Bear With Me, I'm A Newbie

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Postalangel

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Oct 25, 2015
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Hi to all my favorite vapors out there & Happy Halloween!!! So I am completely stoked because I just received in the mail today everything I could possibly need to rebuild my RBAs. I can't wait- I'm at work right now but when I get out of work at 2:30 in the morning you know I'm running right home and getting started. But of course I need to ask you guys some quick questions. And remember this is my 1st time rebuilding from start 2 finish by myself. So if you remember from my last thread I'm using a Hellboy RDA on top of an AR 15 & a Fishbone RDA on top of an elite I stick 100W box mod. If u read my last thread you'll know that I like 2 switch them up from time 2 time like running the fishbone on the ar 15 & hellboy on my box mod. Worked great the first couple of hits that I took and then it just died out so I brought it back to the guy that I bought it from whose only answer was that even though they are dual coil RDAs, sometimes you can only use 1 coil. Needless to say he got a little angry with me and said that's why newbies should not be messing around with our days and that if I really have my heart set on it then it's up to me to buy all the gadgets and go home and tinker around with them a bit so that's what I'm going to do but unfortunately because I'm new I need to ask you guys a couple of questions if you don't mind. Here's my list of painstaking questions & any any any help you can give me at all I'd appreciate it. ( keep in mind I'm a first time builder so you might have to dumb it down for me a bit... lol..I've already told you the box mod and the mech mod that I'll be using & now that I got all my materials in the mail today including the rebuilding kit, I've got a couple different sets of 18650 batteries: 1 set of LG he 4, one set of Sony, one set of Samsung and one set of Subohmeter batteries along with an ohm meter. Bought if I like a lot of vapor and a lot of flavor so what size diameter coil do you think I should start off by making with my kanger 24 gauge wire? And how many wraps? I also got the coil master rebuilding kit v3 I was trying to learn how to use it on YouTube but it looks like they took to wires and put it in the same hole and wrapped that one coil with two wires is there a benefit to that? Also it said that you can put one wire in each of the holes and make two coils at the same time do you think that is a good idea? What is the ohm reading I'm looking for? Should I be checking the coil after I put on the first coil or do I wait until I put both coils on? And on my little coil master home reader it says that it can measure the Volt but can anybody explain to me how do I measure the volts? Do I need leads to test the volts? Lol I'm really sorry about all the questions it's just you guys have been so helpful in the past I couldn't resist going to you for this. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated... Thanks again happy Halloween!!!
 

PilotNY

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Welcome @Postalangel to ECF. Glad you found us. You will get a lot of information here.

no worries - the challenge with a dripper on a regulated box is only whether the box will handle the build - a mech doesnt have an ohm reader, so a bad build can cause some really safety issues/ hazards, depending on the battery... couple of suggestions... NEVER take advice from those idjits again - they seem to only care about selling you stuff, no interest in your safety (generally, a battery with 'fire' in the name is not a good thing... for my mech, I have only used sony vtc4, samsung 25r or lg he2, he4 batteries - good, safe batteries capable of handling lower ohm builds)... using your dripper on a regulated box at the very least gives you a bit of a safety buffer (built in to the circuit board on the mod) as well as ability to check ohms on your build - and that matters... personally, i would strongly suggest getting a box mod capable of running a lower ohm build (though you should likely go no lower than a .4 or .5 ohm build for now) and good, safe, reliable batteries, along with a decent external charger... the name of the game really is safety here


I agree with dcfluegel. Sound like the build they originally put in your RDA to start with was not a good build. If your mod was giving error messages, in my experiences it has to do with coils and how they attached them. By removing 1 of the coils it should have doubled your resistance that your mod sees. So by removing 1 of the coils, your RDA would fire but you only have 1/2 of it working. Thats why it seemed weaker to you.

So batteries as dcfluegel said are of paramount importance. Safety is always number 1. Get a good matched set and make a set of coils. Building them is a piece of cake. Youtube has a ton of vids to help you there. I use this calculator for coils:

http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp

Although I have to laugh at the green LED. I have always wanted to vape in the dark and have a flashlight handy. Now I can do just that!!!! LMAO

PS: I am sure I know less than most people here. More answers will follow mine. Hope it helps!
 
