Anyone tried the eGo Mini?

[Mitey F]

That just means they are unregulated.

Joye eGo batteries for example are regulated to right over 3 volts, like 3.2 or 3.3

The internal battery is a 3.7v nominal voltage battery. When fully charged it's around 4.2 and can be used safely down to about 3.2v But the "rating" of the battery is 3.7v, kind of it's "average" operational voltage.

Joye eGos can now be switched between regulated and unregulated mode, but the older ones could not. So older joye eGos were not "true" 3.7v devices, because even though the internal battery was a 3.7v one, it was regulated down much lower and would never put out 3.7v to your heads.

When they say "true 3.7v" that means that the battery is actually capable of putting out 3.7v to your carto/atty/whatever, because it's straight battery voltage. But that's still just it's nominal rating, it will come off the charger around 4.2 and then drop to 3.2 before you need to recharge it.

Maybe this is why mine has been producing such poor vapor... maybe I need to keep it better charge? It's much less consistent than my Joye 650's

 

[UncleChuck]

Yeah as the battery discharges lower and lower, the voltage will drop. But I've got a regulated eGo, and even after a bit of use an unregulated one will still outperform it because it's regulated to a voltage that's close to what an unregulated one dies at.

So I'm not sure why yours are performing badly, that's odd. Maybe a bad connection between the center pins of the atty and the battery? If they aren't making firm contact it will cut down on the amount of current that it can handle, which means less power to your heads. You could try pulling your post a tiny bit and see if this helps, I know one clearo I had would just barely make contact with one of my ego batteries. Almost no power, but once the post got pulled it performed like it should have.

If your joye is in regulated mode, it will output pretty much the same power over the life of the battery, but that power will be lower. But at least this way you can match resistance to a constant voltage, instead of starting off strong and then getting weak. For example with a 2ohm carto, and a fully charged unregulated battery your getting close to 9 watts of power (theoretically) But when the battery is close to dying your only getting about 5 1/2 watts of power, so unregulated batteries will be quite inconsistent over the life of the battery.

If your joye is in unregulated mode it should operate/perform just like your unregulated mini. The joye might be able to handle a bit more current than the mini due to difference in internal batteries, but not to the extent that you notice a large difference in performance.

I'm using a dripping atty on one of my minis now, with a cartotank on the other. The atty ohms out at 2.1 and the carto to 2.3, the atty performs close to my standards and the cartotank leaves a bit to be desired. If I put these heads on my regulated ego the performance would be dreadful, like 4 1/2 watts or so with the atty.

That's why I prefer 1.5ohm combined with regulated batteries. This gives you a consistent vape that is right around 7watts, a little lower power than I really prefer but it stays the same the whole time.

 

[mecocina]

That just means they are unregulated.

Joye eGo batteries for example are regulated to right over 3 volts, like 3.2 or 3.3

The internal battery is a 3.7v nominal voltage battery. When fully charged it's around 4.2 and can be used safely down to about 3.2v But the "rating" of the battery is 3.7v, kind of it's "average" operational voltage.

Joye eGos can now be switched between regulated and unregulated mode, but the older ones could not. So older joye eGos were not "true" 3.7v devices, because even though the internal battery was a 3.7v one, it was regulated down much lower and would never put out 3.7v to your heads.

When they say "true 3.7v" that means that the battery is actually capable of putting out 3.7v to your carto/atty/whatever, because it's straight battery voltage. But that's still just it's nominal rating, it will come off the charger around 4.2 and then drop to 3.2 before you need to recharge it.

