Thanks for this. I am busy planning one for my tramp steamer. However, what I am yet to figure out is the length of the wire needed to obtain a set temperature. Glycerine as you said, may become a problem, but it is mainly because the heating element far exceeds the temperature at which Glycerine starts to smoke. At 290 Deg C it will boil, decomposing into Acrolein, which is a biocide. The temperature needed to produce smoke is between 50 and 60 deg C, much less than its boiling point or flashpoint of 176 deg. (Not be confused with Glycol, which produces formaldehyde as a decomp product). On the issue of the PBA battery, in our case, the 2kg weight of the battery (not ton as you suggested 🙂) plays in our favour for ballast to keep the ship on the waterline, needing much less lead (Pb) weights. The steamer is 1,5 meter long, and from experience I know this would require at least 12kg of weight to get it onto the waterline. Anyway, I will post a video on my channel once it is working properly. Thanks so much.
I'm keen to see how you get on. I posted a video recently using old vape coils to make smoke - you might want to look at that as it might provide a simpler alternative. In any case, do let me know what you come up with. I'd love to see it 😁
@@capetownmodelboatclub8570 All i would say it make sure you test thoroughly before committing anything into an actual craft. Running any smoke machine long term runs the risk of the heating element catching fire and the last thing you want is your boat burning up. I don't know how handy with electronics you are, but one thing you might consider is a thermistor attached to the smoke machine that reports the temperature to an Arduino or Digispark that can shut down the power if it gets too hot.
I could have an alternative but for now I am keeping it a secret. It all depends on the flashpoint of the smoke fluid and the maximum temperature my alternative would generate. I tested it for a few minutes and it worked, but winding the fiber rope is still a challenge. @@SteamGeezerUK
Hey I been seen your video probably when you post it.But what’s crazy is after all this time I finally got a chance to see down and make one for myself. I wish I can give you a million thumbs up. But can say not only have you save money for me and my family you also gave me some knowledge thanks bro for everything! 😬💪🏾
If u put the wick closer to the outlet hole, or better OVER the outlet hole to leave it direct in the air stream u will get much more steam. is the same thing in e-cigarettes. then more fast airflow u produce directly to the heating wire soaked with liquid then more vape production. But very cool video. Very good inspiration for rc steam ships. thank u very much!
@@SteamGeezerUK Going to give one a go. Just ordered the same fog fluid you use plus some fibreglass rope from Ebay. Have a defunct heat shrink gun so will rob that of its heating element. Cheers
Ripped apart the old heat shrink gun today. Started with overlength wire and cut off bits until I got a nice glowing element!!! Have also prepared a decent metal RS type box with a piece of woven glass fibre matt in the bottom and a couple of small 12v computer fans screwed to the lid with a smallish hole under each to allow the air flow into the box. Now awaiting the fibreglass rope and the fog fluid. A question or two. Ever used a thermal trip/ bimetallic trip in case of a dry element or does the worst that happens it just burns the element until it breaks? Is there an optimum fluid depth or just keeping the f/g rope moist etc? Thanks.
@@TheKRU251 A safety trip is a great idea if you can rig one. The fibreglass rope shouldn't burn, but anything to reduce the risk is worth it. As for optimum depth, and long as the wick is wet you should be OK. I've run wicks and heaters outside of the box to test batteries and such.
I want to make a very small one like your smallest but have it put out more thicker smoke. Also I don't want it to blow hard constantly. Kind of like exhaust from a steam locomotive. At stand still it kind of just flows out slowly but when running, when the cylinders exhaust, it makes the big puff that is much thicker. So slow and thinner then fast and thicker. I might have to use an arduino for that. I want to use that for a steam tractor. Also I'd like to do an ash pit, for dumping the grates from a steam locomotive, between the tracks, chimneys and smoke stack on a some industries and a steam powered tug boat. I might make one large one for the chimneys and smoke stacks and small ones for the others. I'm being very ambitious and I'm going to have to install an industrial size exhaust fan in the train building. Oh and I model 1/87 HO scale. Ba ha ha ha! 👍
All of the things you mention should be possible, but you'll probably need to use a relay if you want to run it from an arduino, as the power output probably won't be enough to run the smoke machine. Good luck with it :-)
In some cases, yes, but professional fluid has various other chemicals in it to prevent it catching fire. For lower powered machines I use glycerine, but in more powerful machines you run the risk of the fluid igniting...
