DNA 30 Box Mod

accaguest

I'd been meaning to make one of these for ages and finished it today. I'd tried a Vamo before so had a spare 1550p Hammond box and had a plan. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Got the buttons, fat daddy 510 etc. at cigreen

Chip & charger from bargainvapour

Box, epoxy from farnell

Taper reamer for boring out holes here and 2mm 'tinted' :rolleyes: lexan here

Couple of things

• 16mm switches mean the internal size is 16mm. I didn't know that. Biggest drill bit I had was 12mm. Lot of messing then.
• The lids for Hammond boxes are a nightmare. They have a big lip and pins that you'd need to get rid of around your buttons. Thats why I went with the lexan. It also shaved 2mm off the depth.
• I thought the 'tint' would hide the wires. Maybe black would but I could only find grey.Oh well.
• Messed up the buttons by not measuring twice.
• Soldered direct to the battery so no swapping it.
  
• Probably the major mistake - I put all the wires except the charger into the box before I got the chip. I thought I could then solder them to the board once it arrived. WAY beyond me. The board is so tiny. Half the size I was expecting. I soldered new wires on to the chip and connected them to the box wires so ended up with spaghetti junction.

Some pics of prepping it









And it finished and (amazingly) working.









My camera on my tablet's only 2mp and no flash so it looks worse in the photos but it's actually grand. If it holds up I'll be delighted - I absolutely hammered the chip. Shocking scenes - sparks, smoke, cutting in/out as I wedged it all it in the box Dearie me. Evolv chips are absolute warhorses going by this, no way should it be working.

Anyway, it was a bit of a bucket list thing, very glad I did it. Just hope it lasts on me now. I kind of recommend doing it and kind of recommend just buying one

nuttyboy79

Nice one fair play to you wouldn't have the patience or ability myself.

moonboy52

Fair play accaguest!

The first time you fired it you were holding your breath i'd say :P

jousting with chairs

Nice 1, bought a soldering iron in lidl a couple of weeks ago but haven't used it yet.
I was thinking of getting a couple of the new Vamo 55w chips to start with,they're supposed to be fairly forgiving and only about 12e from FT so not the end of the world if I fry them.

accaguest

moonboy52 wrote: »

Fair play accaguest!

The first time you fired it you were holding your breath i'd say :P

Lol. Everytime I fire it I still am.

I should say aswell those fat daddy connectors are amazing. Really nice spring to them and simple to set up. Be worth replacing istick etc. with them if it's not too difficult.

Now for a beer and a vape.

accaguest

jousting with chairs wrote: »

Nice 1, bought a soldering iron in lidl a couple of weeks ago but haven't used it yet.
I was thinking of getting a couple of the new Vamo 55w chips to start with,they're supposed to be fairly forgiving and only about 12e from FT so not the end of the world if I fry them.

I used the old (v5?) ones. The first one I fried soldering on the up/down buttons - tiny connectors for them but got a replacement and no problems. I find soldering difficult though - I need to relax doing it. Just practice I suppose. Not sure if FT sell some dummy pcbs to practice on but wd be worth it if they do. I really do find everything a lot smaller than I'm expecting.

Have you any idea for the box yet jousting?

jousting with chairs

Maybe a Hammond but I haven't looked into it too much yet.
If I can get my head around the electronic side of it I would love to do a nice wood box,I have a few mates that are good carpenters so I'm sure one of them could knock up something nice for me.I picked up a few nice pieces of driftwood while out walking the dogs on Sunday so I'm going to see how they dry out and maybe go from there.

accaguest

If you can get one made definitely go that route, would be ideal. And the wiring is not that bad to do. Like I say, I really went at it awfully (even went back this morning to get rid of some wire and re/de solder connections) and it's still working. The yihi sx350s come wired (with gravity sensors) but they seem hard enough to get here.

jousting with chairs

I have yihi sx300 gravity chip in the Hotcig Zero 35w clone and it works perfectly.
I would definitely be interested in one of them.I'm thinking of going with a single 26650 rather than dual 18650's,it would feel much better in the hand. I have a couple of the Vapepower 4200mah 40amps and they last for ages even at high watts.
Time to start practising on some scrap wire to get the feel of things.

Didihno

Hi, where did you get all your wires and what did you use (AWG)?
I got 24awg from stealthvape but canot find 20awg anywhere but here:
http://radiocontrolledshop.ie/extensions-wires-/5906-red-20-awg-high-quality-silicone-wire-r20awg-8736548823895.html

Is this wire good to use? Its 15A rated but I'm not sure about the 'tin coated copper' business?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm just rebuilding my busted Hana clone with a new proper DNA 30.

accaguest

Didihno wrote: »

Hi, where did you get all your wires and what did you use (AWG)?
I got 24awg from stealthvape but canot find 20awg anywhere but here:
http://radiocontrolledshop.ie/extensions-wires-/5906-red-20-awg-high-quality-silicone-wire-r20awg-8736548823895.html

Is this wire good to use? Its 15A rated but I'm not sure about the 'tin coated copper' business?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm just rebuilding my busted Hana clone with a new proper DNA 30.

Have you seen the wiring in my box? I'm not sure you want to be takingmy advice :eek:

I used 22awg and 24awg mainly, just the standard black & red electrical cable (from Stealthvape I think). I couldn't find 20awg anywhere. I used some old plug cable for the battery though, really thick and far too stiff to be able to move freely in the box.

I'm planning on putting a DNA40 in at some stage and trying to do it neater and already picked up some of that silicone you linked in 16awg and 20awg on ebay. It seems WAY nicer to bend/move around and I've seen modders recommend it. Not sure about tin-coated etc. either, it could just mean it's got good conductivity maybe? I'd say the wire you linked is good to go.

I think evolv go a bit overboard with their battery cable specs tbh. Especially when they have far more pressing issues to be worried about than the current

jousting with chairs

I got some from FT, still haven't used the soldering iron though.

https://www.fasttech.com/p/2113900

https://www.fasttech.com/p/2113902

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1575300