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LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Hi Ken, I think Martin has got it about right. Being able to adjust the voltage on the e-cig coil will give you control over the volume of smoke produced. The DC- DC converter I listed in an earlier post in this thread can be adjusted to set that voltage. You do need an air pump to push air through the e-cig. I don’t think a fan will work as well. I use diluted as smoker fluid. Dilution doesn’t seem critical. I use something like 75:25 glycerine:water. You might find diluting it more will reduce the smoke if you are getting too much. Graham93

4 years ago by Graham93

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LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Hi Ken, Re: "I’m hoping to produce a small stream" You will need to have a steady constant flow of air passing over the heating coil using a fan or air pump. You will have to experiment with the coil voltage as you need it hot enough vaporise the liquid but not to hot to burn out the wick. Depending on the liquid you use you will also have to experiment. My suggestion would be to use diluted to about 50/50 with water as a starting point. The other members that have been doing some fantastic experiments will probably be better suited to answer your question than me. Martin555.

4 years ago by Martin555

Forum

TRIAL FITTING SMOKE UNIT TO THE HSL

Both saltpetre and are readily available here on eBay. Graham93

4 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Exhaust Smoker

Following several weeks experimenting, and lots of discussion with jbkiwi, the exhaust smoker is now installed in the Crash Tender. The heart of the device is an e-cig tank and coil. This was adapted with an acrylic end piece to allow connection of power and air. The 2ml capacity of the e-cig is a bit limiting so an expansion tank made from acrylic tube was added to give a fluid capacity of around 10ml. The smoker fluid is 75% . The coil in the e-cig is designed to work from a single cell LiPo battery. A power converter drops the voltage from the boat's 2S battery down to 3.5V with a claimed efficiency of 98%. This voltage is adjustable which allows control of the amount of smoke produced. Forced air is provided by a small diaphragm pump salvaged from a defunct blood pressure monitor. This pushes air through the e-cig. The resulting smoke is fed into the cooling water line between the ESC and the exhaust ports. As the smoker is most effective simulating the engine 'ticking over' a water pump is used to create some water flow when the main propulsion motor isn't running. This adds more realism to the effect. An electronic controller based on PIC microchips connects to the throttle channel and pulses the air pump at a rate determined by the throttle setting. It also runs the water pump at a slow speed, and controls the power to the smoke generator coil. If the throttle is held at maximum for a couple of seconds, the smoker pumps and coil are switched off to save on battery consumption. With the throttle at idle, a quick blip forward on the throttle will start the smoker again. Power consumption is around 0.7A on a 2S LiPo. The two pumps are mounted below the footwell floor and the smoke generator is fixed to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine room. My thanks go to jbkiwi for his encouragement and suggestions during the development of this feature. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Another Exhaust Smoker V2

JB, Re: I was wondering if adding propylene glycol might make a difference. Don’t know what effect this would have. I’ll be interested to hear what happens if you try it. I find I have plenty of smoke using plain and I can increase or decrease it by adjusting the power to the smoker coil. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Hi Ian, Martin, Yes, JB is using baby oil, I'm using diluted 50% with water. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93