Mod Screen Readings

I've always wondered whats better for efficiency. In a regulated mod I can't imagine it really makes a difference in vape performance, I'm currently keeping my builds at a lower resistance by winding parallel coils. My goto build comes to about 0.4ohms and I run it in the range of 28-38w, usually set at 32w, if I wound it in series it would be around 1.6ohm which would need about 7v to get to 30w and at my Aegis solos max voltage of 8v would provide 40w. The only issue with this is that it limits the wattage range you can run at, since I sometimes do crank this build upto 42w, although it does start to burn above 45w.

The one advantage of running at a high voltage and a lower current is that theoretically there should be less energy loss in the transmission of power to the coils (like in the pin, the posts and the wiring connecting the 510), although depending on the construction of the mod/tank it may not be significant enough to provide any benifit. I can imagine that it's not that simple either as the mod is having to boost the voltage more which may cause the voltage conversion efficiency to suffer. Although in my dual cell mod it may be benificial since the input voltage is around 6.4-8.4v, although I tend to use this for my higher wattage builds.

This may just be me because I'm obsessed about how much voltage is dropped across cables, I always use the high quality wiring and keep it as short as possible because it is actually quite surprising how much energy you can loose through a cheap cable. Even good quality wire at higher amps can drop a significant amount of power.  

I know with regulated mods it doesn't really matter, but I'm just curious. How can I tell if my regulated mod works in series or parallel. I have the Aegis Legend 200W.  

Herro!

So, I always used to use mech mods from about 6 months to a year and a half into vaping. For the last 6 months I've been on regulated (iStick 30W and 50W).

When I switched to regulated I retired my mech mods and 18650 batteries to the closet. I made sure they were all around 50% charged because I heard from someone on here that was the best condition to leave them.

Well recently I've had this curiosity to try them again, only for at home use, mainly for the novelty of it.

So, my question is, what will I have to do to revive these batteries? Are they safe to just throw back on the charger and use when fully charged? Or are they not safe to use?

Batteries: 4 Sony VTC 4's (all were acquired about a month before I stopped using mechs), 2 XTAR (Sony) VTC 4's (about a year old now) , 2 MXJO 2500mah (20A LG's) (about a year old now).

Let me know! Thank you!

Vape Happy,
Cullin Kin  

I just got it today, and the batteries wouldn’t fit but I finally pushed them in. I don’t know too much about voltage but it says R on the left side, and u on the right side on the main screen. It’s at 0.27 voltage where it says R, and nothing for U. Is there something wrong with the voltage or the battery?  

An online vape shop here at Greece at the description for dotBox Dual Mech mod says"

"Switch to Parallel Mode for longer Vaping time and exceptional power from two 18650 batteries".

The dotbox dual mech has the option to select series or parallel connection via a switch.
I send them a email that this doesn't apply (for the same power output always),for example 0.1 ohm coil in parallel connection and 0.4 ohm coil in series connection.

Two batteries in series provide the same amount of watt hours a parallel connection does.

The vapeshop replied and told me that the description is copy and paste from Dotmod.com

Indeed.
QUOTE from dotBox Dual Mech - dotmodretail
"Last Longer. Switch to Parallel Mode for longer Vaping time and exceptional power from two 18650 batteries".

The vape shop also said that the voltage sag at parallel connection is spread out over the two batteries in Parallel.Thus more vaping time than using a series connection.

Okey I made the calculations for voltage sag using for example two Sony VTC5A 18650 batteries with a DC Internal Resistance = 18.6mOhms (0.018 ohm).

I got the same voltage sag 0.378 V in both configurations (0.1 build in parallel-0.4 build in series).

Am i correct or am I missing something?(i'll send to the vape shop the link for this thread so they can read your opinions because i think they believe i'm talking bulls..t!  

I have been having an issue where when I screw in any kind of tank, my vamo 4 reads "SHORT" and "LOW LOAD." I have made really nice coils to no avail. Someone at a store told me to just turn up the voltage - worked for a bit but then didn't.