Thanks...now I understand it so much better

 

[jjcordone]

I hate to disagree, but.... it's my understanding that running at 4.2v fresh off the charger and going down from there is unregulated, like the eGo upgrade series batteries and kGo batteries The mini's that are called "true 3.7v" are regulated not to exceed 3.7v and will go downward to their shut off point a 3.3v. standard eGo and the 350mah mini's run regulated not to exceed 3.4v.
I believe this is correct, although I've put a volt meter on them, anyone?
I did try the same carto on a fresh off the charger eGo upgrade battery that would have been at 4.2v, a freshly charged 350mah mini that would have been at 3.4v and the 450mah mini "true 3.7v" and the difference was noticeable right away.
The unregulated tasted burnt, the 350mah eGo put out too little and the 450mah mini seemed spot on to me.
Just my opinion, but I do believe the one's labeled as "true 3.7v" are regulated to run at 3.7v for as long as their charge capacity allows them to and unregulated simply follows the battery life with no controls on it's output.
Am I wrong?

 

[jjcordone]

Not to change the topic, but I wanted to mention....
I've been using an EVOD with the 1.8ohm head with my 450mah mini's.
I was very happy with it, but out of curiosity I bought some of the 1.5ohm EVOD heads.
It's not very common to see heads lower than 1.8ohm on clearomizers, so I had to try.
I was concerned that it might produce a burnt flavor with that low a resistance, but wow, they work fantastic
Ton's of vapor and a warmer vapor than the 1.8ohm head. I haven't noticed any burnt flavor either.

 

[UncleChuck]

I hate to disagree, but.... it's my understanding that running at 4.2v fresh off the charger and going down from there is unregulated, like the eGo upgrade series batteries and kGo batteries The mini's that are called "true 3.7v" are regulated not to exceed 3.7v and will go downward to their shut off point a 3.3v. standard eGo and the 350mah mini's run regulated not to exceed 3.4v.
I believe this is correct, although I've put a volt meter on them, anyone?
I did try the same carto on a fresh off the charger eGo upgrade battery that would have been at 4.2v, a freshly charged 350mah mini that would have been at 3.4v and the 450mah mini "true 3.7v" and the difference was noticeable right away.
The unregulated tasted burnt, the 350mah eGo put out too little and the 450mah mini seemed spot on to me.
Just my opinion, but I do believe the one's labeled as "true 3.7v" are regulated to run at 3.7v for as long as their charge capacity allows them to and unregulated simply follows the battery life with no controls on it's output.
Am I wrong?

This is very possible and not something I had considered. You could very well be correct. What I consider regulation is maintaining a single voltage throughout the life of the battery. If they are designed as you describe, then they would maintain 3.7 for a decent time, but still taper off like a totally unregulated device. I guess it just boils down to what your definition of a regulated device would be, I hadn't really considered the slight variance in what people would consider a regulated battery.

4.2v isn't always going to be exactly what they come off the charger at, while I haven't checked the volts on eGo batteries for a long time since I lost my multimeter. But with my 18350s, 18500s, and 18650s I've had them come off the charger at 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, and actually 4.3 one time. Not sure why, maybe just different battery age, low quality charger, I'm not sure. But I can't imagine the eGo chargers are of any higher quality than my big batt charger.

But even if it did come off the charger with the internal battery being at 4.2V, it's not going to provide a full 4.2v to the heads. There is loss in the circuit, in addition to voltage sag while under load. Which means the internal battery could be supplying a full 4.2v, and with zero regulation the heads actually fire at 3.8 or 3.9v. The smaller batteries of the 350s would also be likely to experience more voltage sag than the larger eGo batteries, which would contribute even more to it not actually supplying 4.2v, even if the battery reads 4.2v. Which could also possibly be what they mean by true 3.7v, that under load the heads will be supplied with 3.7v.

That scenario would also match your experience, as the eGo mod/upgrade uses much more robust batteries, so you'll experience less voltage sag, so more voltage reaching the heads.

The regulated 3.4 device performed poorly for obvious reasons.

And the true 3.7v was just unregulated battery voltage, that even if it started at 4.2 (which it might not) would still drop by at least a few tenths of a volt, bringing the voltage right around or close to 3.7v.

