DIY Unregulated/Regulated Box Mod

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brexin

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Just to give you a quick lesson jmeklman, you'll need to know the voltage of the battery and it's max amperage and the resistance of the coil you'd like to use in ohms. Using ohms law (voltage/resistance=amperage) you'll be able to see the lowest coil resistance you can achieve given the amperage rating of the battery you are utilizing and then get a switch that can handle that amperage.

Example: in order to utilize a 20A 18650 with a nominal voltage of 3.6 volts, the lowest resistance coil you can utilize is .2 ohms at 64.8 watts and 18 amps (not hitting your 20amp max). Now, if you ran 2 18650 batteries in series (pos/pos neg/neg) of the same rating you can run a .4 ohm build (safer) at 129.6 watts (more power).

knowing the above information will help you find the switch you need. So, if you want to run an easy to find switch (6amps), you can run a .6 ohm build with a total of 6 amps and 21.6 watts.

Use vapecalc.com to help you fine tune your build to get the optimum and SAFE setup.

As a reference for my typical build, i run a .9 ohm coil at 21 watts which utilizes 4.8 amps. That's on my single 18650 mod. Gives me plenty of battery life and the optimum vape for my tongue :p But then again, I'm on a regulated mod.

If you are dead set on using lower amperage switches you'll have to do some research on MOSFETS. Some info can be found with a decent google search.
 
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chesty

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That particular switch doesn't have a DC rating, I've noticed switches that do have a DC rating, it's 10 times less than than the AC rating.
for example, a 250V AC switch might have an 18V DC rating. Which has a lot of headroom for our use, but I have no idea what it means when it doesn't have a figure in the DC field. Does anyone know?
 

david4500

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Amp Ratings, HP, Volts | carlingtech.com

"DC Rule of Thumb

For those switches that list an AC voltage rating only, the "DC Rule of Thumb" can be applied for determining the switch's maximum DC current rating. This "rule" states the highest amperage on the switch should perform satisfactorily up to 30 volts DC. For example, a switch which is rated at 10A 250VAC; 15A 125VAC; 3/4HP 125-250VAC, will be likely to perform satisfactorily at 15 amps up to 30 volts DC (VDC)."
 

gandymarsh

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I've been doing some research on the difference between AC and DC rated switches. It's kinda alarming to find that an AC rated switch may be dangerous in a DC circuit. Of course, we're dealing with relatively low voltage in mods but high amperage. The reason is, AC voltage flows in one direction and then reverses which minimizes arcing when the connection is broken. DC flows in one direction only and can pull an arc when the connection is broken.

This video shows the difference between the two in a 220 volt circuit.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zez2r1RPpWY
 
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