Double 18650 VV Regulated Flip-Top Mod

Parts list:
1) 18650 SoShine charger (various ebay sellers have this charger).

2) Atty connector of choice (bought at madvapes.com if using the 510 connector, buy the ones with the small center hole. Ive had the ones with the solid center fail).

3) #12 brass finishing washer (bought at Lowes). Widen the center hole to 11/32".

4) 3 Amp NO switch (choose a switch that has a mounting hole of or less - part #RP3502ABLK bought at digikey.com, also Radio Shack).

5) 6/32 screw with nut (bought at Lowes).

6) Heat sink (part #577002B00000G bought at digikey.com).

7) Heat sink compound (bought at Radio Shack).

8) 200K multi-turn trimmer (part #3299W-1-204LF bought at digikey.com, also on ebay.com).

9) UCC283T-ADJ LDO regulator (bought at digikey.com you can also get free samples at ti.com).

10) 2 capacitors 10v, 10F (part #TAP106K010SCS bought at digikey.com).

11) Voltage reader (bought at hobbydream.com).

12) 4 columns x 2 rows piece of veroboard (bought at madvapes.com). 13) Assorted colors 26 gauge stranded wire (bought at allelectronics.com). The colors I used in this mod are red, black, brown, blue, yellow, purple, and green. I use 26 ga. stranded wire for all wiring except for the atty connector and voltage reader I use 22 ga. stranded wire for these connections. Unless otherwise noted, I cut all wires about 3-4" long and then trim as needed.

LED battery indicator parts list (including this in the mod is optional, but recommended as it monitors the total voltage and lets you know when the batteries are due for charging)
This LED circuitry will monitor the battery voltage. Above 7.5 volts both LEDs are lit; batt charge = aok. When the voltage is less than 7.5 volts the first LED will not light. When this first LED is not lighting its time to charge the batts. When the voltage is at or less than 7.0 volts, the second LED will not light. Whether you add the LEDs or not, when the voltage is about 7.0 volts, the regulator kicks off and will not power the atty. The batts will need to be replaced or re-charged. 1) 2 LEDs (5 mm ultrabright Green LEDs - bought at allelectronics.com). 2) LM431CCZ (by National) zener shunt regulator (bought at digikey.com, also at mouser.com). 3) 2, 6 columns x 3 rows pieces of veroboard (bought at madvapes.com). 4) 6mm x 6mm tactile switch with 8.5mm actuator (bought at madvapes.com, also at Radio Shack). 5) Small grommet (bought the assorted size package of grommets at Radio Shack and used the smallest one in the package). 6) Resistors (bought at allelectronics.com): 1, 3.6K ohm 1, 3.9K ohm 2, 2K ohm 4, 510 ohm (can also use 500 ohm)

I. Preparing the case. A. Remove the rubber stops and screws from the back of the case. B. Remove the circuit board and negative batt contacts from the case. C. Desolder the positive batt contacts from the board. D. Desolder the wires from the negative batt contacts.

E. Set these parts aside for now.

F. Dremel off the tabs as shown in the pic below.

G. Remove the white plastic LED cover strip from the case. Set this aside for now. H. Widen the areas a bit as shown in the pic below. The LED circuit and LED switch will be placed in these areas and a bit more room is needed for them to fit.

I.

Remove the SoShine lettering from the front of the case (optional). In my earlier builds of this mod, I sanded off the lettering and sprayed a couple coats of clear-coat over this area. Nowadays I cut a black glossy adhesive-backed piece of vinyl and put over the voltage reader, which covers the lettering.

II. Cutting holes in the case. A. Cut a hole for the voltage reader. I have a template that I center over the front of the case and use a craft knife for carving the outline. Then I dremel around the outline.

After cutting the hole for the voltage reader, cut the connecting bar off the LED cover strip. Cut the upper tabs off each LED cover so that it doesn't obstruct the voltage reader hole and glue them back into the case.

B. Cut an 11/32" hole for the atty connector. For this mod you will need to cut the atty connector hole over the plug-in port at the top of the case. The way I do it is to center the finishing washer over the plug-in port, then cut the hole through the finishing washer using the dremel. If you do it this way, make sure you first drill the center hole of the finishing washer to 11/32". Don't worry about the odd shaped hole the finishing washer will cover it.

C. Cut the hole for the atty switch. The hole needs to be on the left side of the case (same side as the atty connector when looking at the front of the case). I place a mark on-center about 1/2" down from the seam line (as shown in the pic) and start the center of the hole there.

The hole of the switch should be centered in the area shown in the pic below.

D. Cut a hole for the trimmer. I use the 5/64" drill bit and then ream the hole just an unch bigger. This hole needs to be located to the right of the voltage reader. I cut the hole as close to the right inside post as I can (as shown in the pic below).

