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Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]
- jonesjohnson 11mo agoThe thought that disposable vapes are still not forbidden in my country (EU) is making me sick.
- skopje 11mo agoi did not know these existed. very sick indeed.
- agumonkey 11mo agoi see more and more of them thrown in small streets and parks these days (FR).. if I had secure storage i'd take them just like that youtuber, alas
- Gigachad 11mo agoThey are illegal in Australia, but they are all over the ground. Littered like cigarette butts. Only now instead of just being plastic and some slightly toxic substances. It's a whole e-waste package.
- trollied 11mo agoThey are illegal now in the UK.
- detritus 11mo ago'illegal' in that manufacturers add on a usb port and the basic board to tick the reusable check box. I'm still seeing almost as many of these cast on the streets as I did a year ago.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- tstrimple 11mo agoAll of the disposables I've seen have USB ports for charging because they come with more juice than battery power sufficient to vape it all. You will have to recharge multiple times for one disposable. I'm not in the UK, but I have seen something of a shift to separating the battery component from the vape tank such that you can just buy a new disposable tank and reuse the batteries. Maybe something like that might work in the UK grey areas.
- erinnh 11mo agoFrom what I know the law is passed already. And they will become illegal end of 2026.
- Aachen 11mo agoIn the EU/EEA or where?
- userbinator 11mo agoOn the other hand, free parts! Everything is reusable if you're determined enough.
- garyfirestorm 11mo agoThe problem is how do recover these parts from a heap of trash
- pjc50 11mo agoMy reading of the WEEE directive is that no electrical equipment can be "disposable", it should all be recyclable and recycled. Actual enforcement of this is non-existent. If you see a "disposable" vape discarded in the street, look for the crossed out bin logo.
- dingnuts 11mo agoManufacturers should be required to actually take back anything with that logo. You can buy so much stuff that becomes a serious problem to dispose of and that stupid logo is all that's required of the manufacturer. Cost of disposal would then get added to the price of the object, as it should to begin with! Everything with a sealed, soldered battery makes me furious on this front. Every item with a battery that recharges through the device instead of having a battery door like a Game Boy is on a timer, and for no good reason other than planned obsolescence.
- Aachen 11mo ago> no electrical equipment can be "disposable", it should all be recyclable Disposable paper wrappers can be recycled. Is there no disposable paper anymore now?
- xboxnolifes 11mo agoWhat?
- Aachen 11mo agoExactly! I didn't get that logic either
- hamdingers 11mo agoThere is a massive gulf between "be recyclable" and actually being recycled. Depending on energy and cost intensive recycling, which can only ever capture a percentage of the waste, is silly. This kind of thing needs to be stopped at the source.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- PeaceTed 11mo agoThey are banned here in Australia, unfortunately it has created a huge black market for these things. Almost every neighborhood now has a cigarette store that also sells gifts and US chocolates that are basically just fronts for this stuff. Black market vapes and cigarettes. Even the police in many parts here don't really enforce this stuff. What I find even crazier than the batteries being disposed is that some of these have some decent processor tech in them. Like this one that has a 48Mhz ARM processor in. https://ripitapart.com/category/disposable-vape-hacks/ https://ripitapart.com/category/disposable-vape-hacks/
- viraptor 11mo agoJust curious: if you wanted to do something like that, but prevent a... thermal event, how would you protect an experimental battery realistically? Build a brick enclosure? A fire safe?
- mlsu 11mo agoI think there’s not much you can do other than placing it very far away from the house. Those big packs just have way too much energy.
- louwrentius 11mo agoA runaway NMC battery is notoriously difficult to extinguish, so the best thing to do is to not do it and investigate LFP prismatic cells instead. Many people building home storage batteries use a shed a few meters away from their home.
- knowitnone3 11mo agowhat's a NMC battery?
- yurishimo 11mo agoNickel manganese cadmium maybe?
- jonesjohnson 11mo agoNickel Manganese Cobalt - a type of Lithium battery chemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_nickel_manganese_cobalt_oxides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_nickel_manganese_cobal...
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- jonesjohnson 11mo agoProper cooling seems to be the primary thing to do. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590174522001337 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259017452... Proper Home Storage systems are pretty safe: https://www.bves.de/en/2024/12/17/study-home-batteries-fire-safety/ https://www.bves.de/en/2024/12/17/study-home-batteries-fire-... There are special containers for transport of (even damaged) lithium batteries, which don't look overly bulky: https://www.zarges.com/en/solutions/transport-and-storage-of-lithium-ion-batteries-also-defective-or-damaged/ https://www.zarges.com/en/solutions/transport-and-storage-of...
- louwrentius 11mo agoNever ever consider doing something like this. There is a good reason why most home battery storage solutions are based on LFP batteries and not NMC as used in vapes. LFP is a much safer chemistry that can withstand higher temperatures and won’t bust into thermal runaway like NMC.
- embedding-shape 11mo ago> Never ever consider doing something like this. Unless you're a hacker, and you like hacking on stuff, then by all means, read through all the warnings and please do consider doing similar to what OP did, it's a lot of fun and you'll learn a lot!
- 01100011 11mo agoEh, as a hacker who has wasted time on a lot of dumb stuff I would encourage people to not follow absolutely every obsession you have and think of the opportunity costs of new projects you take on.
- embedding-shape 11mo agoAs a hacker who never wasted a single minute of my life, yet did a lot of dumb stuff, I'd say your mindset is what's getting in your way, not the amount of dumb stuff you've done :)
- mosfets 11mo agoThere are a million ways this can turn into a fireball, dont' try it, at least don't put it at home.