Someone on here, when I posted about it, said to get something to wiggle the pin out a mm or two because it has been "crushed" with the insulator. Did that. Worked for a bit, back to SHORT and LOW LOAD.

SO, I need to buy a new one. I have a few different pv's, but this is a favorite because of its variable voltage. Is there a place (online) where I can buy just the piece I need? Attached is a pic of the faulty hardware...  

I've seen many threads where people are just getting into vaping and it seems now that it's growing popular at an extremely fast rate. Vaping as opposed to smoking has always been a great alternative, but now that more satisfying equipment is readily available and popular, it would be great to have an ongoing guide for someone brand new. If you're just getting into vaping now you're going to be hit with a million different devices, a trillion different atomizers, and an infinite amount of ways to rebuild. All of this information can seem very intimidating and overwhelming, but having communities like ECF to get advice are very helpful.

I remember when I first started learning about how devices work and how sending current through a coil with different resistances at different voltages can yield different results, and then add in different ways to get to that same resistance, the possibilities go on and on. It's not easy to someone brand new, but with proper information it is easy. If we all had a single ongoing information source referring to device capabilities and ohms law available to members and the public a lot of questions would be answered everyday and thoroughly.

I say ongoing because vaporizer equipment is expanding so fast. The amount of gear and vape related things are moving so fast. I remember seeing a good amount of youtube videos with Phil Busardo visiting vaporizer headquarters and manufacturing stations across seas and here. We also see a lot of expanding on the site. I have only been a member since 2013, but the amount of stuff coming out today is much more than before. There is also a lot of traction on this forum, but that's what makes it good.

I've read a lot of good information on the forum before and some of the posts are really spot on, I feel it should be compiled to one source. I've seen Baditude and Susan~s both have readily available links for solid information multiple times. It would be great to access all the detailed information from all the great posts I see on threads all in one place, like a ongoing source with everything like: battery safety, hybrid top cap mechanical, cleaning a mechanical, coils, example chips in regulated devices and how they work, liquid and the ingredients, the effects vs cigarettes, the proactive community and the apposed laws. For someone brand new they see so many new things at once. It wouldn't have to be a day to day updated guide, just a compiled, easy to understand with examples, information source about vaping up to now. I've seen a lot of good posts and wish I could quickly pull up the same posts without searching. I think we deserve some sort of guide, vaping isn't an underground type of thing.

Ohm's law

With all that I want to present a small guide I prepared as a response to a few questions I see on the forum.

I feel the most common question is about Ohm's law and about understanding resistances for devices. Ohm's law is the most important piece of information pertaining to vaping since it's what we use all the time. There are four variables to know in the equations, but an easy way to help understand it is with the Steam engine online tool. In the online calculator you see resistance, voltage, current, power. The units are ohms, volts, amps, and watts respectively. An even easier way to understand it is thinking about it in an example.

The water pipe analogy
Think of the resistance like a pipe and you have water flowing out of the pipe and the water is amperage. There is also a valve on the pipe that you can turn to make the water(amperage) come out faster and that valve acts like a voltage control. The end result of the water flowing out the pipe is expressed by power, also known as wattage. You can increase the wattage by either decreasing the resistance or increasing the voltage.

Let's say you have a pipe set up with a certain width and water is flowing at a constant rate. Lets also say the pipe has a resistance of 1ohm and our valve to control the speed is set to 4volts. You can use Ohm's law and see that amount of water coming out is 4amps and the pipe's power is measured to 16watts. Now if you widen the same pipe more water(amps) can flow through it and you didn't touch the voltage valve. Adjust the pipe's resistance to 0.5ohms and as a result we see we just doubled the amount of water to 8amps and doubled the power to 32watts with a constant voltage.

Take the same pipe you started with, 1ohm, and instead of making it wider you just turn the valve and double the pressure or speed from 4volts to 8volts. You see 8amps of water flowing through the pipe and the power by the pipe went up to 64watts by adjusting the voltage only. Now put the two examples together and lower the resistance to .5ohms and increase the voltage to 8volts, you see even more power at 128watts and 16amps.

