Popular Mod - The Baby Monster.
Originally published at Verey Bowring Subjects. Please leave any comments there.
The most popular of the mods I have made is called the Baby Monster and I thought I would share how I came to be making it. Like any modder, I like to find readily available components to turn into electronic cigarettes. I am still amazed this particular device proved so popular since it was basically accidental.
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I was looking about ebay and noticed the battery converters where you put an AA battery into a plastic case and use it as a C cell battery instead. I figured I could get it to fit a 16340 battery and maybe room for an LED and since I make almost flat copper switches there should have been just enough room.
When they arrived and I started figuring out internal layout I realised I could put an on/off switch in there too since the copper buttons are basically touch sensitive and you don’t want it firing when you haven’t meant to. The only thing that was a real issue was the size of an eGo style connector, they are quite big and the casing in question is small. I then cut about 6mm off the back end of the connector leaving it just big enough to have a lip at the base at the bottom of the eGo thread.
- I cut a hole for the on/off switch, and a couple of small slits to accommodate the copper strips of the button.
- Inside I had to use a grinder to widen the internal space to fit the fatter battery diameter.
- I then soldered the negative spring to the on/off button with the spring cut back a bit, otherwise it would be too big to allow the battery to sit comfortably.
- I pre-soldered the eGo connector with a positive and negative wires and epoxied it in place.
- The copper switch was attached and I soldered it to the positive of the connector and the LED.
- I then used epoxy putty to attach the eGo connector to the casing and put a small screw through the top of the casing next to the connector to help protect it from coming loose when people screwed attys on and off.
- Then I soldered the negatives to the on/off switch and used the epoxy putty to attach it into the base of the casing with the button protruding through the hole I made earlier.
- Also when attaching the base I had precut a piece of round plastic to seal the bottom hole in the casing.
It was quite delightful when I first fired it up that something so small could put out so much. Also the prototype is slightly different to the “production” models. Originally I had the copper button on the opposite half of the casing to the rest of the gubbins, for production I realised I could fit everything in one side which meant less chance of the wires going to the button being stretched or broken.
People seem to love the little blighter and I can announce men seem to go for blue or UV LED’s while the ladies seem to prefer pink or green LED’s (not everyone by all means but a trend). I am really proud that something that was an experiment to see how small I could make a PV (e cig) became my best seller. It is very simple in construction so has very little that can go wrong, if it does go wrong it is easy to repair. It’s never going to win design awards but I am glad so many people seem to like it - one reason I like modding.