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dcfluegel

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Hi to all my favorite vapors out there & Happy Halloween!!! So I am completely stoked because I just received in the mail today everything I could possibly need to rebuild my RBAs. I can't wait- I'm at work right now but when I get out of work at 2:30 in the morning you know I'm running right home and getting started. But of course I need to ask you guys some quick questions. And remember this is my 1st time rebuilding from start 2 finish by myself. So if you remember from my last thread I'm using a Hellboy RDA on top of an AR 15 & a Fishbone RDA on top of an elite I stick 100W box mod. If u read my last thread you'll know that I like 2 switch them up from time 2 time like running the fishbone on the ar 15 & hellboy on my box mod. Worked great the first couple of hits that I took and then it just died out so I brought it back to the guy that I bought it from whose only answer was that even though they are dual coil RDAs, sometimes you can only use 1 coil. Needless to say he got a little angry with me and said that's why newbies should not be messing around with our days and that if I really have my heart set on it then it's up to me to buy all the gadgets and go home and tinker around with them a bit so that's what I'm going to do but unfortunately because I'm new I need to ask you guys a couple of questions if you don't mind. Here's my list of painstaking questions & any any any help you can give me at all I'd appreciate it. ( keep in mind I'm a first time builder so you might have to dumb it down for me a bit... lol..I've already told you the box mod and the mech mod that I'll be using & now that I got all my materials in the mail today including the rebuilding kit, I've got a couple different sets of 18650 batteries: 1 set of LG he 4, one set of Sony, one set of Samsung and one set of Subohmeter batteries along with an ohm meter. Bought if I like a lot of vapor and a lot of flavor so what size diameter coil do you think I should start off by making with my kanger 24 gauge wire? And how many wraps? I also got the coil master rebuilding kit v3 I was trying to learn how to use it on YouTube but it looks like they took to wires and put it in the same hole and wrapped that one coil with two wires is there a benefit to that? Also it said that you can put one wire in each of the holes and make two coils at the same time do you think that is a good idea? What is the ohm reading I'm looking for? Should I be checking the coil after I put on the first coil or do I wait until I put both coils on? And on my little coil master home reader it says that it can measure the Volt but can anybody explain to me how do I measure the volts? Do I need leads to test the volts? Lol I'm really sorry about all the questions it's just you guys have been so helpful in the past I couldn't resist going to you for this. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated... Thanks again happy Halloween!!!
okay - going to try to hit these by the numbers...
first three sets of batteries you mention are great choices - not familiar at all with the subohmeters - would recommend using sony (vtc4?) in mech, samsung and lg in regulated, for starters... 24 ga wire is big - i generally use 26 (or 28 if doing a parallel coil - that is what the two wires wrapped together making a single coil is called)... for 24 ga wire, if you are going to be doing a dual coil build (two separate coils) i would suggest 3.0mm ID (inner diameter) for size and 10 wraps each (with dual coils, that will give you about a .4 or .5 ohm build - would suggest not really going below that for starters) - honestly, would recommend getting 26 ga kanthal and doing two 7 wrap coils - will be same ohm range and a bit easier to work with on those decks (24 ga is getting into cloud chaser territory and may be biting off a bit more than you want to chew, right out of the gate)... i would install both coils, then check the ohms... measuring volts would just be for checking voltage output on the mod - not sure you need to do that at this point - key item here is making sure that the ohms on the rda build you do are in the right range and that it is not showing a short...

again, take your time, keep it safe - and keep asking questions :)
 
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Postalangel

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Oct 25, 2015
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Welcome @Postalangel to ECF. Glad you found us. You will get a lot of information here.




I agree with dcfluegel. Sound like the build they originally put in your RDA to start with was not a good build. If your mod was giving error messages, in my experiences it has to do with coils and how they attached them. By removing 1 of the coils it should have doubled your resistance that your mod sees. So by removing 1 of the coils, your RDA would fire but you only have 1/2 of it working. Thats why it seemed weaker to you.