Good information,kindly suggest liquid material used for this, I am trying to mfg small smoke machine for testing application.kindly suggest liquid which is useful for smoke ,which does not contain water partical, Thanks
Hi, thanks for watching. You could use any commercial smoke fluid in a machine like this, but it really depends on what output you're looking for. Some smoke fluids are made to produce lots of smoke, some produce a haze, some linger, some dissipate quickly and so on, but any of them will work. It just depends what result you're after.
this video you made was super helpful, the most helpful thing i have seen whole day, i'm building a 1/16 RC Maus tank, both spare smoke generator was broken, one the heating wire snapped and the second it seems to not functioning at all, and they are both so noisy more noisy than the tank's sound effect system, after i'm done with my work i will look for these materials and try to build one, i wonder can it shrunk to a 3volt system? 1.5v for the heating wire, another 1.5v for the fan .
Thanks, I appreciate it. I've been working on USB powered boxes recently; 5v. I believe it would be possible to make a heater that runs at 1.5v, using maybe a 36 gauge wire, but the problem is that wire of that gauge is like hair, it's super thin and very hard to connect anything to. The other issue is finding a 1.5v battery that will produce enough power (amps) to heat the wire. You might consider using a small 3.7v lithium polymer battery - there are some really tiny ones available, but obviously care must be taken not to overheat the battery as it may catch fire. It's an interesting idea though. I think I might do some experiments with this and see what happens.
no , my whole tank system runs on 7.2 volt 5000mah battery , the tank has a lot of feature that consumes a lot of power , 3 LED light a motor for turret traverse another motor for gun elevation another motor for small BB gun motor to loads itself to shoot bb and 2 motor for both gearbox of left and right , phew that's a lot of power consumption.... and lastly for the smoke generator, it is said that both the motor pump and heater both uses 3volt 1.5 volt for each, the heng long stock smoke generator was useless, it is noisy, doesn't produce lots of smoke and the smoke refuse to go through a pipe more than 7cm long because the pressure of the box and pump does not go over that so the best to make the smoke comes out was to do what the tarr system did, using a fan, just like yours. and i think i burnt mine thanks to the vape smoke liquid just like what you said, the sugar burnt the wires , it is all burnt up in there and things are too fragile for me to fix meanwhile i've ruined the only smoke feature clip within the main board.
You can make a little loop on the end of a tiny wire to give a screw head something to grasp! Just wrap the loop clockwise or the screw head will push it out. You can learn more than you will ever care to know about working with tiny wire elements by reading about e-cigarette coils. Might help with making an ultra-compact smoke generator, too.
Hello, May I ask about AC adapter? Currently I'm using this spec : Input : 100V-240V 50/60hz Output : 6-24V-100~1000mA My 5cm. fan (12V) work fine but when I connect the coil to AC adapter then the fan stop working and not generate the heat to the coil. My question is, if I use DC 12V 10A does it will solve my problem? Thank you.
is it possible to just use water to produce water vapour in this method? im not looking for a strong smoke just like streams of air that look different from the surrounding air to put in my tank.
Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure whether solder would melt or not. Solder generally melts at around 350 degrees. I don't know exactly how hot the heater wire gets, but I suspect it may well be enough to do so. Might be worth an experiment. I generally use screw on connectors so I can easily change the heater wire if I need to - I've never tried solder. Next time I make one, I'll try it and see.
Can this smoke generator be connected to your boat motor so that when you apply power to the main motor then you have smoke proportionately per speed. How is it done, detals please. Thanks for posting your build instructions.
I've never really tried, in all fairness. I suppose in theory it could be done using a rheostat, but the smoke generator draws a lot of power so most potentiometers wouldn't be able to provide enough current for it to work very well. I do have a rheostat that came out of the heater of an old car, so that could probably handle the load, but it would generate a lot of heat which could affect the rest of the boat, but a rheostat and a servo slaved to the motor controller might do it. I honestly don't know a lot about RC boats, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.
Voltage divided by current will give you resistance. You have the resistance wire, you have the voltage (battery) and it’s output current capacity (marked as A or mA on battery), then by applying Ohms law you will be able to calculate the length of wire required to ‘glow’. V divided by I x R is the formula. If you have two of the criteria you can work out the others. A Multimeter, and knowledge of how to use it is a must for safety! You can then measure the resistance of the wire from end to end. I noted that you were also holding the wire with metal conducting pliers. This will have increased the resistance! Good Luck - next play with making a candy floss machine!!
Hello , Enjoyed your video , but can you tell me what gauge of wire do you use to make the coils please ? . Ive looked up the wire on ebay and although its all the same name and type , some is listed specially for coils . Thanks in advance for your reply .. Bill .
That particular wire came from an old hair dryer. You can often find very cheap hairdryers in large supermarkets - strip the heating element out and cut it down to fit. For lower powered machines (9v or less, try using pre-wound vape coils.
It won't do any good, I'm afraid. In fact, it will simply produce less smoke. As far as I am aware, no-one has yet been able to make a smoke machine produce smoke other than white, without using some really noxious and almost impossible to procure chemicals.
