This was a reply to a question on my mirror thread on the ecf forum
What happened....
Well that is a long story...
well where to start.....
First let me say I hope that if you are using speaker wire for the battery and atty connections the insulation can withstand getting a little warm. If you wire this thing up and the insulation melts off the wires while you are vaping at a high current it might be a bad problem. and I am not thinking that 18 gauge wire will fit in the holes. 20 gauge was a tight fit.
If you are looking for something to take up the room for that screen there is a link for mamu's screen cradle that might work for you check this link for more info:
DNA Screen and Volt Meter Housings at ShapewaysIf you are looking for a good 510 connector I finally ended up using this one:
Fatdaddyvapes Mechanical Mod Complete 510 Thread Repair Insert Kits | eBayand you can get it directly from his store here:
SHOP - FatDaddyVapes.com - Home of the best vaping equipment, eliquids, and supplies!!!As I understand it the problem with smd fuses is if you blow one then you gotta take everything apart to replace it and the ptc fuses are self resetting. Mamu has a good fuse tutorial here:
Wiring PTC Fusesor here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/battery-mods/518846-about-fuses-choosing-appropriate-fuse-your-mod.html#post11996664Breaktru says he uses loctite heavy duty professional epoxy with a five minute set time That stuff only has a 130 degree temp limit so it might not do so well around atty connectors. if you are going to use the atty connector I gave a link to from fat daddy vapes it has a nut to keep it in place though. alternately the loctite general purpose epoxy has a 300 degree limit which should be fine on an atty connector.
You are going to want a low resistance connection at the battery and the atty with wiring that is not overly long whatever you go with.
I have found that the dual 18650 battery holder that I bought from amazon is not great even after I yanked out the contacts and rewired it into a parallel configuration because at 30 watts when the batteries are under drain during heavy vaping the springs heat up and contract breaking connection and rebooting the board (when they cool and come back into place the connection is reestablished). I have not found a suitable solution to this problem yet.
You are going to want to fuse both the positive and negative sides of the battery feed so as not to burn up the board. There is no reverse polarity protection on the board at all.
If you are looking for a place to get ptc fuses or wire I bought my ptc fuses from
Mouser Electronics - Electronic Components Distributor .
As far as wire choices The Ideal wire sizes are 20 gauge for the atty and battery connections and 24 for everything else. I also found 20 gauge wire to be hard to come by as my local radio shack only carried it in a solid core or a speaker or telephone wire (and I was asked more than once if I was building a bomb when trying to get 20 and 24 gauge wire from the local hardware and auto stores and tried to explain to them I needed the wire for a small piece of electronics I was building lol). I found that solid core was unsuitable as when I was trying to move stuff around to get it into my box they would break. and desoldering was a pain in the rear. I did manage it though with a solder sucker and some .050 inch no clean desoldering braid (and a second set of hands to push the button on the solder sucker. I did eventually find a hobby shop the next town over that deals with model trains and RC cars and they had 20 gauge wire. There is a range of wire sizes in the data sheet for the DNA. It can be found here:
http://www.evolvapor.com/datasheet/dna30.pdfI too had a real problem with soldering. I guess that is because any soldering I had had to do in the past was limited to a copper pipe using a blow torch. I found the following tutorials to be very helpful especially the one about proper soldering:
Easy TutorialsNow as far as what went wrong with that board... heh
I still don't know...
I got a replacement though with no problem. I just I wish I knew why it did what it did....
The worst part is that the board I sent in to get the screen replaced went about pretty much immediately doing it when I got it in the box and started vaping on it. They were both from a to z vapor world. I really don't know why they did it and I am not saying it has anything to do with who I bought it from.
I can say the replacement board I got from evolv directly is not doing that and I am going on day two vaping it.
I have altered my original design in as far as I have gone with a hammond enclosure as well, scrapped the atty connector that came with the a to z kit, using a battery holder, using pptc fuses on the positive and negative sides of the battery box instead of just one side. Which is to say I have totally changed what I am building LOL but... the problem here is that the second board that fried did so in the newly designed mod configuration.