So batteries as dcfluegel said are of paramount importance. Safety is always number 1. Get a good matched set and make a set of coils. Building them is a piece of cake. Youtube has a ton of vids to help you there. I use this calculator for coils:

http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp

Although I have to laugh at the green LED. I have always wanted to vape in the dark and have a flashlight handy. Now I can do just that!!!! LMAO

PS: I am sure I know less than most people here. More answers will follow mine. Hope it helps!
 

Postalangel

Full Member
Oct 25, 2015
59
37
55
okay - going to try to hit these by the numbers...
first three sets of batteries you mention are great choices - not familiar at all with the subohmeters - would recommend using sony (vtc4?) in mech, samsung and lg in regulated, for starters... 24 ga wire is big - i generally use 26 (or 28 if doing a parallel coil - that is what the two wires wrapped together making a single coil is called)... for 24 ga wire, if you are going to be doing a dual coil build (two separate coils) i would suggest 3.0mm ID (inner diameter) for size and 10 wraps each (with dual coils, that will give you about a .4 or .5 ohm build - would suggest not really going below that for starters) - honestly, would recommend getting 26 ga kanthal and doing two 7 wrap coils - will be same ohm range and a bit easier to work with on those decks (24 ga is getting into cloud chaser territory and may be biting off a bit more than you want to chew, right out of the gate)... i would install both coils, then check the ohms... measuring volts would just be for checking voltage output on the mod - not sure you need to do that at this point - key item here is making sure that the ohms on the rda build you do are in the right range and that it is not showing a short...

again, take your time, keep it safe - and keep asking questions :)
 

Postalangel

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Oct 25, 2015
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The Sony I'm not sure of cuz I bought it from a vape store and you know how when you buy it from a vape store they don't have the brand name written on the battery? And I totally forgot to ask if it was a VTC for all I know is that the brown is battery.
A friend of mine is sponsored by cold fusion and he participates in competitions he was the one that told me about the sub own cell so I figured I would by one seeing as my mech mod only requires one anyway but I wanted to make sure that I got the Samsung like you had suggested.
I attached my Hellboy RDA, my fishbone RDA & my Arctic tank from my box mod to my ohm meter and both RDAs read between between .7 and .8 ohms BUT they both still had a single coil on them made with 1 wire.
Anyway so you think I should build 2 coils per rda with 1 wire per coil instead of 2 wires per coil? But what happens if the vapor to be a little bit more productive and the taste to be a little bit more tastier would I go with less fraps a smaller diameter or a different size wire? I know I'm probably driving you crazy with all these questions but just think about the day that I finally get on this forum and start screaming about how great and happy I am with my RDAs... hack I'm just having a blast asking questions getting answers and playing around with my new coil maker kit. I'm pretty sure if I was still in junior high school my nickname probably would have been nerd instead of roach. Thanks again DC
 

dcfluegel

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good morning!

okay, so, first off - for ANY mech - period - I would not use a battery that you do not know EXACTLY what it is, especially with subohm builds... personally, I stick to Sony VTC4 and Samsung 25r in my mechs - and I got them from Illumn.com - great service, great prices and reliable products (definitely recommend them - likely you can get a pair of good batteries from them, with shipping for not much more than you pay for a single battery at local shop... and they throw in a free case with every pair)... a good battery is where it all starts - NOT something you want to really roll the dice on... if you know what the samsung 25r and lg he4 are, then i would stick with those... and just to confirm - you have specific, married battery sets for your iStick 100w, correct? for any dual battery mod (regulated or not) you want to have dedicated, married (paired) sets of batteries that you use exclusively with that mod - with dual battery setups, it is important to keep drain/ charge cycles in sync so that one battery is not doing all the work or trying to draw from the other, depending on how box is wired...

