Portable cigarette lighter running of AA batteries.

[Burnout]

Hi,

I'm trying to build a cigarette lighter using one or two AA rechargeable batteries (1.2v and 2400mA) using steel wire as heating element.

I was think about using a joule thief to boost voltage from 1.2v to something like 12v. Is it possible ? Can anyone give me a schematics with proper values to do this ?

Also, I would like to build it inside a tiny box (2in x 5in x 1in WxHxD), so is it possible to use small ferrite cores ?

Thanks !

 

[kchriste]

They make those about the size of two AAA batteries. They use butane!
Boosting the voltage will not give you any more power out of the batteries. You would simply need to use the right sized wire of the right resistance to match the battery voltage and the power you require. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me as the batteries won't last very long no matter how you slice it.

 

[Burnout]

They make those about the size of two AAA batteries. They use butane!
Boosting the voltage will not give you any more power out of the batteries. You would simply need to use the right sized wire of the right resistance to match the battery voltage and the power you require. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me as the batteries won't last very long no matter how you slice it.

I know that ... But I like geek toys

I know the batteries won't last even a day probably but that's why I want to use rechargeable ones
About the voltage, I thought that boosting the voltage it would heat up much more quickly.

What should be the size of the wire (22gauge with a resistance of 8 ohm) ?

Thanks !

 

[Mike_2545]

Depending on the rechargeable batteries chosen, you run the risk of blowing them up with the dead short of the heating element...

 

[kchriste]

About the voltage, I thought that boosting the voltage it would heat up much more quickly.

Heat is measured in watts. Watts = Volts x Amps. If you boosted your 3V to 12V and drew 1Amp @ 12V then the booster, if it was 100% efficient, would have to draw 4Amps from the 3V batteries.

What should be the size of the wire (22gauge with a resistance of 8 ohm)

I don't know exactly how little power you could get away with to light a cig, but I do know that the cig lighter in a car is typically on a 20A fuse. So it probably draws around 16-17 Amps at 12V which would mean you'd need 64-68 amps off your 3V AAs which just isn't going to happen. You could try some resistance wire out of a 1Ω 2-3 watt wire wound resistor on 3V and see what happens. It won't glow red for very long as either the wire will melt or the batteries will die. You might be able to light your cig in time if you're quick.

 

[Burnout]

Depending on the rechargeable batteries chosen, you run the risk of blowing them up with the dead short of the heating element...

I'm thinking about using one or two 1.2v 2400mA batteries (used to use them in a digital camera).
When you say: "blowing them up" are you talking about they literally explode or draining all the power with a single short of the heating element ?

EDIT: I'll do some experiments with different lengths to see how it works... I don't need very high temperatures enough to make it glow red. Something like 350~400F would do the trick.

 

[Mike_2545]

Directly shorting a lithium ion battery can cause it to explode. Most have this warning right on them.

 

[Sceadwian]

Did I miss something? Who said anything anywhere about lithium cells?

You could investigate using the heating element from an nitro RC cars 'glow plug' as a heating element, they're designed to 'start up' under 1.2 volt loads. But they're also ment to be started from a single large D or bank of parellel D batteries for the high current required to get the plug to actually reach a high temperature. There's not a lot of information available for exactly you're trying to do, you should actually do some experiments to see if what you're doing is feasible. Personally an electric lighter isn't a geek toy, because geeks know how stupid something like that is compared to carrying around a REAL geek toy, like a butane micro torch you can solder or braze with if need be.
ThinkGeek :: Find Stuff

 

[tcmtech]

In theory it could be done with a mini fly-back coil and simple oscillator circuit used to produce a small hot arc for a few seconds.

Years ago I had a few college friends of mine light cigarettes off a battery powered Tesla coil I made. It was just a modified fly-back coil out of an old TV that I put a simple push pull oscillator circuit on it for a primary coil.

