The revamped version of the code has now replaced the old version.
Now to spend the rest of the day pressing F5, waiting for bug reports to tick in.
By the way, there’s a couple of brand new features in the coil calculator:
New heat flux interface
When I first made Steam Engine back in 2014, uttering the words “heat flux” in the presence of vapers would only evoke blank stares. I still chose to include the value as an unremarkable little output under “advanced results”.
Fast forward a couple of years, and people had started taking notice. When I discovered that some paid app even had one-upped me by giving heat flux a more prominent place in the user interface, I quickly followed suit, moving the value to the the more visible “basic results” section. A small coloured icon was added in order to draw the user’s attention, while simultaneously giving them a hint about what’s hot and what’s not. I still wasn’t sure that this was something vapers would actually care about, though.
The last year or so has removed all doubt. I see people on forums discussing what heat flux they prefer to vape at, everyone who’s into coil building seem acquainted with the term, and some even use it as a starting point for their builds. It seems the concept is here to stay. Time to update Steam Engine accordingly.
You can now enter the heat flux you want to vape at in the “new old” coil calculator. The calculator will then tell you how much power or voltage your mod needs to provide in order to reach the selected heat flux.
In addition to being more intuitive and more practically oriented, this also solved the problem with how to recommend a reasonable power/voltage setting for the mod. Now that the heat flux dictates these numbers, it’s no longer a question of a practical but ultimately subjective estimate, now it’s a straight forward and objective calculation. Two birds with one stone.
(The next challenge would be to automatically suggest a heat flux based on the heat capacity, and possibly some other values, but that’s a task for another day.)
Incidentally, I also plan to implement something similar in the Wire Wizard, although it is a bit more complicated because the heat flux will have to be an average of all the wire components. The required voltage will depend on the TCR and the temperature at any given time, so I’m not quite sure what exactly to display yet. The preheat and boost features of many modern TC mods may complicate matters even further. There’s definitely some design decisions to be made there.
Ok, back to the “new old” coil calculator:
Dynamic step size for target resistance
When you use the arrows (or the arrow keys of your keyboard) to adjust the target resistance in the coil calculator, the step size will now depend on the selected resistance at any given moment:
- Below 0.4 Ω: Step size 0.01 Ω.
- 0.4 Ω to 1 Ω: Step size 0.05 Ω.
- Over 1 Ω: Step size 0.1 Ω (like before).
This should give the sub-ohmers some long awaited fine control when approaching the holy grail of the short circuit. 😉
19 responses to “New version out and about”
There is a bug in the new version for the wirewizard. Tried it with I.E. Edge and Chrome.
Select wire wizard.
I-D 3 mm
Number of wraps 7
Leg length 7
Wrap spacing 0.1
Twisted
Number of wires 2
Twist Pitch 1.4 mm
No matter what gauge of wire you select (in the above case I want Single wire, SS316L, Round, and 26 AWG (0.405 mm)) the Twist pitch will say Too small; overlapping
Fixed. You may have to reload the page once or twice in order to see the change. Thanks for telling me!
Hey.
Why don’t you include more presets for Mods (Mod Range).
Users could submit but someone have to accept it before it goes online. That way anyone could contribute. You can even make a rule like if 10 users enter same settings for a particular mod it gets automatically published.
Hi. The idea is sound, and I used to have a free text form for this, but I received so many requests with no effort or numbers (or sometimes wildly implausible numbers) behind them, sending me on wild goose chases looking for sources and specs that were simply not available. I wasted way too much time, and was able to add far too few presets that way. See this blog post for more: http://larssimonsen.wpcomstaging.com/2016/03/qa-adding-a-mod-to-the-mod-range-calculator/
I noticed a pretty big difference in the old vs. new versions regarding aliens.
In the new version, it gives a resistance value of 0.202Ω, pulling 4.95 amps. In the old version, the value is 0.255Ω, pulling 3.92 amps.
SPECS:
Clapton
Cores = parallelx3, 26KA1
Wrap = 36N80
I.D. = 2.5
Wraps = 5.5
Leg Length = 2
Wrap Spacing – 0.05
I have made some additional changes to the Wire Wizard now, I hope you find the updated version better.
Hello,
On your new site version, the “Heat flux” in “mW/mm²” is not convenient (http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.html), please return at “Watts”.
In “Fire Wisard” (http://www.steam-engine.org/wirewiz.html) the NiFe30 (Resistherm) has now a value of
“TCR in vaping range 3355×10-6” ?! The correct value is “3200×10-6”, please correct it, for not burn coton and coil…
Best regards.
Hi. Most people seem to find the new heat flux interface superior. But if you prefer the old one, it’ still here for you to use. http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp
The Resistherm TCR is calculated from a temperature curve which should give more accurate results, and be the effective TCR in the range of temperatures that are relevant to vaping. See this post for details: http://larssimonsen.wpcomstaging.com/2016/11/better-specific-heat-and-density-data-for-nife30/
Hello,
The NiFe30 coils from “Dicodes” which I use, which are of very high quality and very stable in their production values have a coefficient of TC 3200 and an electrical resistance of 5.5 ohms per linear meter.
See picture below : http://www.pipeline-store.de/586-1752-thickbox/dicodes-wire-resistherm-nife30-10-meter.jpg
The new values you have introduced do not guarantee me a good quality vapor as was the case with the old values.
Please make a new selection for the NiFe30 Resisterm from Dicodes with the correct values.
Best regards and good luck.
I’ll add a Dicodes Resistherm wire with that TCR, but unfortunately I cannot use a linear resistance number for anything. I need to add resistivity as Ω•mm²/m for it to work. Anyway, it is now possible to use custom data with Steam Engine, if the default presets aren’t to your liking. I hope that solves your issues.
Taking any browser, inserting a predefined link to ‘coil wrapping’ with mat=xy … it wont take the selected material but uses Kanthal instead.
Give it a try: http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.html?mat=ss316l
Thanks for letting me know. Fixed now.
Hi there, changes in the wire resistance field (Ohms/mm) , in the “advanced” settings do not seem to change the coil resistance. Tried it by selecting a wire type and going to advanced or selecting custom resistivity straight away and changing the wire resistance tab. Am I doing something wrong?
Thank you very much for your contribution to the community, especially as a new vaper steam engine was my first stop before building a coil. 🙂
Hi. This setting is supposed to affect the number of wraps, but not the target resistance.
Wire Wizard on the new version doesn’t work on my phone but the old one works just fine. When I select a coil type like Clapton it doesn’t open any more drop down boxes to enter values for core and wrap. Is it because my phone is old as dirt? It’s a Samsung Galaxy S4.
I should clarify that it’s Wire Wizard in the app that doesn’t work on my phone. If I go to Steam Engine online it works fine. Also is there any way you could add the total width of the coil in Wire Wizard? It’s in the advanced opinions on Coil Wrapping but I would love to see it in WW. Thanks!
Hi. I’ll see what I can do.
I can not save page from time to time, but I have to reset it whenever I need the page. I have tried the store funktion
Previous commenter said that changing wire resistance in advanced mode didn’t change resistance and you replied that it wasn’t supposed to – instead it’s supposed to change the number of wraps. That would be consistent with the old version, but I don’t see that it actually does it. E.g. Set it up with Titanium 1, 0.4mm, 0.4ohms, 3mm ID. It’ll tell you 8.53 wraps. Go to advanced and change the resistance from 0.00374 to the published number of 0.00394 for SSV wire. It does not change the number of wraps like it did. Am I doing something wrong?