Now that vape “pen” refill cartridges are (mostly) dead, roadside debris has gotten chunkier:
It’s a Hyde Edge Recharge vape pen or it could be a counterfeit. You (definitely not me) get “up to” 3300 puffs from the 10 ml container, with 50 mg of nicotine ensuring you can’t get enough and will come back for more. Although I don’t follow the market, “disposable” vape pens can still contain the fruity flavors prohibited in refillable pens, with the added decadence of throwing the whole thing away when the tank runs dry:
My admittedly inexperienced eye says the “tank”, which is really just a fiber cylinder soaked in fruity juice + nicotine, still has plenty of hits remaining.
The Basement Shop may never smell the same again.
Of more interest, the silvery lump wrapped in a white felt strip is a 600 mA·hr lithium cell that slurped 406 mA·hr through its USB Micro-B jack when I recharged it. Perhaps the user victim sucker tossed it when the battery “died”, being unable / unwilling / ignorant-of-how to recharge it? The yellow aluminum case seems faded on the mouthpiece end, but that might be a stylin’ thing.
A closer look at the electronics payload:
The two red wires over on the right went to the coil in the draw tube to the right of the “tank”. Not being interested enough to care, I wrecked the coil while extracting the rest of the contents. Comfortingly, the red and black wires from the PCB go to the positive and negative battery tabs.
A closer look at both sides of the PCB:
The SOT23 IC sports an LTH7 topmark corresponding to an LTC4054-4.2 Standalone Charge Controller (Analog Devices absorbed Linear in 2017). The two LEDs to its right glow red during charge and white during each puff.
The black felt disk covers an anonymous pressure sensor activating the coil during each puff. With four pins, the sensor must be far more complex than just a switch, but nowadays puff sensing could require an entire ARM microcontroller.
Speaking of microcontrollers, there’s always this fate:
I fought down an almost uncontrollable urge to amputate my arms at the elbows and cauterize the stumps …
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
I’ve found a few discarded vapes and toyed with the idea of using them for fog effects for props, but I want nothing to do with the scented liquid, so I’ll probably just scavange their lithium cells and get unused heater coils elsewhere.
The scent eventually dissipated in most of the basement, but the plastic cutting board under the brown paper seen in those pix still smells funny …
I’ve not yet found any rechargeable vape pens, but the longer cylindrical lithium cells harvested from several non-rechargeable disposable pens have been enjoying a second life (and serving a higher calling) powering my vintage HP and TI calculators.
Sadly, these discarded pens are now found everywhere.
This one had a USB port, but the “Recharge” branding seemed (to me, anyhow) like it should apply to the nicotine payload instead.
Given the assortment of cigarette butts collecting at the end of our driveway, I’m unsurprised at how vape pens just get tossed out the car window, too.
“Sadly, these discarded pens are now found everywhere.”
And eScooterists with broken skulls.
Haven’t seen any of those, but I do wonder how rollerbladers manage the root heaves across the rail trail. The lumps have grown to about the same size as their wheels, so a momentary lapse of attention will drop ’em to a face-down stop.
Having substantial experience in long distance skating (personal best: 100K, I ate positively everything afterwards, slept for 12 hours, and I’ll probably never be able to do that again)…
Really bad pavement is surprisingly easy to handle once you get the knack. Basic strategy is just to roll over it. Up to almost a wheel radius, just stick one foot well in front of the other and squat down low. This will naturally unload the frontmost wheel and it’ll climb right up over the bump. Once it’s there, the others follow. The physics are fairly similar to a rocker-bogie suspension, Mars Rover Style. You (or someone) will lose enough speed doing this to unload the rear skate and it similarly bumps its way over.
Bigger stuff requires stepping over, which is exactly what it sounds like. The important part is “don’t step late”. Setting down early is tolerable, see the above physics.
Stairs are surprisingly easy. Just use the same “one foot forward” tactic. Line up squarely and go straight down – an angled traversal will result in skin loss.
Basically, just roll with it. Never try to jump it until you’re really, really good.
Twigs might as well be a brick wall. No idea why. Jumping is appropriate in this case – you’re going down anyway.
The best way to learn this is a lot like any other physical skill. Go skate with someone better than you and follow them wherever they go. Turn your conscious mind off and just let your cerebellum do the work. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the way to learn riding a ‘bent.
A tip o’ the bike helmet to ya!
I’ve taken to marking the worst of the root-heaved sections, in hopes of attracting the DPW’s attention, but so far the roots haven’t faced any opposition.
Smooth pavement and light winds to ya …
Parkour on Roller Skates?
But is the “+” printed on the battery associated with the “+” battery tab?
Astonishingly, yes it is!
Consistent marking, good wire color code: a first-class operation!