Want to know your thoughts

[Drmzindec]

Ive been talking to my dad who is an electronic engineer and we have had this discussion a few times before this, about creating an SA BoxMod thats a bit more suited towards our market.

Some of the ideas we have been going through ill list below. We started talking a year ago about it but nothing came from it, and after spending some time on here the last few weeks i see how many of you guys are interested in an SA made mod so we decided to start looking into this some more.

So id like some thoughts and ideas from you guys on what would be ideal to start of with.

Here is what we have come up so far.

Since i am a programmer and my dad an electronic engineer we can add some cool stuff.

1. We will start of simple with a Wattage between 75W or 100W.
   1. We will probably start with a single battery so 75W.
2. We going with an aluminium box, shape is still in discussion - thinking rounded corners for comfort.
3. OLED RGB screen - This will allow you to change your display colour to whatever you want.
4. VT/VW/Bypass Mode - we will be adding this since most people are now accustomed to this and i like it as well.
5. We will also be adding firmware upgrade since we will be making changes to perfect it for future use.
6. 3 buttons to control all the usual settings.
7. 0.2ohm will be the low max.
8. Temperature sensing will also be included.

Some bonus stuff:

1. It will also have Bluetooth installed and come with an app (App can upgrade firmware as well).
2. The app will give you access to change the colour of your screen as well as let you set your wattage profiles from your phone.
3. For fun ill add a recipe builder section to the app as a bonus.

At the moment it is all in discussion and will only start next year sometime once we have finished deciding on the functionality.

We have also decided we will be selling to the people on the forum here first so we can get some feedback. We are aiming on a selling price of around R700 with the information we have right now it might slightly go up. But good news is that if we get to production the price will drop again.

Im thinking of doing it in 2 ways:

1. DIY kit
2. Prebuilt kit

So any ideas you guys have (i reasonable specs) would be greatly appreciated.

Its still a while down the road but while i have my dads attention id like to get this started.

 

[Tom. F]

Great initiative. The question on my mind is if it will Include temp sensing capabilities. If so, ss seems to be the way forward and being no programming maestro by any means, how difficult will it be to add such a feature? Can you not "borrow" such an algorithm from a capable source? At that price I see a very lucrative market and I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Drmzindec]

Great initiative. The question on my mind is if it will Include temp sensing capabilities. If so, ss seems to be the way forward and being no programming maestro by any means, how difficult will it be to add such a feature? Can you not "borrow" such an algorithm from a capable source? At that price I see a very lucrative market and I wish you the best of luck.

Yes it will include temp sensing, i didnt actually add this when i wrote the post, im looking at the sensors this morning and they tiny as hell and super accurate.

Thank you very much, im excited about the project and seems like my dad is as well so im hoping this time around that we can get it started and going.

 

[Nightwalker]

Why not fixed lithium battery?

 

[Drmzindec]

Why not fixed lithium battery?

I want people to have a choice on what battery they want to use, instead of forcing them to use something they dont know.

Also as we all know if somehow the battery fails or breaks with a fixed battery its quite hard to replace or fix.

 

[Nightwalker]

I want people to have a choice on what battery they want to use, instead of forcing them to use something they dont know.

Also as we all know if somehow the battery fails or breaks with a fixed battery its quite hard to replace or fix.

True mate.

 

[Pixstar]

That's awesome, best of luck with it! Make it compact, I read somewhere (lost the link) research is showing a return to smaller tube style mods...interesting. Personally I'd prefer removable 18650. Go for it!

 

[Wyvern]

I think this could be interesting and I for one am all for local support - The main thing for me is size, I dont like mods bigger than my evic mini.

 

[blujeenz]

Personally I find the box shape boring, I mean the hard edges like the Hammond 1590 series alloy boxes, which I feel has been done to death.
So with that in mind perhaps you could do a guts only kit and leave the box up to the individual, maybe include it as an option in your range.
If you're doing the box case option, which is pretty much a must, it must have good tactile ergonomics otherwise you're not going to want to hold it.
Possibly 2 "guts" options, 1 with bells and whistles, and 1 without the bluetooth and smartphone app.
My thinking is that this is an already very niche market, narrowing it down further will only hurt your business model.
Im not suggesting hundreds of options because that is also unsustainable.

Its my opinion, based on the fact that you already have programming and electronics skillsets, that you need to acquire industrial design to balance things out.
Im sure youngsters studying design at technicon should fit the bill, in case you're looking for a good coffee shop to hang out in and poach talent.

 

[Phillip868]

If you add USB charging I will take two. Great idea, I wish the two of you all the best. I am sure you will get loads of support locally.

