2 Amps, 2.5 Amps, and the Faulty Wall Adapter!? Assistance Humbly Requested

[Arkhalis]

Hey All,

Been a member here for some time now but never made a post. It's funny, I read at least 10 posts a day and have always found the answers and information I need. The drawback here has been my lack of posting keeps me restricted to the New Member area. Anyhow, let me get to my question here.

I have always been a 3.7v vaper, and so far 5v is just confusing me. 3.7v is like heaven sometimes but I really like the idea of having a passthrough and using it at home and saving the 3.7v for being out of the house. My collection thus far includes 2 dead eGo batteries, Screwdriver MKI, Screwdriver MKII, Alpha & Omega from AltSmoke (best PV's ever in my opinion.), and VP-PT from VaprLife.

Until now, I have always avoided 5-6v vaping, I fear change... Actually, I mostly just like to cool vapor compared to warm and the longer drags. That aside, I have decided to move in to the 5v world a little with this new passthrough. My proplem here is, the VP-PT comes with a 5v 2000mA wall adapter. So, I plug it in, connect a 3.0ohm atty and I get a nice warm vapor full of flavor, then a strong burnt flavor. To be expected as I am not used to 5v vaping yet and didn't realize it's best to almost flood the atty lol.

Now, I attach a SmokeTech dual coil carto which runs fine on my 3.7v 18650 Omega and my 3.7v 14500 Alpha. And it's like the thing is broken, no LED and hardly a sizzle on the coils. It's very strange, now I lack access to a multimeter so instead I have tried a couple things here. Prepare for my list of attempts.

1) Try a brand new dual coil carto. Result: Absolutely nothing, this time I don't even get a sizzle.
2) Plug wall adapter directly in to wall outlet instead of extension cord. Result: same
3) Plug VP-PT in to USB Port. Result: Success!... sort of. Through a USB I am apparently only pulling about 4.2v on average. Now I am unable to test this for sure but the LED is still very dim and I get more vapor out of the dual coil on a 3.7v Device.
4) Replace the wall adapter with one from RadioShack... 5v 2.5A or 2500mA. Result: Unbelievable success! It seems to be working flawlessly now, except the brand new dual coil seems to cause the new adapter to trip and cut off the current as it flashes on and cuts out instantly. All other attys, including 3 other dual coils work fine though so I assume it's just that one dual coil.

My questions here are, what is the impact of using 2.5 amps instead of 2.0 and since this VP-PT is literally only 27 hours out of the box... Should I consider returning the wall adapter they sent to me as defective? Sorry, I can't afford a multimeter right now as that would indeed answer some of my questions but all I have to go on right now is what I have tried thus far.

My assumptions: According to VaprLife, the VP-PT runs at a lower voltage when in the USB of a computer, ~4.2v. Due to the dual coil operating better on USB than the supplied wall adapter I am assuming it is faulty. Also, since the 5v 2.5A is working properly for now, it is safe to vape this even though the math shows closer to 12 watts which is quite high for a single coil atty.

A lot of information here, I do appreciate your time in reading this mess and helping with any answer you may have. Pleasure to meet you all!

 

[Dalton63841]

It doesn't sound like there're anything faulty here. 2.5A is barely enough to push a dual coil. 2A is almost not possible to. Dropping the voltage down to 4.2v, makes it play a bit nicer, but you are dancing right on the line. As far as the one atty being pickier than the others, my guess would be that it ohms out slightly lower than the rest.

 

[rwnielsen]

Hi
One formula for wattage is voltage x voltage divided by ohms
Another is voltage times amperage
I have a regulated DC power supply on my bench that won't fire a LR dual coil

 

[madjack]

Hi
One formula for wattage is voltage x voltage divided by ohms
Another is voltage times amperage
I have a regulated DC power supply on my bench that won't fire a LR dual coil

...this basically is your answer...LR cartos and attys pull too much amperage at 5v...you need to go upto 2.8-3ohm...the LR stuff is meant to mimic 5v vaping at 3.7v...sounds kinda counter intuitive but that is how electricity works(without getting too technical)......
madjack
p.s. http://www.ohmslawcalculator.com/ohms_law_calculator.php put different #'s in the volt and ohm lines and look at the difference in watts and amps drawn.........mj

 

[Boodle]

Are you using one of those $15 PTs with no inline battery? They were very funky for me. I don't think it's pilot error. For me those little cheap PTs were worthless. I don't understand all the flashing lights you described. I got the same. I couldn't get a conistently good vape with it. I thought I had a bad unit and bought another with like results. I'm not convinced your supplies are causing the issue. I'm used to vaping at 5 and 6v with mods. I got that PT as a backup. I didn't expect great things for $15 but sheesh, it was worthless.

I found an eGo PT in Deals and Steals for $20. With a USB port on the bottom you can vape plugged in or not. It vapes much better imo than a regular eGo battery. eGos start losing power as you vape. With their PT it seems I get a better hit consistently when plugged into a wall socket. It's not like a 5v experience but it's good. Very nice for peace of mind - always a charged battery on hand. I don't use my computer ports for vaping. That's just me. Good luck.

 

[DaveP]

USB ports are by design limited to 500ma draw. Some are limited to 100ma unless the device is smart and negotiates for more.

The bad part about using USB ports for high drain devices is that a shutdown can also result in smoke from the motherboard ... something you don't want to happen! I'd stick with batteries and wallwarts. Maybe you can find a higher powered USB wall adapter that provides more output. I didn't find any over 2000ma on Amazon.

USB in a NutShell - Chapter 2 - Hardware

 

[dormouse]

No idea. I use a 2amp 4-port USB to AC and I can either charge up to 4 batteries on it OR use a PT on it. I use Rosewill RUC-6180 and RUC-6181 4-port USB to AC adapters which share the 2000mA between the ports and in its spec lists how the power is distributed: if you attach one thing it can use any or all of the whole 2000mA, if you attach 2 things then 1000mA is available to each, 4 things 500mA is available to each.


Re dual coils - they suck a crapload of power. Some mods refuse to run them (their protection circuit kicks in)

 

[WillyB]

Hey All,

... and VP-PT from VaprLife.

My proplem here is, the VP-PT comes with a 5v 2000mA wall adapter. So, I plug it in, connect a 3.0ohm atty and I get a nice warm vapor full of flavor, then a strong burnt flavor. To be expected as I am not used to 5v vaping yet and didn't realize it's best to almost flood the atty lol.

Now, I attach a SmokeTech dual coil carto which runs fine on my 3.7v 18650 Omega and my 3.7v 14500 Alpha. And it's like the thing is broken, no LED and hardly a sizzle on the coils. It's very strange, now I lack access to a multimeter so instead I have tried a couple things here. Prepare for my list of attempts.

1) Try a brand new dual coil carto. Result: Absolutely nothing, this time I don't even get a sizzle.
2) Plug wall adapter directly in to wall outlet instead of extension cord. Result: same
3) Plug VP-PT in to USB Port. Result: Success!... sort of. Through a USB I am apparently only pulling about 4.2v on average. Now I am unable to test this for sure but the LED is still very dim and I get more vapor out of the dual coil on a 3.7v Device.
4) Replace the wall adapter with one from RadioShack... 5v 2.5A or 2500mA. Result: Unbelievable success! It seems to be working flawlessly now, except the brand new dual coil seems to cause the new adapter to trip and cut off the current as it flashes on and cuts out instantly. All other attys, including 3 other dual coils work fine though so I assume it's just that one dual coil.

Well with a DC and a 14500 your average vaping will be in in the 2A range.

Here's a 1.6Ω DC running off a pair of 14500s in parallel (figure about 1300 true mAh).

That's fresh off the charger, it will quickly settle into the ~3.4V range.

Here is a single 18350 that has been discharged to 4.05V, again with a DC.

Still a decent vape @ 2A. No one's gonna pull and recharge a cell at 4.05V.

The other thing to note is that you can't just use Ohm's Law to figure things out without some actual measurements. A 2000mA or 2.5A rating on the adapter doesn't mean you are actually getting that to the atty/carto. The cables (longer = worse), USB connectors, your PT's electronics and cute lights all add additional, current sucking resistance to the mix.