Either one could be true, we won't know unless someone puts theirs on a multimeter. I've had larger eGos in the past that I did put on the multimeter and IIRC one was 4.1 and the other 4.0 with no load. Under load that would drop an additional few tenths of a volt, but by how much I cannot say, as I didn't have a means to test load voltages. So unregulated ego batteries can still perform nearly the same as 3.7v even if the internal battery is 4.2 off the charger.

I'm going to go crawl around in my basement and see if I can track down a multimeter.. that's the easiest way to do it, less hypothesizing that way

 

[jjcordone]

Thanks Uncle Chuck, please do, I'm curious.
I believe the only way to have a device that regulates the voltage not to exceed and not to go below is with a variable voltage device like the spinner or the twist. They have boost circuitry to accomplish this.
Anyway, I'm glad I found the 450mah mini eGo's, they're the only thng I use now, with the one exception of my SD Keyring.
Sometimes the urge for an automatic takes over

 

[UncleChuck]

Thanks Uncle Chuck, please do, I'm curious.
I believe the only way to have a device that regulates the voltage not to exceed and not to go below is with a variable voltage device like the spinner or the twist. They have boost circuitry to accomplish this.

That's very true, or just regulate it to a voltage that's close to what the battery can safely be discharged to, so that overall run time doesn't really change, and you can't go below that voltage safely anyway. But we all know those low voltage regulated devices are pretty weak for most people, they are just barely enough vape for me combined with 1.5ohm resistance stuff.

So I didn't find my good digital multimeter..... I'm really starting to worry I left it outside while doing automotive work one day and it got stolen. Or it's still under the hood of one of my cars.... didn't think of that..hmmm.

Anyway, I did find an old analog multimeter, but.... and I'm embarrassed to say this... I have forgotten how to read the thing. I've been spoiled by my digital one so long I cannot figure out what the thing is saying to me.

Now, the lowest voltage scale it has is 10v, so I set it to the 10v DC scale.

I put the leads up to a charged 18650 battery, that my Zmax told me was 4.1v. On the 10v scale, a battery that is a little over 4 volts should send the meter to a little less than halfway up the scale, right? Aren't the voltage scales linear? I forgot.

But the 4v battery doesn't go a little less than halfway up the scale, the needle goes nearly to the end of the scale...... which SHOULD be 10v... right? Since it's the 10v scale?

I put a nearly dead battery on it, which was 3.2v according to my Vamo. It didn't go up the scale as far, so I know the meter is working, as it's showing something different on a battery I know is lower.

But I still cannot figure out how to actually read the voltage... why would it go almost ALL the way up on the 10v scale? That would mean the voltage is close to 10v, which it obviously is not. So I'm totally confused. Maybe it is actually broken. Anyone know how I would read it? I looked all over google for articles about reading analog multimeters and got tons of results, but none that actually say "this line right here means this voltage" and so on, because that's the part I can't figure out.

Although, I did take a fully charged Smoktech eGo Mini 350mAh and put it on the meter, and it went to just about the same line as my 4.1v 18650 battery, so if this thing is working right and it's just me being an idiot, than I can confirm this specific 350mAh eGo is putting out 4.1V fully charged. Not under load of course. So it would seem it's unregulated.

Kind of off-topic, but I was thinking how they should make an eGo twist that, internally, has two of the batteries from these ego minis. This would give better performance, as it wouldn't need a boost chip, it would just need the potentiometer to adjust the voltage down. This way you could go higher than the twist's 4.8v and it could also put out more current than a boosted single battery, so you could run lower resistance stuff, or just way higher voltage, for a much higher overall wattage than the current ego twists or spinners. Just a random thought I had while fooling around with these batteries right now.

So anyone want to help me out on the multimeter?

 

[UncleChuck]

OK, it totally was just a screwed up multimeter! I found another one, this time it's a "Micronta" brand from Korea lol. Anyway, My two 350 ST minis are both putting out 4.1v fresh off the charger, so they are confirmed unregulated.

