "fire" on it) and determine if it was locked or not, and the high input impedance would not have any effect on the DNA resistance measurements. This would prevent the processor from getting out of sync with the DNA for having all controls through the processor. One issue is the new coil up / down question which is a bit of a wild card and the software would have to be able to deal with that -- I haven't decided how to handle that yet. That is a third "mode" that's not locked but not unlocked. I guess the software could test to see if it can toggle between lock/unlock and if neither gets any fire voltage, then it's likely in new-coil-question mode (or maybe low battery or maybe shorted or . . . more testing needed). Another advantage of PIC chips are their small size and cost and the ability to scale up if needed. A 1K word eight pin processor with on chip A to D needs a few square mm of space and costs about 50 cents in reasonable quantities. 1K of program space is way more than enough to run the DNA controls. The next increment would be 4K . . . up to hundreds of K. They have midrange chips with USB so you can dispense with most of the button stuff (still need the FIRE button control). If you want to get really crazy, they also have chips with integrated LCD control and capacitive touch inputs for a few dollars each -- the sky is the limit for the human interface.

That will work. Thanks!

Haven't poked around on it yet. I was hoping someone would know a convenient spot. I suspect finding the supply to the processor won't take much time but I don't relish soldering to a fine pitch pin if it can be easily avoided.

If you just use a big circular loop of thick wire in free air, it doesn't get that hot. Making a coil reduces cooling efficiency and allows heat transfer from loop to loop. If you have 24, try twisting 3 or 4 strands (what will fit in your atty) into one large circular loop.