I'm trying to follow your idea but I'm finding when I put power to the wire its glowing and has burnt through the box , its running at 7.2 v, the box is only small ,approx. 1 inch x 2 inch and 15mm deep,
I've built some tiny smoke machines, less than 1" square. You can do it, but you need to keep the heater away from the sides of the box. You might also consider using aluminium tape on the inside of the box to deflect heat. The thing is, with a box that small, you will get heat buildup. The easiest way to limit this is to not run the machine too much, or to use a lower powered wire. Here's a little vid of a USB powered box I've been working on: czcams.com/video/dsFNSFOjFCo/video.html
Great video! Such a simple, elegant device! E-cigarettes have regulating circuitry to avoid over-heating their batteries (causing them to explode). Mine, for example, disconnects if you hold the button down for too long, and will not fire again for a moment. How do you account for this risk with unregulated batteries (e.g. the lead-acid battery)? Are large batteries just really good at dissipating heat? You can buy a lifetime supply of nichrome or kanthal wire for dirt cheap if you want to make your own heating elements. I'm not sure, but I believe nichrome is what most commercial wire heating elements are made of.
Dear. Only model airplane in Brazil, you can inform me the name of this hose that you do wick. I would like to build a lot of smoke for my electric model cars. I thank you for your attention. Great your project.
If you're building for a car, one of my smaller smoke machines would probably be better. There's a video of it here - czcams.com/video/sXjAJKmdAC8/video.html
The wick brings the fluid to the heater. If you put the heater straight into a pool of smoke fluid, you'd have to heat the entire volume of fluid to make smoke, and it would run out really quickly. The wick brings enough fluid to the heater to create smoke without needing to heat the entire thing.
Thank you for this video. I have just started to think about a smoke machine and this looks the most easy and safe way to do. I have one question. I was thinking to use the smoke in a display cabinet for scale models to simulate clouds for aircraft models in flight. The smoke itself probably damages the plastic or the paint..........or not. Do you have any idea about it? Thanks!
The fluid shouldn't damage the paint directly, but it is possible in an enclosed space for it to leave a greasy residue which might, over time, cause problems. However, I think it would be far less of a problem than using an oil burning smoke machine. I would suggest you try it and see how it goes before putting any models in the cabinet. Good luck with it.
It really depends on what power supply you have and what fluid you're using. In this instance I'm using wire from a hair dryer but that's because I'm using a 12v power supply. I've also made much smaller machines using vape coils and 5v power supplies.
I'm looking at building a smoke generator what model hair dryer Heater elements do u use , i seem to be able only to find ceramic hair dryers ? Cheers thanks
I bought a cheap one from Argos. I think if you look for the cheapest one you can find (less than £5 ideally), you should find one with a wire element.
could you tell me please , what wire you are using . and what resistance should there be ? I once tried to remake the smoke henglong/taygen and took a thick wire , she had too little resistance and I burned the control unit tank . empirically I found that in the native divinenature using thin nichrome filament with a resistance of 16 ohms .
The wire in this particular machine came from a hair dryer, so I don't know the exact resistance. I've been experimenting with nichrome wire but the most success I've had is using pre-wound vape coils at lower voltages. I'm going to be doing another video soon with smaller machines using vape coils and 5v power supplies.
Hi. Great video. Very informative. I am trying this out at home but I'm struggling to find the connectors to join up the wires to the batteries. Can you provide any more details on these types of connectors and/or a link to somewhere selling them on EBay perhaps? Many thanks in advance.
If you're talking about the actual connection to the battery, those are standard automotive spade connectors (6.3mm I believe). The connectors between the wires and the heating element are 10amp terminal blocks with the insulation removed. If you need any more help. please don't hesitate to get in touch.
@@SteamGeezerUK OK. Thanks for that. Sorry if I'm being pedantic, but you've got the two wires coming from the heating element joining to one wire (by the looks of it) coming from the polymer lithium battery, so presumably that is a special connector you've got that takes in the two wires - that's what I'm unsure about. I want to make sure I get the right connector for the two heating element wires to connect to that will then join up to the battery lead. Does that make sense?
No worries, I see what you're getting at now. The 12v LiPo batteries generally come with a 5.5mm x 2.1mm male connector, so you need a 5.5mm x 2.1mm DC female connector to connect your wires to so you can plug the battery into the heater. Obviously you'd need to check this with whatever battery you use, but all of mine have the same connector type. One thing I will say is that these connectors are not designed for big power draw, so if your heater is pulling more than a couple of amps, the connectors may get hot and the plastic parts may get soft or even melt, especially if you run the heater a lot. I had one running at 16v 5A and the plug got warm after just a few seconds, so keep that in mind. You can get all metal connectors which will stand the higher powers better, but they will still get hot if you run too much power through them.
