Aqua Clone first rebuild help

[Cheflance]

I just got my Aqua clone today and was/still am psyched to get this thing going. I have watched a bunch of videos and already made coils for my Kanger 2 with cotton and 30 gauge Kanthal. They work well and get decent cape but I think I have too much cotton in them.
Back to the Aqua. Soon as I got it I cleaned everything with some soap and water to get off any machine oil. I set about making 2 decent looking coils. Forget how many wraps each. 7 or 8. Not sure if both were the same amount of wraps. I put the silica wick in that came with them. I used my SVD to check out the ohms 1.4 and 1.6 the second time. My old SVD (only 3 months and the fire button is not connecting) and I saw a little smoke but it never heated up nice and bright. I went ahead and put everything together and I am getting little to no vapor production. Any ideas? Little puffs but nothing huge.

I am using 18mg Boba's Bounty and I am not getting a lot of flavor out of it either. I heard people drop the nicotine levels when they start using RBA's - is that when you are doing sub-ohm builds and get the massive clouds?

I've started smoking my gf's cigarettes again while waiting for my replacement SVD and miss vaping. I like it so much better - still get my nicotine without the ashtray smell and the lungs and allergies feel better.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

 

[State O' Flux]

I set about making 2 decent looking coils.
Forget how many wraps each. 7 or 8. Not sure if both were the same amount of wraps. Oops .
I put the silica wick in that came with them.
I used my SVD to check out the ohms 1.4 and 1.6 the second time.
My old SVD (only 3 months and the fire button is not connecting) and I saw a little smoke but it never heated up nice and bright.
A clear indication of little to no continuity/power delivery to the coils.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Your statement in blue bold type is unclear as to what device is being used, and it's performance.

If you have power output at the SVD 510 connection, and you do not have a short or open but a firm 1.6Ω resistance, and the wick material you are using is working to reliably deliver juice to the coils... then everything is as it should be.

> Test the SVD - for function with another atomizer, and/or voltage output - if you have the test equipment. (DMM)
> Test the Aqua for continuity from the 510 pin to the individual positive coil terminals - if you have the test equipment.
> Test to make sure you have a good 510 connection - the SVD pin may have "sunk" down a bit and needs to be gently pried up to make a sure connection with the Aqua 510 pin... this is not an uncommon condition.
> Looking at it from the direction of an issue with the Aqua... if other 510 atomizers work on the SVD, how do their positive pin relationships compare to the Aqua?

 

[Cheflance]

I have 2 ego-T's that I am using right now until I get my new SVD. I am going to use the old one for parts and see if I can get in and change the firing button on the old one. I will probably move on to a MOD when I am ready - just can't get my head around spending $150+ for a ProVari. Maybe Christmas.

I will check the pin depth. It is adjustable. I am going to rewrap this morning - and make sure I count the number of wraps. I am using 2 machine screws to do my wraps on. They seem to work perfect for doing the wraps to about 7 or 8 and then the spacing would be too far apart. I am going to try cotton, also. The wicks that were sent with the Aqua clone are pretty thick - must be 2.5 or 3 mm. They fill up the wicking channels well but are pretty bulky and tough to get to stay put. Overall I am happy that my first build worked out.

I was just using the SVD to check the ohms. You can use the 2 small +/- buttons to get the readout as long as the SVD is turned on. I should and will get an ohm meter sometime soon. I was just using the SVD for now.

I think I was a little too anxious and just went ahead and assembled everything to see if it would work. I know the coils did not get bright and - looking back - only one of them was definitely firing.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cheflance]

Thanks for responding State O' Flux. The link to the coil build calculator is awesome! I was trying to remember some of the relationships for ohm's law and wrapping wire to create different levels of resistance. I should still look it up just for my own knowledge. What law was it that applied for resistance? I remember a relationship between diameter and n - number of turns - when building a resistor in a circuit.

 

[State O' Flux]

Thanks for responding State O' Flux. The link to the coil build calculator is awesome! I was trying to remember some of the relationships for ohm's law and wrapping wire to create different levels of resistance. I should still look it up just for my own knowledge. What law was it that applied for resistance? I remember a relationship between diameter and n - number of turns - when building a resistor in a circuit.

Only that current is proportional to resistance... but that is more directly useful for those using unregulated mech mods and rebuildables.

With handy dandy calculators, I've given up trying to remember electrical and mechanical math equations... instead working on trying to remember the past 58 years of my life. A much more difficult task than it might first appear.

There are only two things that, for our vaping purposes, alter resistance, Chef... those are wire diameter and wire length.
Coil count, coil ID and leg length do not change resistance values, in and of themselves.
The most commonly occurring of misunderstandings - that "wrap count" changes resistance - always seems to overlook the fact that the length of wire used has also changed.

 

[Cheflance]

Got my first productive build! It's at 1 ohm. My SVD just came to day and am enjoying it right now. I wound up using cotton for the wicks and it is working great so far. I do have a bit of a headache and not sure if it is from the 12 mg strength juice or the cotton or I didn't have enough coffee today or allergies.

I used the coil build calculator. Thanks for that link. I have one great coil and the other wasn't perfect on the loops and it definitely didn't get as red as the other as quickly. But it is working great and I am hoping that with practice I will get this down perfect. I am using a #6 machine screw for the coils and it seems to work perfect. I counted the wraps this time at 6 - and I should be getting more ohms but I think that the one coil is holding the other back.

Glad to be back and vaping again. The little eGo-T's were not very satisfying and I was smoking too much of my gf's analogs.