Electronic vaporizer system
A case for an electronic cigarette vaporiser, the case including an automatic lifting mechanism that lifts the vaporiser up a few mm from the case to enable a user to easily grasp the vaporiser and withdraw it from the case. The lifting mechanism can be spring-based. The case both re-fills the vaporiser with liquid and also re-charges a battery in the vaporiser.
1. An electronic cigarette vaporiser system that includes an electronic vaporiser, in which the electronic vaporiser is configured to track and send data to a remote database, the data relating to the times of all power up events, and of all power down events, and of all use events, of the electronic vaporiser,
in which the electronic vaporiser (i) includes a heating element and (ii) is configured to monitor and track the temperature of the heating element.
2. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to the temperature of the heating element.
3. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to system uptime.
4. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to a number and frequency of inhalations.
5. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to a strength of each inhalation.
6. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to a duration of each inhalation.
7. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to any vape heating element malfunction events.
8. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to external temperature.
9. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to flavor, strength, ingredients and batch number of a nicotine containing substance that the system is configured to vaporise.
10. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data sent to the remote database includes data that relates to information logged by a companion app executing on a computing device in connection with the electronic cigarette vaporiser system and operated by a user of the system.
11. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 10 in which the data logged by the companion app includes: the user's ranking of their cigarette craving at various times during the day.
12. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 10 in which the data logged by the companion app includes whether the user is still smoking cigarettes and how many or at what times.
13. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 10 in which the data logged by the companion app includes whether any side-effects are experienced by the user.
14. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 10 in which the data logged by the companion app includes whether the user feels fitter.
15. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 10 in which the data logged by the companion app includes location data of the vaporiser.
16. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the data is sent over the Internet, or via a wireless connected smartphone running a dedicated application, or directly, to the remote database.
17. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 which includes a data connectivity sub-system configured to enable one or more of the following functions: track usage, purchase additional capsules direct to home; find the nearest shop to a user; set user goals-financial, health or use related; adjust basic settings on the vaporiser and a liquid re-filling unit for the vaporiser to engage with; get recommendations based on usage and taste; see new flavours as they launch; receive special promotions; recommend to a friend; and set the system to auto-refill.
18. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller which generates Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals to heat the heating element and maintain heating element temperature in a working range.
19. The electronic cigarette vaporiser system of claim 18 in which the microcontroller manages the delivery of power, current or voltage to the heating element, in which the microcontroller controls or delivers pulses of power, current or voltage to the heating element.
20. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 18 in which PWM control is used to implement ‘discrete’ mode vaping, to reduce an amount of vapour produced by the vaporiser, compared to a normal mode.
21. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 20 in which the ‘discrete’ mode involves reducing the power delivered to or used by the heating element, compared to a normal mode.
22. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 20 in which the ‘discrete’ mode involves reducing the maximum temperature of the heating element, compared to a normal mode.
23. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 18 in which PWM control is used to implement ‘power’ mode vaping to increase an amount of vapour produced by the vaporiser compared to a normal mode, whilst monitoring the heating element temperature of the vaporiser to ensure that excessively high temperatures, associated with undesirable compounds in the vapour, are not reached.
24. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 23 , in which an electronics module controls the power delivered to the heating element to ensure that during ‘power’ mode, when increased power is delivered to the heating element, the temperature is no higher than approximately 130° C. or 10% above normal.
25. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the heating element temperature is estimated from a resistance of the heating element.
26. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the heating element co-operates with the microcontroller that is configured to (i) detect characteristics of resistance of the heating element and (ii) use an inference of temperature derived from that resistance as a control input.
27. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which a temperature of the heating element is inferred from data stored in the microcontroller that has been empirically obtained for a specific heating element design.
28. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the microcontroller controls the power delivered using resistance measurement and does not calculate any derived temperature.
29. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the microcontroller is configured to (i) detect a change in the heating element resistance by measuring and comparing the delivery of power, current or voltage to the heating element and (ii) determine if the change is associated with degradation of the heating element.
30. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 29 in which the system calculates when and if a heating element needs to be cleaned or replaced based on the number and/or extent of the inhalations made, or provides data that enables an external processor to make this calculation.
31. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic vaporiser system is an e-cigarette system.
32. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic vaporiser system is a medicinally approved nicotine drug delivery system.
33. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser is the approximate size of a cigarette.
34. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser is the same approximate size as a cigarette and includes no control buttons.
35. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser is automatically activated when it detects that the vaporiser has been withdrawn from a unit that otherwise stores the vaporiser.
36. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser includes a long PCB inserted lengthwise into the vaporiser.
37. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser has a squircle cross-section.
38. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the system includes a liquid re-filling unit for the vaporiser to engage with, the liquid re-filling unit including or engaging with a user-replaceable closed cartridge, and in which the vaporiser is only re-fillable from the user-replaceable closed cartridge.
39. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 38 in which the vaporiser is refillable only when inserted, whole and intact and not dis-assembled, into the liquid re-filling unit that includes a fluid transfer mechanism to transfer a nicotine containing substance into the vaporiser from the user-replaceable closed, cartridge.
40. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 38 in which a power source included in the vaporiser is re-chargeable from the liquid re-filling unit.
41. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 which is configured to calculate the approximate consumption of nicotine containing substance.
42. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the microcontroller is configured to enable the vaporiser to count each draw from the vaporiser.
43. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the vaporiser includes a pressure sensor to determine when a user starts and stops inhalation and the microcontroller counts these start and stop events and measures the time between them and uses this draw or inhalation time in calculating consumption of nicotine containing substance.
44. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the microcontroller calculates approximate consumption of nicotine containing substance from the extent of each inhalation or provides data that enables an external processor to calculate approximate consumption of nicotine containing substance.
45. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 44 in which the extent of an inhalation is a function of one or more of: duration; peak flow rate; average flow rate.
46. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a liquid re-fill cartridge, in which a liquid re-fill cartridge includes a chip that stores and outputs data defining a nicotine containing substance stored in the liquid re-fill cartridge.
47. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 46 in which the chip is configured to have data written back to the chip, in which that data includes an estimate or measure of the quantity of nicotine containing substance remaining in, or provided by, the cartridge.
48. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 47 (a) in which the estimate or measure is calculated from data from or associated with a re-filling unit, or (b) in which the estimate or measure is calculated from data from or associated with a re-filling unit which is the number of pumping cycles.
49. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 47 in which the estimate or measure is calculated using the ambient temperature and/or the temperature of nicotine containing substance.
50. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 46 in which the liquid re-fill cartridge includes an authentication chip that is programmed with data including one or more of: the data of filling, batch number of nicotine containing substance, source of nicotine containing substance, tax or duty paid.
51. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 46 in which the system comprises multiple liquid re-fill cartridges, wherein each cartridge has its own unique encrypted serial number written in a One-Wire flash memory chip or other type of authenticator security chip and in which after a cartridge of the multiple liquid re-fill cartridges is installed into the system, a microcontroller included in the system is configured to read a serial number of the cartridge installed into the system and verify that a function of the cartridge installed into the system is valid, permitting use of the cartridge installed into the system only if the verification is good.
52. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 51 in which the system stores the quantity of nicotine containing substance remaining in, or provided by, each cartridge, as defined by the unique identity for the cartridge.
53. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 46 in which the system is configured to read out from the chip the quantity of nicotine containing substance remaining in, or provided by, the cartridge and is configured to compare that with its stored data for the quantity of nicotine containing substance remaining in, or provided by, that cartridge and to prevent use of that cartridge if the quantity of nicotine containing substance remaining in, or provided by, the cartridge, as declared by the chip, exceeds the stored data for that cartridge, to make unauthorized re-filling of the cartridge pointless.
54. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser is configured to determine the total consumption of a nicotine containing substance and/or an amount of nicotine containing substance remaining in a cartridge and also in the vaporiser itself; and the system uses this information for automatic re-ordering using a connected smartphone application.
55. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 54 in which a new nicotine containing substance is automatically ordered when the amount of nicotine containing substance in the system falls below a threshold.
56. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 which is operable to be remotely locked from a smartphone application executing on a smartphone in connection with the electronic cigarette vaporiser system to prevent use by children.
57. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 in which the vaporiser includes a mouthpiece, the mouthpiece being a front section of the vaporiser and comprises the heating element, the front section being removably fitted to a body of the vaporiser to enable a replacement front section to be used once the original heating element starts to degrade.
58. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 1 including a unit, in which the heating element is positioned in the unit and the unit includes a protective elastomer wall or barrier configured to enable (i) the unit to fit inside a mouthpiece and to prevent leakage around the outside of the unit whilst nicotine containing substance is being supplied under pressure to a liquid reservoir in the unit.
59. The electronic vaporiser system of claim 57 in which the electronic cigarette vaporiser system includes a microcontroller, in which the microcontroller generates a signal if degradation of the heating element is detected.