 

[dormouse]

Just something simple - anything up to 1 less than your voltage should be warm, anything 2 to 2.2 less than your voltage will be hot. So on 5v, a 3ohm atty or carto is now LR and hot. The LR's you used on 3.7v (1-2 ohms) are now too low for 5v.

The dual coil is different. A 1.5ohm dual coil is 2 3ohm coils. That should vape like LR on 5v BUT the protection circuit may be blocking it due to how much current it draws.

 

[DaveP]

Just something simple - anything up to 1 less than your voltage should be warm, anything 2 to 2.2 less than your voltage will be hot. So on 5v, a 3ohm atty or carto is now LR and hot. The LR's you used on 3.7v (1-2 ohms) are now too low for 5v.

The dual coil is different. A 1.5ohm dual coil is 2 3ohm coils. That should vape like LR on 5v BUT the protection circuit may be blocking it to to how much current it draws.

True. My Little Dwarf is much better at 3.7v than 3.4v. I use it more on the Riva 750mah batt. One day, when the price is right, I may jump for a Provari or something similar.

 

[Arkhalis]

Lots of information here, thanks for all your replies. I will be picking up a multimeter a little later today, and that should bring a little information to the scenario. I think I confused some people with my post so allow me to organize the data I have here real quiclly.

VP-PT - not your run of the mill cheap PT. Many reviews I have read say this PT is quite nice and runs very well. I've read this PT should be able to handle dual coils with no problem at all (though, using my 3.0 atty's for now is fine, I want to know where my misunderstanding is here on the dual coils) Vaprlife - 5-Volt Cigs - The VP-PT Kit

Wall Adapter #1 - This one came with the VP-PT and is rated at 5.0v 2000mA. This wall adapter just doesn't seem to put out enough mA to power a dual coil carto. The confusion I have is that a dual coil runs fine on a 3.7v 14500 battery which I'm certain is not pushing 2000mA.

Wall Adapter #2 - This is the new one, rated at 5.0v 2500mA. This new wall adapter seems to work perfectly, except on the one Dual Coil which trips the protection circuit I think. That carto aside, it works well.

now from what I have read of your replies, technically 5v 2000mA should be plenty to run a dual coil. I understand the LED also takes some additional power but not more than an LED on an eGo which also runs a dual coil just fine. I hope this clears a few things up? I didn't purchase this PT lightly, I wanted a PT without an inline battery rated at 5v so I can throw on a DCT MAP tank with a dual/tripple coil in it and vape away while I brows the net. Mostly, my questions are to clarify if I have faulty hardware or if it's user error. Could be a combination of both for all I know? Either way, I don't want to call the company and RMA a piece of hardware which works, I just don't know now to use it.

Also, I will be "bumping" this thread a bit later with some pictures and readouts from a multimeter to help.

 

[Rocketman]

Careful with the
"should be able to handle Dual Coils" comment you might read.

There are 2.5 ohm Dual Coils (a pair of 5 ohm coils) that would be fine for 5 volts.
5V, 2A, 10W.

THen there are 1.5 -1.6 ohm Dual colis (a pair of 3 ohm coils)
That would be difficult to run on a 2000 or 2500 ma wall wart.
Your 5 volt source would try like the dickens to pump out the 3.135 amps but just wouldn't be able to do it.
And if it did, overloading something pulled into the wall on one end, and your mouth on the other end
just might not be a good idea.

 

[Arkhalis]

And if it did, overloading something pulled into the wall on one end, and your mouth on the other end
just might not be a good idea.

LOL @ Rocketman

Yeah, someone just sent me some valuable information. I had my math backwards and now understand what I am missing. Rocketman, what you said now makes perfect sense as well. I didn't understand the pair of coils running in parallel would be pulling so much more juice. Though, it makes sense to think about it that way I was backwards in my assumption. if 3.7v can do it why can't 5v? I now understand to run 5v at 1.5 ohms would need near 3500mA and a triple coil being 1.0 ohms would need 5000mA. Thanks for everyone's help here as this now finally makes sense in my puny brain ... I have now ordered a set of 2.5ohm dual coils and a 4.0ohm single coil atty to test out.

Thanks again all~!