Pro/Forums - View Single Post

Marco · 03-17-2002, 03:47 AM

At brad's special request, I've put together this quick overview of my bong cooler, and it's evolution over time. Many changes were not documented, partly because work on the bong started before I got my digital camera. Nonetheless, the biggest changes in my bong are clearly visible.

This is one of the earlier incarnations of my bong, by no means the earliest though. The head in use is not the original one I had designed, and I only added the external res some time after the original bong was assembled. You can tell this was pretty long ago by how clean the floor was back then

Note the clear level gauge on the res, a feature you will also find present in later pics of the main bong.

At this point the head was still a straight-out design. The main issue with this was that tiny water particles would get blown straight out of the top of the bong. Various particle-trapping meshes proved to be cumbersome, airflow-killing and ineffective.

Here you can immediately see several major changes. most notably the new bonghead incorporating the 90 degree elbow. this elbow, combined with the added upper fan, helps to substantially cut down water loss through escape of small water particles. This escape of particles has come to be known as spriting.

You may also notice the new tape-wrapping on the lower fan, meant to ensure that all the air blown by it went straight into the bong tube.

If you look in the gap between the chair and the table you can see an old AT case. The electronics were stripped out from in it and it was used to house a larger pump that I had sent to me from NZ by a certain staff member here

. Problem with it was that it was EM unshielded. Putting it in the steel case reduced its effect considerably but did not eliminate it entirely. This and other factors eventually led to the larger pump being retired. At this point in time the bong was making use of three pumps, which allowed for a variety of flow designs.

Major changes from the last photo here include the reorientation of the intake, the addition of a inline wet thermal probe, and the addition of a auto-switching powerstrip.

The bong was reorienter for two reasons:
1) to adapt to the new tubing layout that used one less pump
2) to point the damned thing away from my leg, where it caused an air current and subsequently chilly feet

The inline wet thermal probe was something I had known I needed for a long time, and finally got around to assembling. I have a full set of assembly photos for it, just need to sit myself down and do a write-up. Nothing original of course, I've seen it done by several other sites, and I pretty much drew my inspiration from them.

The auto-switching powerstrip is something more original by me, and you can see my write-up for it at http://www.voidyourwarranty.net/revi...rip/index.php3 . It's still in service, problem-free.

This show highlights one major change, the addition of my water recollection system. It's essentially a funnel glued to gather the water coming out of a hole i made in the bottom of the head to allow water gathered up there to be drained. Works in that respect, but I'm still having some leakage beyond it. Hope to address that with a new design for my bong fan holder that I've had in my head for months but never got around to building.

Note that up until here I still had a small submersible inside the tank to pump water around to the CPU. You can see its wire running out.

And this brings us up to the present-day implementation. Main changes include the expanded reservoir, which lets the bong last somewhat more than the about 4 hours it did before. Now, depending on usage and if I activate the fans, the bong will last from 2 days to a week on a single reload. Also measured it, holds about 4.5 Liters of water.

Another significant change is the addition of the electronic level gauge. Without it I would only know my tank was empty when my pump began sucking air, and having to prime the damned pump every time I reloaded the bong got extremely annoying. So now with the water level gauge it's easy to tell when it is time to refill.

A note on refilling. Refilling is done through the secondary tank. In the past this involved filling the secondary tank, sealing it, and blowing air into it to force water into the primary tank. Now I have put the submersible pump I removed from the main tank into the secondary tank, and it makes the refilling of my main tank so much easier and less painful.

Now, just a quick touch on the possible future of my bong, just mainly some ideas I've been chewing on.

I want to adapt the electronic level sensor into an intelligent monitoring and maintainance system for my bong. I want to add a siren that goes off when the water level in the main tank becomes critically low, and a relay-operated system to automatically pump water from my secondary tank to my primary tank when the water in the main tank drops below a certain level. Of course, this would mean building a much larger secondary tank. Also, the secondary tank would need its own level gauge to protect the pump in it if it were to empty. A mechanism to completely shut down the system if water were to run out is also being considered.

Another direction I've been thinking in is controlling the fans based on temperature. Fans help evaporation by supplying drier air to the insides of the bong, but they also blow water out. Furthermore, there is no need to keep the water continually at below ambient. In fact, that is a waste of water, and it would be much more efficient to just activate and deactivate the fans as and when needed to keep the water in a specific temperature range. Sadly, my knowledge of electronics is not quite sufficient to allow me to easily design such circuits. Help/suggestions are appreciated!

