anyone know a way of testing the voltage on the batteries?

[dc2k08]

hi guys n' ghouls,
i am wondering if anyone out there has any ideas on how to test the voltage on these things. it seems some i buy work better than others and i know there are a few factories out there making them. wondering if the more expensive ones equate to a higher voltage. do any of them come with the voltage labeled on them?

sorry this isnt a tip or a trick but hopefully someone out there will know.
any electricians in our midst?

 

[GTOrichie]

just drop a multimeter/avometer/voltmeter across the two terminals and blow into the LED end and bobs your mothers brother,

edit: make sure you dont short out the two terminals to each other tho as it will pop the chip in the battery (my freind had a shorted atomizer and it poped both his batterys)

 

[dc2k08]

appreciate it GTO but you lost me at "just drop a multimeter/avometer/voltmeter " bit. please excuse my inexcuseable unschooling in all matters zZz.

is it easy to get one one of these devices? can i pick one up at a hard-ware store? what do you mean by the terminals on the e-cig battery? or do i have to remove it from the casing to do this?

how do i avoid not shorting out the two terminals to each other?
thanks again

 

[GTOrichie]

you can get a cheep budget multimeter from Maplin, radioshack or B&Q and set it to Vdc on the dial thats on the front of it.

if you look into the shiney edd of your battery you will see the inside metal part is separete from the outside metal part these are efectivly your battery "terminals" put one probe (metal spike that comes with the multimeter) on the central shiney bit and the other probe on the outer metal bit, dont at any point let the two probes touch each other now as this will cause a "short circuit" and pop your chip, now get somone to watch the meter while you blow into the LED end of your battery (this will trigger the pressure switch inside the battery) and the reading from that is your batterys volts!

for more info on multimeter check this youtube video it explains it better than I can in type.
YouTube - How To Use A Multimeter

sorry for not explaining it better before but im so used to using one regulary that I forget that most people don't.
I hope that makes more sense but if not I could try to draw a diagram although Im not good at art unless its stick men lol.

 

[leaford]

Hey, thanks for that. I bought a cheap multi-meter, and couldn't figure out what to do with it.

 

[dc2k08]

sorted, thanks for that. im off to see if i can find me one these bad-boys on the cheap. none of those places exist where i live..but maybe i'll go check-out what Lidl are flogging this week..might get lucky...otherwise its time to get fleeced at the hard-ware store.

edit: you made perfect sense, so no need to break out the crayola! ta.

 

[phylo]

just drop a multimeter/avometer/voltmeter across the two terminals and blow into the LED end and bobs your mothers brother,

edit: make sure you dont short out the two terminals to each other tho as it will pop the chip in the battery (my freind had a shorted atomizer and it poped both his batterys)

You are a frikin genius!!! I have been wondering how I was going to do this and that thought never occurred to me!

Ok now Ill read the rest of the posts..

Phil

 

[GTOrichie]

glad to be of help. You can also test your atomizer for resistance(ohms) with a multi meter to see the state of the coil inside, same sort of test with the meter only you set it to ohms and not volts, if you look on the bottom of the atomizer you will see and mating side from the battery (inner and outer terminals) put your meter across these (one probe inner the other probe outer) and read of the ohms from the display then compare this to a known good atomizer and the lower the no. the lower the resistance and therefor the lower the heat output if the meter reads 0 the atomizer is short circuit and should be binned so as not to damage any batterys, if it reads infinity the atomizer is open circuit and that meens the coil wont heat at all resulting in a dead atomizer, if you can stip the atomizer down in a state where you can reasemble it you can solder the break back together to repair it but I haven't tryed this yet as I havent had a dead one yet

 

[clavit]

Thanks for the tips GTO.
Just one little thing:

the lower the resistance and therefor the lower the heat output if

Shouldn't that be: lower resistance = higher heat output?
Lower resistance would mean higher amps to the coil, and therefore higher heat output (i think!)

 

[GTOrichie]

if the resistance is lower the current gets past easyer and less push is needed for it to pass so the heat is lower (thats not the corect way to explain it but its the only way I can think to type it) if the resistance is higher the push needs to be more as there is more resistance met and this produces the heat

 

[dc2k08]

so the reading from an atomizer will either be o ohms, infinity ohms, or a number in between depending on the model atomizer? and this number cannot fluctuate but only to 0 and infinity? or can atomozier wear, crud build-up cause the ohm rate to increase/decrease?

sorry if i dont make sense.
not sure if i understand this bit

and read of the ohms from the display then compare this to a known good atomizer and the lower the no. the lower the resistance and therefor the lower the heat output

 

[clavit]

I don't think resistance should fluctuate.
I just tested a couple of atomizers from my 901's, including an unused one and my 6-week old atomizer which is about to get binned. All read 3.7 or 3.8 ohms

 

[GTOrichie]

there are other variants that you need to take into acount for atomizer reliability (wick like fibers, clogging, carbon build up) apart from the coil I was just trying to explain a way that you can test the coil part of the atomizer before you try to resurect it thats all, its pointless trying to resurect a atomizer if the coil is shot to bits

 

[GTOrichie]

so the reading from an atomizer will either be o ohms, infinity ohms, or a number in between depending on the model atomizer? and this number cannot fluctuate but only to 0 and infinity? or can atomozier wear, crud build-up cause the ohm rate to increase/decrease?

sorry if i dont make sense.
not sure if i understand this bit

if you get a coil thats reading way difrent from a good one you know there is somthing wrong, not haveing a dead atomizer I don't want to strip a good one down to see how the coil is built but if say the coils started to build up with gunk they may push two other winds together and this would cause the coils ability to heat to posibly diminish and therefor not as efective. the only reason I decided to test this was my freinds ecig was not working and I tryed my atomizer on 4 batterys he had and all 4 were faulty so I checked his charger and it was working fine so that left only the atomizer when i checked mine it was reading 3.9ohms and i found his to be readin 0 (short circuit) and this caused all 4 of his batterys to blow (opps)

 

[dc2k08]

this is brilliant information. so if i find an atomizer is not working i better be careful not to test it on all my batteries. this multi-meter is going to be considerered a neccessary item in my e-smoking kit. just have to make room for it my e-back-pack for portability now..maybe i can snug it in next to the ultrasonic jewelry cleaner.

 

[GTOrichie]

just out of interest where abouts are you? USA? UK? I may be able to find you a cheep multimeter

 

[dc2k08]

just accross the sea from you in dreary roi

 

[GTOrichie]

Maplin have stores in ROI are none of these near you? have a look at there store locator if not they do mail order.
I would say pay the little extra for a digital one rather than a analog as they are easyer to read this is there cheapest digital Domestic Multimeter > Maplin

most big hardware stores also sell them like B&Q, Wicks, Homebase (not sure if they are in Ireland) also some Jewsons sell them

failing all that Argos have one model but its a bit over priced.

 

[dc2k08]

thanks for the tip gto, never had heard of maplin though aparantly there are two stores here and one is near where i work. the others dont exist and never a fan of argos. that one you pointed to looks good and cheap as chips! hope they're stocking.

 

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

I asked Harry from Janty about how to measure resistance (apparently it's the definitive dead or alive atomiser test). Here's his reply:

Hi Mike,

First about the Multimeter. On the meter you have to chose the lowest level within Ohm (at mine it says 200). You can measure the Ohm's at the side of the battery. One pin (it doesn't matter if it's the black or the red one) you hold in the centre, I always hold it a little in the small hole of the atomizer. The other pin you must hold against the propellor wire without touching the other pin ofcourse.

Kind regards,

Harry
Janty Nederland - RuyanXpress