This Disposable Vape Is Now a Synth

0:00 Hey, it’s Becky.

0:01 Today, we’re turning one of the most cursed objects of contemporary e-waste,

0:05 a disposable vape, into a musical instrument.

0:09 It’s like an ocarina,

0:10 using your breath to activate and your fingers to control the pitch.

0:14 This project comes from my friends shuang cai, David Rios, and Kari Love.

0:21 We gave a talk together at the Open

0:24 Hardware Summit about reusing disposable vapes,

0:25 and they’ve been conductingworkshops around New York,

0:28 teaching people how to build these.

0:31 If you’ve been following my channel for a while,

0:33 you know that the existence of these things enrages me.

0:37 They are designed to be thrown in the trash,

0:39 and yet each one contains a rechargeable lithium battery,

0:43 a charging circuit, a sensor, LEDs, and a surprisingly decent case.

0:48 I made a video about how to harvest the batteries.

0:51 This project will reuse more than just the battery.

0:54 Just make sure the thing is still operational before

0:56 you go to the trouble of taking it apart.

0:58 The battery will naturally lose charge over time,

1:02 and if it was already low when it was left to sit for a long time,

1:06 the battery might dip below a recoverable level of charge, and then it’s ruined.

1:11 So I’ve made sure my target device at least lights

1:14 up when I plug it in, indicating the battery is charging.

1:17 In addition to the existing parts we’ll get from the disposable vape,

1:21 we’ll need a few photoresistors for the finger keys,

1:24 a speaker for emitting the sound, a 555 timer for generating the sound,

1:29 and various components to support and connect all these parts together.

1:34 You can find the full bill of materials at the link in the description,

1:37 and pick up the additional components for this project at DigiKey,

1:41 this video’s sponsor.

1:43 DigiKey carries everything you need to make this project,

1:45 from the components to build the circuit

1:47 to the tools required to open and modify the enclosure.

1:51 If you follow DigiKey on YouTube, you’d know that’s where you’ll find

1:55 my introductory electronics teaching video series,

1:58 perfect for learning the skills you need to make a project like this.

2:01 Check it out at the card in the corner, the link in the description,

2:05 and big thanks to DigiKey for their continued support of my channel.

2:09 The smoothest method for opening this type of disposable vape is

2:12 to put it in a vise and pop the end caps,

2:16 then use pliers to gently pull out the internals.

2:21 Inside we’ll find: the battery, the charging board,

2:25 the pressure sensor, and the juice cartridge with embedded heating coil.

2:32 The heating element and cartridge get discarded,

2:34 and everything else becomes instrument parts.

2:38 I feel like I tell you a lot about lithium battery safety,

2:41 but it bears repeating– they can be a fire

2:44 hazard if they get shorted out or punctured.

2:46 I store mine inside a vented steel ammo

2:49 box and then put that inside a fireproof bag.

2:52 This tip comes from the Teardowns episode of my DigiKey series.

2:58 Additionally, this step should be performed

2:59 in a well-ventilated space and while wearing gloves.

3:02 Vape juice can be absorbed through your skin as well as your lungs.

3:07 Wash the empty vape case with dish soap once it's apart.

3:10 Once the stinky tank is contained and the case is clean,

3:14 you can remove your gloves.

3:18 At the heart of this circuit is a 555 timer oscillator.

3:22 The team was inspired by a classic Forrest Mims circuit.

3:26 The pitch is controlled by a resistor ladder made of photoresistors,

3:29 a capacitor network, and the breath sensor, which acts as a gate.

3:34 Light changes the resistance, which changes the frequency of the sound.

3:40 It’s best to build a solderless breadboard prototype of your circuit first,

3:44 before trying to make it tiny and cram it inside the case.

3:48 I visited the Vape Synth workshop at my hackerspace,

3:51 NYC Resistor, where the group walked through this prototyping step together.

3:55 Success meant a sound was produced when the sensor was sucked upon.

3:59 Alligator clips helped connect the components with smaller wires,

4:02 like the speaker and battery.

4:05 Some attendees used buttons instead of photoresistors.

4:08 Photoresistors produce a highly variable range of sounds,

4:12 and Kari told me that some people prefer single notes,

4:15 more like a true ocarina, not some ocarina-light-theramin.

4:19 It depends on your musical taste.

4:22 The circuit’s resistor ladder allows for this flexibility– you can

4:25 use photoresistors or potentiometers for a fluid range of notes,

4:29 or buttons and resistors to tune specific notes.

4:32 Or even a combo of both, I suppose.

4:41 To power the breadboard with the vape circuitry,

4:44 connect the black battery ground wire to the breadboard’s ground,

4:47 and the sensor output wire to the breadboard’s

4:50 power– in these elfbars it’s usually blue.

4:56 The sensor reacts to low air pressure.

4:59 Inside the original device,

5:00 everything is gasketed up to create an airtight seal.