The battery in this video is a 12v 7Ah sealed lead acid battery, primarily aimed at alarm systems and emergency lighting systems. The battery I showed at the end came from ebay and is a 12v 10000mAh lithium ion battery with a built in protection circuit. There's a video here where I look at these batteries in more detail, but generally if you search for 12v lithium batteries on ebay, you should find them. Make sure you shop around, because the prices can vary wildly. As for the fan power, I generally run the fan on the same battery, although on my son's power armour I have two separate 12v circuits, one for the lights, fans etc and one purely for the heater in the smoke generator as I run that on either 12v or 16v depending on how much smoke I want. On some of my USB powered smoke machines, I use a 12v fan on a 5v power supply so it turns more slowly, as this is often more effective. I'll be doing a video in the not too distant future on building 5v USB powered miniature smoke machines if you're interested. czcams.com/video/7PLe7NZTUL8/video.html
SteamGeezer and Son Independent Traders heck yes am interested XD thought id found the battery but can only see up to 6800mAh and the only 10000mAh one over 75 quid. Thank you Mr badger, also experimenting on the heating coil mounted at the top of a vertical wick.
They come out of a 10amp terminal block. I cut the plastic cover off and use the brass fittings from inside. Something like this... www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=10+amp+terminal+block&_sacat=0 Thanks for watching.
Using a LiPo in this Application is unwise, because you’re basically shorting it out and LiPos do not like that, and can catch fire themselves! So don’t use lipos when the application has a very low resistance. Samsung Phones have a lot of experience with this :) all fun aside, it’s a fierce intensely hot fire. Better use, like you did before, a lead acid battery, they can safely handle this abuse.
You can get it in different sizes. I generally use 12mm for the big machines and 6mm for the smaller ones. If you need smaller than that, you can unravel the ropes to get thinner pieces.
You need to check the power draw on the nichrome wire and make sure the power wires you're using are a heavy enough gauge to carry that much power. As for the battery, you may well be overloading it. The only solution there really is to use a more powerful battery. If you can, use a multimeter or similar tool to determine the amperage your nichrome is drawing and go from there. I made a short video a while ago on how to use a multimeter to measure the power output from your heating element: czcams.com/video/rLYGoNdb3iA/video.html
Thanks for the reply and I will check the link you gave me. I was wondering why you used such a large battery although the wires look the same size that I am using. Biggest battery 'I can use' is a LiPo of 7.4v at 5200 Mah.
If you're using a LiPo, I would definitely check the power draw - lithium polymer batteries can suffer from thermal runaway if they get too hot, and can end up catching fire, especially if it doesn't have a protection circuit, which it sounds like yours doesn't or it wouldn't allow you to overload the battery. I would check the data sheet for the battery (should be available from the manufacturer) to see what the maximum safe draw current is, then make a heater that is below that limit (just make the heater wire longer until the power draw is under the rating of the battery).
Thank you for this! I wish more tutorials were this straightforward and informative! Now, off to make some smoke...
Glad you found it useful. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Thanks for this. I am busy planning one for my tramp steamer. However, what I am yet to figure out is the length of the wire needed to obtain a set temperature. Glycerine as you said, may become a problem, but it is mainly because the heating element far exceeds the temperature at which Glycerine starts to smoke. At 290 Deg C it will boil, decomposing into Acrolein, which is a biocide. The temperature needed to produce smoke is between 50 and 60 deg C, much less than its boiling point or flashpoint of 176 deg. (Not be confused with Glycol, which produces formaldehyde as a decomp product).
On the issue of the PBA battery, in our case, the 2kg weight of the battery (not ton as you suggested 🙂) plays in our favour for ballast to keep the ship on the waterline, needing much less lead (Pb) weights. The steamer is 1,5 meter long, and from experience I know this would require at least 12kg of weight to get it onto the waterline.
Anyway, I will post a video on my channel once it is working properly. Thanks so much.
I'm keen to see how you get on. I posted a video recently using old vape coils to make smoke - you might want to look at that as it might provide a simpler alternative. In any case, do let me know what you come up with. I'd love to see it 😁
Yes I saw that. I'm looking to get smoke for longer; hopefully about 30 minutes continues sailing. Will see if the element survives it.@@SteamGeezerUK
@@capetownmodelboatclub8570 All i would say it make sure you test thoroughly before committing anything into an actual craft. Running any smoke machine long term runs the risk of the heating element catching fire and the last thing you want is your boat burning up.
