Complete DNA40 kit

[davetherayon]

This has just featured on VTTV, Dave Dorn is going through assembling one in show or shows to come. It comprises an evolv DNA40 board, Hana clone box, wires, fatdaddy 510, battery box, buttons, and a nifty cradle that holds the board & screen in place for much easier modding. £96 including delivery. Just add soldering iron, solder, and epoxy. What can I say, plastic just got bent again. (Well you can never have too many spares...)

[VapingBad]

StealthVape have been doing a box with a DNA cradle for £23 but OOS ATM.

[davetherayon]

It arrived yesterday, put it together in one sitting, practice helps don't it though. Good points : the 510 is tapped for the fdv, so it screws in, and the caddy is a well designed item. Can pop the board on to figure it out, push the tabs and it comes back out easily. On the downside, they didn't mill out the case near the 510 so there's not enough room for the negative lug and screw. So a lot of last night was spent filing out that area. The only thing you could do otherwise is epoxy the screw threads before fitting the atty, no biggie.

The supplied battery box grips the battery like grim death, though that should ease up with enough tweaking with fingers I guess.

Pleased with the result, having two working dna40 boxes now, and the hana clone box form factor is decent. Good to have (almost) all the bits you need in one package. A quick shop at Stealthvape and maybe Modmaker would probably get the job lot if you know what to order.

[decoy]

Jan 22, 2015 18:12:52 GMT davetherayon said:

It arrived yesterday, put it together in one sitting, practice helps don't it though. Good points : the 510 is tapped for the fdv, so it screws in, and the caddy is a well designed item. Can pop the board on to figure it out, push the tabs and it comes back out easily. On the downside, they didn't mill out the case near the 510 so there's not enough room for the negative lug and screw. So a lot of last night was spent filing out that area. The only thing you could do otherwise is epoxy the screw threads before fitting the atty, no biggie.

The supplied battery box grips the battery like grim death, though that should ease up with enough tweaking with fingers I guess.

Pleased with the result, having two working dna40 boxes now, and the hana clone box form factor is decent. Good to have (almost) all the bits you need in one package. A quick shop at Stealthvape and maybe Modmaker would probably get the job lot if you know what to order.

pics 
we want pics

[VapingBad]

Pics or it didn't happen

[davetherayon]

Pics of the guts (everyone's seen the outside of hana box, and mine still needs a cleanup, after picking up glue from my Adventures with Epoxy).





Epoxy for everything, after initially trying silicone adhesive which didn't do a job on the buttons (the fire button still has a blob in there). The caddy itself is not glued in, it's held in place by dint of being a fairly close fit and the wires holding it down and in position. The case was scratched to buggery from the filing, but a squirt of car paint has covered the damage nicely.

One other, small thing... the charge board. You need a shiv on the bottom of it so the bare board isn't exposed, plus it's too thin to line up vertically with the cutout. I had some modelers plastic that was used for the dna30 bodge attempt some months back, but no idea where it got to. To the rescue : a CD case. The clear plastic is the perfect thickness. Epoxy a square to the board, then to the case, job's a good'un.

[decoy]

looks good
was hoeing the caddy was going to fill the hole on that side but alas not

[Deleted]

Excellent davetherayon I'm getting the parts together to do a build with the box from StealthVape that VB linked to, crystal completed one recently. I doubt I'll be doing it in one sitting though.

[davetherayon]

I may have to do some running repairs The gunge I left on the fire button is causing the little sod to stick in fire mode, which is a pain in the posterior. I took the path of 'solder everything to the dna board first then sort out buttons and shiz later' which, on reflection, is not quite right. Glue your buttons, I say, with wires poking out. A wonky button is a pain to fix

Or this may just be incompetence.

[crystal]

Jan 23, 2015 9:17:08 GMT @scooby said:

Excellent davetherayon I'm getting the parts together to do a build with the box from StealthVape that VB linked to, crystal completed one recently. I doubt I'll be doing it in one sitting though.

The box from StealthVape is a good box. The board cradle looks quite a bit bigger than the one davetherayon has in his, so not quite as much room to work with.
You would have to cut the dna40 board to fit because the StealthVape cradle is designed for the dna30 board.
The charge board does screw on the end of the cradle and the board just clips in place so no need to glue either the dna or charge boards in, the cradle then that screws inside the box.
I made the mistake of accidentally clipping the board into the cradle before soldering the wires onto it, I had to grind one of the lugs away to get it out.

Also be sure the screen is stuck firmly to the housing or it can move when you put it all together.

Good luck @scooby and take your time.

If I can do it anyone can

[davetherayon]

Epoxy, all the way! I haven't used hot glue, not been a fan of it since the having a clone mod burn out a chip that was smothered in the stuff. Ugh.

On the up side, the fire button has freed up. A bit of work with Stanley, holding the button down while carefully etching out the adhesive that was holding it down has done it.