03-17-2002, 03:47 AM	#1
Marco Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 79	Evolution of a Bong Cooler At brad's special request, I've put together this quick overview of my bong cooler, and it's evolution over time. Many changes were not documented, partly because work on the bong started before I got my digital camera. Nonetheless, the biggest changes in my bong are clearly visible. This is one of the earlier incarnations of my bong, by no means the earliest though. The head in use is not the original one I had designed, and I only added the external res some time after the original bong was assembled. You can tell this was pretty long ago by how clean the floor was back then Note the clear level gauge on the res, a feature you will also find present in later pics of the main bong. At this point the head was still a straight-out design. The main issue with this was that tiny water particles would get blown straight out of the top of the bong. Various particle-trapping meshes proved to be cumbersome, airflow-killing and ineffective. Here you can immediately see several major changes. most notably the new bonghead incorporating the 90 degree elbow. this elbow, combined with the added upper fan, helps to substantially cut down water loss through escape of small water particles. This escape of particles has come to be known as spriting. You may also notice the new tape-wrapping on the lower fan, meant to ensure that all the air blown by it went straight into the bong tube. If you look in the gap between the chair and the table you can see an old AT case. The electronics were stripped out from in it and it was used to house a larger pump that I had sent to me from NZ by a certain staff member here . Problem with it was that it was EM unshielded. Putting it in the steel case reduced its effect considerably but did not eliminate it entirely. This and other factors eventually led to the larger pump being retired. At this point in time the bong was making use of three pumps, which allowed for a variety of flow designs. Major changes from the last photo here include the reorientation of the intake, the addition of a inline wet thermal probe, and the addition of a auto-switching powerstrip. The bong was reorienter for two reasons: 1) to adapt to the new tubing layout that used one less pump 2) to point the damned thing away from my leg, where it caused an air current and subsequently chilly feet The inline wet thermal probe was something I had known I needed for a long time, and finally got around to assembling. I have a full set of assembly photos for it, just need to sit myself down and do a write-up. Nothing original of course, I've seen it done by several other sites, and I pretty much drew my inspiration from them. The auto-switching powerstrip is something more original by me, and you can see my write-up for it at http://www.voidyourwarranty.net/revi...rip/index.php3 . It's still in service, problem-free. This show highlights one major change, the addition of my water recollection system. It's essentially a funnel glued to gather the water coming out of a hole i made in the bottom of the head to allow water gathered up there to be drained. Works in that respect, but I'm still having some leakage beyond it. Hope to address that with a new design for my bong fan holder that I've had in my head for months but never got around to building. Note that up until here I still had a small submersible inside the tank to pump water around to the CPU. You can see its wire running out. And this brings us up to the present-day implementation. Main changes include the expanded reservoir, which lets the bong last somewhat more than the about 4 hours it did before. Now, depending on usage and if I activate the fans, the bong will last from 2 days to a week on a single reload. Also measured it, holds about 4.5 Liters of water. Another significant change is the addition of the electronic level gauge. Without it I would only know my tank was empty when my pump began sucking air, and having to prime the damned pump every time I reloaded the bong got extremely annoying. So now with the water level gauge it's easy to tell when it is time to refill. A note on refilling. Refilling is done through the secondary tank. In the past this involved filling the secondary tank, sealing it, and blowing air into it to force water into the primary tank. Now I have put the submersible pump I removed from the main tank into the secondary tank, and it makes the refilling of my main tank so much easier and less painful. Now, just a quick touch on the possible future of my bong, just mainly some ideas I've been chewing on. I want to adapt the electronic level sensor into an intelligent monitoring and maintainance system for my bong. I want to add a siren that goes off when the water level in the main tank becomes critically low, and a relay-operated system to automatically pump water from my secondary tank to my primary tank when the water in the main tank drops below a certain level. Of course, this would mean building a much larger secondary tank. Also, the secondary tank would need its own level gauge to protect the pump in it if it were to empty. A mechanism to completely shut down the system if water were to run out is also being considered. Another direction I've been thinking in is controlling the fans based on temperature. Fans help evaporation by supplying drier air to the insides of the bong, but they also blow water out. Furthermore, there is no need to keep the water continually at below ambient. In fact, that is a waste of water, and it would be much more efficient to just activate and deactivate the fans as and when needed to keep the water in a specific temperature range. Sadly, my knowledge of electronics is not quite sufficient to allow me to easily design such circuits. Help/suggestions are appreciated!