The Altoids Pcc

[mmseng]

So Sinjhin and I set out to mod our Joye 510 PCC to be more space efficient and easier to carry around. I've never liked the Joye PCC. It's too big, it has sharp corners, and there's a ton of wasted space. After reviewing a number of case options we went with the humble Altoids case, perfect size, easy to work with, durable. Sinjhin made his prototype first and I looked on. He made the interior form from laminated layers of foam. and cut out the spaces he wanted to use for parts. When I went to make mine I took away the pros and minimized on the cons of his prototype design and came up with what you see below. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's fantastically useful.

We simply removed the battery, circuit board, and charging mount from the Joye PCC, and resoldered the connections together to suit our new shape. Basically in my design I used electrical tape to insulate the parts, then taped together the battery and circuit board in a convenient arrangement to fit on the bottom of one side of the case, and then mounted the connection point on top of that, adding in a little tubing to help hold the charging battery in place. Then we simply cut a small hole for the USB connection to stick out one side, and I put a bit of a buffer on the other side to keep the USB connection snugly in place. I didn't actually tape or glue the charging assembly into the case. It fits snugly enough as it is. I did have to shave down one of the circuit board corners to save some space, which was nerve-racking, but it turned out alright. After learning from Sinjhin's on-the-fly experience, I made sure to mount the circuit board with the lights facing up so I could easily see them, and I cut out spots in the tape for them to shine through. Then I cut out a small hole in the lid and glued in a small piece of clear plexiglass so I could view the lights with the case closed.

Another key feature of the case devised by Sinjhin is a dedicated space for a fully-assembled ecig, for easy access without having to open the case. Sinjhin used foam, but to minimize on wasted surrounding space I went with more of the plastic tubing for easy insertion and removal. You probably can't see it from the pictures, but there is a thin section cut out on the back side for the button on the battery to slide into, and the whole tube has a single slit in it to relax its grip on the battery so I can get the damn thing back out once I put it in. The hole in the side of the case for this tube was made by a series of punches from a regular hole-punch. It's still looks a bit rough, but turned out a lot better than our other attempt at merely punching the hole manually and reaming it out.

Aside from that the case is unmodified and the rest of the space is all room for spare parts. Besides the charging battery and the full ecig slot, the case can fit a whole battery + atty in the bottom, another battery + atty on top of that, 3 atty/carts above/behind the full ecig slot, and even two 3ml sample ejuice bottles (the kind Arno gives you). To make everything fit just right I did have to kind of bend the case walls a little bit in all directions, but that actually makes the lid fit a little tighter and more secure, as long as you don't overdo it and bend the lid hinges.

So all in all, I can fit:

- 4 standard 510 batteries (one of them charging, and one of them can be the extended battery if you use it in the full ecig slot)

- 6 or 7 510 attys/carts

- 2 3ml bottles of juice

Here's the pics, enjoy! Thanks to Sinjhin for making the prototype. We will both probably refine this design in the future.

The Joye PCC guts reconnected for testing:

The Joye PCC guts assembled into a unit:

The charging assembly and the full ecig slot assembled into the case:

The case filled to capacity and charging:

The case, closed:

Closed case from the top:

And of course, the lovely mess left behind:

Edited May 10, 2010 by mmseng

[Jeffb]

Very creative mmseng. Good to see you and Sinjihn are still vaping.

[mcquinn]

Very nice work.The workspace I can relate to as well.

[mmseng]

The downside: I don't dare take it on flights, as it looks like a homemade bomb.

[mcquinn]

That is like my favorite 18650 mod ,my wife doesn't like me to carry it in public .She thinks it looks like a pipe bomb,she would rather I use the 10440 box mods as they look less threatening.