- neuroelectron 11mo agoDoes he ever once mention where he gets all these disposable vapes or what we can do about stopping them from entering the landfills?
- halfmatthalfcat 11mo agoYeah he does, watch the video.
- embedding-shape 11mo agoWhen I first read your comment, it makes it sound like you've been watching the video for 20 minutes and it wasn't mentioned once. Turns out he starts talking about it around the 2:00 minute mark...
- Mashimo 11mo agoHe started with festivals, but then he went to a vape shop and asked.
- Fwirt 11mo agoThe amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwarf any carbon “savings” you get by replacing them with more “efficient” machines. Especially when you consider that renewable power is taking over and many places aren’t burning coal to run the things anymore. A 12 year old i7 server runs my NVR, home automation setup, web server, and network router (not to mention a small handful of other services) without even breaking 25% CPU usage. We could replace so many data centers with old desktops.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- lukan 11mo ago"We could replace so many data centers with old desktops." But I assume for way more energy costs? And the manual labour to sort out the different mainboards and make everything interoperable is not free either. But I guess it means lots of opportunity for unconventional low costs projects to scramble things together. Win 10 got another year of support, but I assume next year, even more computers will be avaiable quite cheap or for free.
- Fwirt 11mo agoSee my other reply, when people count energy costs they fail to take into account the existing sunk cost of producing said resources, and the energy from having to build out new infrastructure to create these “more efficient” datacenters. It’s like when people replace their fridge with a “more efficient” one and wipe out any energy savings with the cost of the new fridge. The difference in energy use will not pay for the new fridge for many years and by then you’ve already replaced the new fridge with another newer “better” one.
- hrimfaxi 11mo ago
- crmd 11mo agoAfter all networked smartphones and computers were placed under control of the regime, resistance hackers relied on microcontrollers harvested from ordinary household devices like smart lamps and vape pens to slowly rebuild the covert but resilient mesh internetwork that became known as FreeNet.
- lionkor 11mo agoMaybe this is not such a bad side of history to be on after all.
- PeaceTed 11mo agoCongratulations, welcome to the dev team of Collapse OS. https://collapseos.org/ https://collapseos.org/ Now they are more focused on supply chain break down but your scenario would also be valid.
- Neywiny 11mo agoWhen I think of what's out there I think of cheapy ARMs, maybe STM32 knock offs. Honestly the F103C8T6 is so prolific that's probably a solid chunk of all processors in existence. And then things like ESP32s. So to not see ARM or Tenscillica on there is a bit weird. But maybe I'm reading too much into it and it's more of a thought experiment
- jogu 11mo agoMy first time seeing Collapse OS as well, but I'm guessing the decision is based in attempting to contain complexity. Seems like the author has a related projected Dusk OS that is more portable: https://duskos.org/ https://duskos.org/
- CheeseFromLidl 11mo agoLooking at that list, collapse OS seems to cater to 8-bit only. It’s also aimes at “ built from scavenged parts” boards. I’ve often come across Hitachi h8, Blackfin, PIC, avr, the occasional ARM and other controllers in the wild. But they all have one thing in common: the flash is locked and inaccessible without some jtag tools. The only times you’ll see external flash (winbond & co) is with an fpga or a controller who’s had his otp memory configured with a bootloader. I often re-purpose scavenged board because of their useful layout, but only after swapping the controller for a programmable one. The notion of scavenging the controllers themselves… far less practical as you think.
- bethekidyouwant 11mo agoNot designed to be charged? So its also disposable?
- foofoo12 11mo agoInteresting use of street lithium.
- hereme888 11mo agoNow power the CT scanner used to screen for lung cancer.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- webprofusion 11mo agoThis is fire.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- aorloff 11mo agoTiny standards in legislation (I'm looking at you EU) around the e-cig designs to ensure simple battery recycling would solve this. Then you make the consumer pay for the battery separately and you are done.
- dominojab 11mo ago[dead]
- jillesvangurp 11mo agoA simple deposit might fix this. Many countries already do this for glass bottles and cans. You get the money back when you return them for recycling. Also could work for other e-waste (phones, tablets, etc.). For some goods like washing machines, this is already common. Extending that to other product categories might be doable. It does put some additional work on shop owners that have to pay back those deposits and collect them. Which means additional bookkeeping and some mechanism that ensures they don't end up in the negative on deposits for goods bought in another shop. And of course the extra deposit means prices go up as well. Even if you get it back at the end of the product life, it is extra cost. Vapes being thrown away casually on the street has a bigger underlying problem of littering not really having any consequences. Some people just dump their trash wherever and it's just considered normal (by them). Some big fines would be appropriate here in my view. It's negative behavior. It's easy to know when you are doing it wrong and pretty much inexcusable. The only reason people do this is that they are being sloppy and don't really care. If you are caught red handed dropping your trash where you shouldn't, it should have some consequences. I'm not a fan of the nanny state but this is an area where I wouldn't mind people being corrected quite a bit more than they currently are. I don't think this should be that controversial.
- withinboredom 11mo agoI once worked with someone who apparently thought they were supposed to throw their takeout out their car window after eating it. That's why they thought they saw people cleaning up the side of the roads every now and then. Our whole team had to explain to them how this is littering and that isn't why those people exist. And yes, this is what they had been told since they were a child.
- jcmontx 11mo agoIncredible how wasteful we're being. Market-driven economy will doom us all Edit: I'm not saying I have a better alternative, but this system is deeply flawed
- officeplant 11mo agoDisposable products in general should be much better regulated by the countries of the world.