If you do go the route of gluing the 510 in place, you'll have a negative atty lead with nowhere to go. However, the Hana box has a screw hole just beside it, so with a lug from Maplins and a screw there's a post for the negative. Or you could, with some finagling, solder into it, alternatively scratch out a bit of bare metal in the case and solder to that. Or solder directly onto the 510. Actually the latter might be the best option if you don't want to sit mindlessly filing out the case like e.g. me (but it has worked a treat).

[VapingBad]

SuperGlue Gel is good to if you have enough contact area.  I put Noalox in the thread for the earth/negative screw thread and changed to a flat head screw, if you've not got Noalox Vasilene will help keep the contact clean.

[nehctik]

Is this the vttv on youtube, if so has he done the video yet?

[davetherayon]

Dave Dorn is slacking nehctik To be fair, VTTV has been full of content recently from Dr Farsalinos and other guests. Dave's plan is to fix the negative to the 510 directly, will be interested to see how that works.

Here's a list of the complete kit and bits I used, shopping list for folks who wish to buy the bits :

DNA40 (obviously)
Hana clone box
Fatdaddyvapes 510 - the 22 mm version
Wires : 20AWG to connect to the battery and atomiser, 24AWG for buttons and charger. 1/3 of a metre is more than enough.
Optional : Sheath to cover the solder holes, recommended.
Battery box, lots available, I recommend a spring loaded one (prizing a battery out of its housing can be a pain).
Soldering iron. I have a 40W one, 25W might do, but get a decent one.
Solder.
Small files if you decide to cut the board out (which I did) - Maplins do a set of flat files which do the job.
Epoxy adhesive! Go for the 15 minute setting version, or superglue as VapingBad has said. I prefer epoxy, it gives you time to wiggle stuff around.
Helping Hands : www.maplin.co.uk/p/helping-hands-with-magnifier-n30ch This thing helps a ton if you have poor eyesight, like me.
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Double sided tape.

Tips when assembling :

Leave the DNA40 out of the caddy.

Keep your soldering iron clean! Wipe any crap off it onto the dampened area, it's also good to run a file along it occasionally to strip off anything that accumulates.

Ensure you use red wires for positives and black for negatives - when the forest of wires is there, you need to know what's what.

Epoxy the buttons in place. (I didn't and it caused a world of pain)

First job is to solder the 510. It's easy, cut some solder ( I did this with 3 cuts) and poke it into the dismantled 510 hole, it should be just a tube with a little plastic screw-in. Then heat it up using your Helping Hands, and poke the wire in. 20AWG red wire.

Cut your wires to size, give them a good bit over the measurement, more is best. When you pack the thing in they'll need some wiggle room. When cutting, put your dna40 into the box on its caddy, and visualise how long the leads need to be.

When cutting wires, leave a long end for the buttons so you can connect them using the legs, but shorten the cut for the holes into the board, alternatively cut the leads after insertion.

Solder the ends of the leads, and solder the holes (seriously) then apply a bit of pressure while soldering - they'll drop right in.

Now, secure the 510. Depending on how you did it, either epoxy the 510 and screw it in, or if you elected to file the jesus out of you box like e.g. me, screw in the negative post and retainer. If not, prepare to solder directly to the 510, later.

Solder the already connected leads for the up, down and fire buttons to the buttons. Tip : when you look at the buttons, their pairs are marked B and 2 for some reason. Solder the B or 2 pairs, doesn't matter.

Glue the charging board to the base, using the 'cut a bit out of a CD case' I allluded to earlier

Glue the battery box in place, and leave the whole thing a few hours to settle.

The leads should all be in place now. Gently pop the DNA40 into its caddy, orientate it with power on so you can see the display is ok.EDIT : my dna screen is held in place by double sided tape.

If you have left enough lead tension, the caddy should hold itself in place, otherwise drop a bit of epoxy on it to do it.

Phew, enough explanation. Say if you need more info

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2015 11:08:34 GMT crystal said:

Jan 23, 2015 9:17:08 GMT @scooby said:

Excellent davetherayon I'm getting the parts together to do a build with the box from StealthVape that VB linked to, crystal completed one recently. I doubt I'll be doing it in one sitting though.

The box from StealthVape is a good box. The board cradle looks quite a bit bigger than the one davetherayon has in his, so not quite as much room to work with.
You would have to cut the dna40 board to fit because the StealthVape cradle is designed for the dna30 board.
The charge board does screw on the end of the cradle and the board just clips in place so no need to glue either the dna or charge boards in, the cradle then that screws inside the box.
I made the mistake of accidentally clipping the board into the cradle before soldering the wires onto it, I had to grind one of the lugs away to get it out.

Also be sure the screen is stuck firmly to the housing or it can move when you put it all together.

Good luck @scooby and take your time.

If I can do it anyone can

Cheers crystal been thinking about it for a while and your post encouraged me to give it a go.

I noted your remark about not using the board sled next time, and I don't like the fact that the orientation is ass about face, but you can't turn the board round so that the charging solder points are near the charge board, and the fire and 510 pos and grd are at the top.

I've got most of the parts now so can see better how to arrange them, will start a thread when I think I'm ready to proceed.