E-cigs, vape pens, puff bars : Trash Tech

[dbanner]

Are you saying that one should not inhale the vape smoke, but to puff like cigar, and then kinda back swallow a little?
Well I've been doing it wrong.

I thought that vaping would become a substitute for smoking cigarettes.

Now I'm addicted to both!

I vape sometimes, and other times I feel for real cigarette.

I'll investigate more on this pressure sensor thing.

[Skippy]

Lithium cells don't like being over-discharged. It's likely that the cells from the disposable vapes will be reasonably discharged. I think it would be a good idea to give any recovered ones a trickle charge, to bring them up to 3.8V -> 4.0V . It's not necessary to go above this for the purposes of protecting them from harm while not in use.
This can be done in many simple ways. Charging a cell from another larger cell, eg. a 18650, via a dropper resistor, is easy, and ensures the cell can't be over-charged, as the charge-supplying cell will not be more than 4.2V to start with.

Attached is a pic of a refillable vape, that's had the case cut off to expose the electronics. I extended the battery wires so that any cell can be wired up to it ... maybe I'll fit a pair of croc clips on it some time. It has a micro-USB port on it, from which it takes 5V power. It works well, the red LED turns off when the cell is fully charged.

[Skippy]

I've been steadily accumulating [ pun ] these discarded vapes, pic attached of about 25 good ones, there's another 10 slightly squashed. Many Elfbar600's, a few more big Elux Legend ones, one of which is rechargeable, another which is branded 'Bob Marley One Love Bar', yeah I'm sure Bob would approve. A few flat types, the 'Geek bar', and a flat Elux.
I think a lot of them are thrown from moving cars, a significant quantity of mine have been spotted on grass verges or in the gutter whilst cycling. Anywhere 'quiet' , where no-one will witness the littering, that's the place they will be.

I sacrificed a couple of pressure switches, to see the inner workings. One 5-pin SOT-23 device does it all. 0V and cell +ve (3.7V) power, one pin goes to the microphone 'capacitor' element, one connects direct to the LED, one is the active high switched output. Schematic of mine attached, with the polarity of the LED marked. I haven't tried other LEDs, it looks like it's current limited, but it may be wise to use a series resistor , if you're going to use an external red, green etc LED.
I found a better datasheet for the IC / switch. It does appear that it can be used as a charging regulator. Attached is the pdf datasheet.

[Skippy]

As predicted, the littering problem has been rightly raised by environmentalists, which could bring about schemes to encourage recycling of these vapes.
A BBC article :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63037553

This doesn't tackle the littering of the cardboard boxes and aluminised plastic packaging these vapes come in, though. I see masses of the card boxes in my travels, discarded by the trash of society.

[Skippy]

I'm noticing more varieties of disposable vapes around, now. There's plenty of rectangular "Mary" types, these have the cylindrical cell alongside the liquid container. And more "Crystal" types of cylindrical ones, with an outer plastic body, and the familiar stainless steel tube inside, containing the battery/liquid. There's also several rechargeable but still disposable/not-refillable types. These have a large liquid container ( eg. 3500 puff ) but a modest capacity cell, good for perhaps 600 puffs. They have a micro-USB port on them, so the cell can be recharged several times until the liquid is used up. They have some new type of pressure sensor, with 5 or 6 pins, to take care of the charging side of things, as well as the usual functions.
I've also come across a new cell size, 18250, quite short and fat. They could be useful is you're making series-connected packs, 2S / 3S , a 3-cell arrangement would be little bigger than a common 18650.
Pics of Mary and crystal, and the guts of a couple of rechargeable disposables: