Coil Fluctuation & Battery Flash after freshly wrapped

[Flyer_Laff]

Hey! first post.

So I just purchased a kanger subox......love it, but what else can you expect.

It came with an rba so i figured i might as well start wrapping my own coils and save some pennies. My first coil must've been lucky, cause it was F*cking phenomenal. Just grabbed myself some Kanthal and cotton and started wrapping away.

The one I have in there now concerns me. When i first put it in it read 1.5 ohms.....and started fluctuating, and stopped at 0.5.

I went to go fire it shortly after my first few vapes following the wrap, and the battery indicator started flashing representing 0 charge. I was confused...and still am. it came back online right after the hiccup and is still working, but I just dont know if its safe and the flavour seems a wee tainted.

Does anyone know why the coil seemed unstable at first and the battery flashed?

James

 

[nyiddle]

Heyo, welcome to the ECF!

I don't mean to be harsh (but I kind of do): Stop what you're doing. The fact that the ohms fluctuated indicates that you have a short. In all likelihood, a part of your coil is touching either a post or the side of the chimney or some other part that it shouldn't be. You need to iron out any possible shorts before you go vaping on it. If you were on a mech mod, this situation could've turned badly pretty fast. Luckily the Kanger Subox's regulation prevented anything bad from happening to your batteries (hopefully).

Inspect the build for any possible causes of shorts. Like I said, the coils can't be touching the posts or any other piece of metal.

 

[LittleBird]

Do you have an ohm meter? If not, get one. I always check my build after mounting and again after I put the top cap (or tank) on. Then I can discover problems before I put myself or anyone else in danger - like unexpectedly low ohms or fluctuations in ohms. We've all had a short - it's a good learning experience. Learn and be safe. Best of luck to you!

 

[Baditude]

I agree totally with nyiddle and Little Bird. There's a short somewhere. Check out what nyiddle said, and also make sure that the screws on your RDA posts are tight.

I recently noticed that my own RDA was vaping different. I re-checked the resistance, and instead of the usual 0..6 ohms it was reading 0.15 ohms. I checked the coils and found that the center positive post screw was loose, creating a short. I tightened up the screw and rechecked the resistance on my meter, and it read 0.6 ohm again.

 

[Flyer_Laff]

sounds good. the beauty of the kbox mini is that it displays the resistance before even firing so i dont think a reader is necessary if there's one built in. but thanks for the advice! there could be potential that one of the tips of the coil is touching the drum on the rba....i was in a really big rush to wrap this one haha. I fired it up about 10 times between the wrap and now, when i saw it jump back up to 0.7 I said .... it and turned the device off.

Think I'll be okay?

I really hope I didn't do any internal damage to the thing....now I'm really concerned and can't rebuild until I'm home D:

 

[Flyer_Laff]

sounds good. the beauty of the kbox mini is that it displays the resistance before even firing so i dont think a reader is necessary if there's one built in. but thanks for the advice! there could be potential that one of the tips of the coil is touching the drum on the rba....i was in a really big rush to wrap this one haha. I fired it up about 10 times between the wrap and now, when i saw it jump back up to 0.7 I said .... it and turned the device off.
Think I'll be okay?

I really hope I didn't do any internal damage to the thing....now I'm really concerned and can't rebuild until I'm home D:

 

[dhood]

Check the wires from the coil. They should be trapped securely by the screws and they should not extend past where they are trapped. If they stick out, even a little, they can contact the chimney wall and short out. That's how little clearance there is there. Also, if you look on the bottom, the airflow intake actually screws into your center post forming the airflow channel. Make sure it is firmly screwed in. You'll probably need to insert a microscrewdriver through the airflow holes to tighten it down.

 

[Flyer_Laff]

but......this is my thread, is it not? lol

perhaps instead of speaking to me in a condescending manner, you could try educating me on how the resistance gauge provided on my mod would not suffice as a reader, even when I don't fire the coil

 

[edyle]

sounds good. the beauty of the kbox mini is that it displays the resistance before even firing so i dont think a reader is necessary if there's one built in. but thanks for the advice! there could be potential that one of the tips of the coil is touching the drum on the rba....i was in a really big rush to wrap this one haha. I fired it up about 10 times between the wrap and now, when i saw it jump back up to 0.7 I said .... it and turned the device off.

Think I'll be okay?

I really hope I didn't do any internal damage to the thing....now I'm really concerned and can't rebuild until I'm home D:

that sounds exactly like what is happening.
part of the coil is touching somewhere it is not supposed to touch.

 

[nyiddle]

how the resistance gauge provided on my mod would not suffice as a reader, even when I don't fire the coil

To be honest, the Subox's resistance meter is probably just about as accurate as any 20$ 510 ohm reader you can buy on the market, primarily because it is a "constant" ohm reader, and it'll read the ohms without the fire button being pressed. Most of the dedicated ohm readers marketed to vapers are pretty poor quality and don't last very long. I've experienced more unreliable ones than reliable ones at this point, and even if they work one week, they may go all wonk the next week just because your atomizer's pin pushed the 510 contact down a bit.

Is it as accurate as a proper Fluke DMM? Well, no, but even those aren't really designed to read sub-ohm resistances.

sounds good. the beauty of the kbox mini is that it displays the resistance before even firing so i dont think a reader is necessary if there's one built in. but thanks for the advice! there could be potential that one of the tips of the coil is touching the drum on the rba....i was in a really big rush to wrap this one haha. I fired it up about 10 times between the wrap and now, when i saw it jump back up to 0.7 I said .... it and turned the device off.
Think I'll be okay?

I really hope I didn't do any internal damage to the thing....now I'm really concerned and can't rebuild until I'm home D:

I don't think you did any permanent damage to the device. You may have done something to the batteries though, so if you have access to a multimeter it'd be a good idea to check it on that. Alternatively, if your charger can read voltages, throw it on that and make sure it charges properly from whatever voltage it's at back to max at 4.2V. Most intelligent chargers will refuse to charge batteries that have been damaged. Some even "attempt to repair" damaged batteries, though, what that means.. I have no idea.

If/when your device shorts, you definitely shouldn't use it until you've assessed the situation and sorted out the short. Luckily, very luckily, you were using a regulated device. In most situations this device should be able to protect against a short. It should know that when a short occurs it should not apply any voltage to the atomizer. Will it protect you 100% of the time? My opinion is: "Why tempt fate?" and, add to that, "If it can happen, it will." It's better to err on the side of caution than to hope that the device will be able to figure out and cope with a short in your atomizer.

This is why it's a good idea to have a backup device/atomizer or something of that nature. Whether that's an entirely different setup (perfect excuse to buy new stuff, lol) or just a spare tank lying around, whatever works for you! When I carry around a SubTank with the RBA section, I always carry around a spare coil somewhere because I know that if the RBA throws a short, I'm not gonna bust it out and start fiddling with it wherever I am. It'd be a lot easier to just flip the tank, pull the RBA section, put in a disposable head, and keep on vapin' without missing a beat.

Hope that helps a bit, bud.

 

[Flyer_Laff]

To be honest, the Subox's resistance meter is probably just about as accurate as any 20$ 510 ohm reader you can buy on the market, primarily because it is a "constant" ohm reader, and it'll read the ohms without the fire button being pressed. Most of the dedicated ohm readers marketed to vapers are pretty poor quality and don't last very long. I've experienced more unreliable ones than reliable ones at this point, and even if they work one week, they may go all wonk the next week just because your atomizer's pin pushed the 510 contact down a bit.

Is it as accurate as a proper Fluke DMM? Well, no, but even those aren't really designed to read sub-ohm resistances.



I don't think you did any permanent damage to the device. You may have done something to the batteries though, so if you have access to a multimeter it'd be a good idea to check it on that. Alternatively, if your charger can read voltages, throw it on that and make sure it charges properly from whatever voltage it's at back to max at 4.2V. Most intelligent chargers will refuse to charge batteries that have been damaged. Some even "attempt to repair" damaged batteries, though, what that means.. I have no idea.

If/when your device shorts, you definitely shouldn't use it until you've assessed the situation and sorted out the short. Luckily, very luckily, you were using a regulated device. In most situations this device should be able to protect against a short. It should know that when a short occurs it should not apply any voltage to the atomizer. Will it protect you 100% of the time? My opinion is: "Why tempt fate?" and, add to that, "If it can happen, it will." It's better to err on the side of caution than to hope that the device will be able to figure out and cope with a short in your atomizer.

This is why it's a good idea to have a backup device/atomizer or something of that nature. Whether that's an entirely different setup (perfect excuse to buy new stuff, lol) or just a spare tank lying around, whatever works for you! When I carry around a SubTank with the RBA section, I always carry around a spare coil somewhere because I know that if the RBA throws a short, I'm not gonna bust it out and start fiddling with it wherever I am. It'd be a lot easier to just flip the tank, pull the RBA section, put in a disposable head, and keep on vapin' without missing a beat.

Hope that helps a bit, bud.

....made me feel a .... ton better haha. about everything; just gonna keep rebuilding.

Cheers boss!

 

[suprtrkr]

....made me feel a .... ton better haha. about everything; just gonna keep rebuilding.

Cheers boss!

On thy head be it. I can say I'd never mount an atty I built on a mod without checking it on an independent ohmmeter first.

 

[Rabbit Slayer]

Removed Quote of deleted post




You decided to ignore safety and when others said you should get an ohm reader, you brushed off the advice..I'm the (MODERATED)

 

[classwife]

Clean up your mouths


I had to edit and delete

 

[Flyer_Laff]

UPDATE: got home after work, re-wrapped and firing solid with 0.7 with a beautiful wrap (for a rook)

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone!