# Smoke Units, anyone roll their own?



## RIrail (May 5, 2008)

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone has tried to make their own smoke machine, i.e. tank material, heater type, control circuit. If so, would you care to share your successes and/or failures? 

Steve


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## GaryR (Feb 6, 2010)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/12757511654/

The heater wire used is Kanthal coiled around a glass fiber wick. I used 28 ga. but it coulld be anywhere tween 22ga and 28ga depending on length of coil used. Propylene glycol was use for smoke fluid. Brass tubing makes up the tank/holder. 7.2 volt battery used in this case. 
Your on your own.


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## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

resistor around 47 ohm 7 watt crush the ceramic bedding with pliers good up to 22 volt (don't forget to wrap the wig around the now "bare" resistor!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Gary, we can't see your flickr picture without an account.

47 ohm at 22 volts is 10 watts.. overloading the 7 watt resistor a bit, make sure you don't run it dry!

Greg


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

With the Zimo MX695 series decoder this would work great as you can adjust it to 3 different heat levels. Look at CV137, 138 and 139 for heater element control.


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## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

Question for the electric experts!
I have a harbor smoke unit in my K 27,can i use the 5 or the 19 volt massoth smoke unit "without the heating element" to take advantage of the pulsed smoke out putt ? The massoth unit (fan only) will be on top of the harbor unit to pulse the smoke triggered by wheel magnets.


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## GaryR (Feb 6, 2010)

Try this one.

http://s1164.photobucket.com/user/GaryR46953/media/smoke02_zpssysvmncp.mp4.html


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Sure you can pulse the fan, but you need to wire directly to the fan. So the literal answer to your question is yes.

But I suspect the question is "is there a way to control the fan only and in a way to apply the pulsed fan power/voltage directly" ... that answer is no from my reading of the instruction manual and studying the examples of interfacing they provide. 

Greg


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## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes Greg ,controlling the fan only .All i know is that you can remove or replace the heating element by pulling it out the base.If some one has the unit and pulls out the resistor than we would know if the over heating sensor works with or without the resistor(heating element),should not harm the smoke unit!


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