I don't know how handy with electronics you are, but one thing you might consider is a thermistor attached to the smoke machine that reports the temperature to an Arduino or Digispark that can shut down the power if it gets too hot.
I could have an alternative but for now I am keeping it a secret. It all depends on the flashpoint of the smoke fluid and the maximum temperature my alternative would generate. I tested it for a few minutes and it worked, but winding the fiber rope is still a challenge. @@SteamGeezerUK
Well, let us know how you get on 🙂@@capetownmodelboatclub8570
very clear, very informative. i am gonna try to build it for my rc tank. thank you.
Several times when I was building it, I set fire to it.... Man after my own.
Hey I been seen your video probably when you post it.But what’s crazy is after all this time I finally got a chance to see down and make one for myself. I wish I can give you a million thumbs up. But can say not only have you save money for me and my family you also gave me some knowledge thanks bro for everything! 😬💪🏾
You're very welcome. I'm glad it was useful for you :-)
If u put the wick closer to the outlet hole, or better OVER the outlet hole to leave it direct in the air stream u will get much more steam. is the same thing in e-cigarettes. then more fast airflow u produce directly to the heating wire soaked with liquid then more vape production. But very cool video. Very good inspiration for rc steam ships. thank u very much!
Brilliant, thanks very much for sharing.
Superb video Sir. Precise and very informative. Thank you
Thanks :-)
@@SteamGeezerUK Going to give one a go. Just ordered the same fog fluid you use plus some fibreglass rope from Ebay.
Have a defunct heat shrink gun so will rob that of its heating element.
Cheers
@@TheKRU251 Good luck with it. Let us know how it turns out :-)
Ripped apart the old heat shrink gun today.
Started with overlength wire and cut off bits until I got a nice glowing element!!! Have also prepared a decent metal RS type box with a piece of woven glass fibre matt in the bottom and a couple of small 12v computer fans screwed to the lid with a smallish hole under each to allow the air flow into the box. Now awaiting the fibreglass rope and the fog fluid.
A question or two. Ever used a thermal trip/ bimetallic trip in case of a dry element or does the worst that happens it just burns the element until it breaks?
Is there an optimum fluid depth or just keeping the f/g rope moist etc?
Thanks.
@@TheKRU251 A safety trip is a great idea if you can rig one. The fibreglass rope shouldn't burn, but anything to reduce the risk is worth it. As for optimum depth, and long as the wick is wet you should be OK. I've run wicks and heaters outside of the box to test batteries and such.
Great video, I made one with two exits for my ship. Goes proving. Thank you.
I want to make a very small one like your smallest but have it put out more thicker smoke. Also I don't want it to blow hard constantly. Kind of like exhaust from a steam locomotive. At stand still it kind of just flows out slowly but when running, when the cylinders exhaust, it makes the big puff that is much thicker. So slow and thinner then fast and thicker. I might have to use an arduino for that. I want to use that for a steam tractor. Also I'd like to do an ash pit, for dumping the grates from a steam locomotive, between the tracks, chimneys and smoke stack on a some industries and a steam powered tug boat. I might make one large one for the chimneys and smoke stacks and small ones for the others. I'm being very ambitious and I'm going to have to install an industrial size exhaust fan in the train building. Oh and I model 1/87 HO scale. Ba ha ha ha! 👍
All of the things you mention should be possible, but you'll probably need to use a relay if you want to run it from an arduino, as the power output probably won't be enough to run the smoke machine. Good luck with it :-)
Fog fluid is diluted glycerin.
In some cases, yes, but professional fluid has various other chemicals in it to prevent it catching fire. For lower powered machines I use glycerine, but in more powerful machines you run the risk of the fluid igniting...
Good information,kindly suggest liquid material used for this, I am trying to mfg small smoke machine for testing application.kindly suggest liquid which is useful for smoke ,which does not contain water
partical,
Thanks
Hi, thanks for watching. You could use any commercial smoke fluid in a machine like this, but it really depends on what output you're looking for. Some smoke fluids are made to produce lots of smoke, some produce a haze, some linger, some dissipate quickly and so on, but any of them will work. It just depends what result you're after.
this video you made was super helpful, the most helpful thing i have seen whole day, i'm building a 1/16 RC Maus tank, both spare smoke generator was broken, one the heating wire snapped and the second it seems to not functioning at all, and they are both so noisy more noisy than the tank's sound effect system, after i'm done with my work i will look for these materials and try to build one, i wonder can it shrunk to a 3volt system? 1.5v for the heating wire, another 1.5v for the fan .
Thanks, I appreciate it. I've been working on USB powered boxes recently; 5v. I believe it would be possible to make a heater that runs at 1.5v, using maybe a 36 gauge wire, but the problem is that wire of that gauge is like hair, it's super thin and very hard to connect anything to. The other issue is finding a 1.5v battery that will produce enough power (amps) to heat the wire.
