Congratulations! This is the first near correct description I have seen of these capacitance pressure sensors. So many think they are just a contact pressure switch! They are based on the simple electret capacitor microphone mechanics. But instead of the usual audio pre amplifier chip in the mic application, these devices have a very clever asic chip. It applies a continuous AC signal 24/7/365 at low power level across the diaphragm foil to ground. You can see it on an oscilloscope. I have a capture of this but can’t attach it here. That ac signal enables minute changes in capacitance to be detected. It is essentially a modified mic capsule.
@@NickElectronics At first thoughts, it seems like an overkill way of controlling the heater in these things. However, they seem to work very reliably under all conditions. A simple mechanical pressure switch would be notoriously unreliable and very dangerous if it stuck on! It’s also great for the folk (like me) who collect used discarded vapes to salvage the Li-ion batteries. The clever little asic stops the batteries from becoming over discharged as it cuts out at around 3V then flashes the LED. I agree disposable vapes are crazy wasteful, and are littering our environment.
@@ThePrawlin Agreeing that disposable vapes are incredibly wasteful. Also, I believe that in China, such a sensor costs almost nothing, especially considering the huge quantities they produce. So, definetely not an overkill )
I've been searching around for a couple hours now, and finally got a in depth explanation, thank you. I found a rechargeable yet disposable e-cigarette today, and pulled it apart, to salvage the charging unit and battery, when it occurred to me it didn't have a switch to initiate the coil to heat up. I found in this e-cigarette, a "Lost Mary" brand, what appears to be the capacitance chip, in your video, if not a clone. The strange part is that the mouth piece has an extended piece of plastic, that is part of the mouth piece mold, and it looks like a tiny dogs tail , and that piece of plastic sits directly on the chip. It did not have any of the metal layers or housing, as depicted in the video. Maybe I missed something, or mistakenly identified the part. I cleaned the device up and recharged it, and it still has fluid in it, which I didn't like much. But the point is, it worked properly, so there isn't any parts missing. Thought you might find this information interesting. EDIT: I looked carefully at it again, and noticed the little plastic tail piece rest against pin 2 and rests on top of pin3. I can't get my phone to zoom in on the chip, enough to get the information of it...
Hi, thank you very much for the info :) I believe there might be different mechanical principles to create contact between two plates depending on the device, but from electronics point of view it still should be some capacitive sensor :)
It seems to detect airflow, somehow, but like you I could not find any data sheets on either device. I did find where to buy the condenser microphone type, you where examining n AliExpress and believe it or not Walmart online! I almost ordered 5pcs for $8 and change, to try reading one with my ESP32, since I read somewhere they require 3.2 volts, but I'm sure I'll find another Vape, since the college kids around here are a bit wasteful@@NickElectronics
I come because there is a "technician" who repairs vaping equipment who says that the airflow sensor is a microphone. Thank you for confirming that my brain works correctly, deducing that it would be stupid to use a microphone to detect puff.
Very interesting. I watched this video because I routinely disassemble Vuse Alto vapes (because I have a ton of them). I harvest the lipo cell, magnets (awesome magnets) etc from them. But what I really wanted to do is use the actual Vuse control board to act as a 1S protection/charging board for use with the cell in other applications. I figured I could "go around" the air sensor and perhaps connect these wires to an off/on switch. In this way I wouldn't need to purchase separate 1S protection boards to use with the cells. With the coil totally disconnected, I was unsuccessful trying to simply bridge the full voltage going into the sensor to it's sensor voltage out (which I thought would make it turn on the power/LED). The Vuse board seems like it's a little too complicated of design to repurpose into a simple under voltage/over voltage board. Especially if it would cut the voltage to the output after a set amount of seconds. Pity to waste these nice looking boards. I suppose they would at least serve as general lipo charging boards. Unfortunately, without undervoltage protection, I can't really use them in projects.
Feel your pain. That is the problem of all application specific integrated circuits. They do work very well in the applications they were designed for. But it is somehow difficult to use them in other applications🥲
I have been taking apart quite a few of those recently though i came upon one of those draw sensors that has 4 connectors. Have not totally figured out yet what the 4th one is for As far as i can identify them, one wire directly from the battery +, an other wire connected to the charge/control board, oddly also labeled '+' and 2 wires going to the spiral. All a bit odd but i am confident i will figure it out
Maybe the one that goes to the charge board "+" just monitors battery state and duplicated the other +. With integrated circuits you never know ))) Yeah, in my life I understood that if you really want to figure something out, sooner or later you will do it. So, never give up :)
With a 550mah lipo battery, and around a 2ohm resistor coil, how are they getting enough power to the coil to sufficiently heat up? I am taking apart a vape myself and it has the same characteristics.