 

[blujeenz]

If you add USB charging I will take two. Great idea, I wish the two of you all the best. I am sure you will get loads of support locally.

@Drmzindec If adding a usb port dont make it fixed on the front panel like all the other sad faces on the present box mods.
Flexibility with usb placement is always a bonus feature with custom box's.

 

[Neal]

Good luck with this, sounds interesting. Keep us up to date with progress. I really dig anodised finishes as on the Hana, might be a cool option.

 

[Kuhlkatz]

I think the bluetooth functionality in most mods is just a fad to catch more techie users. At the end of the day, the older Smoks basically allows quick settings & custom settings, but the functionality that I really wanted from this was a proper puff count, which was only active while connected.
In my opinion, rather skip the bluetooth part which adds to cost and complexity, and could prove tricky with any metallic casing. Concentrate on functionality of Mods like the Evic VTC series which I do not own, but has decent puff counting abilities from what I can see, and displays all info required at a quick glance.

Most people want better battery life from their mods, which adds to vaping time. The current range of mods that only sports one 18650 has a very limited battery life for the average chain vaper. In my experience TC over Power mode does not really extend vaping by any large degree.
The 26650 batteries have larger capacity than their 18650 counterparts, and can more readily handle the larger current draws - consider that as an alternate power source if going single battery.

 

[Andre]

The 26650 batteries have larger capacity than their 18650 counterparts, and can more readily handle the larger current draws - consider that as an alternate power source if going single battery.

I agree, there surely is a market for a 26650 box mod.

 

[Drmzindec]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys.

@blujeenz There will definitely be usb charging on the box, this is kind of a must even for me. (I wont be going with the cheap one here, this must be a good component). We will probably go for bottom placement, somewhere out of the way.

I will most definitely look into the 26650 battery size, i havent seen any around so might be good option as something new.

The bonus stuff like the Bluetooth is just an extra, since we can do it we thought we would. But from the feedback i see that most people dont really care for it. The one thing we have here is that we can include it without upping the cost too much, so a person owning one will have the option of using it or not. The app and the Bluetooth are extras but will not be a needed function if you dont want it.

I picked up my evic vtc mini today and there is loads of cool options on it, and adding a puff counter is something quite simple so will include that.

With the box design: I have a guy who is great at it but his prices are a bit steep for me, so im looking into quite a few different options and shapes to go with. This will be one of the last options we are looking at, since we will do the technical first so we know what size we have to work with.

I am also thinking that having a strip down version and then a bells and whistle version and lastly a DIY version. All 3 of these are possible, i think that we will be starting with the advanced version and then decide from there what will be kept and how it will be packaged at the end.

 

[Drmzindec]

I think this could be interesting and I for one am all for local support - The main thing for me is size, I dont like mods bigger than my evic mini.

The single battery version will be small since i like small as well. I have an evic mini and its great in my hand. hanks for the feedback.

 

[Wyvern]

Thanks that for me is a bigger issue, I wont mind swapping batteries as I go, just keep at least one small, no fuss like the mini and if I can get my avatar on it I will be a happy girl

 

[hands]

I would be interested in the chip for some diy projects.Keep us up to date with progress

 

[Drmzindec]

Thanks that for me is a bigger issue, I wont mind swapping batteries as I go, just keep at least one small, no fuss like the mini and if I can get my avatar on it I will be a happy girl

I will definitely see what i can do for you here! Was looking at the displays today and found 2 nice ones, if we go with the 26650 there will definitely be space for a bigger display.

At the moment the display we are going with is slightly smaller than the evic vtc mini one. But includes everything except the word "Power" and the "Time".

 

[Drmzindec]

Thanks to everyone who has added ideas so far, i greatly appreciate it and its helped a lot so far.

I will add progress as soon as there is more, but dont want to give away too much yet. This time of year everything stops so we cant get much done.

We have however selected the display and chip for the demo version today and started some of the pc board design to get a rough idea of the component sizes.

 

[WHeunis]

0.2ohm will be the low max.

For VT/TempControl you will have to go WAAAAYYYY lower than that. My single coil Ni200 is clocking in at 0.1 and dual at 0.041.
Just sayin...

0.2 ohms in Ni200 world is one GARGANTUAN-ass coil!

 

[Drmzindec]

For VT/TempControl you will have to go WAAAAYYYY lower than that. My single coil Ni200 is clocking in at 0.1 and dual at 0.041.
Just sayin...

0.2 ohms in Ni200 world is one GARGANTUAN-ass coil!

That was mainly for Wattage mode.

But thank you for the feedback, i dont have a lot of experience with Ni but will play around with all of them before we start building.