You might consider using a small 3.7v lithium polymer battery - there are some really tiny ones available, but obviously care must be taken not to overheat the battery as it may catch fire.
It's an interesting idea though. I think I might do some experiments with this and see what happens.
no , my whole tank system runs on 7.2 volt 5000mah battery , the tank has a lot of feature that consumes a lot of power , 3 LED light a motor for turret traverse another motor for gun elevation another motor for small BB gun motor to loads itself to shoot bb and 2 motor for both gearbox of left and right , phew that's a lot of power consumption.... and lastly for the smoke generator, it is said that both the motor pump and heater both uses 3volt 1.5 volt for each, the heng long stock smoke generator was useless, it is noisy, doesn't produce lots of smoke and the smoke refuse to go through a pipe more than 7cm long because the pressure of the box and pump does not go over that so the best to make the smoke comes out was to do what the tarr system did, using a fan, just like yours. and i think i burnt mine thanks to the vape smoke liquid just like what you said, the sugar burnt the wires , it is all burnt up in there and things are too fragile for me to fix meanwhile i've ruined the only smoke feature clip within the main board.
You can make a little loop on the end of a tiny wire to give a screw head something to grasp! Just wrap the loop clockwise or the screw head will push it out. You can learn more than you will ever care to know about working with tiny wire elements by reading about e-cigarette coils. Might help with making an ultra-compact smoke generator, too.
Hello, May I ask about AC adapter?
Currently I'm using this spec :
Input : 100V-240V 50/60hz
Output : 6-24V-100~1000mA
My 5cm. fan (12V) work fine but when I connect the coil to AC adapter then the fan stop working and not generate the heat to the coil.
My question is, if I use DC 12V 10A does it will solve my problem? Thank you.
Yes I have the same issue
Gr8 video mate
Thanks for watching.
Thank you for this ...I’m now ready to smoke my Railway .....😎.... regards Fred
Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching :-)
This is a very helpful video. Thank you very much!
You're most welcome. There are some new designs on the way, along with different methods of controlling these and other electronic devices.
is it possible to just use water to produce water vapour in this method? im not looking for a strong smoke just like streams of air that look different from the surrounding air to put in my tank.
Strong arms to be able to lift a battery that weighs a ton, strongman channel now are we?
This was a nice informative video I am going to try it right now, but could you solder the wires or would the heat melt the solder THX
Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure whether solder would melt or not. Solder generally melts at around 350 degrees. I don't know exactly how hot the heater wire gets, but I suspect it may well be enough to do so. Might be worth an experiment. I generally use screw on connectors so I can easily change the heater wire if I need to - I've never tried solder. Next time I make one, I'll try it and see.
Great video, Thanks .
You're welcome. Thanks for watching.
Can this smoke generator be connected to your boat motor so that when you apply power to the main motor then you have smoke proportionately per speed. How is it done, detals please. Thanks for posting your build instructions.
I've never really tried, in all fairness. I suppose in theory it could be done using a rheostat, but the smoke generator draws a lot of power so most potentiometers wouldn't be able to provide enough current for it to work very well. I do have a rheostat that came out of the heater of an old car, so that could probably handle the load, but it would generate a lot of heat which could affect the rest of the boat, but a rheostat and a servo slaved to the motor controller might do it.
I honestly don't know a lot about RC boats, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.
Great video! I have one question, what happens if the heating element is submerged in the smoke liquid?
the material of the heating element wire is nichrome, correct?
Voltage divided by current will give you resistance. You have the resistance wire, you have the voltage (battery) and it’s output current capacity (marked as A or mA on battery), then by applying Ohms law you will be able to calculate the length of wire required to ‘glow’.
V divided by I x R is the formula. If you have two of the criteria you can work out the others. A Multimeter, and knowledge of how to use it is a must for safety! You can then measure the resistance of the wire from end to end. I noted that you were also holding the wire with metal conducting pliers. This will have increased the resistance! Good Luck - next play with making a candy floss machine!!
Hello , Enjoyed your video , but can you tell me what gauge of wire do you use to make the coils please ? . Ive looked up the wire on ebay and although its all the same name and type , some is listed specially for coils . Thanks in advance for your reply .. Bill .
That particular wire came from an old hair dryer. You can often find very cheap hairdryers in large supermarkets - strip the heating element out and cut it down to fit. For lower powered machines (9v or less, try using pre-wound vape coils.
@@SteamGeezerUK Thank you . Bill
Can you put food colour into the liquid?