E. LED switch: cut a 7/32" hole in the lower left side of the case (same side as the atty switch). Insert the grommet into the LED switch hole.

III. Working with the voltage reader. A. Cut away the plastic cover from the back of the voltage reader and along the bottom (I leave the plastic cover on the front until I'm ready to insert it into the case to protect it from damage while working with it). B. Gently rock the 7-pin bar back and forth until it breaks loose from the board. Desolder and remove the parts of the pins that are still connected to the board. C. Solder a 22 ga. red wire through pin 2. D. Solder a 22 ga. black wire through pin 1.

E. Check the voltage reader to make sure it's working (I've had a few that had a bad board).

F. Remove the rest of the plastic cover and insert the voltage reader into its hole. I like to make the front of the voltage reader flush with the front of the case. Epoxy around the edges ensuring that you don't obstruct the LED covers or the trimmer hole.

IV. Working with the trimmer. A. Clip about 1/8" off the ends of each leg and spread the legs apart a bit. Solder a brown wire to leg 1. Solder a blue wire to leg 2. Solder a red wire to leg 3.

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B. Insert the brass screw of the trimmer into its hole. Make sure the brass screw fits in the hole properly, if not adjust the hole as needed. C. Place epoxy along the top of the trimmer and along the side that will rest against the post of the case ensuring that none gets on the brass screw. Position the brass screw in its hole. Hold securely while the epoxy sets. D. Place epoxy over the wires of the trimmer and also the wires of the voltage reader. This helps to hold them securely in place.

E. Cut a piece of electrical tape and place over the back of the voltage reader.

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V. Working with the atty connector. A. If you haven't done so already, enlarge the center hole of the finishing washer to 11/32". B. Insert the atty connector into the finishing washer ensuring that you push the atty connector in as far as it will go. It helps to screw an atty or carto onto the connector while pushing the connector into the finishing washer. C. Fill the center hole of the atty connector with solder, then solder a 22 ga. red wire into the center hole of the atty connector.

D. Screw an atty or carto onto the atty connector. Fill the underside of the finishing washer with epoxy, (don't overfill or you'll have a mess around the washer edge), then position the atty connector into its hole in the case. Hold securely til the epoxy sets.

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E. Place a line of solder along the outer edge of the atty connector and solder a 22 ga. black wire to the outer edge.

F. Place epoxy all around and in the underside of the atty connector. Before the epoxy sets, push the red wire up and to the side. Push the black wire under the connector and off to the side as shown in the pic below.

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VI. Working with the LED switch. A. Determine which 2 legs of the LED switch to cut off by checking the continuity. The 2 legs to keep will be the ones that have no reading when placing the probes of the multimeter on them and a reading when pressing the switch. B. Solder a yellow wire to one leg of the switch and a purple wire to the other leg.

C. Insert the switch into its hole and epoxy in place. It takes a bit of finagling to get the tip of the switch guided through the grommet hole. Large tweezers and patience helps.

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VII. Working with the LED circuit. This is a 2 LED setup with 2 circuits. The cutoff voltage for one circuit is set at 7.5 volts and the other is set at 7.0 volts. Both circuits tie into the LED switch. A. Working with the 7.0 volt LED circuit. R1 = 3.6K ohm resistor R2 = 2K ohm resistor R3 = 510 ohm resistor R4 = 510 ohm resistor Wire the circuit according to the diagram shown below using one of the 6 columns x 3 rows piece of veroboard. If you are not familiar with working with veroboard, there are many online tutorials. Just google the keywords "veroboard tutorial" or "perfboard tutorial". *Note 1: The "Jumper" labeled in the diagram below is simply a wire in which one end is soldered in the hole of column 1, row 1 and the other end soldered in the hole of column 3, row 1. *Note 2: the flat side of the LM431 regulator goes toward R2. Position the regulator so the legs of the regulator lay up and over R2 as shown in the pic below. *Note 3: cut a 1" piece of red and brown wire and solder them in the appropriate hole of the veroboard (as shown in the diagram below). Then solder the end of the long leg of the LED to the red wire and the end of the short leg of the LED to the brown wire. This makes the LED more flexible as you will need to bend the legs of the LED to position it in place within the mod. When done wiring, cover each leg of the LED and its associated wire with electrical tape as shown in the pic below.

