Kick 2 in REO Grand. Love it, and have a couple questions.

[rustybikes]

I'm kinda late to the game with the Kick 2, I know. But, I've searched around ECF a little and didn't see a post like this, so here we are.


First, hats off to Drew and his gang!!


I ordered the Kick 2 kit and a couple extra batteries on Tuesday, and they were in my mailbox on Wednesday afternoon. Despite the g'vment shutdown (no derails, please!), I had my order quicker and cheaper than FedEx would have achieved. Nice.


FWIW, I got this to enhance the already awesome REO Grand. The voltage sag in the stock unit is tolerable. But, I really wanted consistency across the life of the battery, as I have with the Darwin, but still wanted to enjoy the hassle-free nature of the REO.


Following one (or two) of the other posts here, I broke out the Dremel and knocked the anodizing off the inside, on the right, jammed the kick in, and BAM - perfect vape! Already, I'm lovin' the thing! But, during a battery change, I couldn't help but notice that the Grand has a notch in the Delrin cover around the firing pin:

That got me thinking - "hey - that notch is about the perfect size for the blue potentiometer on top of the Kick!" A test-fitting confirmed it, so I broke out the Dremel again and went to work:

This let the Kick 2 seat perfectly, so it wouldn't shift around like it sometimes would with the ground pins to the right. I don't have any suitable shim material (like pink erasers others have used) around, so. This lets the Kick 2 almost look like it belongs there:

Actually, it does belong there now - works perfectly and, as mentioned, doesn't shift around (for want of shims) at all now. Neat.


My house is quiet when I don't have music playing, TV on, whatever. At some point on (Friday?) Saturday morning, as I was having my morning dose of coffee, I heard a noise. An almost imperceptible ticking noise was coming from somewhere. After a couple minutes looking around, and turning my head to try to localise it, I found, with some surprise, that it was my trusty REO making a new noise. Here's what it sounds like:


http://cynch.dyndns.org/stuff/kick2_idle_noise.mp3


Now that I've heard it, I can't un-hear it, so even sitting at a red light in traffic, I can slide back the cover a little, put it to my ear, and yep. One of the interesting patterns I've observed is that the ticking gets faster as the battery drains. Given that it works perfectly otherwise, I'm assuming that it's a normal thing with whatever boost circuitry is being used in this little gem. That got me thinking.. This would mean, of course, that the Kick is powered all the time, and aside from removing/blocking the battery, there's no straightforward way to turn it "off". That's cool, but a slight break from other VV/VW devices I've used; they all have an "off" setting.


So my questions are these: First, is this (the ticking noise) really a normal behaviour of the Kick 2? I assume it is, so it's more of a sanity-check thing, really. Second, with the Kick 2 powered on all the time, battery drain becomes a question. Is there any data on how much it draws in an idle state like this? I'd guess it's just a few (like, less than ten) milliamps, so it probably doesn't matter much. I'm having a very mild OCD time with it knowing that it's always on, but I think I can get over it, especially if it's drawing something like 3mA like that. Thoughts?


So, in conclusion to my Wall of Words™, I'll reiterate - the Kick 2 is a wonderful piece of kit, and has revived my REO Grand in the best way. Many thanks to the folks at Evolv and Nhaler for making this happen!


tl;dr - Love love love the Kick 2 in my REO Grand. It's behaviour pleases me, but the ticking noise is a bit of a surprise that I seek reassurance about.

 

[Killjoy1]

The ticking noise is normal in some devices, it all depends on the button mechanism of the mod. In a bottom-button mech (where there is no continuity between the Kick ground pins and the "-" side of the battery when it's not pressed) you'll get no ticking, but in other designs where the Kick actually contacts both sides of the current path at all times (such as the Reo, Shockwave, Stinger, etc) it will check for a completed connection something like 50 times per second. This is the ticking noise you hear. It uses a negligible amount of current, so won't drain your battery down enough to notice, the only drawback is that soft "ticking"

So, in short: it's perfectly normal

 

[Drewsworld]

Nice Post KJ...You are absolutely right. Brandon mentioned thsi to me before but said it was happening in some of the older Silver Bullets and this is the first I have heard of it. It doesn't seem like it "should" happen with the Reo...I will have to get one of my Reo Mods out tomorrow and give it a spin. I have a copper strip in mine that Liv2ski sent me over a year ago that bridges the gap between the ground spring and the Kick. Not sure if it will work the same? Brandon did say the drain is very , very low and that it should stop after a certain amount of tiem (which I don't remember)...Thanks guys,
Drew

 

[Killjoy1]

Only reason I knew about it was that I'd seen it posted about elsewhere with a few different mods. Your copper tape should give you the same results as OP, as the defining factor is the continuity between the Kick and both battery terminals in the open circuit.

 

[crshsnwmn]

My kick 2 did kill an aw imr due to the small draw. Left the mod sitting unused for 3 - 4 days with the kick in it, when I went back to it the battery was at 1.5 volts and would not take a charge.
Should have known better, given that both of my dna mods will drain the batteries when just sitting unused.

 

[rustybikes]

Ah! Thanks you guys! I dimly remember the copper-tape thing that Drew mentions, from when the Kick 1 was new. I'll have to see if I can source a little (RatShack?) to get a more reliable connection. Also, it looks like I'm going to have to find my pencil-box (I know there is at least one pink eraser/victim in there. ha.) - although it looks right with the pot nestled in the notch as I've pictured, the Kick still shifts around a little. Enough, it seems, to lose contact with an annoying frequency.

Thanks for confirming the standby drain/ticking behaviour. I had an "ah-ha!" moment with that - my iPad, iPhone, Nexus, etc. are on all the time, just add my REO to the cadre of always-on devices. Plus, the ticking is actually growing on me. It's an active confirmation that it's live and ready to go. It's kinda like a weird robot/cricket/cat thing sitting there purring all the time. Certainly a different beast.

My kick 2 did kill an aw imr due to the small draw. Left the mod sitting unused for 3 - 4 days with the kick in it, when I went back to it the battery was at 1.5 volts and would not take a charge.
Should have known better, given that both of my dna mods will drain the batteries when just sitting unused.

This is interesting and a good cautionary anecdote. I know the Kick has an undervoltage cut-off when firing (3.4v-3.6v), but it didn't even occur to me that the cut-off doesn't apply to the stand-by drain. Good to know!

Again, thank you all!