801 Atomizer... Is it dead, Jim?

[CentroniX]

vaping a way at work today with my Janty Stick with a generic low bridge 801 atomizer. All of the sudden, no vapor, and JS flashes red three times. I think the battery is dead, so throw the JS on to charge. Red light goes out an hour or so later, and I try to hit it with the USB cable still plugged in. No vapor, and still getting the flashing light. Unscrew the atty, JS lights up blue as it should. No problem, figure dead atty!

Get home and throw a multimeter on the atty. It reads a steady 3.4 ohms. Plug it in to a manual 801 battery, it fires! Put it back in the JS, I get the read blinking light again. Throw it back on the manual, and then a pass thru, no vapor and doesn't turn red or "crackle". Back on the ohm meter, 3.4 ohms!

What am I missing here? Everything I have read says the resistance should go up. The three other known good attys I have register between 3.0-3.5 ohms. I'm cornfused...

 

[CentroniX]

Just saw Deeanne's thread on the exact same issue. Sorry to double post! Have solder, will see what I can do... Strange though, that I've been using this atty since Friday in the JS with no problems, and now it's suddenly developed a problem...

Feel free to delete this thread, if needed....

 

[Jim Davis]

I'd suspect the connection too. I use a tiny screwdriver to work the button contact back up. It sometimes gets pushed down, and won't make contact. There's a proceedure in the Troubleshooting Guide;
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-cig-technical-issues/31787-ecf-troubleshooting-guide.html

 

[CentroniX]

Thanks Jim!

Sheesh, been here all this time and never ran across the troubleshooting guide...

 

[Jim Davis]

Did it Work??

 

[CentroniX]

Did it Work??

Nope! Pulled it out as far as I could (it was a little bit low), and still no dice. JS flashes red three times, manual batteries, auto batteries, and pass thru have no effect. Ohms still read 3.4. Boiled some distilled water, let it set for 15 minutes, then rinsed with rubbing alcohol, and will let it sit up over night. Luckily this is an NJoy atomizer that I've only had about three weeks, so it'll be replaced with an e-mail.

I'm just curious why it still has continuity and the proper resistance but won't fire. We'll see what happens tomorrow! I homebrew electronics for fun and am no novice at building circuits and troubleshooting, and have lots of equipment here. Figure worst case I'll rig up a 5VDC supply on the bench to verify without a doubt that I'm making contact and go from there. Worst case, it won't work!

I've only been seriously vaping for a few weeks and this is my first "dead" atty. While I've known it would happen sooner or later, I'm just surprised by the results... What I really need to figure out is the three red flashes on the JS. It obviously see's a problem... Does it detect a dead short? Does it measure amperage and see that it's drawing too much current? Hrmm...

 

[CentroniX]

And by the way... The "Jim" reference in the title was to Star Trek, and not necessarily intended for Mr. Davis!

 

[Jim Davis]

And by the way... The "Jim" reference in the title was to Star Trek, and not necessarily intended for Mr. Davis!

OK - I guess you killed two birds with one stone.

Anyhoo, another fact is that some 4081 attys take a long time to come back to life after cleaning. Sometimes you have to puff your brains out, and then *Poof* they're vaping like nothing ever happened.

 

[DonDaBoomVape]

Yeah, *I* got the reference to: "He's dead, Jim." For some reason, that brief line has stayed in my wife's and my bantering. Not sure why we think it's funny. Perhaps because it seemed overly dramatic. It also trigger's fond memories of Deforest Kelly. What a wonderful, seminal show that was (despite the cheesy sets and dated special effects ... and ocassional Shatner overacting*)!

* Who knew he'd develop such a gift for comedy.

Now, to bring my post back on topic (i.e., vaping in general; I have no idea how to fix your atty): I really like your avatar and would like to use it in my "Wonderful World of Vaping" saga (probably Part 6) in the New Members Forum. May I have your permission to do so, centronix?

Thanks!

 

[CentroniX]

Now, to bring my post back on topic (i.e., vaping in general; I have no idea how to fix your atty): I really like your avatar and would like to use it in my "Wonderful World of Vaping" saga (probably Part 6) in the New Members Forum. May I have your permission to do so, centronix?

Of course, I'd be honored! Would you like the original 800x600 version before I scaled it down?

 

[CentroniX]

Problem solved, and, It's dead, Jim!

After close inspection with a magnifying glass, the plastic grommet that seats between the positive connection in the middle (button?) and the negative shell apparently got too hot at some point, deformed, and allows it to direct short. I can make it work on the test bench if I very carefully keep it centered and apply +5V, but any time I screw it on to a battery, passthru, or JS, it cocks to the side and shorts out.

The reason it reads good with the multimeter is because I'm standing it straight up and applying downward pressure on the center button thus keeping it aligned. As soon as I angle the meter leads, it drop to zero ohms.

 

[tmbrown327]

Good work figuring it out. How do you think it got overheated? Do you use the dry burn cleaning method? I ask, because I do that occasionally and I wonder how many times I'll be able to do that before I smoke one.

 

[closetrockstar]

Just wondering, why can't somebody make a larger stronger atty? It wouldn't have to be much bigger than the battery. Just wondering.

Vaping a way at work today with my Janty Stick with a generic low bridge 801 atomizer. All of the sudden, no vapor, and JS flashes red three times. I think the battery is dead, so throw the JS on to charge. Red light goes out an hour or so later, and I try to hit it with the USB cable still plugged in. No vapor, and still getting the flashing light. Unscrew the atty, JS lights up blue as it should. No problem, figure dead atty!

Get home and throw a multimeter on the atty. It reads a steady 3.4 ohms. Plug it in to a manual 801 battery, it fires! Put it back in the JS, I get the read blinking light again. Throw it back on the manual, and then a pass thru, no vapor and doesn't turn red or "crackle". Back on the ohm meter, 3.4 ohms!

What am I missing here? Everything I have read says the resistance should go up. The three other known good attys I have register between 3.0-3.5 ohms. I'm cornfused...

 

[CentroniX]

Good work figuring it out. How do you think it got overheated? Do you use the dry burn cleaning method? I ask, because I do that occasionally and I wonder how many times I'll be able to do that before I smoke one.

Thinking back to the day it died, I think it was completely my fault. I had gotten in several different flavors of juices. I went to switch from one to another, and I threw in just a mouth piece with no cart, and proceeded to vape out what was left. I bet I took 5-8 good consecutive draws, pausing maybe ten seconds in between each. I'm still new at this, and never even realized there was a rubber grommet within millimeters of the atomizer coil. Just a hunch, but sounds reasonable to me. Lesson learned!

 

[tmbrown327]

Yup, that's why I asked. I do that all the time, probably worse, either switching juice or drying out the mesh to do a cleaning dry burn-off. I had a Janty atty that took months of this kind of abuse before I finally killed it (I won't be asking for a warranty replacement). I figure there are some that can take this kind of abuse with relatively little effect, and some that give up the ghost almost immediately. They're cheaper than buying a pack of smokes, so I'm going to continue to do it and take the loss. I was curious about exactly what part of the atty was failing (I don't have your patience for that kind of investigation), and I'm glad to know what at least one mechanism of failure is.