A new tool in the Steam Engine toolbox - Wire Wizard

[Dampmaskin]

After a year of pondering, a month or two of planning and gathering gumption, and a few days (weeks?) of sweating and cursing over a computer keyboard, I have finally come up with another coil calculator (or rather, a wire calculator this time). This is for TC coils, and also for all the fancy schmancy coil freaks out there. With some luck and some time, it can grow into a calculator for most coil winding needs. Who knows?

I haven't linked to it from the Steam Engine navigation menu yet, because I don't want everyone and their grandmother using it right now. It is not a finished product. But it has reached a point where I feel it's time for some feedback, lest I go astray and turn it into a steaming (vaping) heap of garbage, so here is the sooper sekrit link for you:

Wire Wizard

Feel free to check it out, take everything with a grain of salt, and if you don't understand the first thing click "How it works". Then enjoy whatever works, try to enjoy whatever doesn't, and also feel free to say exactly what you think below.

[Guest]

I see how this could be useful make whatever wire style you want type in your length for what type of ohms your wanting and that's what you have to work with. You can make a 6/5 wrap 1/8 dia or a 4/3 wrap 1/4 dia coil and still have the same ohms.

[Guest]

You can really go crazy with your wire build :-)

[Tomr1088]

Wire length doesn't seem to affect the tcr either anyways. As long as the different wires are still proportionate to each other which they are

[Dampmaskin]

Laguz75 said:

You can really go crazy with your wire build :-)

Yeah giving people the ability to go bananas was a big part of why I decided to make it that way.  

But a fair warning; When you reach three or more levels of wires-within-wires, accuracy is probably not going to be stellar. I suspect that errors will accumulate and multiply, and what have you.

Tomr1088 said:

Wire length doesn't seem to affect the tcr either anyways. As long as the different wires are still proportionate to each other which they are

That is correct. Wire length doesn't do much useful right now, except give you the resistance. I will add a coil wrap counter at some point, or give the user the option to select inner diameter and wrap count, and have the wire length calculated from that.

[Dampmaskin]

The a new calculator that makes it easier to get TCR profiles for mixed builds hos been "officially" released. I think it may be time to add the link to the link page between EScribe and Steam Engine.

https://my.evolvapor.com/info/materials

The old calculator will still be available, so removing that link is entirely optional.

[Manny4pacman]

How do i work with wire wizard if i use dual coils ?

[Dampmaskin]

There's no option for that in the WW yet. Model a single coil, and halve the resulting resistance in your head. The temperature factors will be unaffected.

[Manny4pacman]

Okey ill give it a try tyvm for the fast response

[Manny4pacman]

Finally it works youre my hero Dampmaskin

Now working on other wires

Thx alot

[daath]

The temperature factors will be unaffected

TCR is unaffected by how many wires, provided it's the same material, yes?

[VapingBad]

daath said:

The temperature factors will be unaffected

TCR is unaffected by how many wires, provided it's the same material, yes?

yes

[Margucci]

if you are just looking for TCR of a uniform wire build (all the same type of wire,) than all you need to do is select a single round wire of that type. no other field matters as it will all be the same. if you want to calculate resistance (or any other value) than you need to completely fill out the wire wizard. finally, if you are going to be doing a hybrid wire build (at least two different types of wire,) and want accurate information including TCR you need to completely fill it out as well. 

also wire wizard can do parallel builds just fine. if you are doing parallel coils (two different coils) in the first drop down in the wire builder choose parallel. in the new field which opens to the right build the individual coils which will be installed. if you are doing a parallel wrap (lets say two wires wrapped together to form one coil) in the first drop down you would select twisted as the type, choose the number of wires, and for the twist pitch just set it to something absurdly high (ie. 500mm) to that they are not calculated as twisted at all. one limitation in the tool is that you cant do parallel wraps with different materials using this method. for example lets say you wanted to parallel wrap one kantal wire with either another wire type (ie SS) or design (ie ribbon), you are unable to input that into the steam engine. 

[mikepetro]

Is one of the wires in the wizard equivalent to "Rene 41"?

[Dampmaskin]

Looks like Rene 41 has 9+% Molybdenum and 10+% Cobalt in it. I'm no expert, but from what I've heard, I'm not sure if it's safe to have any of those in contact with your vapor.