This can be applied to our coils and devices. Mechanical mods work like the first example in which we just made the pipe wider because that's the only thing you can adjust on a mechanical. You have a fixed battery voltage, and can only change the resistance. The second example is more like a variable voltage/wattage mod where you can keep the pipe the same resistance and just turn the voltage valve.

Understanding how these variables work will give you a better understanding of ohms law and how to build for specific devices.


Ohm's law and a regulated PV

Lets talk about personal vaporizers, or mods, a little more. Each device has: a resistance range it can read, an amperage limit it can push, a voltage range it can fire, and a wattage range it can fire. When you look at a device you want to know all of these things because it will determine what resistances will work the best on top. Some devices work well with a wide range, some work very well within a small area within that range. Lets look at an example.



Here is the DNA40(kanthal) and it's specs given by Steam Engine. I don't own one so I don't know the actual performance, but I want to use the numbers as an example. You can see the max voltage, max wattage, resistance range, and amp limit on the left. On the right there is three boxes, these three boxes is where all the information comes together.

Current limit 16 A vs 40 W
The box labeled “Current limit 16 A vs 40 W” measures the lowest possible resistance you can use to get all 40watts. When you decrease your resistance you are able to push more amps through your coil with available voltage and get more wattage. This is done by using ohms law calculator and plugging in the max amp limit along with the max wattage it can fire. You can see that the lowest possible resistance to get all 40watts while using all the amps is a bit lower than what the device can read. This means the DNA40 devices can fire it's lowest reading while still getting 40watts and it's starting to bump the amp limit. Not the best place to be, but it works as advertised.

Voltage limit 9 V vs 40 W
The next box “Voltage limit 9 V vs 40 W” measures the highest possible resistance you can use to get all 40watts. When you increase your resistance you are able to use more voltage to get to higher wattage without using as many amps. This is done by plugging in the max voltage for the device and its max wattage it can fire. You can see that highest possible resistance to get all 40watts while using all the voltage is a bit higher than what the device can read. Now you're starting to hit the voltage limit, but it's still firing 40watts.

Optimal resistance
The last box “Optimal resistance” sums it all up by giving you the resistance range along with it's median resistance. Then it gives you a “sweet spot”. This is the median from the original median and the high limit. Basically it's telling you that if you want all 40 watts and you want to keep your battery life in good shape to use a resistance around the “sweet spot”. You don't have to use the sweet spot, but keep in mind the less amps you pull, the more battery life you get while taking advantage of the device's voltage.


These numbers are unique for each device that uses a different chip. If you start looking at the higher powered devices like the Sigelei 150W you'll see that you can only get all 150 if you build within a certain range that it can fire. Too high of a resistance and you'll use all the voltage before you start taking advantage of it's available amperage by lowering the resistance. This doesn't mean the device doesn't live true it it's specs because the it can fire all 150, but there is limitations. In order to to fire all 150w within it's 0.1-3.0ohm range the power source would have to give 20+ volts which is impossible for safe portable devices we have now.




Ohm's law and a mechanical PV

Check out how mechanical devices work, you only use the specs from the battery along with your resistance.




Take the Sony VTC4 for example. I used a resistance of 0.5ohms and a voltage of 4.1volts charged on this page. The page tells you how many amps you are pushing along with the wattage output. The amp limit is advertised to be 30amps, but the box under shows the “headroom” or I like to call it the buffer. In this example you only use 8.2amps, this is safe for the battery. You really shouldn't use all the battery's amperage on an unregulated mechanical, it's not very safe. A lot of people agree on only using about 75% of the batteries amp limit, leaving a 25% headroom to be considered safe. This works out to be about 22amps used and around 0.18-0.19ohms. You should only do this if you are aware of the risks.

