The altoids tins that I ordered both arrived today so I've had another bash whilst I felt motivated enough.
Quite amazingly, it went well and I only had one of those 'oh here we go again' moments. That was when I had soldered up to check the board on the first tin. I was getting power through to the atty connector (nice) but it was coming through at almost 8v. I adjusted the pot a few turns but still got the same voltage reading. I adjusted a few more time but was still getting a high reading. At this point I began to wonder what I'd screwed up this time and had a bit of a coffee & vape break to have a ponder. It was during this little break that I remembered that a lot of these vv boards can adjust up to over 20 volts ... perhaps the pot was just turned up higher than 8v?
I adjusted the pot again, this time doing about 6 full turns and lo and behold, I got a reading of 2v. A few adjustments later it was sat nicely at 4.5v. (sorted
)
That minor panic over, I finished assembling and fitting/glueing everything into place and it all still worked. (yay!)
I was so bouyed up by this that I went straight on and did the second tin. Here's the results :
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The green tin is the first one I did and I positioned the switch a little too far in from the edge which means the atty connector isn't quite as central as I would have liked. I did a better job of positioning on the yellow tin and am happier with the end result. As you can see, I decided to give the led displays a miss ... I find em dificult to solder and didn't want to end up wrestling for space again.
I haven't received the epoxy putty that I ordered yet, but once that turns up I'll try to anchor the atty connectors and switches more securely. I haven't received the wire strippers I ordered yet either (only just ordered em) but I experimented a little and found I did a better job of stripping the wires by using a set of nail clippers to score the plastic cover.
I only have one old set of 14500s at the moment (been using 18650s almost exclusively for the last year or so), but have a few sets on order, along with one of those tankometers that Luke makes (should save me having to prat about with the multimeter every time I want to alter the voltage).
All in all, I'm quite happy with how this little round of modding has gone and have already found another tin for my next little project but I'm waiting for delivery a couple of those vv boards with the built in displays from China (all this stuff I have on order ... no wonder Royal Mail want to take on more staff).
Having used up my last presoldered atty connector, I had another quick bash at soldering one up before I switched off the iron but still can't seem to do it. If I do manage to get solder into the centre 'well', it seems to pop out again when I try to fit the wire in. Don't know if I'm running the iron too hot, using too large a tip or if it's just sheer incompetence but the atty connector is still my nemesis.
I did get a few on my last HC order though, so will keep having a go ... maybe one day I might get the hang of it.
- Also as an extra layer of protection if you use the black AA boxes you can use the lid to mount the circuit on as it will reduce the chances of it ever touching the tin (ie cut the lid to size glue to the base of the tin - glue vv module to the lid)