If you can generate an arc of a few thousand volts that can jump a 1/4 inch gap for just a few seconds thats all you need.
Small batteries dont mind a high amp drain for short bursts. If your device took 3 volts at 10 amps for a few seconds and only had 20% working efficiency that would still give you an open arc with around 6 watts of heat! Thats plenty of energy to light a cigarette or any thin flammable materials.

Its just a thought.

 

[Burnout]

Directly shorting a lithium ion battery can cause it to explode. Most have this warning right on them.

I was thinking about regular NiMH batteries

Did I miss something? Who said anything anywhere about lithium cells?

You could investigate using the heating element from an nitro RC cars 'glow plug' as a heating element, they're designed to 'start up' under 1.2 volt loads. But they're also ment to be started from a single large D or bank of parellel D batteries for the high current required to get the plug to actually reach a high temperature. There's not a lot of information available for exactly you're trying to do, you should actually do some experiments to see if what you're doing is feasible. Personally an electric lighter isn't a geek toy, because geeks know how stupid something like that is compared to carrying around a REAL geek toy, like a butane micro torch you can solder or braze with if need be.
ThinkGeek :: Find Stuff

I don't think it's stupid, but different. Just like a binary watch.
About the RC glow plug it looks like a good idea. I'm going to investigate it.

In theory it could be done with a mini fly-back coil and simple oscillator circuit used to produce a small hot arc for a few seconds.

Years ago I had a few college friends of mine light cigarettes off a battery powered Tesla coil I made. It was just a modified fly-back coil out of an old TV that I put a simple push pull oscillator circuit on it for a primary coil.

If you can generate an arc of a few thousand volts that can jump a 1/4 inch gap for just a few seconds thats all you need.
Small batteries dont mind a high amp drain for short bursts. If your device took 3 volts at 10 amps for a few seconds and only had 20% working efficiency that would still give you an open arc with around 6 watts of heat! Thats plenty of energy to light a cigarette or any thin flammable materials.

Its just a thought.

That seems to be a *very* interesting idea but unfortunately isn't a flyback transformer coil too big for my little box ?


Anyway, I just tried using a 4in steel wire with a 5v 1A transformer and it does work pretty well. Tomorrow I'll test it with two batteries in series (2.4v @2400mA) and maybe I won't need any fancy circuit

 

[Hero999]

In theory it could be done with a mini fly-back coil and simple oscillator circuit used to produce a small hot arc for a few seconds.

Years ago I had a few college friends of mine light cigarettes off a battery powered Tesla coil I made. It was just a modified fly-back coil out of an old TV that I put a simple push pull oscillator circuit on it for a primary coil.

If you can generate an arc of a few thousand volts that can jump a 1/4 inch gap for just a few seconds thats all you need.
Small batteries dont mind a high amp drain for short bursts. If your device took 3 volts at 10 amps for a few seconds and only had 20% working efficiency that would still give you an open arc with around 6 watts of heat! Thats plenty of energy to light a cigarette or any thin flammable materials.

Its just a thought.

Yes, that would certainly work.

Maybe a disposable camera capacitor circuit connected to an ignition coil would work?

 

[tcmtech]

I was thinking more in the lines of those little transformers that are used to power the CFL tubes in the computer case accenting lights and flatbed scanner bulb systems or whats used in the smaller LCD screens.
The specs on most of the small two lead micro fluorescents require pulses in the several thousand volt range to get them to light up. Plus the power packs for them are low voltage and very small to start with. So slightly modifying one to use a lower voltage higher current primary coil and a simple push pull driver circuit shouldn't be all that difficult.

Something the size of a normal Zippo lighter shouldn't be to hard to design.

 

[Sceadwian]

Not much power though TCMtech. 1-4 watts. Getting that into a heating element as heat in a direct spot is a little tough so the element itself is really important it's going to be abused, I don't think just any old piece of steel is okay, you'd need something high resistance to take most of the power or it'll just be dissipated in the driver circuit, but it needs to be bulky enough to sustain multiple lights as well as the physical abused of having a cigarette mashed into it repeatedly.

 

[tcmtech]

I know a few watts in an electric arc doesn't seem like much but the air in that arc is heated to its conductive and ionized plasma state which in itself is very hot. As far as lighting a cigarette of any material designed to smolder of burn very little energy is needed.
My reasoning on the are is that its neat and that it can use a simple set of copper or stainless steel electrodes that are easy to clean and maintain. It is just a theory of course though. I dont smoke so I dont have much reason to build such a device.

 

[Sceadwian]

tcm, I've played around with them, I'd be very interested if you could explain to me how to construct an electrode that would be able to light a cigarette more than a novel few number of times. Keeping the electrodes clean would be practically impossible. To be practical it would have to heat an element that would derive the heat to light the tobacco. It's the construction of such a heating element that I'm curious about because it would make the entire idea practical.

 

[tcmtech]

Basically just use two curved electrodes sticking out of the top of the plastic case. The slightly rounded points are closer than the base. Sort of a simple spark plug is all it needs to be. Being low duty cycle the electrodes wont heat up enough to melt the plastic.

If you can fashion a basic spark gap that works off of any small fly back out of a n old TV or computer monitor you can see how a small arc with only a few usable watts will easily light any combustible material that even partly in direct contact with the open arc. Something that can produce enough voltage to jump a 3/16" gap can light paper on fire with only a few milliamps of current behind it.
Once you have the basic spark gap then its just a bit of proper component selection to get it miniaturized.

I may have to dig around in my parts boxes and find one of my old mini HV transformers from a old LCD or other mini fluorescent driver board and see what I can come up with.

I am sort of curious as to what I can do with three volts and some junk parts now.

 

[Sceadwian]

Such contacts would get dirty after a few uses and be unusable. To expect the user to clean the contacts after every use isn't practical. So an actual heating element is really the only practical solution.

 

[Mr RB]

It would take a lot of watts! Probably 50 to 100 watts for a couple of seconds at least.

A spark won't do it. Well a typical spark anyway... If you've ever used a bit of paper to tune a sparkgap you know that even a good solid HF spark only burns tiny little black spots through the paper. To actually ignite the paper or tobacco reliably you need a lot of watts over a reasonably large area.

 

[Externet]

2AA cells ? Use a light bulb, perhaps 12Volts automotive, one with a sturdy filament, about 21Watts as for brakes lamp. Break the glass and you get your incandescent cigarette lighter.
Be gentle with the filament, or place some porcelain piece as backing. You may need to experiment with several wattage light bulbs.

 

[Burnout]

Thanks for all the answers.

I've managed to create a simple lighter using 0.16mm nichrome wire and it does work pretty well (even though the batteries die pretty soon).

I've created a wooden based prototype and a friend of mine liked the idea and asked me if I could create a herb vaporizer based on the same principle. I told him that using AA batteries wouldn't be the best idea, but he insisted in making something portable even if I had to use more AA batteries. Given this I've designed a box capable of holding 6 AA batteries.

The biggest difference is that instead of touching my cigarette directly with the heating element I would wrap a borosilicate tube with the heating element to vaporize the herbs.

Now, in order to protect them from burning I was thinking about some sort of small circuit (it really needs to be small) that would read the temperature and cut the power when it reaches a certain level.

Now I'm not an electronics engineer, but I've tried to draw a simple circuit based on other transistor based circuits. Could someone tell me if it would work?

**broken link removed**

VR1 would be used to control the temperature limit and TR1 is a PTC thermistor. T1 would be a transistor acting like a switch and D1 would be a diode to protect the transistor. I'm just explaining this in case it doesn't make any sense to you

If this circuit does work can someone tell me how can I calculate all values for the components in order to be able to maintain a temperature ranging from 150º to 300º Celsius?

What do you say ? Could this work ?


Thanks again !