I also put my regulated eGo on the meter. 3.3v

I also put my Zmax on the meter. I've heard that analog meters read PWM as the real voltage seeing as they soak up the voltage and average it out in order to move the needle. Interesting results though. The Zmax shows as being extremely accurate in average mode, but in RMS mode it fluctuates by about half a volt, and it's usually about an entire volt off from what it should be.

This is the exact opposite of what I expected. RMS mode is supposed to be more accurate, and average mode is supposed to be the inaccurate. That's the whole reason they added the RMS mode with V2. My Vamo is the exact same way, the (supposedly inaccurate) average mode is more accurate. Maybe the people who say you can correctly read PWM with an analog are wrong, but it seems strange the voltage is spot on.

I also learned that in wattage mode, if nothing is attached, it just puts out full 6v power.

I was never able to test these out before as I had a digital meter, which went crazy with PWM, so this is making me curious.

 

[sawalke4]

I really like mine, keep it in my "key pocket" in my jeans where I used to keep my lighter, but I really don't like the cheap looking diamond shaped button. Its not a huge deal, but i would much rather have a normal ego type round button. Doesn anyone else have this model?

 

[UncleChuck]

Where did you pick that guy up? Never seen one with an odd button like that. I definitely agree with you, I think the regular button looks better.

 

[Katya]

That just means they are unregulated.

Joye eGo batteries for example are regulated to right over 3 volts, like 3.2 or 3.3
.

Yeah, the very first eGos were regulated at closer to 3.1/3.2Ω under load, tested and confirmed by Scottbee.

If you really want to understand voltage, regulated vs unregulated, eGo working voltage, and voltage under load, I highly recommend reading this thread. This is not a simple subject, and Scottbee was the best at both testing and explaining those issues. ECF--the early years.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/joye-510/65055-battery-voltages-surprise.html

The newest eGos (eGo-T and eGo-C) have much improved circuitry and run at ~3.4-3.5 v under load regulated. I've seen some tests, rather surprising to watch that under load voltage creep up like this.

FWIW

 

[sawalke4]

Where did you pick that guy up? Never seen one with an odd button like that. I definitely agree with you, I think the regular button looks better.

Got it from Home I guess I did my first "mod" after I got it, and took a utility knife and shaved down the "diamond" to a flat shape then took some 1000 grit sandpaper wrapped around a pencil and sanded it smooth.

 

[mecocina]

I just looked at the one I purchased from them in July, it has the same diamond button. Never noticed it was different

 

[Mitey F]

I've been dripping a lot lately, as I find it super easy to keep a 3ml bottle in my pocket along with whatever device I'm using at the moment.

I think I've found the ULTIMATE in "stealth" vaping. So long as your battery is good and charged, and you've got a LR atty on there, it hits surprisingly well, and is about as small as I think is realistically possible

For size comparison, a 15ml and 3ml bottle

 

[Sun Tzu]

I need some help. What do I need to get my 510 mini nova tank to go flush with the ego battery? What is that adapter in the middle and do I need a shorty extension to put underneath it? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dragonfly72]

http://www.hoosierecig.com/-Ego-Adapter-for-tanks_p_57.html

 

[Dacholiday Dach]

I want to buy a 350 mini battery form Discount Vapers eGo Mini 350mAh Battery - Pink It says you can not use the 420 mah charger. All the others I have looked at say to use the 420 charger. Help.

 

[Katya]

I want to buy a 350 mini battery form Discount Vapers eGo Mini 350mAh Battery - Pink It says you can not use the 420 mah charger. All the others I have looked at say to use the 420 charger. Help.

It's a gray area. The fast chargers (420 mAh output) were designed for 650 mAh and more batteries. Too much current may damage your 350 mAh mini. I'd use a 510 charger (150 mAh output). For the 450 mAh Smoktek minis it's probably OK to use the fast charger.

 

[heateris]

I want to buy a 350 mini battery form Discount Vapers eGo Mini 350mAh Battery - Pink It says you can not use the 420 mah charger. All the others I have looked at say to use the 420 charger. Help.

i read that you should never use a charger thats rated with more mAh then the battery.