Finding your resistance

Now that you looked at the devices, look at choosing a coil for your device. This should be easy now because you just saw what will work well on your device. Take your resistance you feel you would be comfortable with and go to the coil calculator.



I used a 0.5ohm resistance, selected the kanthal of choice, selected dual coils, and picked the coil's internal diameter. I also calculated the wattage with 0.5ohms and 4.1volts I want to use to get around 33 watts to plug into the heat flux(under results) to get an estimate of the vape temperature.


You want to pay attention to number of wraps, the coil width, and surface area. This will give you an idea of how big your potential coil is. What you can do from here is change the diameter, you’ll notice the surface area stays the same, but the width will change because the number of wraps change. You can also change the resistance and use a fixed diameter to change width and surface area. Try selecting different gauges too.


This is my first shot a making a simple guide. Please let me know what you think and feel free to comment. I wanted this to be as simple as possible and the Steam Engine is extremely helpful in doing so. I really think it would be a great idea to have the most popular questions to vaping with answers available to anyone new. I'm not saying people are not getting the right information, because they are and the time people take to make posts explaining things are greatly appreciated. I still think having a detailed, but easy to follow guide with examples would answer most of the questions. I've seen other great guides on the forum, but the technology moves so fast and having one ongoing source explaining everything would be awesome. There is so many things to learn besides battery safety and Ohm's law and all the information is here, but only for those who take the time to ask for it.


Thanks to Lars Simonsen who made Steam engine calculator. Also thank you to ECF member Dice57 for helping me with figuring out how most of this works.


A few links I visit:

Steam Engine | free vaping calculators
E-Cigarette Forum - Baditude - Blogs
E-Cigarette Forum - State O' Flux - Blogs
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ecf-library/661383-basic-coil-building-safety-beginners.html
The ECF Library (this strongly represents the type of guide I'm talking about)
I would really like commentary on the idea of a single comprehensive vaping guide. I think the members here could easily do it, let me know what you think.  

Hello vapers! first! I'm a noob at this stuff because I just buy my tank and use it with the coils it comes with and second, my english isnt that good but I can understand it perfectly fine.

Anyway, Ive been searching everywhere but I couldnt find a solid answer to my question.
Im using an Aerotank Giant right now with a 1.8 ohm coil, if I put a 1.2 ohm I would have to use less voltage because I get a burnt taste and the coil burns pretty quick, Im about to order a Sub ohm tank soon and I'll use the stock coils, the one im getting is the Kangertech SubOhm tank.
Why do subohm coils use more voltage when normal coils use less?

I mean, Ive seen people do things like 0.2 ohm coil @ 100W + If I did anything over 3.5V on my 1.2 ohm coil itd burn instantly... SubOhm takes more voltage the lower you go and normal dual coils take less voltage the lower you go!

1.9 Ohm Dual coil = 3.7-3.8V for me
0.5 ohm OOC subtank sub ohm coil = 12-30W?!

Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply to this post and your patience!

Cheers!

Edit: by the way, Im planning to use my subtank with a 50/50 PG/VG 16mg nicotine, Is that ok?  

Okay so I did look this up and it appears that other people have mentioned this specifically with sigelei mods but I didn't see any that were more recent. I look at my mod to see what my batteries charge looks like to see if I need to go ahead and change batteries and I swear to God the thing starts jumping around as though the batteries are charging themselves and then going back to the 40%. Apparently that's a problem that the mods have and isn't something to be concerned about but it freaked me the heck out. They're doing just fine now that they're in their external charger thingy but I just want to make sure that that's not a sign of something going wrong with the batteries that it's just my mod being weird I've checked the connections and everything to make sure it was clean and that the batteries were fine and not dented or unwrapped and everything looks good. I just need some assurance that the batteries were not like failing or that a regulated mod would shut itself off if batteries were jumping around like crazy in reality if that's even possible
For clarification it was doing this when I was not firing it  

How can I get more vapor production out of my Halo Triton?I lowered my ohms to 1.8 to 2.0 and bought a variable voltage battery...going up on voltage didn't help. What next?