as for the coils - a lot of that really comes down to personal preference... it will be easier for you to get the hang of wrapping coils by doing the single coils to start off with - and you can do a single coil or dual coil set up in those rdas, again, all about preference... I tend to run dual coils in majority of my rdas, though i do have a single zipper coil build in my el cabron currently... the reason i suggest holding off on trying to do your own parallel coils for now is they are definitely a little trickier to get right - by no means rocket surgery, but a little trickier to both build and install - honestly, the only times i build parallels at this point is if i am rebuilding vertical coil heads for kanger subtank or freemax coil heads... or building zipper coils... the key right now is 1) building consistent basic coil - tight, even wraps... 2) installing it and making sure connections are good and it is metering out correctly (ohms-wise)... 3) making sure it is firing well (once installed, i generally have to tweak coils a bit, either strumming with screwdriver or pinching/ compressing with tweezers - there are some good vids on youtube about installing coils) - before you wick em, coils should fire (start to glow) from center out - legs of coil (where they go into posts) should NOT be glowing... 4) getting the hang of wicking - and techniques are different based on what you are using (cotton, rayon)

the coil master v3 is a great little kit - got one a love it :)

I would recommend getting some 26ga wire, though and checking out steam-engine.org - it's a coil building calculator tool that is - to me - invaluable... i can plug in the type of wire and gauge i am using, and what ohm range i am wanting, as well as coil diameter, and it will calculate wraps needed... and i can change any of those parameters (change diameter, etc) and it will adjust other variables so that i can fine tune the process a little (i don't really tend to worry about leg length on coils, but that may just be me being lazy... :) )

and feel free to keep asking questions - would much rather have you safe and vapin' happily :)
 

Postalangel

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Oct 25, 2015
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Oh the Coil Master DIY V2 Kit that comes with the Coil Master Rebuilder v3 IS out of this world & although I'm only concerned about the ohm reading, I'm curious about the voltage meter on it...how do I use it? Do I use leads? I have plenty of them (my 2 older brothers are electricians out of their local IBEW, I was always playing in their toolboxes cuz I thought all those gadgets looked like a lot of fun but if they found out their baby sister was playing around with electronics they'd treat me like I was 10 & confiscate all my stuff... No kidding---theyre overprotective per order of Dad...BUT IM IN MY EARLY 40'S!!! LOL" sorry about the random thought I just feel like I know you guys already... how do I use that voltage meter and what am i checking the voltage of my mod the batteries? And how do I test on either of the above? The voltage tester isn't a female---its a male with threading on the side & on the very top of it where it seems that there should be a female pinhole or some place for a device to fit in it but it just looks like there's a bunch of .... sitting on the top of it....
But ANYWAY... as far as the batteries are concerned, I always would start off by buying a couple of brand new sets of "ultrafite" (ugh) batteries for my box mod and using it specifically for the box mod. I never interchanged them even though they were both bought at the same time I, always kept the same set together, I would let that same set drain together & that same set together and while one set was charging I would use the other set in tandem as well. I have several different types of batteries for my mech mod because I only need one at a time and I don't mind shelling out extra money for a single battery to see if its any good. I figure if its a good battery then was worth my money well I didn't spend a lot of money on it and I always have it in a pinch plus you know what they say about the value of a lesson learned. Hey you guys must have amassed quite a bit of different tools by now... Where do you keep them all because I'd like to keep them all in the same place so when I ready to work04 different little boxes do you use a tool box of fish tackle box any ideas out there
Welcome @Postalangel to ECF. Glad you found us. You will get a lot of information here.




I agree with dcfluegel. Sound like the build they originally put in your RDA to start with was not a good build. If your mod was giving error messages, in my experiences it has to do with coils and how they attached them. By removing 1 of the coils it should have doubled your resistance that your mod sees. So by removing 1 of the coils, your RDA would fire but you only have 1/2 of it working. Thats why it seemed weaker to you.

So batteries as dcfluegel said are of paramount importance. Safety is always number 1. Get a good matched set and make a set of coils. Building them is a piece of cake. Youtube has a ton of vids to help you there. I use this calculator for coils:

http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp

Although I have to laugh at the green LED. I have always wanted to vape in the dark and have a flashlight handy. Now I can do just that!!!! LMAO

PS: I am sure I know less than most people here. More answers will follow mine. Hope it helps!
So I went and checked out the link to the calculator that you sent me, and I punched my numbers in but now I'm a bit confused . I put in 24 gauge Kanthal wire , I said I want my ohms 2 b around 2.8. From what I understood they told me to wrap the coil at a 2.5 diameter and it looked like it said I needed to wrap it 70x? What am I not understanding from that?
 