But in any case it seems to have some popularity. I'll see what I can find out about it.

Update: I can't seem to find a TCR for it anywhere.

[Margucci]

there are many wires listed including some which are proprietary as well. however, they are all the "known" vaping wires. if you want to make a suggestion there is an about page with instructions on giving feedback and suggesting changes. here is the link: http://www.steam-engine.org/about.asp

[Dampmaskin]

Yeah I know, it's my page.

If you find the TCR For R41, I can add it to the list.

[Margucci]

ah. your username completely slipped my mind. great tool. 

i actually had a question for you. i was wondering if you had any personal experience using hybrid wires in TC mode. i am considering making a hybrid Ni/SS clapton with a 28GA Ni core with 32GA SS wrap. the idea is to stabilize the TC with the Ni core while maintaining the flavor of SS. i have asked around in a few areas and nobody has personal experience that they are willing to share. 

[Dampmaskin]

I tried twisting 28ga Kanthal with 28ga Ni200. It tasted terrible. I don't know why, but I'm guessing it was because I twisted it too tightly so the Ni200 stretched and developed hotspots. Also, the Kanthal didn't have any heat flux to speak of; the Ni200 did all the work.

Then I tried claptoning 30ga Ni200 around some 26-ish gauge Kanhtal. Again, the current mostly flowed through the Ni200, leading to poor performance. I've since learnt that you should make sure most of the heat is produced in the core of the clapton.

I did this before I made the Wire Wizard, so I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I haven't gotten around to experimenting much with hybrid coils since. Yes, I'm aware that's kind of ironic considering how much time I've spent making a tool for calculating them...

[Margucci]

well, im looking forward to trying the 28GA Ni core and 32GA SS wrap as soon as my nickel wire is delivered in 14 days - 8 months from china. and thanks for the input. its along the lines of what i was thinking for making a clapton. allow the increased heat from the Ni to radiate outwards from the core to not only heat the SS wire but also because if it were the other way around the TCR curve would be almost that of SS (instead of Ni) and that would defeat the intended purpose to stabilize TC. 

your experience with twisting is interesting. i never through about the potential hotspots due to the stretching of the nickel wire causing issues. 

[Darthtanien]

Hello. First of all. Awesome job on Steam Engine. The best tool in the industry, in my opinion. Second thing is I wrap all of my Ni200 with the same size Kanthal. Do Not over twist it. Make sure that at the connections both wires are crimped. I had problems claptoning where TC was erratic. I now use a 28 GA Ni200 and 28 GA Kanthal, twisted in to a nice spiral. If you over twist it you can actually break down the thickness of the Ni200(because it is so soft) and ruin your experience. I twist @ 20-25 twists per inch. Make a spaced coil and it works out great. Taste is nice (I do not like the taste from Nickel) and TC is spot on. No burnt hits or burnt cotton. I wasted 100's of feet of wire to finally get something that worked well.

[SmokyTheBear]

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisii

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisted

I was woundering if you could tell me how to set up a twisted ni200 and Kanthal on steam engine

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisted

[VapingBad]

SmokyTheBear said:

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisii

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisted

I was woundering if you could tell me how to set up a twisted ni200 and Kanthal on steam engine

how do you use steam E. for two types of wire twisted

You don't need to do anything special for the material on the mod or on the Wire wizard page, twisted Ni is the same as single strand and Kanthal does not need the material setting as it will not be temp limited by the DNA 200. 

For the Coil Wrapping page there are boxes to set these in, but I don't think you meant this.

[SmokyTheBear]

thanks. do you think if i twisted ni200 and 316L SS would it run on ni200 and bump up my ohms maybe or ni200 and KA1

[VapingBad]

SmokyTheBear said:

thanks. do you think if i twisted ni200 and 316L SS would it run on ni200 and bump up my ohms maybe or ni200 and KA1

The wire wizard page is for creating the material's curve or TCR for mixed wire coils, I have not tried it so can't advise which mixes are best.  I am liking triple twisted 0.2 mm (32 AWG) Ni200 ATM, I find it easier to work with than say 0.4 mm (26 AWG) Ti and better flavour, strong enough to pull cotton through while just soft enough to tweak the spacing in a couple of seconds) YMMV.