Capacity of a battery has nothing to do with a power it can deliver. Some li-ion batteries can deliver 1C current, which is 1Capacity (for the 550mah it would be 550mA current) and some can deliver up to 10C and way more for a short time. It depends how battery was designed. Speaking about the power. So we are talking about 3.3-4.2 Volts from a battery across a load of 2 Ohms. Current would be around 1.65-2.1 Amps, which gives power output of current^2*Load = 2.1Amps*2.1Amps*2Ohms = 8.82 Watts!! So that is the highest power that such a battery can deliver to the load of 2Ohms (if there is no other circuitry that boosts battery voltage to a higher level. Usually there are not). And almost 9 Watts is a CRAZY amount of power. If there is a current controller in the device, which directly controls the current through the coil, limiting it, current should be of any value and power and heat generated by a coil can be controlled. But yeah, definetely 1 battery can deliver enough. Hope this answears your question
@@NickElectronics Mine are disposable yet rechargeable, there is a usc-c port and lithium polymer battery. I have charged mine over 10 times so far. I found the charger, it's in the sensor, not sure how it works though.
@@LowBudgetGamer-o6l Hmm. In such case the IC should charge battery as well. Working principle is based on CC/CV charging algorithm probably,,, Like for a typical Li-ion battery. But in details it is hard to say
Excellent video, but please say to avoid buying these as putting rechargeable lithium batteries in single use devices causes harm to the environment. And vapes are bad in general.
New Video :)❗
th-cam.com/video/OgjVUAcjiTk/w-d-xo.html
Congratulations! This is the first near correct description I have seen of these capacitance pressure sensors. So many think they are just a contact pressure switch! They are based on the simple electret capacitor microphone mechanics. But instead of the usual audio pre amplifier chip in the mic application, these devices have a very clever asic chip. It applies a continuous AC signal 24/7/365 at low power level across the diaphragm foil to ground. You can see it on an oscilloscope. I have a capture of this but can’t attach it here. That ac signal enables minute changes in capacitance to be detected. It is essentially a modified mic capsule.
Hehe, thanks for a comment. It complements explanation in the video quite good :)
@@NickElectronics At first thoughts, it seems like an overkill way of controlling the heater in these things. However, they seem to work very reliably under all conditions. A simple mechanical pressure switch would be notoriously unreliable and very dangerous if it stuck on! It’s also great for the folk (like me) who collect used discarded vapes to salvage the Li-ion batteries. The clever little asic stops the batteries from becoming over discharged as it cuts out at around 3V then flashes the LED. I agree disposable vapes are crazy wasteful, and are littering our environment.
@@ThePrawlin Agreeing that disposable vapes are incredibly wasteful. Also, I believe that in China, such a sensor costs almost nothing, especially considering the huge quantities they produce. So, definetely not an overkill )
I've been searching around for a couple hours now, and finally got a in depth explanation, thank you. I found a rechargeable yet disposable e-cigarette today, and pulled it apart, to salvage the charging unit and battery, when it occurred to me it didn't have a switch to initiate the coil to heat up. I found in this e-cigarette, a "Lost Mary" brand, what appears to be the capacitance chip, in your video, if not a clone. The strange part is that the mouth piece has an extended piece of plastic, that is part of the mouth piece mold, and it looks like a tiny dogs tail , and that piece of plastic sits directly on the chip. It did not have any of the metal layers or housing, as depicted in the video. Maybe I missed something, or mistakenly identified the part.
I cleaned the device up and recharged it, and it still has fluid in it, which I didn't like much. But the point is, it worked properly, so there isn't any parts missing. Thought you might find this information interesting. EDIT: I looked carefully at it again, and noticed the little plastic tail piece rest against pin 2 and rests on top of pin3. I can't get my phone to zoom in on the chip, enough to get the information of it...
Hi, thank you very much for the info :) I believe there might be different mechanical principles to create contact between two plates depending on the device, but from electronics point of view it still should be some capacitive sensor :)
It seems to detect airflow, somehow, but like you I could not find any data sheets on either device. I did find where to buy the condenser microphone type, you where examining n AliExpress and believe it or not Walmart online! I almost ordered 5pcs for $8 and change, to try reading one with my ESP32, since I read somewhere they require 3.2 volts, but I'm sure I'll find another Vape, since the college kids around here are a bit wasteful@@NickElectronics
I come because there is a "technician" who repairs vaping equipment who says that the airflow sensor is a microphone. Thank you for confirming that my brain works correctly, deducing that it would be stupid to use a microphone to detect puff.