It won't do any good, I'm afraid. In fact, it will simply produce less smoke. As far as I am aware, no-one has yet been able to make a smoke machine produce smoke other than white, without using some really noxious and almost impossible to procure chemicals.
can you add food colors to the smoke fluid
I'm trying to follow your idea but I'm finding when I put power to the wire its glowing and has burnt through the box , its running at 7.2 v, the box is only small ,approx. 1 inch x 2 inch and 15mm deep,
heng long smoke generator?
i think your box was too small and these wire was nasty , it heats up very well to melt everything around it
I've built some tiny smoke machines, less than 1" square. You can do it, but you need to keep the heater away from the sides of the box. You might also consider using aluminium tape on the inside of the box to deflect heat.
The thing is, with a box that small, you will get heat buildup. The easiest way to limit this is to not run the machine too much, or to use a lower powered wire. Here's a little vid of a USB powered box I've been working on:
czcams.com/video/dsFNSFOjFCo/video.html
Great video! Such a simple, elegant device!
E-cigarettes have regulating circuitry to avoid over-heating their batteries (causing them to explode). Mine, for example, disconnects if you hold the button down for too long, and will not fire again for a moment. How do you account for this risk with unregulated batteries (e.g. the lead-acid battery)? Are large batteries just really good at dissipating heat?
You can buy a lifetime supply of nichrome or kanthal wire for dirt cheap if you want to make your own heating elements. I'm not sure, but I believe nichrome is what most commercial wire heating elements are made of.
What is voltage to be given to Fan.
It depends on the fan. This one is 12v, but there are 5v and 24v fans available.
Dear.
Only model airplane in Brazil, you can inform me the name of this hose that you do wick.
I would like to build a lot of smoke for my electric model cars.
I thank you for your attention.
Great your project.
If you're building for a car, one of my smaller smoke machines would probably be better. There's a video of it here - czcams.com/video/sXjAJKmdAC8/video.html
Don't get it, what's the use of the fiberglass wick if it doesn't burn? Just the coil itself might be enough? On a 9 volt block battery?
The wick brings the fluid to the heater. If you put the heater straight into a pool of smoke fluid, you'd have to heat the entire volume of fluid to make smoke, and it would run out really quickly. The wick brings enough fluid to the heater to create smoke without needing to heat the entire thing.
@@SteamGeezerUK right, got it, thanks.
Thank you for this video. I have just started to think about a smoke machine and this looks the most easy and safe way to do. I have one question. I was thinking to use the smoke in a display cabinet for scale models to simulate clouds for aircraft models in flight. The smoke itself probably damages the plastic or the paint..........or not. Do you have any idea about it?
Thanks!
The fluid shouldn't damage the paint directly, but it is possible in an enclosed space for it to leave a greasy residue which might, over time, cause problems. However, I think it would be far less of a problem than using an oil burning smoke machine.
I would suggest you try it and see how it goes before putting any models in the cabinet.
Good luck with it.
Thanks Joe, glad to be of help.
Thanks!
Can I ask what is the best wire to use for the heating element
It really depends on what power supply you have and what fluid you're using. In this instance I'm using wire from a hair dryer but that's because I'm using a 12v power supply. I've also made much smaller machines using vape coils and 5v power supplies.
I'm looking at building a smoke generator what model hair dryer Heater elements do u use , i seem to be able only to find ceramic hair dryers ? Cheers thanks
I bought a cheap one from Argos. I think if you look for the cheapest one you can find (less than £5 ideally), you should find one with a wire element.
could you tell me please , what wire you are using . and what resistance should there be ? I once tried to remake the smoke henglong/taygen and took a thick wire , she had too little resistance and I burned the control unit tank . empirically I found that in the native divinenature using thin nichrome filament with a resistance of 16 ohms .
The wire in this particular machine came from a hair dryer, so I don't know the exact resistance. I've been experimenting with nichrome wire but the most success I've had is using pre-wound vape coils at lower voltages. I'm going to be doing another video soon with smaller machines using vape coils and 5v power supplies.
hi again sorry can i use deionized water instead of distalled water??
thx again
I don't suppose it would do any harm.
again many thx
Hi. Great video. Very informative. I am trying this out at home but I'm struggling to find the connectors to join up the wires to the batteries. Can you provide any more details on these types of connectors and/or a link to somewhere selling them on EBay perhaps? Many thanks in advance.
If you're talking about the actual connection to the battery, those are standard automotive spade connectors (6.3mm I believe). The connectors between the wires and the heating element are 10amp terminal blocks with the insulation removed. If you need any more help. please don't hesitate to get in touch.