5:04 Well, we are about to make a bunch of holes in the enclosure,

5:07 so we’ll move the sensor to the mouthpiece

5:09 instead of its original location at the bottom.

5:14 You can include the sensor’s original gasket

5:16 and take advantage of the little pass-through channel,

5:18 if you want to, or just stick the sensor in there

5:21 by itself and intentionally leave a space unglued for air to pass.

5:26 When done correctly,

5:27 the power LED will light up when you suck on the mouthpiece.

5:31 I found that using the sensor alone resulted in a device

5:34 that takes less effort to activate– not even a full breath,

5:37 more like sucking on a drinking straw,

5:39 whereas the original gasket with an air channel requires

5:42 moving a lot of air (inhaling) to get going.

5:45 Dealer’s choice.

5:46 You can always add more glue to further restrict airflow.

5:52 While our attention is on the original circuitry,

5:54 it’s a good time to extend the charging board wires,

5:57 since now that the sensor is in the mouthpiece,

5:59 the wires are too short for it to reach the bottom,

6:02 where it neatly clips into place.

6:05 So I desoldered the three wires on the charging

6:08 board and added some stranded wire to extend them.

6:11 I insulated the solder connections with Kapton tape.

6:17 After wiring up the solderless breadboard circuit

6:19 and connecting it to the vape circuit’s power output, you should hear a tone.

6:24 If you only get popping, your capacitors might be swapped,

6:28 and/or try shining a flashlight or other bright light source on your sensors.

6:32 The ambient light is one of the ingredients

6:34 impacting the final sound of the instrument.

6:37 My friends know by now I work with these, so

6:39 I have a whole bin of devices I’ve diverted from landfill.

6:43 You can ask your neighbors in your local Buy Nothing group for theirs,

6:46 or ask your local vape shop if they have

6:48 a stash or if you can set up a collection box.

6:51 Once you have a working solderless breadboard circuit,

6:53 you can get ready to build it into the case.

6:56 We’ll need to make a few holes in the metal body of the case.

6:59 I 3D printed these jigs from the tutorial

7:01 that make it easier to position the case for drilling,

7:04 or CNC-milling if you’re fancy.

7:06 Shoutout to shuang, David,

7:07 and Kari for publishing all these files for this project.

7:10 Their Instructable for this project is *chef’s kiss*.

7:15 Before drilling, I used a center punch

7:17 to dent the surface where each hole will be.

7:19 This helps the drill bit bite in the right place, rather than dance around.

7:28 The angled jig is for the finger key holes,

7:30 and the flat jig is for the center speaker hole.

7:33 I used my tiny drill press and a step drill to create the holes.

7:58 Afterwards, there are sharp burrs left inside the case,

8:01 so I’ll use a deburring tool to remove them.

8:17 Next it’s time to install the photoresistors.

8:20 I splayed the leads flat and used Kapton tape to hold them in place.

8:25 Soldering inside the case can be tight,

8:27 so I like to use my third hand tool to hold

8:30 the case at just the right angle to see inside.

8:34 After the photoresistors are all soldered in series,

8:37 with stranded wires added to each end,

8:39 we can trim the extra leads and hot glue the sensors in place.

8:45 Then it’s time to install the speaker.

8:48 The hole doesn’t have to be big enough for the whole speaker to fit inside.

8:51 You can drill a separate hole for the wires, if you want.

8:55 I used a piece of tape to hold the speaker in place while the glue sets up.

9:00 You can use a can of compressed air to quickly cool hot glue,

9:05 and the more you angle the can,

9:06 the colder the air becomes because more of the propellant is released.

9:10 The final version of the main 555 circuit

9:12 takes shape on a small piece of perfboard.

9:15 Check the full tutorial for the circuit diagram.

9:20 Then I took the loose wires from the vape power circuit,

9:23 resistor ladder, and speaker, and soldered them to the board, too.

9:50 Before closing the case, test the circuit one last time.

9:54 Once everything passes the functionality test,

9:56 you can close it up inside the case.

9:59 This is the most fiddly part of the project:

10:02 fitting the battery and board inside the enclosure,

10:04 which already has the sensors and speaker installed.

10:07 Take your time, and use tools to reach where your fingers can’t.

10:11 Snap the end caps back on, and now you have a Vape Synth!

10:39 What I love about this project is

10:41 that it doesn’t pretend reuse has to be invisible.

10:44 It’s not trying to disguise the object.

10:46 Instead, it’s calling attention to the fact

10:48 that this thing existed and could have caused harm,

10:51 but now it makes joyful music.

10:53 I think that’s powerful.

10:55 This is the simple novelty synth version of the project,

10:58 but the team is also developing a MIDI controller version,

11:01 so look out for that when it comes out.

11:04 If you liked this video, please give this video a big thumbs up,

11:07 subscribe down below,

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11:11 See you next time!

11:13 This video was made with support from my sponsors,

11:16 and donations from viewers like you, through Patreon and YouTube memberships.