This seems very strange to me as it is now working fine with the replacement board for the one that was originally fried. I have looked both boards over and the only difference I can see with my untrained eye is that this chip seems to be different between the two boards (and of course the fact one says evolve dna and the other says a to z vapor world when I turn them on)
This is the replacement I got from evolve and it seems to be holding up
see the bottom of this thread 1st pic is the one that worked
This is the chip that was on both boards that smoked
see the bottom of this thread 2nd pic is the one that smoked
I still don't know what is up with that... I do not know why it smoked either time...I know that as of right now I have a working DNA mod that I need to finish my lexan cover for and put new battery contacts into but as to why the other two boards smoked I am completely baffled.
I do feel like I could make another one. I am not of the opinion that I did anything in particular to make those two boards let out all of their factory smoke. I am glad that I got at least one working DNA mod out of all of this. I have a lot more into it than it would have cost me to just buy one but I have learned a lot, been put on the track to doing/learning a lot more, and have the satisfaction of having made the dang thing myself.
now for a breakdown of what I got into it
$6.85 at lowes for a 21/64th's and a 13/64th's drill bit and some blades for my razor knife
$8.62 at lowes for a lexan sheet and some finishing washers (didn't end up using the washers)
around $10.00 at walmart for loctite general purpose epoxy (300 degree temp rating) and some craft foam for spacing I decided not to use.
$15.31 at fat daddy vapes for atty connector's to be honest it is for three only used one.
$19.88 on ebay to buy the professional strength loctite epoxy
$36.00 on amazon for an enclosure, heatshrink, desoldering braid, and battery holder
$13.38 at mouser electronics for 10 pptc fuses
$85.00 at a to z vapor world for a ($45.00) dna 30d
$124.99 at a to z vapor world for a dna board, three spherical chrome tactile switches, one slider switch, and a cheap silver plated atty connector (I did not use the atty connector).
$8.00 from radio shack.com for a roll of silver bearing solder.
$25.00 for an adjustable wattage soldering iron
$5.00 for a fine point soldering iron tip from radioshack.com
$20.00 for two fifty foot rolls of 20 gauge wire from a local hobby shop (wanted two different colors one for positive one for negative)
$71.57 for RadioShack Electronics Components Pack 1 Model: 2760253 | Catalog #: 276-253 (to be fair this and the next item are for me to learn electronics using the platt electronics book and nothing in them was suitable for building this mod other than something from me to learn on)
$89.46 RadioShack Electronics Components Pack 2 Model: 2760254 | Catalog #: 276-254 (again to be fair this and the last item was for me to learn electronics using the platt electronics book and nothing in them was suitable for building this mod other than something from me to learn on)
and a few dollars on other things I did not end up using for what ever reason.
I believe I have 529.06 tied up in building this thing plus a few odds and ends (lol that sucks). I can hope that evolve will replace this second board that burnt but I am not going to plan on it. maybe they will maybe they won't but at least I know I can build one of these and what I need to use to do it and I have at least one working mod out of it. I do have enough epoxy and wire and solder and some other things to last forever to lol. I also have a new hobby. I know it will get better from here. I also invested a little over $40.00 to buy a vamo v5 a couple of days ago after the second a to z board let out all of it's factory smoke just in case this now third attempt did not work out.
I will post a pic when I get the cover done and I know this one is going to keep working lol. give me about a week as I got some other things that I have been neglecting lately that need to be taken care of first but at this stage I must say that it has been up and working since about 1:30 am last night and right now it is 8:37 pm I live on the night shift so I was sleeping between 6:30 am and 1:00 pm today
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank breaktru, craighb, mamu, bapgood, skyfntm, retird for spoon feeding this hungry newb all the way as it would not have happened at all without all of their help.
All I can say is wow what a learning experience. Now I am going to try to learn how to make the step down and boost boards myself, try to get an rma for this second fried board, and set out on the road to enlightenment to the fascinating world of micro electronics.
Wish me luck...
I'm gonna need it!
:vapor:
I hope this all helped someone
Doug_xx2
here are the two pics