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dcfluegel

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um - i thought you were trying to build a .5-.8 ohm setup?

and yes - with 24 g wire, it would take A LOT of wraps to get 2.8 ohms, lol...

you can change the ohms numbers and the diameter numbers to see what adjustments you would have to make... trying putting in .5 for ohms, 3.0mm for diameter...
 

edyle

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The first battery I used was an Ultrafire batteries that I bought from him after I brought back to be fixed he gave me a new battery which he claimed was a Panasonic but there is no writing on it at all it was just a green battery. I'm not much help am I?
:danger:
 

edyle

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Yeah you guys sound great I appreciate everything that you're telling me. I've been using the I stick 100 watt with an Arctic tank. When I first got my Hellboy rda i put it on my I stick 100 and had no problem at all-it was awesome until I started getting those error messages on my box mod and when I ask that guy what I should do that's when he told me that you cannot use drippers on an RDA unless you are an expert of experts at making coils and that the coils have to be absolutely perfect or will not work. This may be a dumb question what is there a tank out there that will give you the same or close to the same amount of vapor & flavor as a dripper? If I stick with dripping what would you say is a good box mod for RDAs

Here is my advice:
You have an istick 100; just use that and forget about using a mech for now.
The istick is rated to go down to 0.15 ohm afaik so if something says low ohms on that istick100 then it's a good thing you don't have in on a mech.
 
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Postalangel

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But it seems as though whenever I use my Atlantis tank on or my I stick it seems to give me more cloud and more flavor but still not quite enough is I'm looking for. I know I already asked you guys your opinion on a tank that performs like an rda and you guys gave me some really great advice but it seems like the ones that you suggested that I tried were still RBA's but they had a tank so you wouldn't have to constantly drip. Is there a straight up tank with the taste and the flavor as close to a dripper as you can possibly get?
 

PilotNY

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But it seems as though whenever I use my Atlantis tank on or my I stick it seems to give me more cloud and more flavor but still not quite enough is I'm looking for. I know I already asked you guys your opinion on a tank that performs like an rda and you guys gave me some really great advice but it seems like the ones that you suggested that I tried were still RBA's but they had a tank so you wouldn't have to constantly drip. Is there a straight up tank with the taste and the flavor as close to a dripper as you can possibly get?

IMHO and I repeat IMHO as I am still a noob as well, the TFV4 and the Cthulu are as close to a dripper as I have seen. I'm sure there are different opinions for everyone, this is just mine!
 
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dcfluegel

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But it seems as though whenever I use my Atlantis tank on or my I stick it seems to give me more cloud and more flavor but still not quite enough is I'm looking for. I know I already asked you guys your opinion on a tank that performs like an rda and you guys gave me some really great advice but it seems like the ones that you suggested that I tried were still RBA's but they had a tank so you wouldn't have to constantly drip. Is there a straight up tank with the taste and the flavor as close to a dripper as you can possibly get?
tfv4 or uwell crown... tfv4 is closer performance wise, uwell is much more user friendly... hands down my fave tanks
 

dcfluegel

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Here is my advice:
You have an istick 100; just use that and forget about using a mech for now.
The istick is rated to go down to 0.15 ohm afaik so if something says low ohms on that istick100 then it's a good thing you don't have in on a mech.
This is excellent advice :)

Sent from Tapavapatalk
 

Postalangel

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Oct 25, 2015
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um - i thought you were trying to build a .5-.8 ohm setup?

and yes - with 24 g wire, it would take A LOT of wraps to get 2.8 ohms, lol...

you can change the ohms numbers and the diameter numbers to see what adjustments you would have to make... trying putting in .5 for ohms, 3.0mm for diameter...
U R absolutely right---my bad. As soon as i changed the coil on my box mod, it was reading .8-.9 & I was disappointed with the flavor & the vapor (yes, I'm a cloud chaser) so I was determined 2 go with lower ohms with my build & I guess I got confused. So, one more time---more wraps equal lower ohms, & is it the lower the gauge of the wire also equals lower ohms? And the lower the gauge, the thicker the wire? Did I get that right?
 
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