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B. Working with the 7.5 volt LED circuit. R1 = 3.9K ohm resistor R2 = 2K ohm resistor R3 = 510 ohm resistor R4 = 510 ohm resistor See step A above for wiring. C. Test the circuits. If you have a DC power supply, simply connect the red probe to the end of the yellow wire and the black probe to the end of the brown wire. Set the voltage above 7.5 volts the LED should light up. Otherwise, you can use 2 fully charged batts in series (the batts don't have to be fully charged just as long as the combined voltage is above 7.5 volts). Hold the yellow wire against the positive end and the brown wire against the negative end. D. Position the LED circuits in the case as shown in the pic below. Carefully bend the legs of the LED so that the bulb of the LED lies over and rest on its respective LED cover. Remove the circuit from the case. Place epoxy in the area of the case where the circuit will be, then position the circuit in its appropriate place.

E. Run the yellow wire from the 7.0 volt circuit across to the opposite side of the case as shown in the pic below. Twist the ends of the yellow wire of the 7.0 volt circuit, the 7.5 volt circuit, and the yellow wire from the LED switch. Solder the twisted end.

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E. Wrap the soldered end with electrical tape and tuck in place.

VIII. Working with the LDO. A. The heat sink is a bit too long, so the length (the end with the screw) needs to be shortened. I use the sander on the dremel to do this.

B. Cut pin 2 off the LDO it will not be needed. Apply heat sink compound to the back of the LDO and screw the LDO onto the heat sink. The screw is a bit too long and can be shortened with bolt cutters. Wrap the end of the heat sink (the end with the LDO pins) with electrical tape in case any metal from the veroboard or the pins of the LDO should come in contact with it.

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C. Using the 4 columns x 2 rows piece of veroboard, insert the pins of the LDO into the first row of the veroboard. Position the veroboard so that it tucks slightly into the heat sink. You may need to trim the veroboard smaller in order to do this. Clip the pins of the LDO to the appropriate length then solder to the veroboard.

D. Solder the capacitors to the underside of the veroboard and resting on the underside of the heat sink as shown in the pic below.

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E. Solder a green wire in the hole of column 1, row 2 of the veroboard. Solder a brown wire in the hole of column 2, row 2 of the veroboard. Solder a blue wire in the hole of column 3, row 2 of the veroboard. Solder a red wire in the hole of column 4, row 2 of the veroboard.

F. Place the LDO circuit upside down on the back of the voltage reader. Gather all the ends of the red wires, trim to an appropriate length, then twist all the ends together and solder the twisted end. Do the same for the 2 blue wires. Cut a piece of brown wire 6" long then gather all the ends of the black/brown wires, including the piece just cut, twist the ends together and solder the end. You will have one free end of the brown wire that will be used for the negative batt contact.

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IV. Working with the atty switch. A. Wrap the screw end of the heat sink with electrical tape to protect it from coming into contact with the atty switch. Solder the green wire from the LDO circuit to one leg of the atty switch. Cut a purple wire about 4" long and solder it and the purple wire from the LED switch to the other leg of the atty switch.

B. Place the atty switch into position, gently bending the terminals if needed, and epoxy in place. Run the free end of the purple wire to the opposite side of the case and run the free end of the brown wire toward the LED switch as shown in the pic below. Wrap all soldered ends with electrical tape and tuck into place.

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X. Working with the batt contacts. A. Flatten the tabs on the positive batt contacts so that the top of the contact lays flat. B. Cut a piece of yellow wire 3" long. Solder one end of the wire to the top of a positive batt contact and the other end to a negative batt contact. Make sure that the spring of the negative batt contact is in place and the wire is placed through the spring before soldering.

C. Solder the free end of the brown wire to the other negative batt contact. Make sure that the spring of the negative batt contact is in place and the wire is placed through the spring before soldering.

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D. Solder the free end of the purple wire to the top of the other positive batt contact.

E. Slide the positive batt contacts into position and epoxy across the top. Put the negative batt contacts into their respective slot. Hook the free end of the spring over its respective post. Push the contacts downward and make sure there are no glitches to its moving downward.

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XI. Finishing up. A. If you didn't sand the lettering off the front of the case, or if you mucked up the hole of the voltage reader <grin>, cut a piece of black adhesive-backed vinyl and place over the voltage reader.

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B. Re-assemble the case. C. You'll notice that the mod tilts forward a bit when placed upright. I use 180 grit sandpaper and sand the bumpies on the bottom so that they're level with the bottom of the mod. Tape the area around the bumpies before sanding to protect the bottom from marring.

D. Both batts are placed with the positive pole toward the top.

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E. Testing the LEDs: press the LED switch. If the total voltage is at or above 7.5 volts, both LEDs will light.

F. Testing the voltage reader: press the atty switch. If no voltage is displayed, use a jeweler's screwdriver and turn the brass screw of the trimmer to the right until there is a reading. The voltage reader won't display voltages less than 3.0 volts. To increase the vaping voltage, turn the brass screw to the right. To decrease vaping voltage, turn the brass screw to the left.

Enjoy your new mod! Mamu 25