@@SteamGeezerUK OK. Thanks for that. Sorry if I'm being pedantic, but you've got the two wires coming from the heating element joining to one wire (by the looks of it) coming from the polymer lithium battery, so presumably that is a special connector you've got that takes in the two wires - that's what I'm unsure about. I want to make sure I get the right connector for the two heating element wires to connect to that will then join up to the battery lead. Does that make sense?
No worries, I see what you're getting at now. The 12v LiPo batteries generally come with a 5.5mm x 2.1mm male connector, so you need a 5.5mm x 2.1mm DC female connector to connect your wires to so you can plug the battery into the heater. Obviously you'd need to check this with whatever battery you use, but all of mine have the same connector type. One thing I will say is that these connectors are not designed for big power draw, so if your heater is pulling more than a couple of amps, the connectors may get hot and the plastic parts may get soft or even melt, especially if you run the heater a lot. I had one running at 16v 5A and the plug got warm after just a few seconds, so keep that in mind. You can get all metal connectors which will stand the higher powers better, but they will still get hot if you run too much power through them.
@@SteamGeezerUK Perfect - thanks for that. Very helpful :-)
Can't seem to find the Lipo power pack like yours, I have everything bar that. Plus what power are you using for the fan? The same kind of power pack?
The battery in this video is a 12v 7Ah sealed lead acid battery, primarily aimed at alarm systems and emergency lighting systems. The battery I showed at the end came from ebay and is a 12v 10000mAh lithium ion battery with a built in protection circuit. There's a video here where I look at these batteries in more detail, but generally if you search for 12v lithium batteries on ebay, you should find them. Make sure you shop around, because the prices can vary wildly. As for the fan power, I generally run the fan on the same battery, although on my son's power armour I have two separate 12v circuits, one for the lights, fans etc and one purely for the heater in the smoke generator as I run that on either 12v or 16v depending on how much smoke I want. On some of my USB powered smoke machines, I use a 12v fan on a 5v power supply so it turns more slowly, as this is often more effective. I'll be doing a video in the not too distant future on building 5v USB powered miniature smoke machines if you're interested.
czcams.com/video/7PLe7NZTUL8/video.html
SteamGeezer and Son Independent Traders heck yes am interested XD thought id found the battery but can only see up to 6800mAh and the only 10000mAh one over 75 quid. Thank you Mr badger, also experimenting on the heating coil mounted at the top of a vertical wick.
It s hard to buy it on ebay
Have you got a link to where I can buy the terminals that you used at 8:03?
They come out of a 10amp terminal block. I cut the plastic cover off and use the brass fittings from inside.
Something like this... www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=10+amp+terminal+block&_sacat=0
Thanks for watching.
Using a LiPo in this Application is unwise, because you’re basically shorting it out and LiPos do not like that, and can catch fire themselves! So don’t use lipos when the application has a very low resistance. Samsung Phones have a lot of experience with this :) all fun aside, it’s a fierce intensely hot fire. Better use, like you did before, a lead acid battery, they can safely handle this abuse.
hi what diameter is the fabreglass rope please?ty
You can get it in different sizes. I generally use 12mm for the big machines and 6mm for the smaller ones. If you need smaller than that, you can unravel the ropes to get thinner pieces.
hi mate thanks for reply.
How do you stop the wire from overheating?
My black and red wires connecting to the nichrome started heating up and the battery is the same. Is there no safety method to stop this?
You need to check the power draw on the nichrome wire and make sure the power wires you're using are a heavy enough gauge to carry that much power. As for the battery, you may well be overloading it. The only solution there really is to use a more powerful battery. If you can, use a multimeter or similar tool to determine the amperage your nichrome is drawing and go from there. I made a short video a while ago on how to use a multimeter to measure the power output from your heating element:
czcams.com/video/rLYGoNdb3iA/video.html
Thanks for the reply and I will check the link you gave me.
I was wondering why you used such a large battery although the wires look the same size that I am using. Biggest battery 'I can use' is a LiPo of 7.4v at 5200 Mah.
If you're using a LiPo, I would definitely check the power draw - lithium polymer batteries can suffer from thermal runaway if they get too hot, and can end up catching fire, especially if it doesn't have a protection circuit, which it sounds like yours doesn't or it wouldn't allow you to overload the battery. I would check the data sheet for the battery (should be available from the manufacturer) to see what the maximum safe draw current is, then make a heater that is below that limit (just make the heater wire longer until the power draw is under the rating of the battery).
Hi there, how could I contact you for a question I have about a construction?
ware did you get the fiberglass rope from ??
Ebay.
what are the materials to be use?details pls thanku
He showed what you needed at the beginning of the video and what he did not show you can see. What you see is what you need.
The pound shop = Dollar store
to much speak, no work, speak,,,, and speak,,,,
Nah, not much smoke at all. I like smoke from a roaring house fire, so this doesn't help.