• Date: 2012 – 2013.
  • Company owner: Janty, Ltd..
  • Developed by Janty, Ltd. and Cisium, Inc.
  • Customers: general public.
  • Creators: Raúl Bartolomé Castro and many others.
  • Raúl’s contribution: inventor, engineering manager and chief engineering of the complete system (electronic cigarette, PC application and web application). Additionally, senior engineer for electronic design and firmware development.
  • Market: consumer electronics.
  • Product category: electronic cigarette.

Janty MiD (Modular Intelligent Design) was an electronic cigarette that gave the user total freedom in the creation of their individual vaping experiences. It was the first of his kind in 2014 and rapidly copied by competitors in China. The novelty of the invention is protected by a US and EU patent office.

This device introduced the vaping profiles: a visual, editable representation of the dynamics in a puff. The way the MiD implemented the vaping profiles was through an arbitrary waveform of voltage or power (Watts) on an editable timeline of 0-12 seconds. The MiD editable timeline allowed the user full control every 1/10 second of the puff.

The project involved the development of 3 different products. electronic cigarette, PC application and website.

Product Presentation

Electronic Cigarette

The electronic cigarette required complete electronic product development, including hardware, firmware and mechanical design.

The core of the product was a PCBA that was powered by a NXP Cortex-M3 microcontroller. Some additional peripherals were external SPI FLASH memory, high power MOS-FETs, shunt amplifiers, voltage regulators, RGB LED among other electronic blocks. Everything supplied with 2 Ion-Li 1634 batteries.

The firmware was developed using the IDE and MDK from Keil, a tool from Arm. The real time operation system was Keil RTOS and other middleware from Keil and NXP such as, USB stack and CMSIS libraries. Due to the memory footprint restrictions, the team developed a proprietary file system and state machine.

The mechanical design was conducted with SOLIDWORKS. The design took into account stack up analysis and dynamic simulation to guarantee proper assembly.

Technical Specifications

1.1. Body 
MaterialHigh grade metal alloy
1.2. Dimensions and Weight 
Length116.6 mm
Diameter19.4 mm
Device Weight40 gr
1.3. Vaping Profiles 
Select between profilesYes
Number of Vaping Profiles4
Execution of Vaping Profiles defined in VoltageYes
Execution of Vaping Profiles defined in WattageYes
Vaping profile Voltage range0 to 8 V
Vaping profile Wattage range0 to 25 W
Vaping profile Current range0 to 4 A
Execution of arbitrary vaping profiles in amplitudeYes
Execution of arbitrary vaping profiles in RGB LED colorYes
Execution of arbitrary vaping profiles in HSL (hue, saturation, luminosity)Yes
Cutoff time12  or less (user defined)
1.4. Supply 
Single battery cutoff voltage3.7 V
Dual battery cutoff voltage6.0V
1.4.1 Dual Battery Configuration 
Number of Batteries2
Battery type16340
Diameter14.5mm to 16.7mm
Height33.25mm to 34.75mm
Maximum discharge current4.0A or more
ChemistryAny, as far the maximum discharge current is fulfilled
ProtectedProtected or unprotected, as far the maximum discharge current is fulfilled
Maximum voltage4.2V or less
Maximum cut off voltage3.0V or more
1.4.2 Single Battery Configuration 
Number of Batteries1
Battery type16650
Diameter14.5mm to 16.7mm
Height66.5mm to 69.5mm
Maximum discharge current4.0A or more
ChemistryAny, as far the maximum discharge current is fulfilled
ProtectedProtected or unprotected, as far the maximum discharge current is fulfilled
Maximum voltage4.2V or less
Maximum cut off voltage3.0V or more
1.5. User Interface 
ActivationJoystick
LEDRGB LED
1.6. Performance 
Average Smoking Losses (approx.)2%
Stand by current28.5 mA
Sleep current3.9mA
Shutdown current0.3 mA
1.7. Stand Alone Monitoring 
Battery status feedbackYes
Device temperature feedbackYes
Atomizer resistance feedbackYes
Vaping profile amplitude feedbackYes
1.8. Protections 
Reverse Battery ProtectionYes
Hardware short-circuit atomizer protectionYes
Firmware short-circuit atomizer protectionYes
Storing the numbers of atomizer short-circuitsYes
Overpower/Over temperature protection in the atomizer driverYes
Storing the numbers of overpower/over temperature in the atomizer driverYes
Thermal Monitoring/over temperature protectionYes
Storing the number of over temperatures of the deviceYes
Thermal Monitoring/under temperature protectionYes
Storing the number of under temperatures of the deviceYes
Battery Monitoring/over voltage protectionYes
Storing the number of battery overvoltage conditionsYes
Battery Monitoring/Battery over-Discharge ProtectionYes
1.9. Other Specifications 
On/Off ModeYes
Variable Voltage/Wattage Selector (Step up or down)Yes
Enable/Disable auto sleep modeYes
Execute extended User Thresholds for vaping profilesYes
Real Time Variable Voltage/Wattage vaping, enable / disableYes
Fully configurable and programmable deviceYes

PC application

The PC application was developed with Microsoft Visual Studio using C# programming language. The software architecture was implemented in Microsoft Visio using UML. It was a multi-thread application with a rich user interface. This application had multiple purposes:

  • Communication with the electronic cigarette.
  • Communication with the web servers.
  • Configuration of the electronic cigarette.
  • Operation of the cigarette in real time.
  • Management of licenses.
  • Access to the social community.

The user manual provides a comprehensive explanation of the PC application and the electronic cigarette. It explains the vaping profile concept, the license manager, vaping thresholds, statics and much more.

Technical Specifications

2. MiD – PC Interface Services
Retrieve the device information (firmware version, PCB version, product part number, serial number)
Software modules management
Device firmware update
2.1. User defined settings
User defined product owner name
User defined product nick name
Define and program user thresholds for vaping profiles
Define and program extended user thresholds for vaping profiles
Enable/Disable auto sleep mode + user defined auto sleep time
Real Time Variable Voltage/Wattage vaping, enable / disable
Real Time Variable Voltage/Wattage vaping, user defined joystick reaction time
User defined State colors
User defined number of clicks per state
2.2. Statistics
Retrieve the number of puffs
Retrieve the history of the latest puffs (duration, date, energy)- calendar function
Retrieve the amount of alarms and protection errors
2.3. Vaping Profiles
Sending vaping profiles
Receiving vaping profiles
Storing vaping profiles in none volatile memory
2.4. REAL TIME Monitoring
Sending device variables (RGB Led color, device temp, ato voltage, ato current, ato power, ato resistance, battery voltage, battery level , Joystick and protection alarms)
Control the joystick with your computer mouse

Websites

This part of the project consisted in two websites:

  • User interface with a website based on Joomla! CMS. This website supported the purchasing process of licenses and the social communication.
  • Licenses management website based on CodeIgniter web framework. This website was connected to the Joomla! site providing customized services such as licenses files generation and licenses management. This application was also used during end of line testing of the electronic cigarette for storage of unique identifier numbers.

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