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There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

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Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#121

Post by tombert »

GeertB wrote: post #72

For these devices the microcontroller needs to be super cheap. Microcontrollers like the Puya PY32 Series (e.g., PY32C642, PY32F002/F030) can cost in the $0.02 - $0.05 range for the kind of many-million volumes applicable for disposable vapes. These are 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCUs, running at a 24 MHz clock or similar, some with 24 KB of ROM and maybe 3 KB of RAM! To put into context: this is 3x the ROM/RAM of the ZX81…

What a world we live in; we have gotten to a point where computers are so small and cheap that they can literally be “disposable”.

It’s beautiful, I love it.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#122

Post by avidiax »

ch4s3 wrote: post #12
kev009 wrote: post #4

"I Powered My House Using 500 Disposable vapes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-wFixuRVU

What a brave and adventurous soul.

If you believe Lumafield, 8% of low-quality lithium ion batteries have a mechanical defect that can sometimes lead to a short circuit.

Is this person really brave, or just unaware of the risks?

https://www.lumafield.com/article/finding-hidden-risks-in-th...

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#123

Post by CableNinja »

__d wrote: post #92
tomcam wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You need to 2x+ the transportation cost of all products... Companies also need to double their specializations and adopt recycling processes that will largely be redundant with other companies I think 3rd parties would spring up to deal with that stuff

Agreed. Companies could “outsource” their recycling obligations to local (national, regional, whatever) providers.

That was tried, and what ultimately occured was disgusting.

The world was full of new computers popping up and every middle class or above person buying new ones like they do with iphones now. Companies started recycling programs, and many immediately went the route of corruption. They would pack up shipping containers full of ewaste, with 40-50% reusable items, and the rest junk, allowing them to skirt the rules. These containers would end up in 3rd world countries, with people standing over a burning pile of ewaste, filtering out reusable metals. There was, at one point, even images of children doing this work. The usable items were sold dirt cheap, with no data erasing, leading to large amounts of data theft, and being able to buy pages of active credit card numbers for a dollar.

We are talking about less critical things now, like vape pens, but its not a far throw for it to instantly become an actually bad idea to let other companies do the recycling. Make the manufacturer deal with it, or even the city/state, via public intake locations (like was mentioned of switzerland in another part of this thread)

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#124

Post by michelb »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #111

I still think the next evolution of these vapes is for a Tamagotchi-esque device to get built into them and to have the pet grow when you inhale through it. You're already walking around with enough tech - why not gamify it more?

Indeed: https://futurism.com/neoscope/vape-tamagotchi-interview

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#125

Post by kochikame »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #111

I still think the next evolution of these vapes is for a Tamagotchi-esque device to get built into them and to have the pet grow when you inhale through it. You're already walking around with enough tech - why not gamify it more?

I think you might be joking but OK, I'll respond like you're serious as this is HN.

You want to make vaping even more addictive than it already is?

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#126

Post by SuperMouse »

GeertB wrote: post #72

For these devices the microcontroller needs to be super cheap. Microcontrollers like the Puya PY32 Series (e.g., PY32C642, PY32F002/F030) can cost in the $0.02 - $0.05 range for the kind of many-million volumes applicable for disposable vapes. These are 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCUs, running at a 24 MHz clock or similar, some with 24 KB of ROM and maybe 3 KB of RAM! To put into context: this is 3x the ROM/RAM of the ZX81…

I've bought hundreds of Puya's for my lab stock on LCSC. Neat little things!

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#127

Post by mikodin »

spankalee wrote: post #32
Quinner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason disposables are so popular in the US is the FDA banned any flavored cartridges, which doesn't include disposables. The immense battery waste is a direct result of a relatively new law.

> FDA banned any flavored cartridges, which doesn't include disposables Wait, what? Where's the sense in that?

I think just an oversight—disposables weren't really around at the time the time that the ban happened. 2019, people were mostly smoking Juul and having those crazy custom rigs that they fill with the juice. Disposables really started to take off around 2021 - 2022. Atleast that's what I saw with people around me in NY and California.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#128

Post by Earw0rm »

normie3000 wrote: post #109
zxexz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards to the microwave, here’s a token “please safely discharge and double check the cap” comment! With regards to vapes, just look on the ground near a sidewalk. I find like 3 or 4 big depleted vapes a day in a US urban area. Closer to 15 or 20 in greater London in the UK.

> Closer to 15 or 20 in greater London in the UK. Weren't disposable vapes banned in UK in May 2025? Is the problem still that big?

Sort of. "Single use disposables" were banned, but the companies switched immediately to a two-part unit which, AFAICT, is still used and thrown away in exactly the same fashion.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#129

Post by bloppe »

lostlogin wrote: post #86
jaggederest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why stop there? I think more or less every non-durable product manufacturer (say, lifespan less than 5 years) should be required to take the product back at end of life and dispose of it properly. Trash is an enormous externality. I'm talking about plastic clamshells, container lids, "disposable" storage containers, the lot.

I’m reading ‘The World Without Us’ by Alan’s Weisman. Last thread like this had someone recommend it (thanks!). Every bit of plastic humans have made still exits, bar a small amount we have burnt. That’s concerning.

All petroleum products come from the fossilized remains of the first trees to evolve lignin, which was tough and durable enough to allow trees to grow taller, but also too tough and durable for any other living things to decompose it. At the time, fallen trees would not rot, and the resulting buildup of wood all over the place caused all sorts of ecological problems. Many of those trees ended up buried deep underground before microbes could evolve the means to eat them, where they became fossilized and turned into coal and petroleum, which we eventually turned into plastic.

Now, that plastic is too tough and durable for any modern microbes to decompose it, and it's starting to build up too. It stands to reason that microbes will eventually evolve the means to digest it and make use of this abundant, under-used energy source. In fact, some already have [1], but it's still early days.

I'm not pro-pollution, but this is far from the first ecological disaster that the global ecosystem can probably adapt to.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_degradation_by_marine_...

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#130

Post by tombert »

foolfoolz wrote: post #119
tomcam wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was amazing being a kid back then because you could earn some decent coin returning bottles

there are still people today who roam neighborhoods collecting bottles and cans

My neighborhood recycling occurs on Thursday night, so I take all my empty cans and put them in a clear plastic back and put them next to my trash. I do not think that the garbage people have ever gotten the cans; there is always a homeless person that will walk around and pick up the bag of empties, presumably to redeem them somewhere.

I don’t have an issue with it, if they want to do what I am too lazy to do, more power to them.

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