@@hernandantraccoli5 You are welcome :) You can show this video to that technicians, ahaha)
@@NickElectronics That was the first thing i did, and he didnt say anything Yet... 🤣. (Sorry for my english , im from Argentina)
@@NickElectronics oh, and thanks you very much for sharing this knowledge with us!
@@hernandantraccoli5 dont worry, I am also not a native english speaker, so :)
Pleased to help :)
Love learning random stuff like this. Thanks for the video!
You are welcome :)
Very interesting. I watched this video because I routinely disassemble Vuse Alto vapes (because I have a ton of them). I harvest the lipo cell, magnets (awesome magnets) etc from them.
But what I really wanted to do is use the actual Vuse control board to act as a 1S protection/charging board for use with the cell in other applications. I figured I could "go around" the air sensor and perhaps connect these wires to an off/on switch. In this way I wouldn't need to purchase separate 1S protection boards to use with the cells. With the coil totally disconnected, I was unsuccessful trying to simply bridge the full voltage going into the sensor to it's sensor voltage out (which I thought would make it turn on the power/LED).
The Vuse board seems like it's a little too complicated of design to repurpose into a simple under voltage/over voltage board. Especially if it would cut the voltage to the output after a set amount of seconds. Pity to waste these nice looking boards. I suppose they would at least serve as general lipo charging boards. Unfortunately, without undervoltage protection, I can't really use them in projects.
Feel your pain. That is the problem of all application specific integrated circuits. They do work very well in the applications they were designed for. But it is somehow difficult to use them in other applications🥲
I have been taking apart quite a few of those recently though i came upon one of those draw sensors that has 4 connectors. Have not totally figured out yet what the 4th one is for
As far as i can identify them, one wire directly from the battery +, an other wire connected to the charge/control board, oddly also labeled '+' and 2 wires going to the spiral. All a bit odd but i am confident i will figure it out
Maybe the one that goes to the charge board "+" just monitors battery state and duplicated the other +. With integrated circuits you never know )))
Yeah, in my life I understood that if you really want to figure something out, sooner or later you will do it. So, never give up :)
With a 550mah lipo battery, and around a 2ohm resistor coil, how are they getting enough power to the coil to sufficiently heat up? I am taking apart a vape myself and it has the same characteristics.
Capacity of a battery has nothing to do with a power it can deliver. Some li-ion batteries can deliver 1C current, which is 1Capacity (for the 550mah it would be 550mA current) and some can deliver up to 10C and way more for a short time. It depends how battery was designed.
Speaking about the power.
So we are talking about 3.3-4.2 Volts from a battery across a load of 2 Ohms. Current would be around 1.65-2.1 Amps, which gives power output of current^2*Load = 2.1Amps*2.1Amps*2Ohms = 8.82 Watts!! So that is the highest power that such a battery can deliver to the load of 2Ohms (if there is no other circuitry that boosts battery voltage to a higher level. Usually there are not). And almost 9 Watts is a CRAZY amount of power.
If there is a current controller in the device, which directly controls the current through the coil, limiting it, current should be of any value and power and heat generated by a coil can be controlled. But yeah, definetely 1 battery can deliver enough.
Hope this answears your question
can you make a similar video for the other board in vapes that connect the pressure sensor and the charger?
In the one I had, there were no other boards 😅But maybe in the future :)
I'd like to know how the battery is charged, I can't find any circuits.
Because its not charged :) It is one time use device.
When it discharges, you have to buy a new device.
@@NickElectronics Mine are disposable yet rechargeable, there is a usc-c port and lithium polymer battery. I have charged mine over 10 times so far. I found the charger, it's in the sensor, not sure how it works though.
@@LowBudgetGamer-o6l Hmm. In such case the IC should charge battery as well. Working principle is based on CC/CV charging algorithm probably,,, Like for a typical Li-ion battery. But in details it is hard to say
Excellent video, but please say to avoid buying these as putting rechargeable lithium batteries in single use devices causes harm to the environment. And vapes are bad in general.
I know they are bad for the environment and for health. The video is made only for educational purposes, to understand its working principle :)
what is name of sensor?
You can try SN-6027 6025 :)